IT'S TIME FOR AFRICA!!!! Cape Town 2012: DAY TWO:

Today was the longest, most fun day! We started so so early with a general orientation of the classes and program and got a chance to meet the people in our small groups. We had to walk from the apartments to the place where we will be having class everyday. The walk was so pretty…seeing the sunrise over the mountains and beach was amazing! I was surprised to find that we are actually having our classes in a house, not your typical classroom atmosphere. The house was so cute and breaking up into groups allowed me to meet so many more people on the trip! After the orientation we began our tour of the city. We started at the District Six Museum, which is easily the coolest museum I have ever visited. It told the story of how the Africans were kicked out of their homes in an area of Cape Town called District Six. My favorite part of the museum was the long scroll of messages written by former residents of the district expressing their sadness and describing what the district meant to them. From there, we walked to the old slavery lodge where slaves were locked up at night. The walk was beautiful! The streets of Cape Town look really similar to downtown Charleston with the old buildings and huge overhanging trees. It really does not seem like I am in Africa. Then, we drove to the top of one of the famous mountains called Signal Rock. We were able to take pictures and look down on the whole city! After the tour we had a whole group dinner at a typical South African restaurant. All the waiters were dressed in awesome costumes and there were drummers and women that walked around painting our faces! And the food was to die for!!! Also, found a new favorite shot… it was like chocolatey and banana and delicious and yummmmmm. After dinner all of us took over the hotel bar. It’s no Athens, but it was so much fun!