Meeting South Africa

"We are pleased to inform that you have been selected to spend a 5 month study period at master level at Cape Peninsula University of Technology"

Although I received this e-mail almost a year ago, I can still remember being utterly happy and freaking out at the same time. 5 months South Africa, land of the big 5, living in the mother city. This must be a dream. Accept, it wasn't.

On January 29, I hopped on the plane ready to start my adventure. My boyfriend dropped me at the airport where I met a friend who was accompanying me to spend a 10 day holiday. At least, I didn't have to start this new chapter all alone.

After an 18 hour journey, we arrived in Cape Town. My university had sent someone to pick us up and drop us off at my apartment. On the way there, I had my first glimpse of the place that was going to be my home for the next 5 months. While driving past townships the driver provided us with additional information and gave us a short introduction to the interesting history of South Africa. In the first 5 minutes I knew this was going to be everything I hoped it would be.

I arrived at my appartement, situated in the center of the city. A nice place with a queen-size bed, a kitchen, a bathroom and 2 double sofas. What more do you need? Armed with a city guide, I started planning the next few days. First things first, I went out to fix a new cellphone number. WhatsApp appeared to be free with certain providers, so the home front was reassured of my safe arrival. I still had some days before school started, so me and my friend decided to go on a road trip. Driving on the other side of the road was easier than I expected, hence we arrived in Stellenbosch just in time to check out a wine festival. We paid ZAR 170 (or €13) for a wineglass that we could keep and get as many tasters as we liked from any of the 50 wine stalls. The sun on my face, some wine in my hand, live music and beautiful surroundings -Life is awesome! I can get used to this.

(Stellenbosch, Photo source)

We continued our road trip to Kalkbay, checked out the penguins at Boulders Beach, saw Cape Good Hope and had pizza in Camps bay. The next days, we explored the city bowl and had a typical West Coast braai. I just couldn't believe how beautiful this place was. Table Mountain is one of the seven world wonders and I could see why.

(Table Mountain, Photo source)

However, I was here to study and my friend's holiday had come to an end so it was time for me to start living a real life now. Fortunately, I already met some new people I could hang with. While walking up Lionshead, we started chatting with this group that turned out to be exchange students themselves. Open as those persons are, we immediately swapped phone numbers and only a few days later, I was having a braai with my new friends.

(Lionshead, Source photo)

Registering at the university was actually the hardest part of the whole experience. It took 3 weeks for them to finally have me registered. Then, it turned out my lessons were online classes, because they only had 8 master students doing PR and most of them were already working. At first I was quite disappointed, I was looking forward to meeting locals and having class really helps. Turned out, having online courses was the best thing ever. I could just choose whenever I wanted to work on my assignments so if I wanted to go out or go on a trip, no class was going to keep me from it. After this, time just flew by.

South African people are very friendly. They will compliment you while doing groceries, they smile, they sing, they're just awesome. Meeting people was actually much easier than I anticipated. The trick is to just meet one new person, the rest will automatically follow. They introduce you to others and they know people that come from the same country as you etcetera, in the end you just stay with those you feel most comfortable with and grow some pretty strong friendships out of it.

(Cape Town, Source photo)

As for the crime, it's actually nothing to worry about. Not in Cape Town. As long as you use common sense, don't go wandering alone in the dark or flash your phone while drunk. You probably won't lose any of your belongings. Just be cautious and prepare to have the time of your life!

XOXO, Kim