Friday July 9, 2010

Today was my first full day in Cape Town & it was absolutely amazing!! Yesterday was a little rough because I left Texas at 3:30pm on Wednesday the 7^th & didn’t arrive in Cape Town until 10:00pm on Thursday the 8^th (7hour time difference) so it was 3pm US time… 24hours of traveling time.. Exhausting but really not that bad! The food was great & everyone was very nice & overall had a great experience!! A really nice man named Lenny picked myself and two other students from the program up from the airport and took us to our apartments, and when it was all said and done I finally made it to my new home at 11:30pm. After a few tears and layers of sweats (no heat) I fell asleep & woke up to my new roommate buzzing in the gate at 8am because her flight had just arrived! The security around here is pretty cool.. we have metal gates that you have to unlock to get into any door! The key ring they gave me has like 10 keys on it!!

After I met my new roommate named Kaitlyn, who is very nice, we went down to meet the other people that live in the same building! Then another former UCT student met us and walked with us a few blocks to the other student apartments and we had a Brye which is a barbeque with the 15 students from the program! Our first taste of home made South African food! Well, not mine because I have had the pleasure of eating Gary’s delicious cooking before! But, here we met our academic advisor, Alan, our maintenance helper Naudia, and our House mom Emma! All were splendid and so welcoming and made this beautiful city feel like home! After the Brye we went back to our apartments to grab warmer clothes and hoped on the bus where we were dropped off in the city of Cape Town! It was So beautiful!! I cant even find the words to describe it! We saw the World Cup Stadium & of course beautiful angles of Table Mountain!! We stopped at a coffee shop & I had my first South African coffee, called a flat white.. it ws some kind of cappuccino.. very tasty & only $2.5 American dollars! I LOVE this exchange rate!! They also took us to one side of the beach & it was AWESOME1 A bit chilly but definitely beautiful! From a distance you could see Robin Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years! After the sun set we went to the mall which was one of the nicest malls I have ever seen in my life & we ate at a really good restaurant which I cant remember the name but so delicious! The program manager paid for our meals & we were all instructed to order pizza, but this pizza was SOO GOOD! Haha I ordered the mimosa pizza, which was mozzarella cheese, bacon & banana!!! Yes I said banana, & it was fabulous! I will now cook banana on my pizza when I go home!!

After dinner we took the busses back to our apartment & I finished unpacking my room! Tomorrow we are going to stay overnight at a resort & hopefully go see the penguins! Over all my first impression of Cape Town was more that I expected! I was a little home sick yesterday but today was a better day! I think im going to fall in love with this city J or maybe I already have! I still miss all of my loved ones but thankfully skype works.. just stinks we have to pay by the mb!! But thankfully it’s free at the school and a few coffee shops!

I Love & Miss everyone & I will try to keep emailing as much as possible!!

XOXO,

Kara