WE MADE IT!
Wow, I have never spent so much time in an airplane- an 8 hour flight to Amsterdam followed by an 11 hour flight to Cape Town. But we are safe, after way to much "airplane food" I am glad to be here. I am still getting over jet lag- Cape Town is 6 hours ahead.
THIS PLACE IS AMAZING!
We have been here for about 2 full days now and I am already in awe by everything. The landscape here and natural landmarks are like nothing I've ever seen. Everyone here is very friendly and excited to have us in their city.
So to give a run down of our basic schedule: This week we have class in the morning from about
9-12:30 and then some afternoons are planned and some are free.
On Monday, we met as a large group in the morning and went over our plans and goals for the whole trip and then in the afternoon we all boarded buses for the city tour. We traveled to Lions Head, Camps Bay, District 6, and the slave museum.
It was so interesting and intriguing to learn so much about the history of South Africa. Segregation didn't end here until 1994 and thats when democracy and elections first began. We traveled to District 6 which is a "neighborhood" which was hit hard by the apartheid, It was quickly bulldozed-because of their color they were no longer able to live there and were evicted from their homes. We went to the District 6 museum where people can now go to learn about this time in history- there was a map on the ground of all the different streets in District 6 and all the residents had signed their names where they used to live (photo below).
Lions Head and Camps Bay:
This was taken near District 6
Monday night we got to go to a traditional African Restaurant, Moyo, it was an awesome atmosphere. They come around and paint your faces during the meal and live music is played the entire night. I wasn't a huge fan of the food- they are really into spices here, especially cinnamon. But the dessert, made up for it! A traditional dessert in South Africa, it was a muffin type bread with custard drizzled over top.
This morning we had class again, but it was a diversity panel of different people from South Africa, it was interesting to hear there takes on life here and the struggles some of them have gone through.
After class we had a free afternoon- we headed to the V&A Waterfront, a very well known part of Cape Town. We grabbed lunch outside by the water.... quickly learned that they don't split up bills here. So that was interesting combined with the fact that the South African currency is the Rand- so my lunch which would have been around $9 was actually around 95 Rands, hard to get used too.
At the top of the ferris wheel you can get a great view of the city- look forward to doing this one afternoon!
Our chosen lunch spot-
The waterfront was awesome, I look forward to going back very often, as we didn't even get to see everything cause it was so large.
Cape Town is awesome, Hope all is well in the states- I sure miss having ice in my drinks.
I will try to keep posting every couple of days!
p.s.
Mom, Sorry this is late- Know you have been waiting ;)
Miss you!
