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Day One
Arrive at 5am at CPT. Go through passport and visa checkpoint and on to baggage reclaim. Put my bag down and roll shoulders because they hurt like hell. Bag is far too heavy. Go into bathroom and get confused b/c there's a cord going into the toilet and it doesn't flush. None do. Go to sink and tiny dribble of water comes out. There is no soap. Get SO CONFUSED. Go through a big door that says customs. Don't encounter anyone. Walk into the outer terminal part and look around for a group of young people. Am called over by one. She is white. Am confused. There are four people or so. We talk. Wait for more people to arrive. Wait longer for one girl. Turns out it is the one I met at Frankfurt. We leave the airport. Everyone ???s about my lack of baggage. I tell story. I hope I will not get tired of telling it. (hint: I will)
We get in bus thingie and I meet girl from Oxy. She has twin sister at Scripps. Cool. No wonder she looks familiar. Once more than ten people are in bus, it is v. loud. Oh, has been raining this whole time. Gore-tex was good investment. Can't see out windows because are fogged up and rainy. Comment that it looks just like home cuz there is grass. More comments that we are tired and will crash soon. (hint: is foreshadowing)
We get to hotel and luggage comes off the bus. We go into hotel. Lobby is cold b/c there is no heat and door is open. Fun. We get luggage key and we go to room. I ask program leader Felicity about luggage. She takes down info. We go to shower rooms, which have four beds and a shower. They are not real rooms. But there really is no heat. I freak out a little inside (for good reason). There are showers. I do not care because I have no clothes to change into. Other girls sit on bed and talk. Is somewhat interesting. Everyone brought insane amounts of luggage. Wtf mate. One girl showers. I go buy internet time (at a v. high rate) to email parents. Gmail doesn't work. I am sad and have to use school email. Email takes four minutes and I have six left so I log out. Log out doesn't work and I lose the six more minutes. Stupid hotel.
Someone decides to search for food. As we are about to leave one kid realizes it is raining. Apparently I was the only one aware of this (how old are we now?). They run back to rooms to grab shoes and rain jackets. I facepalm. Two people begin to walk out when we are stopped. Are told we will need to pay for breakfast, and afterwards food will be covered by CIEE. Is barely 8am, so nothing is open at the Waterfront, but we can go to the hotel restaurant (hint: bad idea). We go to restaurant and find that the price of breakfast is R115. Oh hotels...
The food is pretty shitty and there is little variety, but it is all that is available. Food is just like a regular continental breakfast (plus wet scrambled eggs and beef (beef??) sausages). They are playing Mariah Carey as we sit down in the dining room. We can see the mountain and cranes that are doing construction outside the hotel. The weird birds are loud and sound like they're dying. After breakfast, we head back to the hotel. Everyone decides to go to bed. There are six girls and four beds (the boy's room is unimportant). I go in there after charging my computer in the lounge to find all the beds taken. I am not comfortable with waking up anyone or trying to lie down next to someone. However, I am freezing and need to take my mind off it. I lie down on the floor in the colder room (there's no ground space in the other one) and attempt to fall asleep. Is useless. Get up. Walk around in the hotel. At some point, one of the girls wakes up and surrenders her bed as she goes to shower. I quickly hide under the down blanket and promptly fall asleep for some four hours. Everyone in the room sleeps through the orientation time they told us to make, so we are awakened afterwards by another student telling us to collect our money. We head upstairs to collect food money (good for four meals) and hear orientation stuff. Forgot everything they said because I slept in my contacts and spent the entire time blinking. Also received our temporary room key in the hotel. I am in the other building with only a few other students. As we were late, I walk to the building alone and get to my room to find no one there. I hide under the blanket of one of the beds due to the freezing nature of the room and wonder when dinner is. Eventually a girl comes in, having just arrived in Cape Town, and tells me that dinner is soon. She reminds me of Candice's friends because she is blonde, wears a Northface jacket, rainbows, and pearls (I think; my mind may just have added that detail). I am someone depressed because when I use the word "blog" she has no idea what I'm talking about. I mentally facepalm.
Dinner is down at the Waterfront, so we walk a block or two down to the water (no wonder it's cold!) We walk inside and find that it is a mall. Who knew? They have all the usual American chains. There is a KFC. I say something snarky about this not being real study abroad. I don't know this group of people so I just kind of trail along. One of the SolMates (the UCT student orientation leaders) takes a group of about five of us to a sushi restaurant. We sit down. He says he'll return. (hint: It's Ken so he's quote, random, and does not) We introduce ourselves to each other and talk. The sushi is good. I regret not ordering some kind of warm drink. (are you noticing a trend here?) Spicy tuna roll is strange looking but good. V. v. good. We split up the bill, add in tip, pay and leave. We hurry back to the meeting place at the Waterfront. I make snarky comment about all the safari (traditional African touristy shit) stores in this high end mall (there are also fancy shops).
We get back to the hotel and I end up plugging in my computer and typing up the previous blog post without internet. Am feeling internet deprived (but am too cheap to purchase it at the outrageous rates). I think I shower maybe but I can't remember. Another girl comes to the room. She is also unremarkable and boring to me. She shares the other room with the first girl. I don't know their names at all. I fail. I go to bed after setting up a wake up call for the morning and fall asleep completely covered in the down blanket and have a dream about a really creepy looking person and toss and turn until the dream disappears.
I sleep very well.
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So I can see this narration tapering off, so I'll be sure to have a summary at the end too.
tl;dr Winter in Cape Town is FUCKING COLD
I'll type the next day summary when it's not past midnight.
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Now playing: Scissor Sisters - Laura
via FoxyTunes
1 comment:
Laura played on the radio the other day. I was sooo happy.
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