T.I.A- This Is Africa

Hello World!
Hope you haven't missed me too much, and if you have feel free to download whatsapp to your phone and text me. My house only got internet last night, so thus far my access has been limited to internet cafes. But here I am, alive and well in the most beautiful city in the world, Cape Town South Africa.
Since I have gotten here, everything has been a whirlwind of meeting people, adjusting to the new norms here, drinking great wine, seeing breathtaking sights from every angle, and falling madly in love with this place.
For the first 5 days, everyone on the CIEE program was placed into dorms, where we all ate together for each meal and attended orientation sessions together. For our orientation sessions, we did things such as tour the UCT campus, climb Table Mountain and watch the sun set, tour the city of Cape Town, visit the Southwestern-most point of Africa, and visit a beautiful winery in Stellenbosch where an all you can eat buffet was provided for us (most of its contents being meat of course.) I can see how important this blog is going to be, as memories blur into each other already.
During the night time, we have been free to explore the nightlife. The first night for instance, a few new friends and I went to Pig and Swizzle, a casual local pub. Meeting South Africans has been the highlight of my trip so far, as they all have interesting perspectives on Americans, politics, and race issues especially in South Africa (as we are in a somewhat recently post-apartheid state.) The South Africans are all extremely friendly and eager to get to know us and it makes nights out that much more entertaining.
In the past week we have explored more, gone to the V & A Waterfront, a Boston-like harbor, visited Green Market Square and shopped, gone to the beach and gotten some very strange and intense burns.
We were finally separated into our housing on Saturday, and I am living in Wolmunster. It is an off campus house and it is absolutely stunning, the nicest residence I have ever had (sorry SDT house.) The rooms are huge, and it feels like my castle. I have a roommate named Devra and she is absolutely lovely. The people I live with (15 girls 5 guys) are incredibly friendly, last night we all sat around our picnic benches outside, got a guitar, and had a sing along to songs like Beautiful Soul and Why Georgia. Needless to say I am in heaven.
I will post more as the semester continues about the physical beauty of Cape Town, safety issues, race issues, nightlife, food, perceptions of Americans, Real World situations my house gets into, and other intriguing aspects of Cape Town that make it what it is, as these circumstances are weaved deeply into my trip. Until then good friends, hope you are well and thanks for reading!