Finally Here!

 It's just after 9pm in Cape Town and we've finally had a chance to set up our internet. I've been in Cape Town just under 24 hours and I'm already in love with the city. We left Minneapolis at 7:05 am, meaning most of us were at the airport at 4:45. We took a two hour flight to New York JFK where we had a 7 hour layover. Following our layover, we had an 18 hour flight to Johannesburg and after racing through the airport and customs, we boarded a 2 hour flight to Cape Town. All in all, we had about 30 hours of flying and layovers, so we were quite exhausted by the time we arrived at our residences.

Our residences are BEAUTIFUL. They are beyond anything I could have imagined. We live within walking distance to the University of Cape Town and the view from our street is of Devil's Peak (see picture on the right), which is attached to Table Mountain (see picture on the left). We're divided into two homes that are across the street from one another. It's really nice to be so close to each other. I am currently writing this blog from the other residence because we blew out all of our outlets in our residence...

Overall, Cape Town is a beautiful city. It's easy to spot the British influence on the city; the cars drive on the left-hand side of the road and the type of English they use is much more British sounding. The streets are narrow and winding and there are great deal of British chains in the city. There are a great deal of differences among Cape Town, it's British sister, London, and cities in America. The most apparent of those differences are in the residences. 

South Africa is notorious for its crime. We've been warned time and time again about locking ourselves into our house and being sure to lock our homes when we leave them. Around each of the houses are gates with two sets of locks. Our windows have bars on them. Every door in our home has a lock and an individual key. The front door consists of a barred door which has a lock and a wooden door which has a different lock. We also have a security system to set when we leave which is operated by a remote control, much like a keyless entry into a car. Whoever is in charge of our keys for the day feels like a janitor sometimes because they're carrying around some many keys!

Today was devoted to exploring Cape Town. We were met by our student mentors at 8:45 this morning to go to the University of Cape Town to have talks about safety and other logistical things. We took our time walking to our classroom on campus and we had a chance to soak in our view and the UCT campus.

The campus sits at the base of Table Mountain. The majority of the classrooms are at a fairly high altitude, so walking to class was quite a challenge. The architecture of the campus is beautiful. It reminds me of buildings I would see in Europe, very victorian and colorful. Many have vines growing on the side of them. The campus truly surpassed all of my expectations I had. I really felt as though I was in 

Following our campus tour, we took a shuttle to Victoria Wharf where we had lunch and an opportunity to see the ocean and do a bit of shopping. The view from the Wharf was breathtaking. We could see both Table Mountain and the ocean. We also got a view of the new stadium that is being constructed for the 2010 World Cup. The shopping was fun, I found a few pieces of African art. Because Victoria Wharf is geared mostly towards tourists, most of the shopping was waaaayyy out of my price range, although it was fun to window shop. We even saw some former contestants from America's Next Top Model Cycle 9. 

So far my impressions of South Africa have surpassed all of my expectations. Sometimes it's difficult for me to believe that I'm in Africa, mostly because my visions of what Africa would be like surround the poverty and devastation portrayed by the media outlets in America. Cape Town is especially modern and cosmopolitan, which makes it even more difficult to believe that outside of the city are the world's highest rates of HIV/AIDS and extreme poverty. It would be similar to living in Minneapolis and driving outside to where the suburbs would be and seeing shacks and tents. 

I'm excited to continue exploring Cape Town. On the agenda tomorrow is learning more about apartheid and how that has affected South Africa. We'll be doing a bit more of touristy stuff this week and next week we will venture into the townships. 

That's all for now! Again, your feedback is welcome and encouraged! I hop you are well!