The name Kanga-runar is...grammatically incorrect.

Ahhh so much to tell you, which makes sense since I haven’t posted in a while. While I blame the sickness that is currently plaguing me and keeping me up at 1:11am writing a blog post (along with the miniature lizard on my wall that I haven’t decided whether or not to touch in case it decides to attack), it’s probably due to my laziness and the fact I’d rather sleep/read/watch Arrested Development than blog.

But here I am, long overdue.

So what’s been new with me? Quite a lot, thanks for asking.

I am currently on “autumn break”. If you call it “spring break” the South African students in your Shakespeare seminar will make fun of you and start asking if you’ve ever been to Cancun and been on “Girls Gone Wild”. Of course I have, I mean, since Michigan is right next to Mexico. (Some actually believe this, but it’s not like I can make fun of them since if you ask me a Geography question, I am almost certain to get it wrong). It’s funny here how if you use the wrong phrase people get completely confused. For example, I had a test in my African Literature class the other day, and I was wondering if a specific book would be on the test. So I obviously asked my fabulous gay South African friend, Myles, (love love LOVE him) whether this book would be on the “exam on Tuesday”. He said “Of course”, which then led me to panic because I hadn’t even read the book yet thinking it wasn’t on this test and to send neurotic text messages to all of my American friends in the class checking and double checking Myles’ story. When a bunch of my American friends told me the book wasn’t going to be on the exam, I triumphantly went to brag to Myles about how he was wrong, because let’s face it, when it comes to Myles vs. Liz in a battle of who’s right about South African things, I have never won. So when I went to confront him about him finally being wrong, he simply looked at me like I was an idiot and said in his super chillaxed South African way, “Oh, you meant on the test on Tuesday. Of course it’s not on the test, but it is on the exam, you know, at the end of the year.”

South Africa =1 Liz = 0

Like seriously? Because I used the word “exam” instead of “test” I was forced into a panic for two days? Of course, I still hadn’t read the book and wasn’t planning on it, but still those were hours I could have spent watching “Kings” or “Friday Night Lights” or “Arrested Development”. Or spent with my friends…

So my “autumn break” has been going swimmingly. Well except for the fact that I’m sick, as in quite a bad cold sick. But I’ve mostly been trying to ignore my sickness (except for excessive sleeping) and have been going out and having fun with friends in spite of it.

At first I was really bummed I was just staying in Cape Town and wouldn’t be jetting off like a bunch of my friends to places like Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Namibia to do cool things like white water raft and see Victoria Falls. But, considering 1). The sickness currently plaguing me, and 2). How much fun I’ve been having, I’m no longer sad. Also, as my parents and Lily constantly point out to me, I’m in Africa. I’m in Cape Town. This is a vacation.

There’s a great group of friends who are also staying in Cape Town for autumn break and we’ve been having a blast together. First of all, it’s nice just to be able to hang out on our own schedule without having school dominating our lives. On Friday night, we went to my friend Steph’s house for an autumn-(spring)-break-is-finally-here celebration dinner, in which it was her first time ever making lasagna. Definitely the most delicious lasagna I’ve ever tasted. Of course, my contribution to the dinner was pita and roasted-red pepper hummus (I think I might have mentioned how much I love that combination a few too many times in the blog post before this), and just to be spontaneous, I also bought an apple pie. I’ve made Steph and Cari promise to attempt to teach me how to cook yummy food, since they’re complete pros at it. The next dinner we have, I’ll start with reading the recipe to them, baby steps.

UPDATE: The lizard has now turned from facing downwards to being in a ball on my wall. I’m keeping a sharp eye on it. It will NOT attack unnoticed.

That night we went out to Zula bar and had a great time just dancing and acting like total idiots. It’s a little surprising how many times I’ve been told by people “Oh, you’re definitely American. Only Americans dance like that”. And yes, they might ben referring to my Tae-Bo-esque moves (which I think are doubly useful as 1). Great dance moves and, 2). It’s easy to “accidentally” punch creepy men with them).

Saturday I continued to nurse my sickness. You know all those great medicines we have in America, like Sudafed, Mucinex, Tylenol, Tylenol Cold, and Tylenol Cold Extra Strength? Yeah, none of those brands exists here. Apparently we really like our pharmaceuticals in America. My cab driver advised me last night that in order to get rid of my cold, I just need to take these tablets that are either drugs or medicine (I couldn’t gather which) and then put a ton of blankets on me and sleep. He said I would sweat, and sweat, and sweat and then in the morning, poof, I’d feel all better. You all know how big of a fan I am of sweating (not), so instead I decided to search high and low Saturday for some kind of recognizable medicine to make my cold disappear. After admitting defeat to the 3^rd store I had tried, I decided to ask the pharmacist near my house if they have any over the counter medicine to battle colds. Of course the pharmacist looked at me like I was an idiot and said “Of course we do.”, in which she pulled out 9 different types of medication and told me I should take all of them. Yeah right. The two I chose 1). Seemed the most relevant to my sickness, and 2). Had the best names. Medicine number one Cold-b-gun (I think “gun” is pronounced “gone”). Medicine number two, Mucinux, but don’t get that confused with Mucinex because it definitely is not an off-brand. Even though they both do the same thing…

NOTE: The lizard has now turned from facing downwards to upwards on my wall. I’m keeping a sharp eye on it. It will NOT attack unnoticed.

Anyway, that night, after highly medicating myself, Cari, Steph, and I attempted to have a movie night where our movie of choice was (obviously) Aladdin. We ended up getting sleepy/talking too much though so we just skipped through to all of the songs, which are the best part anyways.

UPDATE: Lizard has now straightened out from a ball and is completely facing upwards on my wall now. Hoping it will soon scuttle back into large vent near ceiling.

Sunday we spent a lovely day at the beach, because believe it or not, it’s actually starting to get cold in Cape Town. They aren’t kidding when they call it “Autumn Break”, I noticed last week on campus that the leaves are starting to change color. Who knew the leaves changed colors in Africa too???? (I learn so much every day). It’s actually been pretty chilly here, at least in the low 60s, with rain. And none of the buildings have central heating (surprise!!) therefore prompting horror stories of people wearing coats (or in my case, multiple sweaters and my fleece) to class.

Except it was absolutely BEAUTIFUL Sunday.

UPDATE: Lizard is now turning sideways. I think it’s eyeing up my curtains. I don’t like the look of this…

Anyway, the beach was absolutely lovely. It was hot, but not too hot and I actually got some reading done for a paper that’s due next week. Of course, after reading about 10 pages, I felt way too productive, so we instead decided to play a card game Steph taught us, which I will refer to as Poop Head…although the first word is actually not poop. (You get the hint). GREAT great game. And very addicting, I’ll have to teach it to you all when I get home. Steph, I will spread the game throughout America!

UPDATE: The Lizard is now spread-eagle on my wall as if it’s about to lose its suction-skills. I sincerely hope not since I would then have to sleep on my (extremely comfortable) couch as it’s too difficult to keep tract of a (possibly evil) lizard when under my bed.

After the beach, Cari, Runar (friend from Norway), Rita (also a Michigander) and I went to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. I had heard about these gardens from friends, but I wasn’t prepared for how beautiful they were. We brought a picnic and cards and listened to the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra play while the sun set and we admired the view of the mountains in the distance. After the concert finished, we went back to Runar and Rita’s place for a fun filled night of Poop Head (it really doesn’t sound as cool when censored) and a dorky but great camp game Cari learned, which is what the title of this blog is from.

