Ahhh, finally a moment to catch up on the past few days! A ton has gone on (naturally, I mean I
just moved to a continent on the other side of the world), so I’m looking
forward to catching you up and taking a mental note of it for myself as well.
Where to start!?!?
Ok, I’ll start with the flight.
30 hours. Of death, doom,
and destruction. JK! That was a lie. The flight was totally fine. I slept (barely) and watched some
really good movies that I’d wanted to see. They were movies that I’d be embarrassed to admit to seeing,
so I will not comment on which ones they were (but I will say that Blake
Lively’s performance in Savages was subpar).
The first flight was almost empty so I got to sit in the
emergency exit row with lots of leg space then move to an empty row to lay down
and (try to) sleep. It was
ideal. Also, they did not serve
ice cream (I read on Yelp that they did).
That was a bummer. But it’s
okay because my mom made really good banana bread and that was a good way to
pass the time. I sat next to a
girl who is studying abroad here on a different program on the 2nd
leg, which was nice. We talked a
lot and I really liked her. But
after sleeping a roughly estimated 3 hours on the second flight, we FINALLY began our decent! This was quite possibly the most exciting
moment thus far because this trip was actually a reality! I was flying into Africa and getting a
great view on the way in.
Oh, well would you look at that! The Western Cape from the view of the plane! Paradise awaits.
The goal for the first day was A: don’t nap or I’ll never
get over the jet lag, B: meet some friends to get started on this African
adventure, C: go to bed early so I can catch up from an exhausting 2 day,
relatively sleepless travel. I
succeeded with A and B. C – not so
much.
A few of us decided to go exploring once we got here. We started by getting our new South
African phones.
This baby cost me a whopping
150 Rand. In other words about
$17. Back to the dark ages and couldn’t be happier about it! When I first left, $1 was about 8.7
rands. As of yesterday, $1 is now
9 rands. The odds are looking to
be in my favor. Then we proceeded to find a restaurant on Rondebosch
Street. The University of Cape
Town is located in the Western Cape, which is basically the equivalent of what
a state would be in the U.S.
Within the Western Cape, it is in Rondebosch, or what would be the city
within the state. The main road in
Rondebosch is about a 5-minute walk from campus. This is also where I’ll be living this semester! But I’ll talk about that later. We went to a place called Cocoa Wah Wah
for lunch, which was nice, yummy, and relaxing. Fun fact: they also have free wifi there (for a limited amount
of time) so I’ll be spending a lot of time there in the future most likely
trying to upload pictures to Facebook or writing on this blog.
After refueling we decided to explore campus. The campus is HUUUGGGGEEE. No joke. It’s massive!
It’s also literally the most beautiful campus I’ve ever seen! It’s on the opposite side of the Table
Mountain mountain range (Table Mountain is one of the “New 7 Wonders of the
World.” Not sure what happened to
the “old” 7 wonders, but to be honest I don’t care because the old wonders
didn’t include Table Mountain so I can handle the new addition) and it’s
situated at the bottom of the mountain.
It is a little slice of heaven. This is a view from my room.
The campus reminds me of Stanford’s a
bit. The only difference is that
it’s a totally difference student body (duh), it is situated on a mountain, and
it’s much more quaint in my personal opinion. I can’t wait until classes start so I can have more reasons
to walk around or hang out on campus. The pictures I included are only of Upper Campus. There's upper, middle, and lower campus. For a school of 24,000 I guess it makes sense that this campus is so big!
I’ve also decided that UCT is everything I always wanted in
a university but don’t have at GW.
To clarify that statement - I love GW! Don’t get me wrong – but I still wish I could have a
“normal” college experience sometimes.
Not so much that I’d ever go to a different university, but mostly just
because I like to experience a lot of different things and I’m always curious
about what that would be like. I
feel like I have 2 sides (as a person).
The dominant part of me is very motivated, diligent, and strongly committed
to what I do. I want to excel and
I’m willing to work very hard to do that.
