Hey all!
I just wanted to send you a little update on my time in Africa. After 21 hours of long traveling I have made it to Cape Town. The flight was long but I was surrounded by other students so we got to know each other. The interstudy staff was there to meet us at the airport and bused us to our new homes in Mowbray. Our apartments (flats as they call them here) are quite nice. There are three bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen and common area. My flatmates are both really nice. Alex and Tahira both go to Sara Lawrence in NY. Alex was born in England, grew up in France, went to high school in the States, and spent last semester in Jordan. Tahira is from the US but her family has recently moved to Zimbabwe. So her family has both a house in NY and Zimbabwe and she spend the fall in Spain. They are a bit more worldly then I but they both are really nice and have been able to help me a bit. As for the rest of the interstudy students, everyone seems to be really nice. There are 55 of us so it is taking a little time to meet everyone but everyone seems to be great.

Our first days here were kinda crazy. They dropped us off got us into our flats, made sure we all had keys, and they left us to the next morning. It was like 2 in the morning here but none of us were used to the time change so we were all quite awake. I had a hard time falling asleep but I was able to some sleep. We all meet up at 9 the next day and Frank, my mentor, took us on a tour of the university and the local area. The School is huge and the campus is beautiful! There is a bus that runs from lower campus to upper campus cause its like a 30 minute walk to the top campus (which is all uphill because campus built into the mountain. My flat is only a 15/20 minute walk from lower campus so getting to class won’t be hard. There is a laundry mate (which has people to wash you laundry for you- there are no quarter machines to do it yourself.), grocery store and 7/11 are at the top of my street and its only a short walk to food places and a small mall where our bank is. And only a short taxi away is a huge mall. The next day we spend inside being told about a bunch of stuff, then went to the staff had a late lunch ready for us.

Today was our first day off so it was every nice to have a day to relax. We all slept in and went to the beach today. The beach is only like a 20 min taxi ride away. The water is colder that I would normal swim in but it sun is warm and the sights are beautiful.
Overall my trip so far has been a lot of fun. It’s definitely takes some getting used to, but I am enjoying it as much as I can. I definitely miss home but I know it will get better the more I get to know everyone.

As far as communication goes it will be a little harder than I imagined. The internet cost per mega byte which is definite not something I am used to. Skype because of the video connection is quite expense so I won’t be able to use it as frequently as I would like. Posting pictures is also hard because the internet is slow but im taking lots of pictures so don’t worry will show them when I get back. Receiving and sending emails does cost much so feel free to email me( kdrake2@students.towson.edu).