Slight backstory: We decided Runar’s new nickname is Kanga-runar. You’ve got to admit, it’s a great nickname.

So so so pretty!!!

Also, Runar introduced Cari, Rita and I to WestLife, a boy band who was apparently more famous than the Backstreet Boys (not possible) worldwide. While, contrary to popular Norwegian belief, it didn’t make Cari and I lay in our beds screaming with joy, it was super catchy and would be very fun road trip music. Westlife will be added to my Liz-takes-Canada-this-fall/winter road trip playlist)

UPDATE: Now completely facing my curtains. VERY WORRIED.

CLIMBING UP WALL! CLIMBING UP WALL!

Yesterday, Rita, Steph, and I went to the Two Oceans Cape Town Aquarium. This aquarium is supposed to be one of the best in the world, so I was a little surprised by its lack of dolphins and whales (although I guess it’s very unlikely for an aquarium to ever have a whale). But I absolutely loved it!!!! We got to see ALL the characters of Finding Nemo (well all the major characters, except maybe the people and pelican). I fit right in with the 3 and 4 year olds, as I ran from exhibit to exhibit squealing with excitement as I saw jellyfish, and sting rays, and penguins, and sharks, and a giant sea turtle!!!!!

I FOUND NEMO!

UPDATE: Has stopped climbing and seems subdued. Can’t trust it though.

After the aquarium, we had a lovely dinner on the Waterfront, which is a super touristy part of Cape Town but so pretty!!! The weather got pretty cruddy though, so we didn’t get to walk around as much as we wanted, so I definitely want to go back soon! Oooo, and guess what??? (EXCITING) When we got out of the aquarium we saw seals sunbathing on the docks. They are HUGE!!!! And so adorable. And while I really wanted to hug/scare them so I could see them waddle of the docks and swim away, the signs screaming “DO NOT PET SEALS. THEY BITE” deterred me. So instead I just starred and made the embarrassing cooing noises people make at babies at them.

Today was a pretty chill day, I went with Cari, and her friend to dinner on Long Street and then we saw her friend’s comedy show. Okay, I won’t lie, part of the reason I decided to go was because the club the comedy show was at is called “The Purple Turtle”, and what exactly is cooler than my favorite color mixed with an animal that’s on my top 100 list of cute animals? Sadly though, the club only disappointed. First of all, the performance area inside was covered with red curtains. Really? You name a club “The Purple Turtle” and you don’t decorate the inside in purple? Bad life choice. Secondly, while it was cold outside, the club had about 50 different fans on, making it almost impossible to sit anywhere without freezing. And lastly, the host of the comedy show decided it would be a good idea to wear a microphone and shout, which did not help the headache I was already nursing.

But you haven’t even heard the most exciting part yet.
Guess what I’m doing Thursday night at 8:00pm????

Seeing Cirque du Soleil!!!!!!

It’s their first time EVER in South Africa and some friends and I got decent tickets for just over $30. To say I’m SOOOOOO excited would be a vast understatement. So Thursday night I’ll get to see for myself, what my friends and I could only describe as “stretchy, blue, bendy people”.

Okay, so the lizard hasn’t moved in about 20 minutes, so my new plan of action is to go to bed and pretend like it wasn’t there and hope it has found a new home outside of my room by morning.

As always, I love and miss you all. And if ANY of you would like to visit me (hint hint) I would be more than happy to show you around the lovely Cape Town and South Africa!!!!!

UPDATE: Experienced a moment of temporary braveness and tried to touch lizard on wall, thinking I could just pick it up and take it outside. Lizard let go of wall and jumped to floor, causing me to scream. Lizard now on the floor by bed and Liz is a stupid idiot as at least before I could see where the lizard was at.

Lizard = 1
Liz =0

After watching the lizard for another sleepless 20 minutes, I discovered how the lizard got into my room. Apparently there is a lizard-sized crack between the floor and the molding. Will be using my duct tape for the second time in Africa tomorrow morning.

UPDATE ON UPDATE: Green duct tape now covers the crack between my floor and the molding. I hope the landlord likes the added color!

Wait, did I mention the pita and roasted red pepper hummus?

Title explanation: Guess how many times I mention food in this post? Hint: Too many to be proud of.

Hey all!

So since my last blog post my life has dramatically changed FOREVER.

Just kidding, but I thought it would be a nice lead in…

Anyway, to be truthful, last week was a really hard time for me. I hit what we call “the second apple” and I hit it hard. For those of you who don’t read Study Abroad manuals for fun let me explain this “second apple”.

Second Apple = the second stage in your abroad experience when you get really homesick and get annoyed with all the things that are different about Cape Town (or wherever you are) and want to start punching people for walking too slow (although the last part might just be me).

Many of you might know this already however, from the tearful phone calls made to you. I made more than I’m proud to admit. But I must say that I’m pulling out of this week quite spectacularly! And you all should feel delighted that there is no one in Cape Town like any of you, which is why I miss all of you so much. But after a few days of “What am I doing here? Why does everyone walk so slowly? Why aren’t my friends here? Why the hell doesn’t Cape Town sell Macaroni and Cheese? Seriously Africa, no Starbucks??” I was able to pull myself together and start enjoying my life here again.

Well except for the homework portion. I don’t think they should allow beautiful vacation spots like Cape Town to have schools. Because last weekend more time was spent at the beach than anywhere near the 100s of pages I was supposed to be reading and the presentation I was supposed to prepare for and the papers I was supposed to write. Which then led to almost no sleep Sunday through Wednesday as I prepared for a presentation and wrote two papers. I’d like to pretend that I learned from my mistake last week and started my homework before today, but then I would be lying to you. However, this week I don’t have a big paper due until Friday, so I have more time to waste.

Sidenote: Except for the fact that Thursday is St. Patrick’s Day, as in my roommate Denise’s favorite holiday. Therefore we will be spending that night at the only Irish pub we’ve found so far in Cape Town, Dubliners. YAY for green beer!!

Anyway, this week has been much better, especially after all my assignments were turned in on Wednesday. Wednesday night some friends and I climbed Lion’s Head, which is one of the mountains here, with bottles of wine and (amazing) pita and roasted red pepper humus to watch the sunset. The view from the top of Lion’s Head, and even the climb up was absolutely stunning. On one side you could see the sun setting over the ocean, while on the other side Cape Town was lit up like a Christmas tree. Of course, me being the smart person I am decided on Wednesday that I didn’t need to take my asthma medicine because I’ve been feeling completely fine for the last couple of weeks. Which inevitably led to me almost passing out halfway up the mountain. My roommates would laugh reading this as they hiked up Devil’s Peak, a super intense hike which terrifies me to even think about. But considering all the mountains we have in Alpena (read: none) this is probably my first mountain hike since I visited Colorado 10 years ago, and even then I’m pretty sure the only mountain climbing I did was on horseback. Anyway, I made it to the top and man was it worth it. If I wasn't so tired and half dead I would have burst into song, and there were so many options "Climb Every Mountain", "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain", but instead I just sat down took out the food and wine and finished off half a bottle of a friend's water. I took some pictures, but I couldn’t keep them from turning out blurry, so I’ll find some from friends and post them later.

After maybe 20 minutes at the top, we decided to head down. No biggie, right? I mean going down is always easier than going up. Except in the dark. With two flashlights (one of which only works every now and then) and “torch lights” in the form of a little light on the top of our cell phones.

