Touch Down: Cape Town South Africa

I made it: A 27 hour journey across the world. I finally arrived in Cape Town after a layover in London. The only hiccup during the journey was with London security. They didn’t enjoy some of my oboe tools, so I ended up having to reorganize my stuff and check that bag. I didn’t really have anything better to do with my time though so it wasn’t such a big deal I guess. While in the London airport, I met many people who were on the same program as mine. That was kind of nice; I could finally have a conversation with someone which relieved some loneliness.

We made it to Cape Town at around 8am in the morning. We were well received by the CIEE staff and taken to the hotel, however we were not able to get our rooms until 5 hours later. Quite delirious and exhausted I waited in an uncomfortable conference room, awaiting a shower and a bed. The bright side is that it forced me to stay awake which hopefully ebbed some of the jet lag. We had a short meeting that evening to welcome everyone and then we each rented a cell phone. CIEE recommended for each of us to rent a cell phone so that family can get in touch with us and the CIEE staff can communicate with us as well. All incoming texts and calls are completely free for me, but the outgoing is all on a pre-paid basis and it is not cheap for sure.

Just so you know my phone number for whatever reason it is 011-27-82-310-7969. The 011-27 is the country code. No pressure to call but in case someone needs to contact me for whatever reason, the above is my phone number. In order to mail anything to me my address is the following:

Lauren Thiele
C/O Quinton Redcliffe, CIEE
International Academic Programs Office (IAPO)
Lovers Walk, Lower Campus, University of Cape Town
Private Bag
Rondebosch, 7701
South Africa

When/if sending any package to South Africa we were told that the sender should use some traceable company such as Fed Ex/UPS/DHL and that you should claim that it is secondhand and under $10 in value. The mail is sometimes corrupt and it is just safer to send things in this way.

In addition today, I learned that I am living in a dorm on campus. They are 4 person flats and each person gets a single room. In addition we will be living with two South African natives and one CIEE student. I am really excited because I think that this will be a great opportunity to see the culture first hand and I won’t be able to avoid becoming immersed. I think we will be moving in on Saturday so more to come on the living situations. I will hopefully take some pictures at that point.

Jetlag has been interesting. About the time I should be going to sleep I am finally awake and then when I finally do go to sleep then I wake up early. This morning I was up at 3am. I went downstairs to the lobby and read a book so that I wouldn’t disturb my roommate. The staff at the hotel thought something was wrong, but really the jetlag has kept me on a weird schedule. My goal is to stay up as late as physically possible today but we will see how late that ends up being.

I haven’t had a chance to take pictures but the area is absolutely beautiful. You can see Table Top Mountain from the hotel window and the University is nestled right at the base of the mountain. I will take picture when I can. There will be more to come later. I hope everyone is well. I am enjoying my time in South Africa and am really excited for what is to come.

Lulu