Keep Calm and Carry On

Wednesday, February 6th was our first full day in Cape Town! We're staying at the "Check Inn" in Greenport through Saturday morning, which is right across the street from Cape Town Stadium. The Red Hot Chili Peppers actually played a show there Tuesday night! Pretty cool, eh? 

Cape Town Stadium

We were supposed to be picked up at 8:30am to be taken to SIT's office in Rondebosch, but in classic Africa fashion two of our taxi drivers were 30 minutes late - oops! Luckily we weren't officially beginning classes, just continuing orientation so we weren't on a time crunch. SIT's offices, which include our classroom and library, are located on a quiet street in Rondebosch right across from the train station. There's a mall with a grocery store and pharmacy (called a "chemist") nearby, along with our bank, laundromat, and several restaurants. We get a stipend into our bank account each week to pay for our lunches and an hour and a half lunch break each day, so I'll definitely be checking out the local eateries throughout the course of the semester! When we first arrived Maggie, the office manager, gave us a tour around the office before our second day of Xhosa lessons with Tabisa. I'm still a little nervous about learning Xhosa because I haven't gotten the clicks down yet, but I'm trying to be patient with myself and remember that everyone else is new at this too. 
Afterwards we were split into groups and sent around Cape Town to perform certain tasks. In order to accomplish these tasks we needed to talk to the locals and utilize all forms of public transportation: the train, bus, and mini buses, known as "taxis". My group was made up of Liyah, Sesen, and myself and our task was to pick up Liyah's lost luggage from the airport. We were instructed to take the train to Cape Town, then take the "My Citi Bus" to and from the airport, and then a taxi back to Rodenbosch. From the start things didn't go quite as planned. First, the train wasn't leaving until 12:35 so we had to wait 45 minutes before we could start our task. Then once we got to town, no one knew how to get to the bus station (we later found out that this is because most of the people we talked to, i.e. people of color, don't use My Citi Bus because it's new, expensive, and has a very limited route, among other reasons). Once we got to the airport, we then had to wait for Liyah to talk to security and fill out paperwork to get her lost bag. By the time we got out of the airport it was 14:35pm and we definitely weren't going to make it back to the classroom by 15:00pm. By this point I was very frustrated and anxious which put me into a pretty foul and unsociable mood. I longed for the simplicity of the CCTA buses in Burlington, which made me miss home a lot. 
My group's luck improved a bit when we got back to town as we had a couple of very nice locals help us find the taxi station and locate the right taxi to take. This is where the fun begins... a taxi is a 16-person van that carries people around the city for a very cheap price (6-8R). Our taxi, like all the others, was packed with about 20 people so we were all forced to sit on top of one another. Combine this with 50 Cent and techno music blasting from the speakers as we weaved in and out of traffic, narrowly avoiding other cars and pedestrians made for a very interesting ride! The taxi stops along the road to let people in and out, while the driver and money-collector are constantly yelling or whistling out the window, trying to attract customers. I was the only white person in the taxi and caused quite a scene when the driver passed our stop as I didn't think he was going to let us out! I was told to "chillax" while the driver swung across a lane of traffic and stopped at the curve. Needless to say, I had quite the experience with public transportation in Cape Town.
After running around the city all day, I was feeling pretty burnt out and quite a bit homesick. I was able to pull myself together however, with a little help from my friends. After our de-briefing, our taxis took us back to the hotel and a bunch of us decided to go running. Lara, Sharkey, Allie, and I made up the walk/jog group and we had a blast running to the beach and meeting some friendly pups along the way! My personal favorite was Ruff, a three-month old puppy, who licked our faces in greeting. That one puppy kiss definitely put me in a much, much better mood! When we got back to the hotel, we all showered and then headed out to get a bite to eat. We had a good experience at one of the restaurants down the road Tuesday night so we decided to go back again. It was a great decision because drinks were 50% off and our waiter, Job, helped us practice our Xhosa! He taught us different phrases to use at restaurants and wrote down all the clicks so we could practice. What a great guy! 

Becky, Allie, Ashley, me, Lara, and Kelin out to eat at our favorite spot in Greenport, down the street from our hotel!

On Wednesday I learned the importance of "keeping calm and carrying on". While I had many frustrations with transportation and communication, I discovered that you can't let these feelings control you or you won't be able to succeed in completing the task at hand. I also learned that while everyday abroad might not be perfect or go as planned, you can always learn from your experiences and find some good in every day.