Now I don’t need to remind you of my clumsiness, and therefore my terror of tripping and tumbling off the side of a cliff to my untimely death (I can’t die yet, I still haven’t pet a polar bear!). So while my friends were casually chatting and barely using the flashlights as they basically ran down the mountain, I was going down the mountain at a brisk 2 feet per hour mostly on my butt, because we all know how graceful I am on my feet. Yes, looking back this is a hilarious picture. At the time however, complete TERROR was coursing through my mind. But I will allow you to laugh since I (luckily) survived the treacherous climb down.

After making it to level ground again (HALLELUIAH!) we decided to stop at Camps Bay because it looked so beautiful from the top of Lion’s Head. The beach completely deserted and absolutely gorgeous. However, not only was the water freezing, but it was pretty chilly (read 60 degrees-ish) so we didn’t stay long. After I got home 8 of the 10 (most housemates in the same room until today) people in my house were watching the Tottenham verses Milano soccer match so I decided to join. One of our former OLs was over and he and my roommates answered all my stupid questions, like “Why is he being so dramatic?” (It’s called diving and apparently it’s an art), “Which team is which color?”, “Who should win?”, “Why did they miss that goal?”, “Where are they playing?”, “What are the songs the fans are singing?” and the most obvious and important question “Who’s the cutest player on each team?” Overall, I think my knowledge of soccer grew exponentially. For example, even though the two teams tied, Tottenham technically won because they beat Milano when they played them in Spain. Yup, I bet most of you readers out there didn’t know that. Now all I have to do is learn to actually play soccer and I’ll basically be an expert.

This weekend was also a success. Thursday night a big group of friends and I went to Stardust, which is a restaurant/bar where the servers perform for you. While the food was a little pricy for the quality, the drinks were amazing, the company wonderful, and the performances were so great! Lily, you would have loved it as Michael Bublé’s songs were popular choices. And of course, we ended the night by making the DJ play all the Disney songs he had while we sang along.

Sidenote: He only had 1 Lion King song. Seriously? We’re in Africa!

Friday after class my friend Kelsey and I headed to the beach, because who knows how many beach days we have left here. It’s actually starting to get a little bit chilly, like in the 60s some days, although no worries, Wednesday it’s supposed to get up to a nice toasty 104 degrees. Hello sweat. While we were at the beach, a big group of students showed up who were obviously tourists. It was funny because since I’ve been here for just over a month, I no longer feel like a tourist, but I also don’t feel like I fit in. It was such déjà vu seeing how excited the students were and thinking that was me less than a month ago. Does this mean I’m actually starting to fit in?? I think until I stop wearing my Old Navy flip flops in public, the answer will always be a resounding “No!” And you’re crazy if you think I’m going to stop wearing those flip flops. Most. Comfortable. Shoes. EVER.

Friday night we had a braai for Cari (fellow Wolverine) because it was her 22^nd birthday! While Cari’s whole house made great food, like mushrooms with melted cheese, Greek salad, Tri-fold, apple crisp and much more, I discovered that as long as I show up anywhere with Woolworth’s pita and roasted red pepper humus, the world loves me. The pita and humus almost makes up for the fact that South Africa doesn’t believe in Kraft Mac ‘n Cheese or Dino Chicken Nuggets (Sidenote: Kender, are there dino chicken nuggets in Spain? Please tell me they’re not only an American wonder) Therefore, none of my cooking skills learned this summer are coming into use. But you all should be proud to know that I have graduated from just buying frozen vegetables to buying a bag of fresh vegetables on Saturday, which I plan to make a stir fry with. Believe it mom! Before you know it I’ll be buying fresh meat too, and maybe even using recipes. Well…we’ll see about the recipe bit, I don’t want to get ahead of myself.

So that’s been my past few weeks. Sorry they haven’t been too exciting, I’m also a bit disappointed by the lack of safari animals hanging out in my backyard on a daily basis. But I am in Africa, which I surprisingly forget quite often. I’ll be walking home from class and see a mini-bus speed by with the door wide open and a guy hanging out by one hand yelling “Cape Town! Cape Town!” (as in that’s where the bus is headed) and then turn my head and see Table Mountain in the distance and remember, “Oh yeah, I’m in AFRICA!” I also admit that I’ve been a huge fail when it comes to taking pictures, so I’ll try to do better, scouts honor!

Anyway, I should probably get back to the homework I have left to do and stop procrastinating (Fun fact: The word “procrastinate” doesn’t exist in Swedish). I miss and love you all!!

Liz – Your tan for Michigan, but ghostly white for South African, friend.

Oh yeah, exciting sidenote: My friend Kelsey found a karaoke bar downtown. SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And so the school year starts...

Classes have officially started at UCT!!
Okay, so that was a week ago, but I’ve been busy…

Class at UCT is definitely different from U of M. For one, lectures are only 45 minutes long (score!). But, I have class more often. From 9-1 Monday-Wednesday, 10-1 Thursday and 9-11 Friday to be exact. (You would never survive this schedule Sarah). Also discussion sections here are called tutorials (tuts for short). And instead of having tuts for my English classes, I have seminars, which are completely separate from my lectures. So now that I have you properly confused, I’ll explain by sharing with you ALL of my classes.
I know you’re waiting on the edge of your seat…

Sex, Love and Taboo – So this class is just as awesome as it sounds. It’s in the African Languages department so we focus on how Sex, Love and Taboo are talked about in African languages. The professor is absolutely amazing, and there’s a lot of native Xhosa and Zulu speakers in the class, so we get to hear their perspectives and us Americans can share our perspectives. The class, like most of my classes, has a lot of international (read American) students in it, but it’s fascinating learning about how the African languages work .For example: In Xhosa, there is no word for hermaphrodite. Does that mean hermaphrodites don’t exist in that culture? (And yes, I did just give you a homework question, but you’ve got to admit it’s really interesting)

Shakespeare and Company- So in each of my two English courses at UCT, multiple professors teach the course. For Shakespeare, I have 2 professors, one who teaches about medieval drama and one who teaches Shakespeare and Chaucer. I will admit that I have slept through one (you would too Mom and Dad) medieval drama lecture. The professor speaks in a monotone and is just so boring. But today our second professor came in to start us off with Chaucer. He is absolutely amazing. He’s an older British man who cracks jokes every 10 minutes, offers throat lozenges to students and then tells them if they’re lucky they can get a little high off it (If you don’t think this is hilarious, then it might have been a “You had to be there” moment.) And he makes me actually want to read the Canterbury Tales. Thankfully, he’s teaching most of the rest of the lectures, so I am really excited!!!

Global Shakespeare- This is my Shakespeare and Co seminar. So I haven’t actually had this seminar yet (it starts tomorrow) but our course syllabus says we’ll be “exploring twentieth and twenty first-century interpretations of Shakespeare’s texts across the lines of the former “first”, “second”, and “third” world” countries. So I’m basically really excited for this class. But I’ll update on this one when I’ve actually had the class.

African Literature- Pretty self-explanatory. We’ll be studying different African novels. We already did our first 4 poetry lectures, which were really interesting (Sarah, I think you would absolutely love the poetry professor, think Ray with a South African accent and less biting humor). But we’ll see how this one goes.

South Africa HIV/AIDS Literary Narratives- As you might have guessed, this is my African Literature seminar. Tomorrow is my first day for this one too, and I don’t have a syllabus yet so your guess is as good as mine. But the seminar filled up fast and it seems really interesting, so I’ll hope for the best.

