It's beautiful here!

I made it! There were two kids from U of I on both of my flights and I found them waiting in O’Hare, so it was nice to have company, but let me tell you, I did not sleep for a good 34 hours (but I passed out for 14 hours the next night before I begrudgingly hauled myself out of bed this morning). All but one of my roommates are here. There’s a couple from Norway, a girl from Germany, and two other American girls, one American guy, and one girl from Canada who all seem really nice. We’re all a little lost and unsure about where we should and should not go, especially at night, so we stayed in and played cards the last two nights, and it was fun to get to know them. Our house is very cozy and much newer than our Urbana house (although I love our Urbana house, despite its various infestations, dilapidations, and poisonous gases). But the scenery is unbelievably beautiful. We took a walk around campus today and the view has table mountain as a backdrop to ivy-clad buildings and scattered palm trees. If you look the other way, you’ve got a perfect view overlooking the entire city (my internet/computer situation is still very much up in the air, but pictures soon, I hope!). In some ways, I seem very far from home, especially when we drove past the townships on our way from the airport and they really are nothing but strategically balanced sheets of metal. We also have to buy our electricity on cards at the grocery store. But I’ve also seen two KFC’s, eaten at a fast food burger restaurant (they had veggie burgers!) that was playing a Beyonce music video in the background, and bought skippy peanut butter in the grocery store. Oh, and the O.C. was on the South African Broadcasting Network tonight, but I think it was several seasons old. We had our first day of orientation today, which was exhausting and beautiful. We went on a tour of the Cape Peninsula, which included Boulder Beach which has penguins! We went on a short hike by the Cape of Good Hope and stopped at some of the beaches along the coast. The entire way around the peninsula is one perfect white sand beach after another. The tour guide also kept making references to “”hippie” and “bohemian” areas of town, which sounds very promising  I’ve got lots of orientation lectures and signing up for classes in the next few days, but then classes don’t start until February 19th, so we’ll have lots of time for exploring! Oh, and I’ve also discovered Top Deck Cadbury chocolate, (white and milk chocolate…mmmm…) which is readily available in all grocery stores in dangerously giant packages (we’re talking a solid pound or so) for the equivalent of $1.25. I think I’m going to love it here, but I miss everyone! Hope all is well!