I have arrived in Cape Town [2 and a half weeks ago]!!!! Okay so maybe it has been too long since I’ve last posted but I have been very busy living and getting acclimated etc. From the moment I stepped off the plane in the Cape Town airport I was thrown into orientations and a bunch of wild experiences. Every day is a different adventure and every night I pass out, a different sensation than staying up until the middle of the night like I do in the US without fail. So it’s much harder to find time to write. That and I don’t even know where to begin. Because I haven’t written in so long, much will be lost. I think that’s just how it has to be, because there’s too much here every day to write about. And quite frankly going outside and living is much better than sitting inside and writing. But I know I’ll be glad later to have these posts to look back on.

Going back to the beginning, as I stepped off the plane and picked up my bag from baggage claim, I began to hear chants and songs coming from the other side of the wall…at 11pm. I somehow knew this could only be CIEE. A number of other CIEE students (the program I’m on is CIEE) and I headed towards the noise, and found quite possibly the most cheerful and welcoming arrival any of us had ever experienced. Around 20 CIEE staff members (who turned out to be our RA’s) were singing and dancing in the middle of the airport and took turns welcoming each of us. That was my welcome into Cape Town.

One packed bus ride later, including piled bags almost falling on my head, we made it to the dorm (called residency or res, for short) which we all stayed at together during our first week of orientation. Most of us passed out pretty early after our long day (or days, for some) of traveling.

The next morning, I woke up with this image from my bedroom window.

(casual view I woke up to my first day in Cape Town: one of the main mountains here that act as a continuous backdrop to the city, Devil’s Peak, I believe. Not to mention the beautiful freshman dorm we were staying in)

After breakfast (not photo-worthy, actually one of my two major complaints about Cape Town is you have to dig some to get to the good food. Expect more words / non-photos about food than food, although I have had some great food while here) we headed towards a lengthy and mostly unnecessarily long orientation. Besides a few points about academics and meeting the staff, I’m pretty sure the orientation was for people who had just learned how to walk only moments before or didn’t know how to pronounce the word “cat.” 

After orientation, we were grouped into smaller groups, each with their own CIEE RA. I was lucky enough to receive, the happiest, most welcoming and fun RA ever, Sihle. Our group of around 12 went outside and we sat under a giant tree where she gave us a condensed, more useful orientation talked as we discussed our goals and got to know each other better. She then took us into the city of Cape Town where we got some food at a place known as the Eastern Food Bazaar.

(first real meal in Cape Town: left to right, falafel and hummus, chicken somosa’s, garlic naan)

The whole meal costed me around 60 rand, I believe, which equates to less than 10 american dollars. Score. I was semi-hungry but really had no idea how much food they were going to bring me. The amount of hummus was ridiculous, my friend and now roommate Maggie also ordered the hummus, and ended up with this.

(too much hummus!!! come on, Maggie.)

The samosa’s were ordered on recommendation of Sihle, and were delicious. The garlic naan was also great, but they could have been a little more fluffy. After lunch we headed out and around the city. We saw some a couple of sites like a castle and a building Nelson Mandela gave his first public speech from and fooled around a local street market.

(most of our group, can you tell which one I am?)

I couldn’t really tell if this was in good fun or offensive, but no one around seemed to care so why not? For a country that just went through apartheid, many people seem less sensitive about things than in America often. They don’t sweat the petty stuff (or pet the sweaty stuff!)

After the market, Sihle grabbed some mango’s from a local vendor, and we headed to a park. After an ice-breaker mango game, she told us the real game was to see who could eat the entire mango first, skin and all. Finishing with a simultaneous increase and decrease of my dignity, I won the competition, beating out even Sihle! I wish I had a picture, but I was too winning for a snapshot.

After mango-festing we grabbed milkshakes at a place called Mr. Pickwick’s. I decided to go wild and have a cream soda milkshake (why not?) Sounded great. Easily the worst milkshake I’ve ever had…and I still don’t know why it was green.

It was all okay though, because after milkshakes we rejoined with the other small groups and headed up table mountain (via cablecar). Table mountain is the giant flat mountain you can see from almost anywhere in Cape Town that the city is well known for. In fact, when you imagine Cape Town, just picture a giant flat mountain surrounded by a city with a beach surrounding it.

(partial view of Cape Town from the bottom of the cable car station)

Beautiful! If you think this is beautiful, check out the view from the top.

(hip down!)

The pictures say it all. Actually I don’t even think these are very good pictures. After about 10 pictures I realized one image didn’t really do the mountain justice and I kind of gave up. 

And that was just day 1!