I get to live here for 5 months!?!?!?!

Currently sitting on the front porch on one of our three houses just off the campus of University of Capetown (UCT). Beautiful colonial architecture, flower gardens, palm trees, patios and porches, view of table mountain, really really wonderful.

To pick up where I left off, our last day of meetings at the hotel went well, and we ate more delicious food and explored the famous “Long St.” We didn’t end up taking the cable car up Table Mountain because it was too windy and cloudy, but rescheduled for another day. I also want to both hike and bike up it. On our way back down after our attempt to go up, we saw a biker coming down! I was super jealous and had to be restrained from jumping out and giving the man a hug before stealing his bike. It’s a good thing I was in the very back of the minibus.

The next morning we had another great breakfast-I know I’m talking a lot about the food, but really. It’s good. Fresh fruits, different kinds of food that I don’t even know what they are, fresh juices. Yummmm. And then we moved! Packed up all our stuff and settled into our home for the next 5 months. I’m sharing a large room with Jessica, a girl from New York. It has a fireplace, two huge bookshelves built into the walls, light yellow trim, and a window onto our porch. Soon after moving in we met up with the 150 CIEE Arts and Science students to do the “Ama-Zing” race around the UTC campus, kind of like a scavenger hunt with clues to help orient ourselves around campus. It was fun and my team won second place! We now have R100 (currency in rand, this is about $15 US) to spend at the bookstore for UCT gear! The rest of the evening was fairly chill, we went to the grocery store, made dinner, drank tea (Rooibos!), talked and unpacked. I still need to get some tape so I can put up all my pictures J

Today we first had a lecture about Poverty and Development, and then went on a tour of three of the five sites we can choose for our service. This took us through the townships to two schools and then to a program that works with youth in prison. Next week we will see the other two sites. I’m excited to get to work, although it is going to be very very hard for me to choose what service site I want to work on, and what project I want to develop. So many things are going through my head right now! For now we are just relaxing a little before going out to a fancy dinner in Stellenbosch (wine country) about 45 minutes away.

Some things I am learning:

Racial discrimination is still a huge issue here, only 14yrs out of apartheid. The three races of white, colored and black live in obviously different areas and are treated differently.

Time is very…fluid. Very chill and relaxed, 15 min late is the norm. Time signs like “just now” and “now now” mean within 30min and 15 min respectively.

It is going to be hard for me to go from 3^rd world Africa to 1^st world Africa every day between where I do service and where I live and take class. And even harder for me to return home at the end of the semester.

I am so in love with mountains. I practically drool every time I turn my head and there it is! Table Mountain. Nature is so beautiful. I will need to live by mountains

There is much more, and I will keep you updated. For now I have to prepare for dinner!

MUCH LOVE to you all!!!