Day 2

Today was a very eventful day. The first half of the day was spent in a beautiful church on campus, listening to lectures about safety, health, general awareness type things, and then we were divided up into orientation groups. My orientation leaders name was Collin, who has attended UCT for all four years but his home is Rwanda. Our group was quiet at first taking it all in, but after we were asked to think of our goals for the trip, you could see the energy in the group change from tired and jetlagged, to excited and anxious.

As I started focusing on my goals I had to remind myself of why I was in Cape Town. God brought me here for a specific purpose, and my journey is to walk full with Him experiencing this new and foreign part of the world that he so craftily created. With the diverse amounts of people, the beautiful landscapes, and all that comes with it, God knew exactly what He was doing when He created this place and not it’s time for me to tune in to what He is speaking to me.

We met up with another orientation group run by Reinhard (RJ) and were put onto a public transportation mini bus which was an experience in itself. Seatlbelts were not an option, nor were seats for some people considering the amount of people crammed into the bus. The ride to the heart of Cape Town only cost 8 rand, so a bit less then a dollar I believe, and it is a ride I will want to take many times. We first went to lunch, which also made me feel like a complete tourist, and yet more determined then ever to pick up on some of the languages here, and the customary way to do things.

We went to this huge Indian restaurant where there were many different booths to order from. The way it works is you pick a booth and figure out what you would like to order, then you go pay, and then you go back to that booth, give them your receipt, and wait for your food. Simple enough right? Apparently not, for some of us Americans. With not being able to understand the thick accents or the language being spoken, it took us awhile to get used to the system…but when we finally did it was completely worth it because it was the best Indian food I have ever had and for super cheap too!

After eating lunch we were led to ‘the castle’ which honestly, we were there for about five minutes and I forgot what we were told about that place. Then we stopped at the place where Nelson Mandela addressed the country in one of his famous speeches. Afterwards we walked quite a few blocks until we made it to “Company Gardens” which was absolutely stunning yet simple, definitely a place I would love to spend many of my days lazing around in the sunshine under the palm trees, surrounded by dozens upon dozens of pigeons. We relaxed a bit, and instead of our leaders taking us to the waterfront like all of the other groups did, they took us bar hopping on long street. Long Street, we are told is the place to be if we go out at night, but even during the day, there were some really nice cafés and restaurants. We went to two bars here and everyone except for maybe three of us got drinks, no worries I was one of the three. Tempting as it was, I decided it was best if I didn’t and instead I played a game of fusbol with some friends…and of course I one..although everyone else had already had a drink in them…so I’m not sure if it really counts…but I think it does! The bar was actually amazing though, we walked in this little door and immediately up a flight of winding stairs until we were in the bar. There were five rooms all conjoined, some for lounging, some for eating, some for playing pool or fusbol, and then an absolutely gorgeous balcony with tables overlooking a lot of long street. There was also a library located in the bar as well which was quite intriguing.

After everyone being exhausted, we made our way onto a bus to head up to Table Mountain to watch the sunset and to eat dinner. I have been getting to know Hannah much better after meeting in the Chicago airport, being seated next to her on the plane to London, and finding out we will be living in the same house together this semester. She has been absolutely wonderful and I have loved getting to know her, especially learning more about her faith (Jewish) and sharing about mine. I can’t wait to see where this adventure will lead our friendship. Our intentions were to drive the bus up to the base of Table Mountain and hop on a cable car to take us the rest of the way up. As we were driving though, our bus sort of braked, started rolling backwards, and then shut off. We all emptied the bus and walked a calf burning hike to the cable car area. I also made a good friend named Taylor who is from Virginia, and Michelle who wants to check out some churches with me! Anyways, we got to the top of Table Mountain and I was just stunned at the view of the entire city and ocean we were giving. I can’t even try to describe it because no words are beautiful enough to capture what I’ve seen.

After the sun dropped below the sky and the stars came up, we made our way to the table mountain restaurant and ate some great food, with home made frozen lemonade. It definitely helped with the dehydration I was starting to feel. I got to talk to Rue for a bit about her interests (hiking, dancing, stargazing) and what she was studying (social work and sociology) and she gave me some great tips on places to go around here. I also met a guy named Kotaro who is from Tokyo and is on my program as well. He goes to the International Christian University and it was great to get to know him a bit. Then we boarded the buses and prepared for a 20-30 minute ride back to campus.

Shalom, one of the RA’s ended up sitting next to me which was great because I hadn’t gotten to know him yet. We talked about our lives, our hopes, and general feelings of everything that we had taken in from today. Shalom is studying law at UCT which is such a demanding program, but we talked about how he used to play soccer and basketball but is now quite busy with coursework. He asked about my home life, and we talked about t.v shows. It was a very funny moment when he asked me about parks and recreation, if it was based in a real place in Indiana. It definitely brought a smile to my face. I have so many little details to fill you guys in on, but these posts are way too long..I have to apologize..and they are quite poorly written as it is pretty late here and I’ve had such a long day. Sending smiles and love you guys’ way! -Mia