Morning in Cape Town

I arrived in Cape Town, South Africa last night. It was already dark out when we got here, Matt just spilled milk all over himself trying to get it into the coffee. Its about 7 am here and I am the first one up even though we went out last night. It is difficult for me to know what to expect going into this day. There has been a lot of information and knowledge given to us about the situation here and I still dont know what to think about or know. Coming to our home from the airport I was expecting to see things that were different, matt says we dont have any bowls "where the fuck are the bowls" its early and he is still kind of morning mad, I didnt see anything different though, the street signs were different but there were normal lights, normal homes, and normal roads. Dave is up and at them now 710. I woke up this morning in a semi moist bed. The humidity here is pretty high as my bed was moist this morning. He spilled the milk again and needs help. I am excited for the day to begin it is still dark here, but the temperature is nice. Our mentors tell us we need to were jackets but the temperature here at night is something like 50 degrees with no real need for that much clothing. Dave dropped his toast behind the coil and is trying to get it out by sticking a spoon and a knife into the toaster 220v btw, I am well insulated from him right now... success. Matt and Dave and I feel that we should maybe be hung over but our anticipation has made us too pumped for that action. I wanted to right a post before I left, Matt found the bowls, about how my expectations were different from how it is going to be, but the fact of the matter is that I have no expectations because I dont know what to expect yet. I want to make this a meaningful trip but I havent found out how yet. I want to get a hair cut in the townships. The flight in was easier than expected our flight from amsterdam to cape town was half empty in a 777-200. Dave is still thinking he wants to be hung-over. "I better not be blogging about him right now" Matt gets pissed about me blogging about him and I have a feeling it may turn into a blog war. I am winning. I have taken some video and will try to post it somewhere probably here or on facebook. Nothing really exciting yet. We are going to go on a morning adventure. Dave says "it will be fun to walk around and see the sights." We are going to go to the convenience store down the street "it should be about a 10 minute walk" according to David. Today at 9 am we have our orientation at the center for africa studies at the Cape Town university. I guess I should tell you about last night. We met our mentors there are some cool guys. Richard a 23 year old White South African He took us to the bar and explained to us a little bit how things work here. Bars are pretty similar to America. Pool tables and drinks things here are cheap. A round four beers is 50 rand about 12 american dollars. Driving here is on the wrong side of the road, and on the wrong side of the car, like england, most cars are manual and you must shift with your left hand but the pedals of the car are laid out identical. Dave is cleaning the kitchen. Not many of the girls are up yet, the should be getting up soon, our guides will be here at 815 to take us to university. I will try to post again later today but it will be difficult. according to our itinerary we will be visiting the VA/Waterfront today which I am guessing is similar to the navy pier in Chicago but I will let you know. I am still nervous for the situation but I am sure that everything will be fine. Thus far my biggest fascination with the country is the price of living, but I am sure that will change. Things here are much less expensive than in the U.S. I am going to go out today with a bright look on the trip and make the most out of all the early morning sessions.

I have gotten to be known as clumsy/outrageous maybe by the people on the trip. I broke a glass maybe 15 seconds after we got here, along with some other series of events that I cant remember that have left me I think with the stigma of clumsiness. This is a general impression that I give most people I think when in all reality I am generally not clumsy I plan and organize much of my day, make list, and put careful thought into many of the choices I make. I dont really know if this is something that I can change, or if its even a bad thing, I just dont see myself in this light very often. 

I am not the most willing to share my feelings or my ideas about situations but I am going to try my best to tell people what and how I am feeling about situations that happen. I usually have difficulty expressing thin biasly gs so I will work hard not to suppress things here. Part of the difficulty that I have with this is that I censor myself without knowing. I will leaving things out not because I choose too, but because it is something I normally wouldn't write.  

I think this is all for now, some of the girls/ most have at least seen the light of day by now, so Dave, Matt, and I are going to go out to the convenience store.