Welcome to South Africa :)

HAPPY FRIDAY! I hope people in the states are surviving the snow! This blog is for family, friends, Rotarians, mentors, classmates, and colleagues so I will try to entertain/accommodate everyone with a balance of pictures, fun stories, academic inquiries, and reflections. In the future my post will hopefully be a little shorter and more structured but here is a brief overview of my first two weeks:

When I applied for the Rotary Scholarship my first choice was Cairo, Egypt but as I left Dulles Airport on January 25^th it was clear that Rotary’s decision to send me to Cape Town, South Africa was a blessing! (Many of you know that I was living in the Middle East briefly in 2007 and I have a strong affinity for the culture and people in that region of the World). As is to be expected, I was packing until the last minute and had some difficulty begging the airlines to allow my OVERWEIGHT luggage on board without extra fees! After 23 hours of travelling Chrissy (my roommate and fellow Ambassadorial Scholar) and I arrived in Cape Town at 10 pm Wednesday January 26^th.

One of the many wonderful things about the Rotary Ambassadorial program is that Chrissy and I were greeted by our ‘host counselors’ at the airport!! It was such a blessing to have a host family to help us find housing, acquire cell phones, get bank accounts, and welcome us to South Africa for our first 10 days in the country. I was fortunate to get both a host counselor and another host family in South Africa! I spent most of my first two weeks living with my ‘host parents’ Jana and Mart, an absolutely wonderful pair of people. I immediately felt right at home and I am so thankful to have them as a adopted family in South Africa!

My first day in Cape Town consisted of making friends at a local coffee shop (Alma), walking around the famous Long St strip of stores and restaurants, visiting the Company Gardens near Wale St (pronounced like the animal and not the hip-hop artist as I’ve come to learn!), apartment hunting, and dinner! Fortunately my host mom Jana is a big tennis fan and I felt right at home watching tennis highlights of the Australia Open for my first few days in SA.

My second day in Cape Town consisted of visiting the beautiful campus of UCT (in Rondebosch). Chrissy and I both loved the tunnel graffiti and picturesque upper campus; however, we will definitely be getting our fair share of exercise because the size of campus and the stairs leading to upper campus! For lunch Chrissy and I accompanied Jana to meet a perspective South Africa who was keen to apply for the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship to the states in environmental studies (Chrissy’s field of interest). After dinner and a great conversation with Mart (spanning everything from Obama to Hurricane Katrina to US Healthcare policy), I telephoned home to reassure my parents that I had arrived safely. (The pictures on the left are of graffiti in the student tunnel to upper campus)

Saturday was spent with Chrissy at the mall (Cavendish) and then Llandudno Beach with her friends Cavan and Craig. That night I attended my first South African Braii (basically a BBQ) with my hosts’ extended family which was wonderful. My little brother Ben would definitely love all the food at a Braii! Sunday morning was spent with my official host counselor’s family in Constantia (similar to The Plains or Middleburg). For lunch we visited the Tea Room and the beautiful Kristenbosch Gardens! At dinner with friends of my host family I was mistaken for the Brazilian exchange student and told that my English ‘was quite good!’ (Tanya, my Brazilian best friend, of course appreciated this story).

After five days in the country, Chrissy and I had a very productive Monday! We learned how to shuttle from campus to the city, found a suitable flat, got bank accounts, and cell phones! I was also able to attend my first meeting at Newlands Rotary (my host club). I am greatly looking forward to interacting with the Rotarians in my host club and I have enjoyed many of the personal conversations to-date concerning politics and society in the States. In the future I will blog about some of the projects the Newlands Club is doing in the community.