Welcome!

So I've been thinking about starting a blog for quite some time now. First of all, I miss blogging! And traveling seems to be the grown-up way of doing what we all did from ages twelve to seventeen all the time, every day. Secondly, the time difference and the multitude of people who seem interested in what I've been up to make it almost impossible to tell everyone everything. And who wants to do that anyway? Thirdly, I've started narrating in my head, so I decided I might as well put it in writing. But the REAL reason I started this blog has nothing to do with Africa, or personal development, or anything else grown up and mature. In fact, it happened because I was bored and procrastinating. Lesson #1: Some things are universal.

So let me recap the last month for you quickly:

• Arrival: I arrived in Cape Town on January 21, 2010, after a fifteen hour flight to Johannesburg from JFK and a two hour flight from Johannesburg to Cape Town. For two days, we were put in "res" or a residential hall, so they could keep better track of us during orientation. Orientation was basically a waste of my time, so I'm going to skip over it. Except to say I am so grateful for Trinity's online registering system! It took me five hours total to register for classes. Then we went to the beach. =)
  
• House: After two days in res, they moved us into our houses. I live in an 8-bedroom house with thirteen people. I share a room with Gracie (from Princeton), who is from Livingston, NJ, and grew up with my cousin Kristin. She's awesome, which is good, because the room is just not that big, though it looked bigger once we rearranged the furniture. My other housemates are Liz, Payden, Antinea (all from Trinity), Michael, Trent, Brittany (who we call Karima, because she's from Tanzania, obviously), Sandra (all from Princeton), Jenna (Emory), Jay, David Streus (both from BC), and David Bahr (from UC Santa Barbara). We live on Lover's Walk, which led us to throw a Valentine's Day Party on 2/13. It was pretty awesome, until I ended up in the police station (my friend's car got broken into and she asked me to go with her to make a report. Lol.) Overall, it's a good group. The best thing (OK not the BEST thing, but a good thing) is the food.
• The way food works: Our refrigerator has turned into a giant sign up sheet. We have sheets for trips and outings and such, but most important is the co-op sheet. There, people sign up for a day and indicate what they're cooking, and then everyone else in the co-op (my house+some outsiders) sign up to eat said food. When it is not your night, you end up with terrific food and saving time and money. When it is your night, you end up with a headache. But still terrific food, plus a sense of accomplishment! I cooked tacos the second week we were here, but Monday was my first official co-op meal. Payden, Gracie and I made spaghetti and meatballs, thanks to my Aunt Cathy sending me the recipe. Yum!
• Post-orientation we had a week off before classes started. Many of my housemates and friends went on trips, but I felt I needed to settle down a bit. Instead, we went on a bunch of day trips:
• On Saturday the 30th, we hiked Lion's Head, one of MANY mountains in Cape Town. It's traditional to take a meal and hike up the night of the full moon. Then you watch the moon rise and hike back down by the light of it. We thought hey, if all Capetownians do it, it shouldn't be too bad right? WRONG! There are chains involved. Lol. Getting down in the dark was a bit worrisome! But the view was so amazing from the top, I almost cried.
  
• On Tuesday of that week, we explored West Coast National Park, where I saw my first Ostriches! They have a beautiful lagoon there, so it was a combination of National Park and beach!
  
• The next day Antinea, Liz and I went on a wine tour. This area has a great wine industry; I think seventh in the world, and it is STRONG. Lol. Drinking age is 18 here, not that it matters to me anymore, but it means everyone can go out and everyone who's in college is legal. It's a good system.
  
• Friday (Feb 5th) after classes started, Liz, Sandra, Sophie and I went and explored the aquarium. It made us hungry for sea food. So we ate sea food. Lol. Then we saw Skin, which is about a girl who appears colored even though she's born to white parents, and her experiences with apartheid. More on apartheid later.
  
• Saturday, Liz and I went sea kayaking. Unfortunately, we capsized. That was...unpleasant. Lol. Immediately after, we saw a bunch of dolphins, so it was almost worth it. =) We were supposed to see penguins, but we did not.
• Classes. I'm stealing a bit from Karima's blog, but while I understand that the main point of going abroad is the cultural experience, and not necessarily the classroom, but I am really enjoying my classes. I am taking the Trinity class, Imagining South Africa which is taught by a very interesting Indian South African lady who used to work for Trinity before moving back to Stellenbosch. We went to her place for a day one weekend, and it is HUGE, and pretty. Part of the class is going out to dinner afterwards, on Trinity's dime, which means we get to eat places we never would otherwise. Terrific! My UCT classes are African Lit, Editing and Writing for the Media and Sex, Love, and Taboo. The way it's set up here, we have seminars or tutorials once or twice a week and lecture once or twice a week. The difference between tutorials and seminars is seminars have separate topics within the realm of the lecture class. So for African Lit I'm taking a seminar called Days of Struggle, which looks at the Black Consciousness movement and for Editing and Writing for the Media I'm taking a seminar called Investigative Journalism which is killing me. Lol. They're terrific but I'll write more about them later. This is getting WAY too long.
• Other things I have done that you need to know about: District 6 museum, another day at the beach, High Tea at Mount Nelson hotel, Robben Island (where Nelson Mandela spent 18 out of his 27 years in jail), other stuff I can't remember right now.

That basically catches us up 'til now. I promise my next blog will be nowhere near as long. I left a bunch out of the above, too, but I assume that if you've even made it THIS far, you're my mother. Hi Mom!

=)