Day one

Hello hello! So I made it safely to Cape Town. The flight was long but actually wasn't as bad as I expected. I did sleep for a few hours which helped pass the time quickly. We had a 7 hour flight to Dakar, Senegal where we had to refuel and get sprayed with pesticide spray. (Yup, you heard me.) Then we had a 10 hour flight to Johannesburg where we connected to a 2 hour flight to Cape Town. I still can't believe I'm here!

It is now 4:00 in the afternoon here, which is 9:00 am at home. We got in around 10 pm last night SA time. Everyone seems really nice so far, and I love my apartment (or flat, as they call it). Because the time difference is so much, I am a total zombie right now. I went to bed around 2 am and woke up at 5:30 because my body could not get used to it right away, which is obviously to be expected. We have been doing orientation activities all day since 8 am. I got a tour of the campus which was amazing. Our mentors are all UCT students so it is nice being shown the campus from a student's perspective. It is so beautiful and every view seems like it's right off a postcard. The picture that I posted on my previous blog is even more incredible in person. And the view from that main building is astounding. You can see virtually all of the area surrounding Cape Town and you get a real feel for how large it is. The campus is HUGE especially in comparison to Trinity! I don't know how I will get used to it! There are buses called Jammies that are free for UCT students and take us to campus. Otherwise it is at least a 20 or 25 minute walk to Upper Campus where most of my classes will be, all uphill. The walk is so beautiful, so I hope I will be able to do it often. The gym is located on Lower Campus so it is probably a 15 minute walk. It was really nice and even has an outdoor pool for swimming laps which will be great. The weather is 85 degrees and sunny. Not to rub it in to all of you at home, but this is so much better than the winter weather that I just left!

Things I have learned so far:
If you say you go to college, people think you mean high school. You have to say I go to varsity. (How weird does that sound?)
If you say you major in psychology, people don't know what you're talking about. You have to say my faculty is psychology.
The US dollar is about 7 times more than the SA rand. But most shampoo products etc. are imported from the US so they are actually more expensive than at home!
It is true that things just don't work here like they do in America. A favorite saying of one of our mentors is T.I.A. (This Is Africa!)

The internet is actually much more expensive than in America because they simply don't have the access that we do. Luckily I was given some prepaid internet so hopefully that will last me a while. You can buy more internet online, which is really easy but a strange thing to get used to. If I stick to mostly Facebook and e-mail, my internet shouldn't run out too quickly. But if I look at Youtube videos, upload pictures or download software, etc., it runs out very fast, so I have to be careful. Also, a Skype phonecall ends up costing about 15 cents a minute. A video chat on Skype would be much more than that, so I should use it sparingly. My program gave me a cell phone with a SIM card and some prepaid minutes. But to get more minutes you have to go to a 7 Eleven or a grocery store. Same thing goes for the electricity; they give us a certain amount each month but if you run out you have to refill it at the grocery store.... Certainly an interesting concept to get used to!

I can already tell that this will be an amazing experience, but I also know that I have absolutely no idea what South Africa is actually like. Last night, as we began our descent into Cape Town, I could not help but think about all the slums and townships that I was probably passing over and how little I know about the struggles the people there have on a daily basis. I can't really explain how I feel, but I know that to understand the culture, even just a little, I must try to experience this aspect as well.

That's all for now, considering how expensive internet is!