Medical Anthropology- I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE this class. Our professors are these great hippie-esque women who are all about critically looking at medical anthropology. And we learn the coolest stuff (I was just about to give you an example, but I don’t want to bore you to death if medical anthropology isn’t your thing). The gist of this class is we explore the relationship between physical and social reasons for illness along with a kajillion other amazingly interesting things. Later in the semester we are going to do fieldwork on the HIV/AIDS situation in South Africa. SO COOL.

Okay, so those are my classes. I probably could have done better at explaining the actual classes, but if you care that much let me know and I’ll email you my syllabuses (and then make fun of you for wanting my syllabus).

Now that I’ve told you about the actual “school” portion of UCT (I know, I know, that’s the whole reason I’m here, but let’s be real, UCT grades don’t factor into my U of M GPA so…) let’s get on to the social aspects.

UCT is like a prettier version of AHS.

For those of you who didn’t have the good fortune to grow up in Alpena, AHS = Alpena High School.

Reason #1

While UCT is a big school, for some reason the architects decided the best way to design walkways would be to make them narrow and to make sure there are only a few possible ways to get to class. Therefore UCT = crowded. According to some native UCTers, after a few weeks it should quiet down once freshmen learn to stop clogging the damn walkways.

Sidenote: This isn’t helped by the fact that everyone here walks so slow. Kendra and Corinne, I am considered a very fast walker here (I can almost see you shudder reading that statement). I’ve actually been told I’m a fast walker, although that was by a Norwegian, not a South African, and I think my walking speed had more to do with the fact our guide had just told us to look out for snakes (Black Mambas, no big deal) in the forest we were walking through at the elephant reserve.
Anyway, we know the slow walking is bad when I am one more freshman-stopping-in-front-of-me-with-no-prior-warning-to-high-five-his-freshman-friend-with-a-mullet-and-tank-top (hair and fashion choice are another story altogether) away from either a) shoving him down the mountain or b) screaming “walk faster you idiots”.
Neither would probably help in proving the ignorant, rude, loud American stereotype wrong.

Reason #2

You know how at U of M you run out the door to class wearing some version of the leggings/sweatpants/athletic shorts, random shirt combination with your hair in a quick ponytail and the rest of the world lucky if you attempt make-up?

Yeah, not here.

I’ve heard Cape Town is like the New York City of Africa. Apparently you can spot an American from the above clothing description, which is completely unacceptable (wouldn’t that have been nice to know beforehand…)

But how to describe the UCT dress code…
Here are some possible (read acceptable) UCT outfits:

I could dress like I’m…
1). Going to church – This would include my cute dresses that I would either wear to church or work, but not anywhere else because they scream “work/church dress”. Or really anything fancy that makes me look like the angelic Pastor’s daughter I was raised to be (love you Mom!).
2). Going out- Except that my going out clothes seem homely and shabby compared to ones I’ve seen here. For example, I have seen many a girls wearing short, skin-tight dresses to class. That just seems like it would be uncomfortable.
3). Going to some other special event- You know, like weddings, graduations, the occasional garden party. You know, my normal venues to hang out at. It’s a little dressier than church clothes, but still modest enough not to go out in.
4). Wearing all of thee above mixed together- This is my personal favorite, and I think the preference of most girls here. For example, first day of school I witnessed a girl wearing a skanky, skin tight, short white skirt, paired with black tights, black boots, and an Ikey Tiger (our mascot) Rugby t-shirt. True story.

I think I’m just going to stick with obviously being American. Although the extreme heat has made me wear more dresses, making me fit in a little more.

Oh, and if you’re a boy here, you most likely have a mullet and prefer to wear tank tops.
I am so tempted to offer to do the Rugby team’s hair. The mullets actually make me cringe.

Reason #3

No one walks alone here!

It’s actually a little annoying. Everyone has friends with them at all times. It’s like they all conspired to have the same classes (which they probably did). And when sitting in the food court to eat lunch, or just chill for a bit, if you’re sitting alone there’s something wrong with you and two random girls come up and sit with you but completely ignore you while you awkwardly sit there playing Bejeweled on your phone waiting for your friend to bring you your food so you two can then find another table…
Yeah, that might be a true story.

But as much as I complain, I still absolutely love it here for SO many reasons, (which I’m not going to list for you because, really, how long do we want this post to actually be?)

Although I want to give a shout out to my new favorite thing about UCT: The Jammie

As I’ve mentioned before, the Jammie is the equivalent of Blue Buses. Although I’ve been in school for over a week, today is the first day I’ve taken the Jammie. I figured that since I’m only a 15 minute walk from Upper Campus, I could just suck it up and walk up the mountain every morning.
Yeah, that would have been great, except for the fact that I’m walking up a mountain. And it’s already 70+ degrees while I’m walking which means I’m sweating profusely by the time I make it to class, which makes me oh so attractive. So I decided to give in and take the Jammie (much to my classmates joy, I’m sure) today.

I LOVE IT!!!

I reached the Jammie stop, was on the Jammie within 2 minutes and at Upper Campus within 5 minutes. Of course this meant I was on campus 30 minutes early, but whatever, at least I wasn’t sweating. A friend told me this isn’t normal and sometimes she has to wait 50 minutes for the Jammie, but I don’t care. I will wait an hour if it means not scaring off classmates and having friends tell me I look sick and “a little red” when I run into them after my trek up the mountain.

I know this post is getting long, but I’m just going to keep going, so bear with me.
Or not, but I promise it’s interesting!

So last night some roommates and I went to a UCT rugby game. Rachel (roomie) and I Youtubed rugby rules before, which helped a little, but before long we got side tracked as I introduced Rachel to the wonder and profound greatness of the flash mob (she had never heard of a flash mob before!!). Luckily, roomie Lulu (from Namibia) understands rugby, so she explained the game to me.

Our team won!!!! YAY!

And that’s about all that I remember about the game itself. I’m still fuzzy on the rules, I know you can only pass the ball backwards, a try is worth 5 points, if you kick the ball (a field goal?) through the goal it’s worth 2 points, and I understand the circle of boys pushing each other, but I know no technical terms to explain it. And of course it was way more fun to talk to everyone around us than to actually try to watch the game. At most, Lulu would clue me in to when I should look because we were about to score a goal. I bought my token UCT rugby shirt and got a massage from the mascot (it was as weird as it sounds).

But have no fear sports lovers who are shaking their heads at me right now, I’m going to a Stormers (Cape Town’s team) game on Saturday where there will be people around to explain the game to us. I will understand rugby before I leave!!!!

And last but not least I’ll leave you with SHAWCO.

SHAWCO is a volunteer organization a bunch of friends and I joined here at UCT where we go to the townships and tutor kids. Today was our first day and it was absolutely amazing! We’re working at St. James, which is a children’s home, but we also tutor kids from a nearby elementary school. We’re supposed to be teaching math and life skills, but today was more of an introduction so we just played games.
The kids are GREAT.

When we got there, we were split up in groups to do ice breakers with the kids. A little boy grabbed my hand (my heart melted a bit) and when I asked his name it just so happened to be a Xhosa name. I can do the Xhosa clicks about as well as South Africans can walk fast, so after trying repeatedly we decided we would figure out a nickname.

We did some icebreakers, played some hula hoops games, got a game of soccer going, started a riveting game of duck, duck, goose, and pretty much did whatever the kids wanted to do. The group I was with decided to play all these singing games which included a lot of repeat-after-me lines and bootie shaking.

Sidenote: 8 year old South African girls have much better dance skills than I could ever aspire to have.

There’s definitely a song asking how big your bootie is and then you’re supposed to bring your bootie to the floor.
Kids after my own heart.

