Day 1- Arriving In Cape Town

Day 1

I am ready for my frost bite to heal and to get out of this frigid Vermont winter. I am about to board a plane to Cape Town South Africa, where I hear the sun shines like Bob Barker's teeth. Ahhhh. I can't wait. I'm wondering if I'll pick up a South African accent? If I return to the states with a sexy foreign accent, then I'll for sure call it a successful abroad experience.

After a 5 and ½ hour flight from JFK to London, I had to run off the plane to catch my next flight to Cape Town that was departing within 20 minutes. I made it to my gate and began to mentally and physically prepare myself for another, and hard to imagine, 13 hour flight. On the plane, I watched District 9 - 3 times in a row - (it takes place in Johannesburg, SA). I thought this movie might get me even more excited about what to expect in Cape Town, instead it scared me into thinking that I should prolly never leave my room.

Finally I arrived at the airport and was greeted by orientation leaders ( students at the University of Cape Town) named Matt and Tiny. There were already some other American students who had arrived and were waiting in a group. But before leaving the airport I needed to change out of my jeans and into some shorts…sooo hot. (finally!) As I walked out of the airport, my tired/grumpy mood quickly transformed into a large smile on my face. I was so happy to be in warm weather and out of the absurdly bitter cold weather in Middlebury, VT. We packed and squeezed our bags into a small mini bus and then the journey commenced. Side note: I quickly found out that I left my sandals at school in Vermont, so for a while the only beach shoes I had were black crocks. I learned quickly that this does not offer the best first impression to others.

Anywho, our orientation leaders took us to a freshmen dormitory in Rondebosch (a small suburb outside of downtown Cape Town), where we stayed for two days before we moved into our semester living accommodations. After eating some lunch in town at Nando’s, which is the one of the yummiest and finger-licking good barbeque chicken places I’ve been too, the orientation leaders took all of the students who had arrived on a tour of the University of Cape Town campus. The campus is beautiful and expansive. We had to walk up a very steep hill to get from lower campus to upper campus, but there are also busses you can take called Jammies to get around campus. After a long first day, I passed out in my room, but then of course woke up at 5 AM due to some powerful jetlag. This unfortunately happened for the next 6 days.