Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University

I had a wonderful day today when I visited Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University here in Port Elizabeth. I found out today why NMMU has it's name - Mandela was originally from the East Cape region. In fact, technically Port Elizabeth is now supposed to be known as Mandela Bay - or also supposed to be known as Mandela Bay - you still see both names on signs. Chantel Harris arrived right on time this morning to drive me out to the campus, which is absolutely gorgeous. It is actually located on a game preserve, and it's not unusual to see zebra or springbok walk by. In fact, at one point today I looked out of a professor's window and saw some zebra in the distance - it blew me away. Of course, they also occasionally get monkeys or even snakes (including puff adders - yikes!) on campus. Nelson Metropolitan University has now joined Corvinus University in Budapest, Zayed University in the UAE, and the Catholic University of Ruzemberok, Slovakia in the list of schools talking to me about spending my sabbatical semester with them teaching. Truthfully, I think it's now moved to the forefront for several reasons. It really is a very good school and there is a lot of enthusiasm for new ideas and quality teaching. I was holed up in my friend Anton Botha's office (he's out of the country and was nice enough to loan me his office). Of course, I repaid him by opening his window to take a picture, momentarily forgetting that Port Elizabeth is known as the windy city, and the gust was so strong that it messed up his office - including knocking his Robert DeNiro Taxi Driver poster off the wall. I had a great chat with some professors over tea - an utterly sophisticated way to pass the time. I then met with some students who had participated in Global Module this last semester and they had so many great suggestions on different possible topics and also things that we could do to improve the GMs. After that I walked over with Chantel to grab lunch at the cafeteria - I had this absolutely fantastic spinich, feta and olive pasta dish. Then it was a tour of the campus and more meetings with faculty members. It was a wonderfully productive day, both professionally and personally. I believe that NMMU will expand to become one of our foundational Global Module partners. I can't wait to get back here to Port Elizabeth and NMMU, and definitely am considering spending my sabbatical here if we can arrange it.