Well, I made it! I got in to Cape Town around 11am on Saturday. The school had sent a driver for me and the other three students who were on my flight from Dubai with me. That flight by the way was one of the best I had ever had! I guess nobody wants to fly from Dubai to Cape Town at 3am, so the flight was mostly empty, almost everyone was able to spread out and get their own row! The food on Emirates is awesome too! Best airline food I've ever had. I was finally able to sleep a little bit on that flight because by that point I was so tired. My internal clock had been super jet lagged though, and it didn't make it any better that breakfast was at 3am Cape Town time and lunch was at 7! Anyways, it was a really comfortable flight, and Emirates gave everyone a toothbrush and a washcloth so that we could freshen up.
On the way to the school from the airport (they drive on the wrong side here too! It's so weird going around traffic circles!) it finally hit us that we were in Africa. Along the highway where in Texas we would have cows grazing were lots of ostriches just walking around. It was so crazy to see them that we just started laughing.
When we got to the university (about 20 minutes drive away from Cape Town) we got our rooms and began to unpack a few things. The first thing I did though was have a shower. There's no way I was going one more hour without showering after 48 hours traveling.
That night I tried really hard to keep myself awake so that I could get on Cape Town time. A few of us went out to a restaurant to watch a rugby match. Rugby is a huge deal. At least in Stellenbosch it's even more important than soccer! I tried to pick up on some of the rules, one of the South African guys, Philip, tried to explain it to me. It's not that hard, and it's much faster paced than American football. I learned which team I'm supposed to support too: the Cape Town Stormers. After that the school took us out for pizza. (Bacon and banana. It doesn't sound good, but it actually tastes really great!)
Everyone in Stellenbosch speaks english perfectly, but when they converse to one another they speak only Afrikaans, which sounds really cool. I wish I could understand it. When I see it written out I can understand a little bit, it has a little bit of a German influence, but when I hear it spoken I have no clue what's going on.
On Sunday we had a campus tour and a short walking tour of the town. Everything is easily within walking distance, and there is a small mall really close which sells groceries, clothes, you name it. Pretty much everything we will need is either in the mall or the student center on campus. I've already gotten a few things. My roommate and I got some biltong jerky (way different than American jerky), and most of us have already gotten South African cell phones. Most of us have the same model though, because it's only 120 rand (which is like $15!). For the price that it was though it's a good phone. It has a build in flashlight and an FM radio. I've been trying to find some good Afrikaans music, but I don't really know any stations here.
The city of Stellenbosch is beautiful, as is the campus of the university. I don't really know what I was expecting to see when I came here, but it wasn't this! Stellenbosch is situated in a little valley and is surrounded by huge mountains. The weather is perfect here (at least right now, it's been in the 60's and 70's but there is supposed to be a cold front on Wednesday). The city is great, all of the buildings are built in the same style, and it has a very European feel to it. And the trees here are all old and huge.
Monday was our first class. The first one is South African history. On Monday we just did a very broad lesson on the history from the very beginning up to today. The rest of the week we will get in to many more details. Most of the students here are on winter holiday now (which is equitable to our summer vacation) so we pretty much have free run of the campus! There's about 50 American students here now I would guess. It's a really good group, and everyone is really nice. There are also about 5 or 6 South African students who stay with us and show us around this month too.
The best part of class though is that we got a break for tea time! I finally got to try some rooibus tea which I had been looking forward too. I wish in the US we stopped class in the middle of the day to go outside to have tea and eat little tea snacks. South African history is really interesting though, and I learned a lot of things that I never knew. Today we went into Cape Town and Robben Island, but tomorrow we are going to continue our lessons on South African racial identity.
I know that's a lot, but I had so many days to catch up on. Hopefully this time the site will stay up and I'll be able to put up better (shorter!) posts with more current information. Anyway, I'm doing great here and having a blast so far! The buildings here don't have any heating, but so far it has been beautiful. In fact I have the window open right now as I'm writing this. I don't know what July will be like though. They gave us a floor heater and lots of blankets, so hopefully we're all set for when it gets really cold.
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