Day 2

Day 2: July 13, 2010
We got to sleep in today. Orientation is tomorrow at 8am which is like 2am in NYC. Oh gosh, the time difference is so crazy thanks to the equator. I was happy to have the opportunity to sleep, but of course I am up at 8am. I wanted to eat or go food shopping to spice up that kitchen of ours but I wine up going back to sleep at 9:30 and woke up to a number of text messages to go in town to the store. Since my house woke up late and we were hungry, we decided to go to town around 11am to get something to eat before we had to meet up with the IES staff. We have a session on why we chose Cape Town and some goals and aspirations that we each would like to obtain. This is when I realized that the program does a lot for you but the adventurous stuff I heard about depends on you to accomplish them. After the session with the financial advisor, we go on a tour of the campus-what the RA finds to be important- and I forgot my camera so, I am in a million of my fellow study abroad student’s camera. The school was created by a white racist man and was build so high so the white people can feel as if they are looking down on the black slaves. A number of the black sports (soccer) are not very popular in South Africa because it is known as a game that hooligans play. The World Cup 2010 united a number of different people from all different races and backgrounds. The school was once an all white boy’s school and once girls became a part of the school, the campus was divided in half. Now there are two dorms on campus, boys and the girl’s dorm. The joke of the school is that behind Jameson hall is the backyard of Rhodes. Although Rhodes was such a horrible man, he gains much respect for UCT. We take a break after we are able to see the “great white people” of Cape Town and discuss the government and different politic of the country. Some things I learned: Nelson Mandela’s wife was the first lady of two different countries and the only woman in history to do that. There are a lot of refugees that come to South Africa and there are taxes that are placed on them. A lot of the Africans here are from different countries in the continent of Africa. There are also a lot of people from Europe. We went to Eastern Bazaar to eat Indian and Chinese food before we take the walk around town known as the “Freedom Walk.” We walked for approximately 2.5 hrs exploring what Cape Town had to offer. We went through some historical monuments, saw the parliament, some African art and went through national parks. The squirrels come up to you here-my unofficial roommate Jaime touched one. Wow, never even would’ve thought of going next to it. We saw the Parliament which switches every 6months between Victoria and South Africa. so no one is here right now, but it the architecture is amazing. As we walked around there are images of AMAZING Trees and Street art. There is a tree that looks like there is a monkey in it. The street art is everywhere you walk, there is so much culture just walking down the street. This was my favorite art work that I have seen thus far. Everything is AMAZING here. But that’s all for now, until next time, stay royal!


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