The cutest part though was when we left. The kids kept hugging us and saying goodbye, even the ones I hadn’t spoken to. I’ve got to admit, I’ve really missed 826Michigan and working with all the adorable little kids there, so SHAWCO is just what I needed. I’m so excited to go back next Tuesday, although it’s going to be a bummer to actually have to do work instead of playing around.

And I’m done!
Congratulations for making it through the longest blog post yet. I’ll try to update more often when I actually have things to talk about instead of waiting for one huge post. I still miss you all immensely, and I think you all should come visit me (like the lovely Sarah Hanson is: SO EXCITED).

Love your tan (for me) friend living it up in Cape Town.

Guess who did the world's highest bungee???

A bunch of my friends.
And not me.

(Yeah, I know I might have told a few of you that I was planning on doing it, but it’s a long story, so let’s backtrack)

So first of all, sorry for not blogging for a while. I could pretend I’ve been super busy but the truth is I’ve just been super lazy. But after threats from friends and family if I don’t blog soon, I’ve decided I can procrastinate on sleeping before the first day of real class (WOOO!!! Not) and catch you all up.

This week was a free week before classes started, so some friends and I (17 of us to be exact) decided to drive the Garden Route. I already told you to Wikipedia it, so if you still don’t know what it is, shame on you. I think my friend Alicia said it best by yelling “IT’S SO PRETTY!!!” as we drove through the South African country side. I have to completely agree with her. However, the view was marred a bit by the lovely horrible car we were given to drive.

This week was the week parliament opened in South Africa, which apparently means that almost all of the rental cars are unavailable. Lucky for us, our group was able to get the 4 cars necessary, our car being an automatic because we’re the silly Americans who aren’t taught how to drive stick shift in drivers ed.

Our car sucked.

It probably went from 0 to 100 km per hour in about 5 minutes. Which really was not helpful while we were driving through the constant hills and mountains of the Garden Route.

By the way, I totally drove the car. It took a bit to get used to driving on the wrong side of the road, and to get used to the fact that there really are no rules of the road in South Africa. For example, you pass cars anytime you want, no matter if you’re climbing a hill with no end in sight and no way to see if cars are coming. I think South African drivers are taught offensive driving in drivers ed.

So the trip to our hostel took about 7 hours of driving the first day. I must say my first hostel experience was pretty terrific. It was clean, the showers were nice, and the people running it were so helpful and friendly.
Definitely not like the movie.

So Day 2 was bungee day!!!!
It didn’t help that the whole night before I dreamed of different ways the bungee jump could go wrong. In one dream, the rope broke, in another I was told if I bungeed in shorts my legs would fall off, and I’m pretty sure in another one they just didn’t give me a rope at all.

So yeah, it would be an understatement to say I was already freaking out a bit by the time we left for bungee. Then our car decided to make the decision for me.

About ¾ of the way to the jump, our car got a flat tire. No biggie right? Well our car was full of 5 American girls who had no idea how to change a tire. And even if we did, none of us were comfortable getting out of the car to do it, considering all the warnings we got about safety first while in Africa. So walking around on the side of a highway in who-knows-where South Africa didn’t seem like the best idea. Luckily enough for us, one of our Norwegian roommates came back to change our tire.

Of course that was only after he registered and checked in for bungee jumping.
Leaving us stranded for about 30 minutes on the side of the highway.
Where any number of horrible things could have happened to us.
But no hard feelings…
(He still gets bonus points since he actually came back)

Needless to say, by the time we actually got to the bungee jump, I was stressed beyond belief and in no mood to jump off a bridge. Actually, I think I could have still done it if I had gone straight to registration and not to the viewing-area where I watched a couple of people jump off of the highest bungee bridge in the world.
Big mistake.

So, sorry to let all of you down who thought I was actually going to do something really cool, but the bungee didn’t happen. They had a TV inside which showed the people right before they were about to jump and then the jump itself and I’ve got to say, I got stressed enough watching my friends get ready to jump.

So I may have lost a few cool points in your book, but I’m still in Africa and you (sadly) aren’t, so I still win.

Anyways, after bungee we got to go to an elephant sanctuary.

So fricken cool.

We got to walk with an elephant hand-in-trunk and pet them and feed them and pose with them. I know you’re all dying for pictures (especially you dad), but I forgot my camera at the hostel that day.
But no fear, friends took pictures of me with the elephants, so when they’re able to get free internet they’ve promised to upload them.

Also, the elephant sanctuary gave us a little biology lesson about elephants. Surprisingly enough, I still remember a lot of what they told us, so if you ever need to know a random fact about elephants, there’s a very good chance I’ll know it.
I'm hoping it will come in handy during Charley's Trivia one day.

After the elephant sanctuary, we headed back to the hostel and spent the night hanging out. Some friends showed up at the hostel unexpectedly, so we ended up basically taking up the entire hostel. It was a great time, and I learned of a new drink that all of you must come visit me and try.

It is called the Springbok and it is absolutely delicious.

They next day we headed back to Cape Town, and since then I've had syllabus day (which apparently only exchange students and freshman go to, yay for me!), spent a day at the beach (amazing) and today we went to a flea market where I tried my hand at bargaining.

Sidenote: Bargaining is way harder than it sounds. Especially when the vendors start bargaining prices down before you’ve even decided if you like what they’re offering, so you end up almost buying it anyways just because it’s such a good price. Sneaky.

I successfully bargained down a canvas painting of Africa and a friend and I bargained down cute bags. I probably still overpaid, but hey, for my first time I’m proud I didn’t just agree to the original price.

I’m sure I’ll be visiting more markets like this closer to when I’m leaving to get presents for all you lovely people. The one thing I need to remember to get is a vuvuzela. Because, really, who can leave South Africa without an obnoxiously wonderful vuvuzela?

So that has been my last week. I’m going to try to go back on the Garden Route again, since there were so many things we still want to do, such as going to Monkey World, or a Cheetah Reserve, or a Game Reserve.

And who knows, maybe the second time’s the charm when it comes to bungee jumping??

Or maybe I should just sign up for sky diving, much less scary.

It’s crazy to think that I’m starting classes tomorrow. Cape Town is such a vacation. I can’t imagine being here and actually having to go to class and do work. But I guess that is the reason I’m here, so I’ll just have to suck it up. Plus, all of my classes seem really cool, so I’m excited to actually get into the content (nerd, I know).

So I’m going to head to bed, or at least attempt to. I really need to learn to stop taking naps in the middle of the day so I can actually sleep at night. But I’d like to wish an early (well not for me) Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone!!!

I know you all are probably dying to be my Valentine, but sadly for you, Corinne got there first. And I’m convinced that if I keep telling people she’s going to buy me a singing stuffed-animal it will actually happen.
It would be awesome to have a singing-stuffed Valentine's Day stuffed animal from London (hint hint)

But good bye for now, and I’ll try to update more often, since I know how thrilling it is to hear my commentary of South Africa!

Ostrich, Lines, Crocodile, Beach!!!

I know I need to work on more exciting titles, but I hate titles, so deal.

So the past few days have been pretty busy. Our house hosted its first ever braai (barbecue for those of you who don't know the local South African lingo) the other night. It had a rocky start, as some of my roommates bought cooking oil instead of lighter fluid and then we ended up pouring it on most of the charcoal. However, the German boys saved the day and with a lot of extra kindling and fanning we they managed to get the coals lit and burning.

