Welcome to SA!

Hello Everyone!
After 25 hours of travel I’m finally in Stellenbosch! We left Boston on Sunday afternoon and flew to Washington, D.C. where we waited for our South African Airways plane. The flight to Johannesburg was about 17 hours total, but we stopped in Dakar, Senegal to refuel. We were there for probably an hour but weren’t allowed to get off the plane. Once in Jo’burg we waited for a couple hours then took a small plane to Cape Town. Eventually we landed and took a 30 minute bus ride to school. We arrived very late on Monday and by the time I was assigned a flat it was technically Tuesday. I’m living with a Stonehill student name Casey who seems really awesome. We unpacked a bit upon arriving and got a few hours of sleep. Tuesday and Wednesday were filled with informational meetings, presentations from the international office, tours of campus, computer registration, grocery shopping, and some initial group bonding. There are 47 of us here with AIFS and I’ve really enjoyed getting to know them. Hestea, our resident director, and Angelo, our assistant resident director, are absolutely amazing. They’ve taken care of everything for us and definitely made the transition a smooth one.

As for the school itself, Stellenbosch University is beautiful. It looks a bit like Florida because of the palm trees and the types of buildings, but it’s surrounded by mountains. The people of South Africa are warm and welcoming. All of them are good looking and no one here is overweight. Most students are tall, many have blond hair and blue eyes, and quite a few of them go everywhere barefoot. What I didn’t realize before coming here is that the student body is among the wealthiest in the nation and the university is the least diverse (70% of the students are white, but it seems like even more than that). Besides the lack of diversity, Stellenbosch University is very different from St. Mike’s. There are 18,000 undergrads, the campus is huge, there’s a student center with tons of stores and restaurants in it, and rugby is the most popular activity. Also, first year orientation has been going on this week and I’ve never seen anything like it. There is more enthusiasm and school pride here than anywhere I’ve ever been. Oh and they students love American music so we got to hear Party in the U.S.A. within 24 hours of arriving. You can’t escape Miley.

After being here for a couple days it’s easy to see that some things will take some time to get used to. The first is definitely the currency. One U.S. dollar equals roughly 7 or 8 Rand right now, so everything looks like it’s more expensive than in the states even though it’s usually cheaper. Drinks and food are a lot cheaper, but sunscreen is expensive. Aside from the money, it will take a little while to become accustomed to the hot sun (though I’m really glad I’m not in Vermont right now). Drivers in South Africa never stop for pedestrians and they use the left side of the road, so we’ve had to make a few adjustments while walking around campus. Going grocery shopping was also an interesting event, but I think it will be much easier the second time.

Alright that’s all for now, thanks for reading!
Sarah