Richard's Travels

Grahamstown

After six and a half years I have finally said farewell to Grahamstown. I spent my last day lugging piles of dusty books from my room to my car while suffering from a rather vicious hangover and that slightly sickening awareness of having acted like a fool the evening before – a final day which reflects aptly enough my whole Rhodes experience. Seriously, though, I look back on my years in this town few regrets (well…) and certainly no hard feelings. I have three degrees which, while not leading to any immediate gainful employment, were nevertheless done well. I learnt much of course, and above all came to know so many wonderful people. That I think has been the best part of my Rhodes experience – indeed, I can hardly believe I was so lucky. Thanks so much to all of you who came for drinks on Thursday – I really enjoyed myself, and thanks also to those who couldn’t make it that evening (perhaps they were stuck in PE, perhaps they were getting married…) but who also made my time at Rhodes enriching and happy. But it is time to leave. I decided to start a blog in the hope that the next few years will be sufficiently exciting for me to want to share, and that there are people who are sufficiently interested to want to know what I get up to. It’s very much in its early stages, not only technically (thanks here are due to Gareth and Shiloh, not only for the inspiration their own travelog provided, but also for Gareth’s rather more advanced computer skills) but also in terms of tone and content – at this stage I’m still not sure what I want to say. So please bear with me, and feel free to comment. I’ve arrived in Joburg to take a CELTA course, and am staying with more great friends I made at Rhodes, but more of this in my next installment…