First day

We finally got to our houses (two of them right across the street from each other) pretty late in the evening on Monday so there really wasn't much to see initially -  just unpacking and relaxing from the REALLY long flight. I had a hard time falling asleep on the plane because the chairs didn't recline much so I was exhausted when we finally arrived. After a good nights sleep we woke up to the most amazing view (see picture to the left). That picture was taken in the street between our two houses - it's devil's peak to the famous table mountain that we will be checking out sometime soon. 

For our first day we met some of the people here through the Interstudy program in Cape Town that will be assisting us through our stay; they were really nice and gave great advice for places we should check out and places we should avoid. We got a tour of the campus, which was beautiful, and we checked out some of the shops around where we are staying so we would know where to get just abo

ut anything we could ever need. For lunch, the Interstudy staff took us out to eat at this gorgeous restaurant with an amazing ocean view where we all had fun drinks and awesome food (See pictures to the right). The drink I am enjoying in the photo is called a strawberry jam jar - yummy. The picture below that is the view we had from the restaurant of the Atlantic oceanToday was considered a day to ease into the overall experience.

My initial reactions to Cape Town and things I noticed are:

1. The weather seems the same as it was in Minnesota when

 I left except the air seems crisper and a little windier.

2. People drive on the left side of the road (their steering wheels are on the opposite side too) 

and they all drive really fast and don't always use a blinker when changing lanes. We were told that we REALLY need to look both ways before crossing the street because they drivers are so crazy here.

3. I am a little nervous about spending money because it's not always easy to convert to American dollars in my head and people at the airport literally asked for tips (even when we already had given them some money).

4. The signs have more pictures than words to make things seem more simple to understand.

5. A lot of people have a British accent.

6. Americans are easy to pick out here because we wear tennis shoes and talk loud (that's what Aaron says and I can see how that is true, haha).

7. I have become more aware of the valuables I have with me (e

ither that I am carrying or that I have locked up at the house) because we are told that crime happens opportunistically when people are careless so I have to hold my things close and lock our house up tight as well as hiding things inside the house too. We have bars on the door and windows to keep things safe.

Finally, I am noticing that everyone on this trip gets along really well and I think as the time progresses here we will grow really close. Below is a photo of me and my roomie Trisha.