First few weeks in Cape Town!

Lets start with my Garden Route field trip last week. If I could sum up that field trip in one word it would be rainy because it was raining the whole time.  Despite the constant rain it was really fun and a good chance for me to bond with my fellow IES peeps. On Thursday morning we left Cape Town at 5 in the morning to start our journey. Basically the Garden Route is a scenic drive that goes along the route 2 highway outside of Cape Town. The first place that we stopped was this Ostrich Farm outside of Cape Town. Apparently ostriches like semi-arid dry climates because they are from the dessert but it seemed to me like they had the wrong idea because it was raining the whole time. During the tour of the farm we got to meet some of the birds and also had a chance to ride them. Unfortunately it was two slippery for the birds so we could ride them but we go to sit on top of them.

DAY 2 of the Garden Route was also really cool because I got to ride an elephant!  But first the day started with a canoeing Safari through one of the country parks in the Garden Route. After that I got to ride the elephant/ learn a bunch about the elephants and get to see them do tricks. As soon as I get a picture of me riding the elephant I will post it on the blog no worries. Also along the Garden Route we visited the tallest bungee jumping spot in the world. However there was no space available for my group to be able to bungee (not like I would have done it anyway because it looks like one of the scariest things in the world).

DAY 3 I woke up to basically a downpour going on outside so needless to say our activities for that day were canceled and we headed back to Cape Town with a few stops along the way.

As soon as we got back to Cape Town, the next day was our International Student orientation at University of Cape Town. Yay for basically going through freshman orientation all over again. Sunday started with a tour of the Cape peninsula and I got to see the Cape of Good Hope.  I really enjoyed this part because I haven’t really gotten to explore the city that I have been living in at all because we have been so busy. On Monday the fun part started, just kidding. We had to sit through hours of lectures on stuff like culture shock and safety to this horrible process they call pre-registration. I will never complain about registering for classes in the states EVER again because it is 10 times worse in South Africa. They don’t register for classes online you have to physically wait in line to get the person to put your classes into the computer. For now I am signed up for 3 classes at UCT: South African Political Thought, African Dance (for international students), and Origins of the Contemporary World. I also have this IES seminar class called Social and Economic Development in South Africa.  I’m actually kinda excited for classes to start on Monday because hopefully I will get to meet some actual South African students in my classes.  I also have wifi on campus which hopefully will be more reliable then the wifi at my house (even though I only get up to 3g of internet a month on campus) so I can keep up better with my blog. 

Finally made it! 

After what seemed like a million hours of travel time I finally made it safe and sound to Cape Town. For the most part, I was in airplanes/ in airports for two days straight. Sorry I wasn't able to let anyone know that I got here safely but I really haven't had a strong internet connection till recently. So far in Cape Town it has been rainy and cold which actually for me is a nice change from the 100+ weather in Austin right before I left. IES (the program provider that has taken me to Cape Town) has kept us really really busy with orientation talks and other actiivities. It still feels like I am just visiting Cape Town and not actually living here for 4 months. 

Today was my first cultural experience because we got to go on a tour of the Langa township which is the oldest and most famous township in Cape Town. Townships are the shanty towns that were created during apartheid era South Africa to host black and coloured South Africa labour workers. However since the apartheid era policies ended in 1994 with the first democratic elections there has been a lot of controversy about how to help and or rebuild many of the areas of the townships. The thing that I found the most interesting about the township was that whenever we were walking down the streets kids would just come up to us and want to play with us or our cameras and have us pick them up. Way different then American children who are not as outgoing.

Tomorrow we are leaving for the Garden Route which is a well-known scenic drive/ adventure outside of Cape Town!!! I am really excited because hopefully I will get to ride an elephant so keep an eye out for a new profile picture! 

Cheers from South Africa!

Claire 

Hey so I'm going to Africa tomorrow.... weird right hahaha. But really here are the details. Tomorrow at 5:55pm I leave ATX to make my journey to the "mother city" Cape Town, South Africa. I am so excited, hopefully it will be a 4 months to remember. However, for all of my homies in the US of A and other places around the world I am gonna try to keep up with this blog so you can follow my adventures!

Cheers (as they supposedly say in South Africa)
-Claire