Cape Town, South Africa

Greetings from sunny Cape Town!! I’ve been here for almost a week now and I am experiencing a mixture of excitement, awe, and a little bit of homesickness.

I arrived early on Thursday morning; I was greeted at the airport by several University of Cape Town students who herded us all on to buses which took us to our new homes. Unfortunately, my bus had a new driver who did not know the area around the University and I ended up spending over four hours on the bus. It was pretty inconvenient since I was starving, tired, and dirty but everyone on the bus was friendly. Finally, I arrived at my new house, with Emily (my travel companion and good friend, not to be confused with my sister) which is beautiful and definitely worth the four hour bus ride. We share the biggest room and have our own bathroom; the house is pretty big and there are 9 of us Americans living here. The highlight of the house is a sun room and the beautiful garden which surrounds the house. Everyone in Cape Town is obsessed with security, so we have a big fence surrounded by shrubs—it actually makes the house quite beautiful. Conveniently, its right across the street from UCT and our trek up the mountain to class shouldn’t be too far. Can you picture me here yet?

Speaking of mountains—all of Cape Town has a beautiful view of mountains (including our house). I feel lucky to live in such an inspiring place. Sitting on the beach yesterday, I was able to enjoy the beauty of bright blue (but icy cold) water and giant mountains. Not a bad spot to spend the afternoon.

Our orientation has been acquainting us with many parts of Cape Town. I live in the Southern suburb of Rondebosch, but I’ve already been downtown, had lunch in a township and traveled along the peninsula. I hope to be able to go back to some of the townships and do some volunteer work—our trip consisted of lunch and kids performing hip hop. I did not feel like I learned much about the history of townships nor how they function today. On the same trip we got to explore Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope (not actually the southern tip of Africa) which is definitely one the most amazing places I have ever been. I took lots of pictures and as soon as I have internet in my house (I’m currently at an internet café) I will post some of them here.

Along with meeting tons of nice people, these have been the highlights so far. However, there have been some things that take getting used to, for instance there are rolling blackouts because there is not enough power to supply the whole country. And on Friday night the whole city lost power which was both annoying and, frankly, pretty scary. There is also the constant discussion of safety; everyone focuses on what to do be safe—I obviously want to follow their advice, but it’s hard to be aware of so many dangers without becoming overly anxious. One other thing that is frustrating (but much less serious) is that internet access is nothing like what we have in the States, it’s often slow and can be hard to come by. Hopefully, we’re going to pay for wireless to be installed in our house, but it may take a while. Lack of internet makes it hard to talk to people back home (I left home a week ago and still haven’t talked to my parents…) but I also know that I can do without the luxury of internet for a little while.

I hope to write more about my experiences soon. This is just a brief overview of what I’ve been up to but I hope in the future I will be able to write more about the culture, history and politics of South Africa. Classes don’t start for another week and a half but I think that will give me a better chance to understand the complexities of the South African situation, not just because of the course work but also the interactions I’ll have with the students. So, keep checking!