At the same time, I want nothing more than a simple lifestyle. I love the “little things” such as
taking time for myself to write (like this) and relax (shout out to yoga for
mental relaxation). It’s nice not
to have a schedule and to do what I want when I want it. I also really love to learn and just
think at my own pace. That sounds
super dorky, but when I’m able to stop planning and working I feel at peace
with myself. In reality though, I
would be unhappy with myself for being a complacent bum because I want to do more with my life. So basically these two things are
complete opposites and there is no possible way that I’ll ever be able to
achieve both of them happily. BUT
there is hope.
Let me explain:
UCT is the university I always wanted but never had. It is located in a beautiful
place. Some of my friends were
talking about how we feel like we’re on a movie set every day because it’s so
unreal. It also has a real campus where
students are enthusiastic and invested in their university. They are spirited and fun (but not so
much so that they don’t focus on their studies. I’ve gathered a lot of that from the RAs). Also, although I’ll never have a
college football team to call my own, I do think that I’ll be able to fill that
void through UCT’s Rugby team!
It’s a hugely popular sport here and I’m already looking forward to
going to the games regularly (I don’t think I’ve even been this excited to go
to any GW sporting event. Then
again, the only GW sporting event I’ve ever gone to is a basketball game. And I’d say I’ve been to no more than 5
of them). While I’m here I’ll also
be able to focus on me. I know,
it’s really selfish. I will 100%
admit it. But, I decided it’s okay
to be selfish about that because if I allow myself to be selfish now, it’ll
help me become a better person later.
It will be nice for the first time to make my own commitments to myself
and to what I want to do. I only
need to be responsible for myself and no one else (quite a relief). I don’t have any other
commitments. I have no rules or
mandatory events to go to. I can
do homework when I want. I can
spend time with friends when I want.
I can sit underneath a tree if I want to and write in my journal. Maybe I’ll even go to some of UCT’s
free ballet classes that are held during the week! I can choose to make this semester about what I want to do
and accomplish personally for myself.
I don’t remember the last time I ever had this experience. All throughout elementary and high
school, I was dedicated to dance, song, and tennis. During college, Sigma Kappa
has become my #1 commitment. I do not regret any of this and loved every second
of it. I am incredibly thankful
for these opportunities and commitments in my life because they have made me
who I am today. But that doesn’t
lessen my excitement to have nothing tying me down this semester.
Another aspect of UCT that I love is that it has its own
college town. There is an area
where students can get all we need and there’s even an awesome bar called Pig
and Swizzle where students and the locals can hang out! We went there on the first night (the
night I said I would go to bed early but didn’t) and had so much fun! I even met a professional Cricket
player there! I mean, I don’t know
anything about Cricket (except I wonder if it’s a real sport), so maybe it’s
not that cool to be fraternizing with professional cricket players, but it made
me feel cool so for the sake of my ego we’re going to pretend that’s a super
lekker feat. Lekker is the South
African way of saying cool. I’ve
decided to add it to my vocabulary.
Lekker bra (the South African way of saying “cool dude”).
This isn’t really one of the reasons why I love UCT, but it’s
an interesting and fun fact. Apparently
University of Cape Town is a very prestigious school. According to one of my friends, it is the best university in
all of Africa (I guess that’s not a huge surprise), but I was surprised to learn that it is comparable to Harvard or Yale
back in the states. Just to put
that to scale though, although it is the “best” school in Africa, it also
ranked 171st in the world…
So that gives a little perspective about what that means.
Anyhoo (to have a strong conclusion sentence to successfully
wrap up this mini essay in an essay), I’ll just say that UCT is going to be
great for me. It will allow me to
have something I’ve always wanted in my education, but won’t allow me to become
complacent and stop “reaching for the stars” so to speak. It’s like a much needed life vacation
that will be both mentally healthy and motivating for my future. I’m pretty stoked about this.
Ok that’s all for now, but I have so much more that I’ll
post later! I’ll talk about where
I’m living, all the beautiful people that live here (seriously, they’re all
models not obnoxious ones). But like subtle models, Table Mountain, the Waterfront, other escapades, why being abroad is like freshman year again (but SO much
better), and some of the cool things I’ve learned which make me love this
country even more exciting!
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