It’s funny, when you’re an international student in a different country, you end up making friends with almost every other international student. Which would explain the 30+ people that showed up to our braai. Thank God we have such a big house. Rachel (roommate from Connecticut College) was so adorable, going around asking everyone if they needed a drink or something to eat. My job for the night was carrying my keys so I could unlock our security gate and let our guests into the yard.

I must say I completely rocked my job.

And bonus: We got to meet our South African neighbors. Well at least two of them. Haley (fellow U of Mer) and I were trying to figure out the style here in South Africa. We still can’t figure it out. There are a lot of the blonde surfer types, but then with weird twists like wearing a V-neck that looks like someone just cut a V in the front with scissors.
Or mullets.
We have seen way to many mullets for comfort.
But whatever, their accents totally make up for it.

Anyways, I’m sure you’re wondering where ostrich comes in. Apparently it’s very common to eat ostrich here, so of course we had to by some for the braai and try it.

Ewwww.

Yeah, that’s about all I can say to describe that.

So after having our first successful braai under our belt, it was time to take on registration.

Never have I appreciated Wolverine Access so much.
Day 1: Pre-registration: This was the day we had to stand in line for about an hour just so they could check our passports, visas and make sure we paid our fees and then enter all of that into their system. That would be legitimate, if they didn’t already have all of this information in our handy-dandy personal files. But still, it’s only 1 hour wasted.

Day 2: Registration: Not cool UCT, not cool. You know how at home you pick out all of your classes online and then register for them and you’re done in 3 seconds? Yeah, that doesn’t happen here. Here you get a thick book of courses, and they’re courses offered for the entire year, so you have to make sure the course you want to take is even offered that semester. So the morning of registration, we walked up the mountain in 90 degree weather. We arrive and I’m literally sweating buckets (not my prettiest look let me tell you). We then have to fill out our courses by paper, and get them approved by an advisor. Not bad. We then have to walk half-way across middle campus to a computer lab to have our courses entered online. Also not bad. In that same computer lab we have to get our computer information and change our password. Still okay. Then we got walked down to a 4 hour long line to get our student ids. Yeah right. So when we were told there was a shorter line in lower campus, we braved the Jammie and found it. 3 hour line in the sun. Which prompted us to leave and eat lunch in a lovely shaded place with smoothies and decide to get our ids next week.

It probably doesn’t sound that bad, but we had to do all this with almost no direction. Some of my friends didn’t end up changing their passwords because no one told them about it. I only ended up changing mine because one of the computer techs literally grabbed my arm and told me I needed to do it. Also, even though we’re registered for our classes, we still don’t know where our classes are or when and where our tutorials (discussions) are. Apparently there are lists posted around campus with locations next week, so it looks like we’ll be having another nice hike up the mountain next week to find our classes. Not cool UCT. It really is true that in Africa nothing is rushed. Ever.

I think if they gave me a week in charge of UCT I could whip everyone into shape. You all know how spazzy and high-strung I am, I could get lines moving like no other!

Alright, so after having to deal with registration, we all deserved a treat. We decided to splurge on dinner and go to a tourist spot called Mama Africa. It was definitely worth the money, there was live local music (that was added to our bill, figures) and amazing food! And guess what??

I ate crocodile.
Suck that, Gustave!!!!

I’ve got to say it was quite empowering eating my worst fear. And quite delicious too. They served it with a peanut sauce which was equally delicious. My friend Kelsey and I saw a TV crew in the restaurant so she of course took a picture of it just in case it was something like the food network.

OH, and sidenote: Some girls saw Denzel Washington at the beach a couple of days ago. Apparently he’s shooting a movie here. I know many of you probably already saw this on my facebook, but it’s definitely worth sharing multiple times. We plan on stalking that beach this weekend.

Okay, and on to today. Today was beach day. We went to Muizenberg, which was amazing and beautiful!!!! If you’ve ever googled pictures of Cape Town, Muizenberg beach has probably popped up. It’s a really popular tourist destination because of all the multi-colored cabanas that are on the beach. Also it’s very popular for surfing, as we saw today with the 548729758420 surfers chilling in the water. Some friends and I have already decided to go back this next week (when it’s not as busy, so it’s harder for me to kill someone) and get a surfing lesson, which is a very important skill for a girl from Northern Michigan to have.

Many of you will probably be shocked by this statement, but today was the first time I have ever swam in the ocean.
You can gasp, most of my friends here did.

The only other times I’ve ever been to the ocean, it was wayyyy too cold to go swimming. So today was the day. The biggest thing I’m going to take away from it is that ocean water tastes gross. In the Great Lakes, if you swallow a bit of water, no biggie, it takes like water. Here, if you swallow a bit of water you immediately need to chug a bottle of fresh water just to battle severe dehydration.

Also, I went into the ocean with sunglasses on. My friend Kaushal warned me against it. He promised I would lose them, but I was all “No way, I’ll hold on to them, no big deal.”

The ocean is now in possession of my sunglasses.
My bad.

Ooooo, another random sidenote: Funny enough, My first 5 days in Cape Town, I didn’t fall, stub my toe, run into any pointy or hard objects or do anything my normal clumsy self would do. My roommates actually didn’t believe me when I told them I was really really clumsy.

Now they do.

The other night we all went out to a club called Tiger Tiger. I giggle each time I say the name, it’s just so hard to take seriously. Anyways, while there one of the OL’s bought all of us shots. By this time I was a tiny bit inebriated already (but I’m legal mom and dad, so it’s totally cool), so one moment I was holding the shot glass and the next I wasn’t. Ooops. I thought everything was good though because Tiny didn’t notice at all, but then one of my housemates Denise noticed her knee was bleeding. Yup, I dropped a shot glasses and a piece of broken glass jumped back up and cut Denise’s knee. Since then I’ve run into my bed post at least 8 times, although I haven’t fallen yet (knock on wood) which is quite a feat considering the mountain I have to walk up and down.

So that is an update of my life for the past few days. We’re still figuring out what we’re going to do next week, whether we want to travel the Garden Route, or just do a day tour of the Wine Lands. We do know that we want to take surfing lessons (and a housemate, Brett, who’s from California and surfs just told me he would totally teach me. Score), along with sandboarding, which apparently is like snowboarding down a sand dune, with no protection. We’ll see how that one works out.

But anyways, I know I’m not the best at posting pictures, so here’s a link to my friend Kelsey’s album. She said it’s set to public, so you should be able to look at the pictures. My favorite is of the baboon we saw sitting on a car at the Cape of Good Hope. I’d like to know how you’re exactly supposed to handle that situation.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=1278780060&aid=2040011

Well I must go and get ready for the night. I love and miss you all!!!

P.S. We found an internet café just around the corner that I should be able to skype from, so skype dates are becoming more and more of a possibility in the near future!! YAY!

"Hold on to your goods gurl, you're in the Cape Flats!"'

The above quote was one of the many made during the last two days that was memorably hilarious.

But I'll start at the beginning for your benefit.

So yesterday we did a tour of the Cape Peninsula, which included the long-awaited for penguins (I know, squealllll!), along with a stop at Camps Bay, Ocean View township and the Cape of Good Hope!

Our lovely tour started at 8:00am aboard a charter bus with a guide named Steve Martin (fyi: not related to actor Steve Martin - he informed us of that) who spent the day telling awkwardly funny bad jokes. But was really informative nonetheless.

We traveled right through the city and got to see where Parliament is and the President's house, along with cool historical places like District 6 (look it up, it'll be good for you!), and different beaches and hang-outs to go to.

Side note: I'm pretty sure the Cape Peninsula has more beaches than all of Michigan combined. And these beaches are sooooo much cooler.

