Our Arrival by Gabrielle

On December 28th, we left Chicago for London. The plane ride was about 8 hours and for many of us, this trip was our first internationally. Some of us were lucky enough to sit by another classmate, but others had to sit by themselves. We were very lucky because we had TVs in our seats and had a great selection of movies, TV shows, and music. I watched the latest Harry Potter movie because I couldn't fall asleep on the plane.

Once we got to London, we went through customs and bought our tickets for the Underground. We had a 12 hour layover and had a few sites picked out that we wanted to see. One of the first things we saw was Big Ben--it was really cool because right when we stepped outside, all we had to do was look up to see it!! We also saw a statue of Nelson Mandela so that got us really excited to get to Cape Town. A lot of us took pictures by the red phone booths and saw our first double decker buses. For lunch, we had to split up into two groups because a lot of the restaurants were either too small or too busy to serve our large group. My group went to a really nice pub. The environment was so relaxed because we got to eat and drink by fireplaces. A lot of people ordered London's staple meal: fish and chips. After lunch, we walked around some more and visited musuems. Overall our layover was great (even with the very cold and rainy weather)!!

We had to head back to the airport 3 hours before our flight left to insure that we would make it through security. This left us a lot of time to explore Heathrow and to get to know everyone better. Many of us walked around Heathrow, checked out the shops, and stopped at the restaurants to get dinner. Once we got back to the airport, all of us were so exhausted and just waiting to get on the plane so we could get some sleep.

Once we were on the plane, I fell asleep the second I sat down and it was some of the best sleep I have ever had! Everyone was able to sleep on our 11 hour flight to Cape Town, but some of us were woken up by a lady sitting in the row behind Brendon. The woman was extremely upset because the man in front of her had his seat back. So instead of asking him to move it up, she decided to hit the back of his seat and eventually started hitting his head. It took a few flight attendants and quite a bit of persuasive talking to get her to calm down. We also had another great selection of movies and music. On this flight I watched 500 Days of Summer and listened to Calvin Harris, David Bowie, and Athlete.

After a long flight, we finally made it to Cape Town! It was so amazing to see the sun and palm trees. Jan was waiting for us, along with a few others that we were excited to get to know. I was also fortunate enough to be reunited with my sister for a few days, who is spending the year studying abroad in Kenya. Our house in the Observatory neighborhood is a quick drive from the airport. During the drive, we saw our first township and the Atlantic Ocean. Our house has quite a few rooms, even though it looks very small on the outside. Ivy, our cook, made us a great welcome meal--it was traditional South African food and was SO delicious. After our meal we headed to the beach. The water was very cold but we still had a great time. We had our first rock climbing adventure on the beach and got to experience a part of Cape Town that a lot of tourists visit. For dinner we went to a restaurant called A Touch of Madness. Jess, Jan's daughter who lives here in South Africa as she earns another degree, works there. It was a delicious meal and we all shared our food so we could get a taste of everything. I had a stuffed mushroom, kudo with chips, and chocolate cake. Kudo is antelope and I though it tasted pretty bitter but other people enjoyed it very much. An interesting fact about the restaurant is that it is haunted and Jess has even seen the ghost that stays there. After we finished dinner, a 4 hour process, we went home happy and full!

We had a great first day in South Africa! :)