I've finally made it! Monday January 23, 2012

Peace out, USA!

After months of anticipation, I have finally arrived in beautiful, sunny South Africa! Sunny…but I’ve yet to see the sun. I traveled with a group of 27 other students through a program called American International Foreign Institute (AIFS) who come from different states across the United States to study at Stellenbosch University. the group of us has been in contact through facebook for the past few months, and I was really excited to finally meet everyone! Our plane landed at 10:30 pm in Cape Town.  My total flight time was something like 18 hours from New York City. Crazy! I’m really thankful to have slept on the plane.  (I was out before take-off in Amsterdam.) Once we arrived at the airport, we checked through customs very quickly and grabbed our luggage. The airport was warm inside, and I knew it wasn’t just because of heaters. Summer, we meet again!!! We met our resident director downstairs and made our way out to the vans waiting for us to get back to the university. 

Finally meeting the rest of the AIFS students in Amsterdam!

The ride was full of excitement and anticipation as four of us girls rode with the four boys from the program to our residences. I, along with three other girls, decided to live in Academia rather than Concordia with the rest of the group. The buildings are adjacent to one another, but I opted for Academia in the hopes I’d have a greater chance to go out and mingle with resident students rather than stay around the many Americans I knew I’d be spending time with regardless.

When we got out of the car at the residence, I could make out a number of large white stone buildings in the dark. Our building was facing the road, with a stone staircase located on the left side that climbed three floors. At each floor was a flat in which a table was shared between four rooms, each built to house two people – with their own bedrooms and bathrooms. Score! I cannot wait to see what it looks like in the morning, but I’m pretty sure I could make out palm trees and picnic tables right outside!

About a minute after we arrived, we received a welcoming committee of boys. My first thought was, so I finally get to meet South Africans! I bet they’ll be lovely! Unfortunately, none of us understood each other…and the boys seemed to be speaking..French? I thought they spoke Dutch here, if anything? It took a few minutes of broken English to figure out the boys were a group of students from France also studying at the university. They are to be our neighbors! We spent some time socializing with them and then went onto explore Concordia.

Concordia is a building filled with seemingly endless tunnels of room after room. Residents live in flats with four people to the flat, each with their own bedroom and bathroom. Two bedrooms to the right, two to the left. There is a kitchen located in the middle, but no living room. It’s very nice inside. Outside, the entire building is surrounded by gates and barbed wire, which really through me off. Is it really that dangerous we need barbed wire around? It’s reassuring but at the same time rather intimidating to be so aware of precautions the university takes to keep its students safe. And I mean, Academia doesn’t get barbed wire. In the central area of Concordia, there is a grassy knoll and some palm trees lit up with street lights. There are also a number of bike racks where students can lock their bikes at night. 

Our rooms came furnished with a toaster, an oven, pots and pans, bedding, and some food to get us by. So spoiled are we with AIFS! I love it here already. Orientation begins at 9 am tomorrow morning. With my seven hour time difference, that’s 2 am at home! I know my excitement will get the best of my jet lag and I’ll be able to get up no problem.