a few more posts...

So I like to post my blogs in bulk because I still don't have internet in my dorm (and its kind of expensive) hence a couple days-worth of thinking...but enjoy :)

Hey again! So I’m learning a lot about patience…
Yesterday, I woke up and as usual walked to the bathroom to wash-up, when I came back I realized that although I had left my door open, because my window was also open the wind had blown my door shut…locking me out. It wasn’t too early (9 AM) so I walked to my RA’s room’s room and asked for my key, she sent me to another RA’s room who told me that all the spare keys were on campus at our CIEE office. I was in my pajamas and really not too excited about this news because we had to pre-register for classes and then had our tickets to go to Robben Island in the afternoon, so basically I had to get a lot done in a few hours. Oh and I should also mention that my flatiron was turned on in my room so I was really worried about burning the whole flat down…I run back to my room, luckily my roommates awake, so she gives me some clothes to borrow because I’m still in my pajamas, and then I go to the CIEE office. At the office we sort through all the spare keys and realize 2 are missing, one of which is mine of course. We call all the RA’s on campus and finally find it in one of their purses meaning I have to run back to campus and finally 3 ½ hours later I can get back into my room, which luckily was not on fire.

Today we had to actually register for classes and unlike registering in America (on a computer) we have to stand in queues (lines) and physically sign up by meeting with a counselor. This took about 3 hours and then after signing up we had to get our ID cards for the semester, the line for this also took about 3 hours…but I cut so i only waited an hour and a half. Still, it was such a long morning. Registering for classes and then getting an ID card would probably take a half hour tops back at American but here it took all day. Like the Orientation staff likes to joke, we’re on African time…and things are much much slower.

1/29/09

I realized my blog posts are really random and usually don’t actually explain what I’ve been doing.
So far I’ve been to two beaches, Camps Bay and Muizmenbeerg. Camps Bay was beautiful, we went in the afternoon and sat on the rocks (jetty) to watch the sunset, then grabbed dinner. The beach was very touristy and also expensive (but with the currency it seemed cheap to us) but it was obvious that only a certain social class could afford traveling there. Muizenbeerg was a little different, we took the train there, which was quite the experience (and also free!). The beach is part of the Indian Ocean, so the water wasn’t quite as cold as Camps Bay and we were able to actually swim. But it was also scary because this beach has a lot of sharks (including great whites!), and although there are people that are official shark-watchers, I was still a little nervous. We went in the ocean but didn’t go out to far, which was probably a good thing because there was a shark siting and we all had to get out of the water. Still it was really neat and I’m pretty sure we’re going to go back again soon!
I’ve also been to the V & A waterfront, which is where we got to the boat to go to Robben Island. This area is also pretty ritzy and touristy but still a lot of fun. It reminded me of a much nicer (and larger) version of the Baltimore Inner Harbor.
And like I’ve already mentioned we’ve done plenty of bar hopping, which has been fun because I’ve gotten to see a decent mix of the different districts in Cape Town. We’ve been busy most days with orientation stuff so there hasn’t been much time to travel unless we were going out at night. We have next week off before classes start though so a few of us are renting a car and driving along the west coast. We’re planning to stop at a few beaches, a national park and possibly a vineyard and some random towns, and we’re going to stay at hostels so I’m really excited! It will be nice to get out of Cape Town and see a little more of South Africa.