Pauline starting to feel at home in Cape Town

I’d honestly be lying if I told you that it didn’t hit me that I would be living in Cape Town, South Africa until picking my room after arriving at our house. I was very numb up until that point. In other ways though, I felt very alert. When my dad drove me to the airport I started to reflect on the first time he drove me to the airport back in June of last year when I had went abroad for the first time. I knew that this time around, I was a lot less nervous about traveling and leaving everything at home behind. While heading to JFK all I could think about was how I was going to manage being away from my typical life for 3 and a half months and if I was going to be successful in my internship. When arriving to JFK I remember the whole airport process going by smoothly. The plane ride New York to Johannesburg really wore me out. I remember just wanting to brush my teeth and take a shower. Knowing that I was only about 2 hours or so away from Cape Town, I felt a bit of relief that I’d soon be able to tell my parents that I had arrived safely and that I’d be starting what I consider to be my first moments of this journey. As the beginning of orientation included safety talks, exploring Rondebosch and eating at different ethnic-based restaurants, I felt assured that I’d be getting familiar with Cape Town slowly but surely but the safety talks definitely gave me a little bit of a scare (I even started to have a nightmare because of those talks). I must admit that Cape Town seemed to be filled with many tourists and that definitely impacted the way I had initially perceived Cape Town to look demographically when I had first glanced around. Currently, as I am sitting in my room writing this entry, I can say that as orientation week is coming to a close,  I do feel at home in Cape Town and I am starting to be familiar with some local shops in the area that I live in. I can only be excited for what is to come.