Our first stop was Camps Bay:

Our OLs described Camps Bay to us as "the OC of Cape Town", and now I believe them. It's definitely the ritzy part of Cape Town. It's supposed to be a great place to go out at night, although a little pricey, but considering the last time I went out, I ended up spending $20 in US currency on a full night of drinks and bar/club admissions, I think I can splurge every once and awhile (Don't worry Mom and Dad, I'm not crazy spending). Camps Beach is the one you see celebrities lounging/swimming or obviously posing on in People Magazine or Us Weekly. Yeah, I'm definitely going to be stalking that beach a lot!

Anyways, the beach is absolutely gorgeous! We have some time off later this week, and spending a day there is high on the checklist! Also, the sundowners (aka sunsets) are supposed to be amazing there, so my roommates and I have already started planning a picnic there.

Alright, so then we drive further down the Peninsula. I didn't take any pictures from inside the bus, but let's just say that it doesn't get any less beautiful than previously described. Everything is lush and green, and you're either looking at mountains or the ocean. A perfect mixture, if you ask me.

Stop #2: PENGUINS

So I forget the name of the actual place we stopped, but it was a national park where African Penguins live. They were sooooooo adorable! Although they did smell a bit. They waddled everywhere and were the laziest/most laid back (depends which way you look at it, I pick most laid back) animals I've ever seen. They barely moved, and when they did they took their sweet time, which makes sense because that's how everyone and everything acts in Africa. All the locals like to explain the chillness and slowness by saying: "We're African." I now explain my spazziness by saying: "I'm American"

Stop #3: Ocean View Township

This was by far my favorite stop! I didn't take any pictures here, but if my friends did I'll make sure to steal some. I'll give you some background for this one. Ocean View Township is made up of people who were forced out of their homes in the 1960s during the apartheid because they were not white. While there's a lot of poverty and crime in the township, there's a lot of amazing things going on there. They made us lunch, which was delicious, although I wasn't able to eat all of it because my appetite still hadn't adjusted to the time difference (Horrible right?? Don't worry, it's back to normal now). My blog title quote is from the lady who MC-ed the event. She had a lot of great quotes that day. Then their youth put on a performance for us. It started with man in drag lip-syncing to "Last Dance" (all I could think was "Welcome....Welcome to Studio Phiiiiiiii." Damn you recruitment!). There was a comedy act, some girls dancing, and a brass band. My two favorites though were both dancers. One was a guy who danced, but was AMAZING. He was wayyyy better than the acts we say on SA's Got Talent. But the winner had to be the little boy who danced to a medley of Michael Jackson. Damn that boy had moves. I have never laughed so much than during those few hours.

After our refreshing show we were back on the bus heading to the Cape of Good Hope.

Yup, that's right. I went to the Cape of Good Hope.

On the way we saw baboons, which I was so excited for! They're all over South Africa, but they're not the cute, medicine-man-wise creatures The Lion King fooled us into believing. Instead they're mean, hungry criminals. Apparently they'll come right up to you if you have food and steal it. If you have a bag, they're more they're more than likely to steal it to see if there's food inside. And in case you ever have a baboon tugging on one end of your bag: LET GO. We've been told they're rather nasty creatures and will claw you to death (or something like that). Apparently they throw your bag away once they find there's no food, but I highly doubt a baboon would be gentle with my camera and phone. Now it's a running joke in our group of friends that if we don't get mugged by a person in Africa, we'll probably get mugged by a monkey.

Okay, on to the Cape.

Not to be completely repetitive, but it was AMAZING and BEAUTIFUL and FANTASTIC.

There really aren't words to describe it.

We ended up hiking up a mountain (it's a common occurance here in Africa) to get an amazing view of where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet.

Sidenote: There's a lot of controversy over where the two oceans meet, some maps say Cape of Good Hope, some don't. Humor me here, it's Cape of Good Hope.

Then we were told that we just needed to walk down to where the buses are. No big deal.

Bullshit.

This easy little hike down included steep drops to my death down uneven rock stairs with no railing. When there was railing, it was the side of the mountain. When there were stairs, they moved and had huge gaps between them. You guys know me. To know me is to know I'm am a tad bit clumsy. You can now understand my terror. It didn't help that one of the OLs was behind me joking about falling to our deaths. Oh, and since there were about 400 of us on this here trip, there was a huge line going down the mountain, so me falling would have meant me starting a huge domino effect of people falling and dying. Bad legacy.

As you may have guessed, I made it down safe and sound, if not in need of a shot to calm my nerves (which I didn't get by the way, but I guess water was a better choice in the long run). The Cape was definitely the most beautiful place I've ever been. I used to always say that I loved the mountains and the ocean and I wanted to live somewhere with both. Yeah, Cape Town is that place.

So that concluded our tour. A few of us decided to check out the nightlife in our neighborhood (Rondebosch, in case you feel like Google Mapping it in order to better stalk me) so we went to dinner at a bar Cafe Sofia, which was delicious and had live music (Score!). Of course the "few" of us turned into 30 of us. We are the most obvious international students ever. Hopefully once the UCT kids start heading back for classes, we'll be a little less obvious, but right now we stick out like a sore thumb.

Sidenote: Random change of subject: I still can't believe how cheap everything in Cape Town is! An OL was telling us that people would only spend $10.00 on dinner for a date. A couple of nights ago I had seafood linguine for a total of $8.00. Yeah, and my groceries tonight cost like $16.00, in AA they would have cost at least $30.00. And once I learn how to not get ripped off by people knowing I'm American, all this saving will mean I'll get to do more exciting things while here. (Once again, don't worry Mom and Dad, I'll clear them with you first).

Oh, and just to make all of you the more jealous, we don't start school until February 14th.

This week we have different orientation events going on and registration, but all of next week is free. A travel agency here has all these events planned for next week, like free chocolate and wine tasting (Yes please), Kayaking with penguins (Duh), and wait for it....

Cage-diving with sharks!!!!

I completely plan on cage-diving, although someone said it's better to do in the winter because the water is clearer, so I'll have to ask around.

Also some friends and I are thinking of renting a car and driving the Garden Route (You'll have to look this one up too, I don't remember much about it and I don't want to explain it wrong) which is supposed to be amazing! Along the way is wine tasting, a cheetah reserve (where you get to pet cheetahs!!!! SQUEAL!) and the highest bungee jump from a bridge in the world!!! For spring break we're planning on renting a car and heading to Krueger National Park and Namibia.

To say I'm excited would be the understatement of the century.

Oh also, apparently the week before classes start is O week (or something like that) which is the equivalent to U of M's Welcome Week. We've been told this means massive parties and events all over campus. I'm excited to meet more local South Africans so I can work on my accent (which is sounding less and less Swedish-Indian every time I do it).

Today wasn't too exciting. We had orientation speeches from about 20 people all about UCT and safety and clubs and yada yada. But to make up for the boring day, we got to do an African Drumming workshop, which was THE BEST. (I could give you a run for your money Sarah!) I've decided I want to join an African drumming group, but I think a white, American girl will really stand out in the midst of all the black, African men drumming. Maybe I could be their towel girl...

But now is bedtime. We have more orientation tomorrow and then the beach and then hopefully a brei! Oh, one last sidenote: So there's this thing where I have to pay for internet for megabyte or some computer term like that, so skyping is very expensive. I think my friend said that she video skyped with her mom for 5 minutes today and it cost $8.00. Have no fear though, we have options! Gmail lets me call the US free!!! And I can always skype without the video. Although I did meet a guy today who's house has free unlimited internet. I'll get right on becoming his new best friend!

