Landed & safe!

Greetings from South Africa!

I have arrived safely in Cape Town (finally, after 2 exceptionally long flights that fortunately went by quickly and had an amazing movie option), or did very late Tuesday night, Cape Town time, so about 6pm Tuesday evening East Coast time. I unfortunately had no way of calling or emailing to let anyone (including my poor parents) know I had arrived safely.

There is no internet available to us yet, this is the first time I've been able to get online since Rhode Island! (I am in an internet cafe near campus, tried to get here before but with orientation programs and meetings didn't have time, and you can't go anywhere in Cape Town other than in and around campus alone, so it was frustrating trying to get here when it was still open.) Apologies for the delay! The program staff had calling cards for us to use to briefly call home the following morning (Wednesday, yesterday), after about 4 hours of incredibly restless sleep in our orientation dorm. (Sorry for waking you up, Mom and Dad!) My roommate for orientation is actually also from AU and we met each other in the airport terminal in Amsterdam. We had never met before at school, despite AU's small size. We are currently housed in orientation housing for the duration of CIEE orientation. I will be moving into permanent housing, or my "rez," as they call it here, on Saturday and will then FINALLY have regular internet. I have been feeling extremely detached, it's so strange! Anyways, I move in on Saturday, I actually will be living with one other CIEE student and then 2 South Africans. They won't be moving in until next week, though. I can't wait to meet them and get a routine down, let alone finally figure out this GIGANTIC campus.

This city and campus is so gorgeous! I don't have time to elaborate on anything but I promise I will update on what is going on here as soon as I can on Saturday. I miss you all so much! The CIEE staff and student RAs are all incredibly helpful and caring, they are very about making a little family here for us. Our RA's name actually has a click in it (boo-ck-click-oo-lee)! We are working on getting his pronunciation down. He is actually living in our rez all semester so it is another support for us; they take such good care of us here.

More details to come! Miss you guys tons,

Love,
Kat