#1. CAPE TOWN
Wow. Today marks a week since embarking on this already incredible journey and I'm already loving everything about this place and excited to take advantage of everything it has to offer. I'll try not to make this too long, but that may not be possible so bear with me. I was a little anxious on the days leading up to the 26th partially because I was going crazy walking around my house and starring at the stuff I laid out to pack partially because I was actually wrapping my head around the face that in a few short days I was packing up my life in two suitcases and moving to freaking Africa... If that doesn't make you nervous I don't know what does lol. So finally the day came and I woke up and 5 am still in disbelief that this day had actually come. Saying goodbye to my family was tough, but everyone was supportive and assured me that this was going to be an amazing experience- even Grammy. (After the whole "don't go anywhere alone" speech) so yeah airport was good... Plane ride was smooth until like the 9th hour when I woke up from the turbulence and legit projectile vomited on the FRONT of the bathroom door. Disgusting, I hate myself. To the nice South African stewardess who cleaned it up, THANK YOU. YOU ROCK NEVER CHANGE. Lol omg and then I broke the bathroom door while I frantically tried to get in there... Wow I'm such a liability. Okay so I spent the last 6 or so hours of the flight with my head in my lap or Caitlin's (thank you) and finally got off the plane only to find out that we had like 2 seconds to grab our luggage and sprint to the next gate or else we'd miss our plane. Idk how, but we made it. Wow sorry I've written that much and we aren't even in Cape Town yet ^^^ DAY 1: Okay we arrive in Cape Town, weather is absolutely beautiful. We meet up with our ISA tour guide and take a bus to The Nest. My room is essentially a white box with a tiny window, slightly jail cell esquè, but I knew it definitely had potential. I think the first day we just went to the mall and got some stuff for our rooms.. Fans cuz it's 30 million degrees, hangers, a bunch of other stuff. Don't really remember what we did after that ... Then at night Eleni Diana and I tried to take a cab to meet up with everyone, but we couldn't pronounce the place we were going and got scared so we went back to the nest and tried again HAHA. we ate Mexican food and got pitchers of margheritas that costed all of 8 US dollars. CRAZY. then we went out to this bar called Stones which was cool.. A bunch of pool tables and drinks and people obv. (Drinks were like a dollar) DAY 2: Pretty sure we had orientation super early which sucked... The ISA people are super nice, but sitting in that room was actually torturous. We went to dinner with Jess, our Loyola program director, which was really fun and yummy... Then We went out again at night to some other bars and we all powered through our exhaustion and took tequila shots #bonding. The place was a little ratchet so we all stuck together and sat and talked about random stuff which was nice. Some of us had an intense drunk political convo with a South African guy about their perception of Americans. It's not a good one lol, but hopefully we can prove them wrong. DAY 3: Orientation AGAIN. soooo long. This one was worse than the first because I was exhausted and couldn't sit still and I literally wanted to die. I'm pretty sure I fell asleep in my chair. We went to the beach when it was over tho which was really nice. It's almost too hot here right now to go for the entire day so leaving at like 5 is perfect. Still hot for a couple hours, but then it cools down and the sunset is unreal. We all sat together and talked... Literally we did voluntary icebreakers lol we climbed the rocks and took pictures and none of us could believe how beautiful the landscape was. Everything about this place is beautiful. OKAY OMG. so this was the day I noticed my face... so as I'm looking through beach pics for potential instas in the cab ride home I notice my face is a little swollen on one side.. And then I touch it and it's this huge bump with fluid inside and it's warm and gross.. Right where I had double wisdom teeth. DAY 4: The next day I wake up and my face is HUGE. like gigantic. But I kind of ignored it because we had an excursion. I looked like an idiot tho I'm sure I scared the little African kids in the township. The first thing we did was go to the District 6 museum. We learned all about how black people were forced out of their homes and left with nothing and then the end of apartheid only 22 years ago, when those people and their families went to back to district 6 to try to rebuild their communities. We then got a tour of the Langa township and I was overwhelmed by the sight of poverty that prior, had only existed in movies and tv commercials about donating 25 cents a day to bring water to a really cute kid. Well, it's definitely real. These kids walked around with no shoes, lived in dilapidated shacks and were surrounded by garbage in the streets. Despite how horrible this may seem, the kids seemed happy to just be living their lives, as if they don't even know anything else. The kids loved taking pictures and I took a bunch with them even tho I kind of felt like that asshole white girl posing with adorable little African children. I can't really describe the feeling I had walking through the town. I definitely felt a combination of guilt and appreciation for all that I have. I thought about how many little things I take for granted like shoes and hygiene and cleanliness in general. The next thing we did was a tour of Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. This was yet another captivating, humbling, and breathtaking experience. We got a tour from a man named Tommy who was a political prisoner for being part of Nelson Mandela's underground political party fighting against apartheid rule. Silence fell upon the group as we heard this man's story. His courage and dedication was inspiring. Someone asked how he didn't crack during the torturous interrogations and he told us that he held his belief that his small part played an important role in overcoming the cruel injustice towards and treatment of black people under apartheid rule. He maintained the belief that a better day would come. After we got back my face was getting worse so I went to a hospital where they told me they couldn't do anything for me... Thanks African healthcare. I got scared at that point and called dentists to get an appointment for the next morning. I tried my best not to be an angry entitled American, but I'm pretty sure it came out and pissed off the nurse and receptionist. DAY 5: I took amoxicillin so my face went down a little, but it still wasn't great so I went to the dentist and he prescribed me stronger antibiotics. He was super nice and helpful which was great and it restored my faith in African healthcare a tiny bit lol. Apparently I have a bone spicule and infection that could've been caused by the air pressure during the flight? Who knows. The doctors office was in a beautiful area called sea point so Gianna and I went to the beach and laid there for probably 20 minute intervals until we couldn't take the heat anymore like an hour an a half later. I think it was over a hundred degrees not kidding. After the beach we went shopping for some stuff and then ate at cocoa wah wah which is like one of the only places well eat all semester apparently. We lucked out skipping the orientation stuff that day because apparently all they did was sleep on the bus for like 2 hours lol. DAY 6: We started UCT orientation... I slept sitting up during the lectures obv. Then we toured campus which is unreal. The buildings look like Italian villas straight out of Romeo and Juliet. Then we did an African Drumming Workshop which was sooo much fun. Then we went grocery shopping cuz the whole not eating ever thing can't go on for much longer. (And not sleeping lol) we checked out Muizenburg (another beach) it was not as nice as Camps Bay, but it was cool. We had dinner and then ubered back and our driver smelled SOOO bad, but it's okay cuz he was blasting Celine Dion and mumbling in Afrikaans. HAhahah Sorry that was so long, but I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm so happy and I'm having an absolutely amazing time here so far. And I have another appointment Wednesday so I'll keep you updated about my mouth and stuff... THANKS FOR READING!!!! Yall are mad lakker (cool) Xoxox Jess