We are here!

After 23 hours of travel (Marc says 26 if you count the time we left our house), we made it to Cape Town without a single glitch. Flights were smooth, we slept a bit on the way to Amsterdam, and had a great seats right behind business class (which means: leg room!). Nice breakfast in sunny Amsterdam, and soon on our way to Cape Town, which is an 11 hour flight. We attempted to stay awake on that flight, and we did so with the help of a few movies (Benjamin Button - we both highly recommend).

We were met by Shafeik at the very quiet Cape Town airport. Shafeik runs a shuttle service and will be driving with our group most of the trip. He says hello to those from last year (who he said he had a lot of fun with but "they all cried on the last day"), and a special hi to you, Aaron. He says, "Yes, I know Aaron, the skinny guy." Found our rooms at Little Scotia guesthouse - very nice and quiet here, very close to the University of Cape Town campus.

We slept well, had a lovely breakfast provided by Little Scotia and then rode with Shafeik and Nj (short for a much more complex name, you say it simply "N J" like they are initials), who is one of our hosts, back to the airport to get Matt and to pick up our rental car. Let the driving adventure begin...not only is the driver on the right side of the car, with a manual stick on your lefthand side, then the turn indicator and wipers are reversed so every time I went to signal a turn, I gave the windshield a nice clearing. Oh, and did I mention we the drive on the left side of the road??

After dropping Matt at the house the students are staying in (nice place!) we headed out to explore the UCT campus and our neighborhood of Rondebosch. We also got to meet Ouma, our other host from interstudy.

Weather was lovely this morning with some sun, and although it is about 64 degrees we were chilled - it always feels damp. Clouds - wispy ones, no big cumulus ones like in the midwest - cover the mountain most of the time, but somtimes there was only the "table cloth" on Table Mountain.

After lunch and conversation with Nj at Cafe Sofia (that's for you, Sopha-bopha!), where I learned a Diet Coke is called Coke Light, we drove some rather winding roads to get to Lion's Head, one of the distinct peaks in the mountain range. We hiked around it, with gorgeous views of the city of Cape Town as well as Camps Bay and the "Twelve Apostles." (pictured above). Lion's Head is pictured left. Sophia and Ingrid asked a while ago if it is possible to touch a cloud. Our new answer is Yes! And we have done it. See those clouds around Lion's Head? They swirl around it, and sometimes swirled around us. They come up from the ocean!


We are heading out for dinner with Matt and Nj in a bit. The rest of the students arrive tomorrow, and on Tuesday our course begins. Marc and I hope to venture into Guguletu tomorrow to meet Edwin at the JL Zwane community center, our host for week 2. We haven't decided what to do tomorrow but he's hoping to go find a vineyard since he'll be back in the states when our group takes two tours on June 6. Marc is very impressed with my driving skills and I with his navigating skills...thank goodness it was Sunday and traffic was light! More tomorrow!!