More African Adventures

Hey loyal readers, I'm still alive.  I actually got out to see my first sights of Africa (see facebook for photos), as well as my housing.  Yes, I do live above a shopping mall.  I actually went downstairs for brunch today (ate a delicious eggs benedict) and people watched.  It was really interesting.  We saw some pretty random attire (South Africans are much more chic than South Benders), including one Michigan State sweatshirt that kept circling the mall (weird mallwalker).  We also went out and got our other car (had to exchange a manual transmission, and now have two automatics).  Pretty fun day.

Later in the afternoon, we ventured out to V&A Waterfront (Google this NOW).  It is beautiful, and puts things such as Navy Pier to shame.  It was especially beautiful as the sun went down and the lights came on.  There were a few street performers, playing anything from jazz to African songs, and we stopped and listened to a few of them.  Overall, was an amazing time, and is a place I plan to visit more on the weekends when we have time off.

After our visit to the Waterfront, we all met up and had dinner with Father Ollie Williams, a Notre Dame priest and professor who is also a professor here at the University of Cape Town's MBA program.  He is a funny guy, and is well-versed and experienced with life in Cape Town.  Tara, Collin, and I had a steak pizza that we believe had HP Sauce on it.  It was great.  Later, we came back to the apartments and ventured down to this little Indian restaurant that is attached to the Apartments/Mall.  After one round, the restaurant owner told us to leave, haha.  Apparently he didn't appreciate customers at 10:15, when the establishment closed at 10:30.  More to follow everyone!  Check facebook for pictures!!

I'm here!!

Hey faithful readers, I'm here finally.  From what I've seen, Cape Town is an interesting city; it has elements of a big city like Chicago/New York, and elements of parts unknown to me.  Anyway, the trip here was fun and interesting.  I made friends with a woman named Deirdre Lamb on my flight from Detroit to Amsterdam.  She was on her way to Mozambique to do a 14 day missionary trip.  I got to learn all about her husband and her six children (two of them are our age).  She is preparing to welcome her first grandchild into the world.  She was a very interesting woman.

Once we all got to Cape Town, things got interesting, haha.  First, we had to get our rental car.  Its a manual, which is a problem for some people (I haven't driven stick in years, others have never done it), plus the car drives on the left side of the road (opposite from US).  Well, after we got the car, Collin, Suvrat and I were waiting for Prof. Paulsen and Tara to meet us.  After we waited for awhile, we realized that we never really had a plan on where to meet them.  Suvrat left us to go find Prof Paulsen/Tara, and Collin and I stayed in the car.  Next thing we know, Paulsen and Tara are driving up beside us, sans Suvrat.  After discussing with Paulsen that 1) we didn't have Suvrat, and 2) the car was a manual (she didn't believe us on either account), we finally convinced her that we had to go back to the garage to find Suvrat.  20 minutes later, we had Suvrat and were on our way to the apartments we're staying in.

The trip back was interesting.  Driving on the opposite side of the road is quite a challenge, as is accustoming yourself to the different lay out of the car.  After some initial bugs in the system, we safely made it to our homes for the summer, The Gardens, a large apartment complex.  What is interesting about The Gardens is that the apartment complex is located on top of a mall.  Yes, 3 stories below me is a shopping mall.  We may never buy groceries, haha.  Also, Table Mountain is the view outside my window.  How sweet is that?  Google Table Mountain if you are unaware of what it is/what it looks likes.  Its just sweet to know that that is what I will see when I open the windows in the mornings.

Well gang, its 1:50 am here, and I'm pooped.  Hopefully I can keep stealing WIFI from my room all summer so that my posts are pretty regular.  Later!

Blah

Packing sucks.

The Creation

Hey everyone, here is where you will be able to keep track of all of the adventures I will be having while interning in Cape Town, South Africa.  For those of you who may not know, I will be interning with a non-profit called Ikamva (www.ikamva.org) for the months of June and July.  I'll update you more on my day-to-day activities as the days go by, but just know that it involved property/real estate evaluation.  I hope you all look forward to my future updates, especially those in which I post pictures from my day-to-day activities, as well as adventures and even, gasp!, my safari.  Stay tuned, true believers!