Day One

Greetings from Cape Town, South Africa! Howzit?

I am finally here!!! After a never-ending 32 hours of travel time, I finally touched down in the beautiful city of Cape Town. I still cannot believe that I am actually living in Africa! From the plane, I was mesmerized by the colorful sunrise over the mountainous land of South Africa as I stared out the window as we prepared to land at 6:30am Wednesday morning. We pulled into Cape Town International Airport, and the workers wheeled over a set of stairs to the plane so that everyone could unload right to the outdoors. The intensity of the heat and the level of humidity struck me right away as I stepped off of the plane and was hurried onto a small bus, which drove us to passport control and customs. I waited in a huge line with a couple of CIEE students – the plane from London was packed with us, and soon found my way to baggage – only to find that my baggage had not arrived. This, of course, immediately freaked me out, but I was fortunate to find 3 other girls did not have their bags, and that British Airways was able to locate them on the next flight from London, which arrived 3 hours after ours. At the airport, we were greeted with cheers from CIEE – and I soon found myself on a UCT (University of Cape Town) bus (called a Jammie), with many other students to head to the orientation hotel – still without bags. As we left the airport, we were immediately greeted by the beautiful backdrop of Table Mountain overlooking all of Cape Town. Everyone stared out the window in amazement. However, we were also immediately greeted by reality as we drove alongside the townships of Cape Flats – the bus grew silent as we all stared at the endless rows of tin rooftops. As we drove around the base of the mountain away from the townships, I could finally see the blue water and a view of the city of Cape Town. Many people pointed out that it looked European in some regards, but to me it seemed so foreign and so far away from home. We pulled up to a small hotel and were given rooms in a rather chaotic fashion. We were given until 3pm to meet back at the hotel. I found a group of people I had met at the airport and we headed out to find some food and to walk around the immediate area. I could not manage eating after having eaten airplane meals for the past 2 days. I felt so jetlagged, exhausted, and sick that afternoon – and of course the homesickness immediately began – I missed the comforts of my family, TJ, close friends, and home – the thought of making this my home for the next few months was very overwhelming. All I wanted to do was sleep, but we were strongly advised against that so as to adjust more quickly to the time zone change. When orientation began, and I finally had my suitcases delivered to me and had showered (thank goodness!), we were informed that all 140+ of us would be taking the cable car up to the top of Table Mountain so that we could watch the sunset over South Africa. I cannot even begin to explain the beauty of the sights that I witnessed that first night – I took so many pictures to try to capture the scenery that surrounded me, but nothing can truly capture the magnificence I witnessed here. The scenery immediately put me at ease, and since then, I have not felt the slightest bit homesick. I believe that a common bond between everyone was formed on the mountain as we all shared our amazement – I met many wonderful people as while walking around the top for over 2 hours. I can’t believe I was fortunate enough to watch the beauty of the sunrise and sunset in my first day in South Africa. As I came back down the mountain, I felt prepared and determined to make this wonderful place my home for the next 4 and a half months – and to have a good night sleep. More to come about the first week later...