Finally here and settled!!

Its only been five days and I know I never want to leave. Seriously. Not only is the scenery to die for but the culture, for what I have experienced thus far, is fascinating (plus who would turn down 80 degrees and sunny everyday.) My trip began saturday morning at 7:30am driving from Suttons Bay, MI to the detroit airport, flew from Detroit to Amsterdam and then finally my 12 hour flight from Amsterdam to Cape Town. The trip ended at 1:30am Monday when we were finally let into the house after being locked out for over an hour. The Kimberley House is amazing, there are 6 bedrooms on each side and two cottages in the back yard. We also have an avocado tree in the yard which will be ripe next month! So far I have not had many animal experiences, except for a daily cockroach encounter in the house. I hear someone found a lizard on their chair but I was not in the house at the time! Food wise, at the store you can buy basic things but everything comes in different packages, for example pasta sauce is in a bad vs. a jar. The fruit appears super fresh and they only have coke products, pepsi is not available here (YAY.) At restaurants I have tried fish and the local beer, the fish is GREAT the beer on the other hand is just as exciting as a Miller Lite. I also tried ostrich last night at a brai (bbq) with our academic advisor and his family. 

This weeks started with a trip to the Slave Lodge and we met our drivers, academic advisor, and landlord. Then we explored Obs, the town where we live, attended a VERY LONG orientation at school, registered for classes, toured our school, learned how to say thank you in africanse, went to local shops, ate out at an Italian restaurant as a group, learned it takes a long time to get anything fixed in the house, learned the difference between laundry detergent and laundry softener, attended a bbq, heard African street music, went to Camps Bay Beach and ate on the beach, celebrated a birthday in the house, slept without air-conditioning, learned cockroaches are EVERYWHERE, learned toilets flush straight down, learned they use military time here and think you're weird when using am/pm, waiters are called waitrons, avocados are avos, and lettuce is called rocket. Furthermore, grocery bags cost money, so bring your own, sharing a kitchen with 20 other people is insanely difficult, and we found the best little cafe for coffee and lunch. Also 8 rand= 1 dollar and everything is half the price here than the US. 

Tomorrow we are off to Robin Island and get to explore the waterfront, which is similar to fisherman's wharf in San Fran. We are also going to Mamma Africas for dinner, which was recommended by Katherine Miller and a random dutch man on the airplane. 

Its 10:38pm here and we are getting up at 6:30 so I'm off to bed!

More to come :)