... according to Sir Francis Drake, who's words I now agree with. Despite starting to adore Cape Town, I still cannot really believe that I am in
South Africa!
We landed in Cape Town at night, so I couldn't see any of the city, but in the morning I opened my window to see the view to the left. Amazing!
Later that morning, I moved into a stunning 11 person house. Add you guys and subtract the crime rate, and this living arrangement would be absolutely ideal. As it is, I'm only a 15 minute walk away from
UCT, a 30 second walk away from Main Street (where all sorts of restrauants and shops are), and all I have to do is step outside to see Devil's mountain rising up above the city. The weather here is 75º-80º most days, and I can't wait to swim in the ocean.
Activity-wise, UCT has been keeping all of its international students busy with fun orientation programs. All 200+ of us were given a Penninsular Tour on Sunday, in which we drove around much of the city, looked up at historical buildings and down at
expansive beaches, stopped to
gawk at one of the colonies of African penguins, and then hiked through a national park (with wild baboons!) to Cape Point
and the Cape of Good Hope. I loved it! Our group of international students also stopped at Oceanview, which -- despite its resort-sounding name -- is actually one of Capetown's poverty-ridden townships. Here, we ate a delicious Malay lunch and learned about some of the development encouragement activities that go on in the township. I can't wait to go back and get to know all of these areas better!
Yesterday, I began a required 3-hour "English proficiency" test today up at the University.
The exam had seven sections and as I finished part three, I was feeling pretty cocky. I think this may be the only standardized test I've ever taken where I could finish a section with 2/3 of the time remaining. I suppose after 15.5 years of school in the US, I should have mastered the meaning of words like "however" and "finally." As section four started, however, things suddenly took a turn for the worst: in the span of just a few minutes I became nauseous and had to ditch the test and sprint out of the room to the bathroom. Turns out I had been food poisoned. Great. I was able to finish most of section five, but I had to leave six and seven completely blank so I could go home. Hopefully someone still determines that I can still speak English! Oh-well... on the bright side, I did escape an hour of pointless test taking.
Tomorrow we start dealing with course registration! Can't wait!
Love you all!
xoxo,
Brooke
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