A LONG SUMMARY

Hello from the beautiful city of Cape Town! I did not think I would ever be writing that. Wow a lot has happened so far. Where to begin...

My sister got me a star gazing book as a going away present because she knows how much I love the stars. At night I have really enjoyed looking at it and learning all of the different constellations. Soon I will try to identify them in the sky without using the book.

All twenty of us are living in the Kimberley House, which I can only describe to you as the best place ever to live. Each bedroom is unique and I love mine. I share it with one of the sweetest girls & we have a fireplace, a chandelier & colorful bedspreads to make us feel at home. In the back of the house is a grassy area, picnic table, & a clothesline to dry clothes (no more drier sheets!). The best part of the house is that during the day, the back door is open and a lovely breeze floats through the house. The air smells so good here and it’s the perfect temperature (70s/80s).

Cape Town is unique in that it has everything one could want in a city—busy city life, beautiful beaches, and tall mountains. I think it is like San Francisco and Colorado rolled into one. It is honestly the most breathtaking and beautiful place I have ever seen. Mountains can almost always be seen wherever you look and I could stare at them for hours. The beach we went to today had perfect blue water and white sand and the mountains were our backdrop. I felt really alive there.

 I am also anxiously anticipating going to my service site in a couple of weeks. It is called SAFFI (South African Family and Faith Institute). So far a few people have been able to visit their sites and I hope to go soon to see mine. I got to go with my friend to her service site and I am really excited for her because I think she is going to be able to affect the organization in a great way. It is a place where children can go if they are affected by HIV/AIDS. We got to meet the lady who works there and she was very passionate about making a change and helping the children.

We also went to the United States consulate today, which was a very interesting experience. A husband and wife work there together and they gave us a presentation on safety tips for a stay. They also explained how awesome it is that we get the chance to go to school with students at UWC  because a lot of South Africans do not get the chance to go, and the ones that do our their future leaders. There is a lot of pride and importance put on the generation of people my age and I think that is really neat.

This is the first time I have had to make all of my meals for myself, and I think I might actually enjoy it! We all went grocery shopping together and I realized that 1) their mangoes are super cheap and delicious 2) apparently their is a lack of turkey here 3) they do not refrigerate milk and eggs. I am slowly getting a routine down and I am learning how to cook from other people in the house. 

A few of us found a coffee shop called Cocoa that is going to become a regular stop! It was recommended to us by Renee (a SLU student that came here before me). We are going to try go to their for brunch after mass on Sundays (we found a Catholic church right up the street). It will not be Cafe Ventana, because no one could replace that, but it might come close.

We had orientation at the University of Western Cape and it was quite the experience. I think SLU is beautiful and this school comes pretty close to comparison. There are so many large trees and the campus is HUGE. It feels so strange to be an exchange student--I don't really know how to explain it. At SLU I feel so comfortable and safe walking around, but now I feel like an outsider and I feel like its really obvious I do not belong there haha. Regardless, I feel SO blessed to be able to attend school there because the faculty seems amazing and fired up to be there. All of the exchange students were together for orientation and I made a friend named Yoka from the Netherlands. She is also studying psychology, which is pretty cool!

Tomorrow we are climbing a mountain and then going to the beach all day. PERFECT DAY RIGHT?!!!!!! I have been waiting and waiting to climb a mountain so I can hardly wait for the sun to come up tomorrow so we can start.

Overall I am still jet lagged and I feel like I am at summer camp. I cannot believe I get the chance to be in this beautiful city that I can call my home for five months. I wish all my family and friends could be here to experience this with me for a while. I still have butterflies in my stomach sometimes because everything is so different and I do not have a routine, but I have found great comfort in the fact that God is doing this all with me. And we are going to have a great time, let me tell you.

I was a little too excited to get a latte.