First day: Words dont do this place justice

After taking a few steps out our front door and looking to your right you see devils peak...part of table mountain...as of now I really cant complain about anything! Today we had our little orientation with UCT campus and interstudy. I was really excited to see what UCT campus was all about and all it had to offer. All I can say is people who complain about the U campus being too big or too much walking....stay away from UCT! It was quite a bit of walking...there was a lower campus, a middle campus, and of course and upper campus! It is all at the base of table mountain so you have to go up, up, up! Diane and Agith met us at our houses and started our little walk up to campus. I guess I really had no expectations for campus...but it was absolutly amazing..and very beautiful. Another thing that UCT and UMN have in common is campus connector=Jammie...we'll see how tomorrow goes because we have to get to upper campus by our selves to our lecture room by 9am. I think I will be taking the Jammies quite a bit because seriously...walking these hills everyday cant be good for your health :) When we were on our way up campus there were tennis courts with these basketball looking hoops with no nets...weird huh? We soon found out this was for net ball....no dribbling, lots of passing...and something about girls in skirts...I think a few of us might check it out! Once we got up to our interstudy orientation it was already official...im in love with UCT campus and cape town in general and will be making a return visit in the near future! Throughout our orientation I really began to appreciate what interstudy has done to help us get where we are with this program. I have always known there has been a lot of work put into the program and its development but they are amazing people with a true passion. After orientation I was ready to just go...do something..anything...we kept going up campus to upper campus and once we finally got there I felt a sense of accomplishment...it was a LONG way up! We saw a little bit of the classroom setting and saw the interstudy office before we headed off for our tour of the area around UCT campus. On our way down it was very beautiful...lots of flowers...lots of different trees and such...quite jealous. Today was very nice and sunny but I really dont want to picture all of these hills when its even a little wet our let alone pouring rain! Once we got off campus Agith and Diane showed us a few places to eat and drink and just a few local tips. I can really appreciate all the little words of advice and always find myself giving them when friends/family come to UMN campus and are looking for help. After that we went down to V&A waterfront for an absolutly amazing lunch at Primi Wharf! We were told previously that this was more of a tourist portion of cape town and I couldnt have explained it better myself. The mall was stocked full of upper class stores with price tags higher than what this experience is costing...but back to lunch! From our table we looked out onto the ocean and it was beautiful...like everything else in cape town. This place had amazing food and just as good of drinks! To even speak of this place doesnt do any of it justice so please ask...ie jam jar! After lunch we all decided to stay at the waterfront for a few extra hours to do some shopping and just walk around and see whats going on. I decided to walk the boardwalk and take a few pictures and really just take in my surroundings and really...again...amazing! Sorry if I say everything is amazing but it really is! Jesse, Brian, and I decided to head up toward the new soccer stadium for the world cup..which is going to be pretty sweet and take some pictures of the sunset and then walk down the beach. All in all it was an amazing day and this was a very short summary and cant do it all justice. I am running out of battery life so it will most likely be continued later but as always,

Cheers