'Cause this is Africa!!

I'm here!!  After just about 24 hours of travel time Sunday and Monday, I have finally arrived.

The Numbers (updated):

2 - thirty pound bags
1 backpack
1 flight from Boston to Amsterdam
1 layover
1 flight from Amsterdam to Cape Town
5 1/2 movies
5 hours of sleep
93 pages of Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton
1 bus ride from Cape Town to Stellenbosch

We got to the university last night around midnight.  I left from Logan Airport at around 7pm (US time) on Sunday with 6 other girls from my program.  We arrived in Amsterdam at 7:30ish (Amsterdam time) and met up with a bunch of other kids from my program there.  After a shortish layover - we finally boarded our plane that would take us to Cape Town at around 9:30am.  We arrived in Cape Town at 10:00pm (Cape Town time).  It was a long day - but very much worth it!

Today (Tuesday), we had a brief orientation with my Resident Director here at the University just with the kids from my program to go over some logistics and then had the opportunity to buy food and phones and other things that we needed to settle into our apartments and life here in Africa.  I have the whole afternoon and evening off before we have a more formal orientation tomorrow with the rest of the international students attending Stellenbosch University.

Accommodations:  I am living in a two bedroom apartment with one other girl from my program.  We each have our own bedroom and bathroom (!!) and share a kitchen space.  This apartment is attached to a large room that has a huge table in it.  Off of this room there are three other identical apartments.  2 other girls from my program live in one of these, a girl from Pennsylvania and a girl from Finland share another and then a boy from France and a boy from Kenya share the other.  The other apartments in my building have two boys from my program and then other international kids that came here independently (ie - not through a program).  My room is pretty nice, not too big, but not too small and I love having my own bathroom.  The view from my window is spectacular!!  Stellenbosch is situated in a kind of valley and so there are mountains surround us.

I've go to go, but I'll upload some pictures as soon as I can.

Love to everyone!
Katie