\Day 1, Monday May 14, 2012:
After over 24 hours of air travel, too
many airplane meals, and some serious jet-lag, we FINALLY made it to
Stellenbosch, South Africa. It didn't really hit that we were in
Africa for a while because Stellenbosch is so similar to the States
and Athens especially. Today was a day of rest and relaxation where
Margo, the Post Grad & International Student Coordinator's
assistant who helps us, took us on a tour of the campus &
surrounding town.
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| Academia, where we live |
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| center of campus |
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| Reagen hanging out |
That afternoon we napped, went for
dinner (at an amazing pizza/pasta place) and then had our night out
on the town. Needless to say, we might be far from Athens, but we
always know how to find the bars..And some hilarious people. One guy
we met was drinking a Smirnoff Ice, so of course we made fun of him
relentlessly and by the end of the night, the “smirnoff was
talking” and he was getting a little too sassy to be straight.
Either way, he was a great sport about being humiliated by random
American kids.
Day 2, Tuesday May 15, 2012:
We met with our “helper” Margo, who
took us around to get the necessities: student ID card, internet
access, South African Rand, cell phones (of course), and an
orientation session. Breakfast was served at the prettiest little
restaurant nestled in an alley (I plan on returning to this
restaurant & I'll take pictures just to show how adorable this
place is) where we got to eat the first REAL meal in over 24 hours.
We had a South African breakfast, which is almost exactly like an
English breakfast complete with yogurt & granola, freshly cut
fruit, fresh squeezed fruit juice (Which was beyond fresh and
delicious), eggs, mushrooms, shoulder bacon, boerworst (sausage), and
cooked tomatoes. While we were eating all of the delicious food, we
got to talk to our coordinators and each other to get to know one
another a little better. (As if flying for over 24 hours together
isn't enough bonding time). If you know me, you know no meal isn't
complete without some shenanigan causing: luckily this time it wasn't
me, but Jack who had an accident. When serving me some bacon, he
dropped a piece of bacon in the jar of berry juice. This probably
doesn't sound very funny, but we were all jet-lagged and exhausted,
so we got the contagious giggles and I probably didn't stop laughing
for a good 10 minutes.
Basically our trip revolves around
food... Which shouldn't surprise you since I'm on this trip and I
love to eat. After breakfast and a couple more orientation sessions,
the group headed back for a much needed nap to get ready for the
night ahead.
Our driver was a nice, but very strange
Afrikaner from near Stellenbosch who loved dubstep music and had some
very interesting theories on America and politics. Anyway, before I
get to our dinner conversation I'll fill you in on our actual dinner.
We went to the Africa Cafe in downtown Cape Town. Dear goodness I've
never eaten so much in my life. The restaurant is decked out in
African cloth and inspirational words all over the tables and walls.
I wish I had gotten a picture because it was BEAUTIFUL. The women
serving us first washed our hands, then we began our 14 (yes
FOURTEEN) course meal. We had traditional African dishes from around
the world ranging from cheesy flat bread, vegetable soup and stir-fry
vegetables to lamb stew, fried rice and some lentil dish. Every
single dish was phenomenal and I couldn't stop eating even though I
was beyond stuffed. I sat a the end of the table with Reagen, Jack,
and Blayne our driver from earlier. We had some pretty interesting
discussions... Blayne thinks the Illuminati is behind the 9/11
attacks and that the US government killed Michael Jackson because he
converted to Islam and was about to go on world tour. I still can't
tell if he was joking the whole time or if he truly believed this
stuff and was that off his rocker. I guess we'll see if he drives us
again (I kinda hope he does so we can try to understand the
complexities that goes on in his thought process...). Anyway after
that we were all exhausted and had to meet at 8 am the next morning
for the first day of class!
Day 3 Wednesday May 16, 2012:
We had an early start (We had to be at
the front of our residence at 8 am) for a morning full of class.
(gag). After our first lecture from Dr. Finlay, which was really
interesting and I'm actually really excited for all of these classes,
we were a liiiitttllleee bit tired. Dr. Crepaz came in and although
his course content is really interesting, I couldn't seem to keep my
eyes open... Even as he was STARING AT ME IN THE EYES. We were making
eye contact and my eyelids were so heavy I couldn't keep them open.
Not the best first in-class impression.. oops! I'll talk more about
my classes later because I know that nobody cares about what we're
actually learning in South Africa, it's all about the adventures and
sight seeing, duh! So, on to our first BIG adventure!
Well first-- lunch. We have access to
Neelsie, the student center here, to get food and such, so we decided
to get lunch (hamburgers of course!) and eat outside of the student
center (which we call Tate 3). Jack got the biggest burger I've EVER
seen in my life. It had 2 chicken patties on one bun, a burger patty
and a fried egg and an onion ring on the other patty, salad on the
side, and sauce everywhere. It was ridiculously huge and looked
absolutely scrumptious. On the way to our sunny little picnic patch,
Jack's hand slipped and he dropped half of his food on the ground.
EVERYONE around us just stared and gave us dirty looks, so we just
hurried away. Lucky for Jack, he still had half of his food, so he had an ENTIRE hamburger to eat.
Adventure time!!!
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| Yeah, it doesn't look like much, but it's very big |
See this mountain? yeah, we hiked it. TO THE TOP!!
I obviously am out of shape because I was one of the kids bringing up the rear.
But we made it!!!
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| Caroline and I at the top! |
Anyway, I'm a bit tired (exhausted, actually) so I'm off to watch Invictus with Caroline! I'll update what we did the rest of the week tomorrow!!
XOXO, KB
