18+ hours, complete

I am here, FINALLY.

The plane ride was truly murderous. It was not a joke, para nada. It's funny though because it really was easy to forget as soon as I saw Table Mountain in the distance. All of the frustration, my leg cramps, my bursts of anxiety, and the awful food was worth it when I saw the long lines of coast line with that beautiful and astonishing flat topped mountain in the distance. Now, here I am in South Africa. It still is surreal; I can't freaking believe I am here, but I am, and you're not. Jealous? If so, think of the 18+ hours I had to suffer on a cramped seat, that should get you a little less green.

It's funny how similar, yet how different this place is to my "old life." I would say that it is a mixture of Mexico and the United States. The houses, the streets, and the ambiance really reminds me of Mexico. There is no heating, really cool villa type houses, and people randomly walking around, but then its like th US and England because of the accents and the people. It really is very English in culture. I am hoping to get more introduction to the African culture, but come on, it's only been one freaking day.

So far, I am rooming with 5 other guys, sounds like my childhood. Let's hope these don't fart as much as my brothers, haha. We are staying in a part of Cape Town that is historically known to house students, so like a Dinky Town area. It has shops, coffee shops, restaurants, and students everywhere. We are staying in an old Victorian house that has been compartmentalized into different apartments (Dinky Town-ish, right?). Once again, the house really reminds me of Mexico, especially the bathroom and balcony. Tomorrow, we are going to visit the museum where we will be working for the next couple of weeks while in Cape Town. I forgot what it is called...

Pictures to follow soon; I am in an Internet Cafe, another similarity to Mexico, and I can't really put them onto the computer.

Two days until I board the longest plane ride of my life and, technically, the world. The trip from NYC to Cape Town, South Africa is, according to Delta, the longest flight in the world. I am not excited. I went to México three years ago; it was a four hour plane ride, and I almost died with impatience. I am not quite sure how I will make it. Why can’t it be like in the movies where we cut to a short clip of an animated plane traveling from one place to another without actually having to vicariously suffer through the long hours of sitting in the exact same position for 18 hours with less than a centimeter of personal bubble space and bad movies?

Anyway, not anyways (!), we leave Minneapolis on Sunday (this Sunday... eek!) at 9:15 AM and head to Kennedy Airport, where we will land at 12:48. I hope I can make it through this short ride, if I can’t, someone help me, not necessarily god or anything. Then I leave NYC at 3:55 PM and lad exactly at 3:55 PM in Cape town. Although it may seem like I will be traveling for 24 hours, I will in fact be traveling for less grueling number of hours: 19, which is still horrendous. We do get to stop in Dakar. I am not sure if we will actually get to leave the plane, but probably not knowing my luck. Either way time out of the air and on the ground will calm my nerves.

Any ideas on how to quell my anguish on this imminent plane ride? Let me know. I brought my GRE vocabulary flashcards. “Gotta learn them all!,” says Kaplan, all 500 of them, and then I still have others to learn. I also am going to buy/rent Don Quixote; some ungodly number of pages in old “Spanish” Spanish ought to quench my thirst for spending time, or insanity. If all else fails, I think that alcohol is free on international flights, but this is a last resort as when I land it will be 3:55, but with jet lag, my body will feel as if it were 10 am. I will have to wait at least 10 hours until I can go to bed, meaning I will be falling asleep at 12 PM. No worries, I have bought a large bottle of sleeping pills.

This will be tough.

Look at what I am forced to leave behind. Hijole they're cute!

Bananas, that is it I think.

Hello,
I am rather nervous for my first post, which is this one. For some odd reason, I came up with this idea that it had to be great, catchy, and all that Jazz, but hey I don't have to impress you people because you already like me--in your face! Anyway, I am still here in the TCMA (Twin Cities Metro Area, for all of you losers who don't know acronyms), but in 6 days I will be leaving to go back to the Mother Land, ML, i.e. Africa. Its not really MY motherland, as i am not black, but PSH! all of humanity came out of there so whatevs.

So, before I begin to ramble even more, I will tell you a bit about my trip. I don't have the itinerary in front of me, so i will tell you what I remember, and give you more specifics at a later date, yay!

On Sunday, June 29th I leave at 8 in the AM. I will be heading to Kennedy airport in NYC, then hop onto another plane heading straight to Cape Town, South Africa--there will be a short detour to Dakar, Senegal, but I don't think we get to get off :(. I will not be back to The States until August 11th. We will be leaving from Johannesburg, SA and heading, once again, to Dakar and then to Georgia, where i will hop onto another plane and come back home to Minne.

We will be living in CT (Cape Town)--that's funny CT= Cape Town and TC= Twin Cities, coincidence? weird...--for the first four weeks of our stay and then going up north to Jo-burg and Kruger National Park (google it!). While in Cape Town, we will be living in an house and doing various community activities. Our main one is to help out at a museum. On the other hand, we are expected to do our own independent research on our free time, Lame! Then Jo-burg should be mostly play.

Dood, my first blog. Woah, its done. Pictures and things are in the making, check back later.

OOh wait, you must be wondering about my use of the first person plural. I am traveling with a group of people I know well. Most people go Study Abroad without knowing whom their going with, but not I (said the sheep). As you all may or may not know, I am a part of the GIHC, which is a national program in four campuses that prepares minority students to go to Graduate School in hopes that they can show us off to receive grants. They have already made 500,000.00 off of us... During the school year we take honors courses on research and last summer we had an intensive six week research program, but this year: South Africa. Anyway, its 14 students, that is who the "we" and "us" refers to.

bananas, that is it i think.