THIS IS AFRICA

Hello!

I realize it’s been over a week and I am just posting, but internet in Africa is incredibly hard to come by. None of it is free and you have to pay for it by the MB. I’m still not quite sure what an MB is or how much time I have before I run out, but I’m learning to work with the system. All my emails and blog posts I type out in word documents before logging on to the internet so I can copy and paste them without wasting time on the internet. Internet is also very expensive and very slow, which makes things like skype almost impossible to use. With that said, I hope you forgive me for the breaks between posts, and hopefully I’ll be able to fill you in on as much as possible!

January 25 – First Day in Africa

After an exhausting 20 hour trip from New York to Johannesburg to Cape Town, I finally arrived! It was exciting because almost the entire flight was full of students on CIEE program with me, so I was able to start making friends before I even left the country. Once I arrived, a group of RA’s picked us up from the airport and took us to temporary dorms at the University of Cape Town. These dorms were newer and beautiful and would house all the students before we moved to our actual rooms for the semester in a different part of campus. As soon as we arrived they told us to drop our bags off and change into sneakers because we would be taking an easy 45 minute hike up Table Mountain. I thought it sounded fun and easy enough so I decided to forgo my desperately needed nap for a little hike. Soon, however, we realized that we had been lied to. It was NOT an easy hike at all. We were scrambling up huge rocks and struggling to keep balance as we literally worked our way up the side of a mountain. It was incredibly hot and I was really starting to wish I had eaten something other than airplane food for days. At one point, a group of native African boys skipped up past us bearfoot wearing only their underwear. At this time I had fallen behind some of the group so decided to let these boys be my guide up the path. They yelled at me for trying to climb in my sneakers insisting it would be much easier if I just took off my shoes. At one point when I started to slow down and the boy yelled, stop complaining! You must look forward, never look back down. Eventually we lost those boys, but I kept true to their advice. Two and a half hours later I reached the top of Table Mountain. Although I was exhausted, famished, and sweaty, I felt incredibly accomplished and had really bonded with some of the other students during the hike. We were able to take a cable car back down the mountain and enjoy the beautiful view of Cape Town from such an awesome height.

The good part of such an exhausting trip was I was able to trick my body out of jet lag. That night I was so tired I fell sound asleep and didn’t wake up until the next morning, despite the eight hour time difference.