First Thoughts

Hello!! I am settling into my new life here! It’s been super interesting so far. First of all, who knew they hook you uppp on an international flight? I sat down for my 18 hour flight and we’re talking free movies/T.v. shows (kenz/sara/linds—I watched arrested development! The one where tobias was trying to be like ms. Doubtfire, priceless), a nice blanket, socks, toothbrush, eyemask, and ten thousand meals. But still it was a little rough being on a plane for a full day! When we finally landed in Durban the Interstudy people where there to meet us, they could not be nicer! The main person who helps us out is Anita, she’s either Dutch or English (can’t quite tell yet) and is the funniest/cutest old lady you could imagine, I’m adopting her as my grandma while I’m here. And the other students studying through interstudy are super nice!! It’s so great having Liz, a friend from Miami, here with me. It’s one thing to go to Ohio not knowing anyone but it’s actually pretty scarily independent here and knowing someone right off the bat really helped. Today was our first real day here and we set up bank accounts and shopped around a little. The atmosphere here is so tight! My favorite thing about South Africa so far hands down is what they call stoplights: a “robot”. As in “at the next robot take a left,” awesome. They drive on the other side of the road here! Durban is a city RIGHT on the ocean, we drove through a little harbor today and near the water the scenery really reminds me of San Diego, very tropical. Durban has these big monkeys everywhere, like as common as how the U.S. has squirrels, kind of freaky at first because I thought we took a wrong turn and landed inside a monkey cage at the zoo. But I’m growing to love them! We all just finished unpacking and are about to go out to dinner then a night on the town. One of the girls here studied in Durban two semesters ago so she’ll bring us to all the happening places. We’re just hoping the whole country isn’t in a huge World Cup hangover, because we’re ready to party. Thanks for following my blog, I’ll write again very soon!! xoxoxo