Day One 5/14/12

I have never started a blog or honestly even kept a journal, so this is all new to me. But this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and trip that I am doing this summer and I want to be able to share all of my adventures with those who are interested in my travels and for my own good, so I can look back on a reflect on all that I have experienced and learned. SO this is the begining of my attempt to publish a blog! haha

After THREE days of travel- with NO shower, we finally arrived to our destination. Our flight traveled from Atlanta to Frankfurt, Germany to Johannesburg and then finally to Cape Town, South Africa. The first thing we did was get our apartment keys and checked in.

Our apartment is a two bed room, two bath, with living room, dining area, kitchen, and balcony overlooking the beautiful beaches of Cape Town along with a view of Table Mountain and Lions Head Mountain.

I am rooming with three other girls, Lauren (who I grew up playing soccer with)she is a student at Auburn University, Chelby who is a student from UGA, and Kelsey who is a student  from UGA as well. We all clicked right off the back, especially when I found out they love to run and work out!! We have to do everything in groups of three or more, so I am excited it won’t be too hard to find someone to go to the gym or run with!

The day we arrived we went into the town to get groceries. The grocery stores are connected to malls. It’s very strange. But what is even more complicated than that is learning the conversion of money. For example, milk costs $35 rand which in American money is $5. Pretty much we have to divide everything by 7.5 to get a better estimate on how much we are actually spending. I’m guessing as these weeks go by I will have a better understanding of it and be able to calculate it faster!

Our first night we dined at Zorbas, which is a Greek restaurant attached to the hotel. I had some kind of chicken shishcabob thing with veggies. No complaints there! J

Our first real day in Cape Town was today. We began the morning with a nice hot breakfast catered to us at the owners own home. Where we then went over orientation and broke up into our community groups. We spent the time making a chain “bucket list” of things we plan to do here in Cape Town. Here is the start of mine:

1.       Meet two new people each day and ask them about their lives.

2.       Visit Stoenbosh (which is the college campus here in the city)

3.       Go Bungee Jumping (heights and falling is my absolute BIGGEST fear in this entire world!!!)

4.       Learn some kind of African Slang

5.       Learn and do an African custom

6.       Run on the beach

7.       Try an “African Specialty” dish

8.       Ride an Ostrich J

9.       Learn to surf (even though it is winter here and the water is FREEZING!)

10.   Write and begin a blog

11.   Play soccer with the kids in sir lowerys pass

12.   Watch the sunrise

13.   Go shark cave diving

14.   Visit the stadium where the world cup was played

15.   Stay open minded to anything and everything that presents itself to me

That is what I have so far, of course I will end up adding more as I go on throughout this trip! After our orientation we loaded up the buses and headed out to a tour of the city.

The city is full of all different forms of what I consider beautiful. Although many parts are extremely poverty stricken, you can still see the happiness and simplicity of life on children’s faces as they play soccer in a field or fish around in the small sewage ponds. People have tarp houses built anywhere they possibly can find space, whether it be under a bridge, near a cemetery, or in a ditch. But what is so surprising to me is how you can almost feel such a powerful sense of affection that the families share with one another just by watching how they interact. I guess when you take so many distractions out of our everyday lives, whatever is left, is what makes life so beautiful.

We traveled two museums today. One was based off of the destruction of district six and the other museum was focused on the slave lodge. District Six was a huge area with a very closely knitted mixed population of blacks and whites. The government decided to pass a “Group Areas Act.” This act instituted the divisions of urban areas into separate townships, which were designed to divide and isolate communities. Poorly constructed working-class townships were built, separated by buffer strips consisting of freeways, polluted rivers and strategically placed military land and golf courses. In District Six, apartheid’s grand design was to remove 35,000 people from the city’s core to its distant periphery. However, the mixed community refused to leave so the government went in a demolished everything without any type of notice to the residents. That was decades ago, and now the people are allowed to move back and re-claim their land but only 3,000 residents put in applications because too many were too distraught to re-visit it because of the horrifying memories. The second museum was the Slave Lodge. I had always learned about slavery in school but today I feel like I truly understand how absolutely horrifying the conditions and treatments were. The Slave Lodge was a huge building with a court in the center. It was where the slaves were locked up at night. The horrifying details of it all made me sick to my stomach.

I’m glad we had the city tour because it gave me a better understanding of where I am and the history of Cape Town. It was a great introduction for the trip.

Our first group dinner is tonight and we will be experiencing “true African cuisine” so hopefully I will be able to knock another bucket list item off!