I'm writing this...from Cape Town!

So the internet appears to be holding a connection right now (it's down in our apartment and the other connections usually don't work) so I have time to update this thing and let everyone know that I made it safely and am just finishing up my first day in Cape Town.

The flight was LONG. That's about the only word I have to describe it. I ate dinner, breakfast, lunch, and dinner again so that tells you just about how long I was on the plane. The food wasn't as bad as I thought, however, don't take that as me saying that it was good and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The plane was very full. The set up was 2 seats, an aisle, 4 seats, an aisle, and 2 seats. I sat one in on the 4 seat row. So getting up if the person next to me was sleeping was not really an option. However, I have South African Airways to thank for some kind tutorials on exercising throughout the flight on my personal screen. I didn't really sleep that much but watched 3 movies and kept checking the flight map as we inched verrrrry slowly towards our destination.

The guy that sat next to me was also going through to Cape Town so we became navigation buddies and figured out going through Customs and re-checking our bags and finding our way to our flight to Cape Town. An airport staff that helped us get to security asked if we were from New Zealand, then asked if were were on a honeymoon trip...awkward because we had just met. When we got to Cape Town a woman who wanted to know if taxis were safe asked me if I lived there - besides my American accent, maybe I'm blending in!

I finally got my bags and found my driver, Gavin, who took me to my apartment. I met my roommate Natascha, who is from Sweden. She is very sweet and was making homemade fudge and homemade cinnamon rolls when I got there. She also gave me some red wine...kind girl! She has been here for 5 months but is actually leaving on Wednesday which is sad. She has been very helpful, and even made me dinner tonight! Her boyfriend, who's from the Netherlands, is leaving tomorrow but has been interning here in Cape Town through a different organization. I met him last night and he told me that his roommate in Cape Town was actually from St. Louis. How crazy!

I went to orientation today where I met some other girls that just arrived. I walked with one of them to the Garden Center, a shopping center a few minutes walk from our complex where there is a Walgreen's type store, grocery store, etc. She is from the states but has family from South Africa, so I was glad that she could help a bit! You would think that since everything is in English that it would be easy to find what you need and check out, but the grocery store has some different aspects. First, you have to buy your own bags. Luckily I knew this from my friend who studied abroad here, so I brought my own. Second, the nutritional information is almost impossible to understand. Instead of "Calories", it's referred to as "Energy" (much more positive if you ask me). And everything is on the metric system. So I have no idea if what I am eating is actually good for me or not. But oh well, I'm just embracing it. Also, you have to have an attendant weigh your fruits and vegetables before you go to the checkout...this is why I was glad to have Samantha with me to show me the ropes. I definitely would have done everything wrong had I not known these things. South African accents are actually kind of hard to understand too so I probably would have asked, "huh?" about 100 times as they were telling me how to do it properly. But they have pretty much everything I would ever need and more and it's all relatively cheaper than in the states so the shopping experience wasn't too bad.

Well that's about all I have for now, I'm still trying to get adjusted to the time difference so I'm not really sure if I'm tired now or not, even though its almost 12:30am here. But I am excited to explore Cape Town and get to know everyone. Tomorrow I am going with Natascha and her boyfriend to the V&A Waterfront shops, and as it sounds, they are right on the working harbor with Table Mountain as a backdrop. So I should actually get to see the water tomorrow.

I'm also planning on trying to go to Robben Island on Sunday with Natascha. That is the island that Nelson Madela was imprisoned for 27 years during Apartheid. There is a museum there and you can see his actual cell. Then Monday will roll around and while you all are enjoying the day off for Labor Day I will be making my way to my first day of work!

Hope you all enjoy your Labor Day weekend, and once I get the internet and my schedule figured out I can hopefully post about some more exciting things and finally get some pictures uploaded!