However, I think most of you will like option #3. Apparently there's free wifi on campus, which means I could skype on campus, but that won't be until school starts on the 14th. But there's the added bonus that you might get to see some of the amazing scenery and even the mountain in the background. Nice trade off, right?

No pictures this time because they're on my facebook!!!! Check them out!

Alright, I started the blog with a quote, so I'll end it with one from the same woman.

"You've got places to go, people to see, and baboons to do."

I'm here! I'm here!

I'm actually super tired and about to take a nap, but I figured that if my friends saw I was on the internet (damn you facebook!!!) they would kill me if I didn't post.

So here goes!

Now, there's really only 1 important thing to remember:

1). Cape Town > everything

But I'll start with the flight, or to be specific flights.

Flight #1 Detroit to Amsterdam: Very nice actually, almost a completely empty plane so I had five whole seats to myself! But 6 hours on a plane is 6 hours on a plane no matter how you look at it.

Flight #1 dropped me off in Amsterdam at 5:55am, with a 4 hour wait until my Cape Town flight.

(Note about Amsterdam airport: Everyone is really nice, but somehow I found every single person in that airport who didn't speak English, which made for a lot of pointing and smiling.)

Lucky enough about 30 kids from the Study Abroad program in Cape Town were on the same flight as me. And since we're pretty easy to spot (young adult, lots of luggage, alone, and looking hopefully at every new young adult that comes to sit down), we all started chatting. Everyone but 1 of us was from America, the other girl was from Norway and I even found another girl from U of M that I was told wasn't going to Cape Town (SCORE!).

So, the 4 hour layover was great bonding time (Sarah you'll be excited, I made a friend from South Carolina! Don't worry, he represents the South well) but then came the 12 hour plane ride.

Flight #2 Amsterdam to Cape Town: Now a 12 hour plane ride isn't fun to start with, but we were jam packed in that plane. I was luckily not sitting next to a lady puking the entire ride like one of my friends, but I was sardined in for 12 hours, so I believe I have room for complaint. I think in the course of the 32 total hours I was traveling I watched 7 movies and 8 TV shows. Yeah, I'm done with TV for awhile. (Lie, I just finished watching S.A.'s Got Talent with my house mates. AMAZING)

Alright, so Flight #2 finally ends. As the corny Americans, we cheer a little when we touch down (or at least the girl next to me and I did) because we're finally in AFRICA.

At this point, it's 11:55pm, we are slap happy because we're so exhausted and we still have to go through customs, immigration (Corinne, they're two different things in South Africa! And apparently it's really funny that I didn't know that) and then fit all of our luggage (which for most was two 50 lb bags and two carry-ons) onto a bus with all of us crammed in for a 20 minute bus ride to the UCT dorms where we were staying for a few days, and where we had to lug all these suitcases up three flights of stairs.

Needless to say, we survived. I think a lot of this had to do with our slap happy moods and the fact that we were all so excited to be in AFRICA.

Note: Since we arrived at night, we didn't get to see a lot of Cape Town. If we could have, we would have noticed the huge mountain right behind where we're staying. Yeah, imagine opening your curtains in the morning to that!

Beats the view of a tree I had from my window in AA

Okay, so the next day was a "free day" which actually meant we had tours planned all day with our OLs (orientation leaders which just means local UCT students showing us around). And of course some friends and I decided to go to Kalk Bay.

Kalk Bay = gorgeous!

The shops and a view of the mountain from Kalk Bay. (Yeah, I know, I'll get an actual picture of the bay soon)

I didn't take many pictures because I forgot I had a camera, but I promise to steal some from a friend soon so you can see it. We took about a 45 minute train ride there, and the train was so close to the ocean that in some parts it looked like the train was in the water. And yes, we Americans all Ooooo-ed and Ahhhh-ed, just like tourists. But I think we're allowed to be tourists for the next two weeks until classes start.

So we spent a few hours at Kalk Bay eating delicious food and having cocktails.

Okay, so it may have only been 11am in Cape Town, but

1). It was one of our friend's birthdays, so we had to celebrate!

2). Most of the people I was with can't drink in the States, so it was really exciting

3). We were in the coolest beach restaurant/bar ever! It had a beautiful view of the ocean and was all tiki torches and the like (and I can't pass up tiki torches)

4). One of our OLs was drinking so we figured it was only right for us to immerse ourselves in local culture.

After Kalk Bay we went on a campus tour.

I think that the University of Cape Town has to be one of the most beautiful campuses I've ever seen! There's lower, middle and upper campus, and as you may have guessed, each one is just a little higher up the mountain. So I will obviously have amazing legs by the time I return to the States considering all the steps and mountain I'll be climbing.

View from the top of Upper Campus (where most of my classes will be)

View from a memorial above Upper Campus

Upper campus (Yes, there's a rugby field in the center of upper campus...at least I think it's rugby)

And to finish off the day, we all went to Long Street for dinner and nightlife. Long Street is a really popular tourist destination, and in the words of one of our OLs "It's called Long Street because it's really long."

We had to take a Jammie (kind of like a Blue Bus for you U of Mers, for everyone else, it's a shuttle bus that circles campus and goes downtown), which should only seat 50. But there were 100 of us. So, we obviously just all crammed in together. I want to check out the record of the most people fit in a Jammie, because I think we came close to breaking that record. By the time we got to Long Street, we were quite the spectacle, 100 young adults walking in a huge group.

We had a delicious dinner and then started enjoying the nightlife. Nightlife in Cape Town is wayyyyy different than in the States (as you might expect). Most clubs are upstairs with a balcony where people talk and dance. Most of them also have DJs. Last night our DJ decided the best music to play would be 90s Dance music from America. When we asked him if he could play anything more recent from America he played Beat It by Michael Jackson. Yeah.

Today we moved into our houses. You are all going to be so jealous of where I'm living. I'm too lazy right now to get up and take pictures, but it is the most beautiful house I've ever seen.
I have 8 roommates, 5 from America and 3 from Germany, and two of the OLs live right down the street.

We have an amazing front porch with patio furniture and everything, along with a brei (which is what they call BBQ in our front yard. See, I'm learning the lingo already!!!) so we're really excited to have friends over. We're literally a 5 minute walk from a lot of shops and to the Jammie if we want to take it to campus.

So that has been my past 4 days of travel and the amazingness that is Cape Town. Something I'm definitely going to have to get used to is how chill everyone is here. Everyone is so laid back and in no hurry. Like when we were supposed to leave for our house this morning at 9 am...yeah, how about 9:45. Or last night, we were told to meet at a club "at a concrete time between 10:00-10:30". Yeah, us Americans had a field day with that one. But as we were all discussing over dinner, laid back is exactly what we need. I know I'm excited to be distracted by Cape Town this semester. I know school is important, but considering the semester from hell I just finished at U of M, I am ready for a new place that is 1/4 as spazzy and anxious as I am.

Who knows, maybe I'll come home completely relaxed and chill.

Okay...probably not but hopefully much less spazzy.

Okay, so now I really am about to fall asleep, so if I have grammar issues, blame my sleep deprivation. Oh, and surprisingly, the jet lag wasn't too bad. I took a 30 minute nap yesterday and I'll probably take one today, but otherwise, I've been good to go. I guess a good thing about a 12 hour plane flight is it's almost impossible not to sleep on it.

Okay, signing off for now, but I promise to update again soon, and hopefully that post will make more sense!