So I think I may have seen the most beautiful place on earth today...

Today was the first day of our University of Cape Town orientation with the rest of the students studying abroad, so I met a girl from Canada and a guy from Germany.  The day consisted of a bus tour around the cape that took almost 10 hours. We started off driving through the city where they pointed out sights to us like the Slave Museum, the neighborhood of colorful houses called Birkhop, and many other buildings. 

We then head to the coast to stop at one of the top 5 beaches in the world! It was beautiful, with white sandy beaches and the sun barely coming up behind Table Mountain in the background.  We looked out and say a whale fairly close to us, but I guess that is common around these parts of town.  I also heard that you can see great white sharks when you go to the areas where the seals are, but I will see those when I go …(mom stop reading)…shark diving!  We then went to a penguin reserve where all these South African penguins were just walking around right off the boardwalk where we were! It was crazy how close to us they were, and I felt very random to be seeing penguins out on the sunny sandy beaches. 

Next we drove through some wine country back roads to a place called Ocean View (ironic because they have no view of the ocean), but this is where we ate lunch and saw some local performances.  It was incredible! They fed us all this great food and then sang and danced for us.  I saw 5 year olds doing moves I could never dream of doing.  They were break dancing like the jabbawalking group from America’s Best Dance Crew.  I kind of felt like I was at a teen version of “So You Think You Can Dance”.  It was really inspirational and great to see a culture that was trying to change the all too common lifestyle of drug abuse and poverty and turn it into something constructive for their younger generation.  

           Then we were off to the Cape of Good Hope, aka the southern most tip of Africa.  We hiked up to the top of this hill and then down to the very end, all the while overlooking amazing ocean crashing into big cliffs and white sandy beaches.  I really wish words could describe how beautiful this place was, but they just really cannot.  It honestly took my breath away, and I tried to capture it in pictures but I don’t even think those did it justice.  I wish that I could just go there everyday for the rest of my life.  It honestly made me just appreciate so much this experience that I am able to have and so thankful for my life.  Just a great day all in all! Tonight we may be “thriving” but it is still up in the air.  “Thriving” is the term Patrick, our SOLmate, gives for just having a great time and being in the moment.  Usually there is something having to do with alcohol but not always! Ha Ok well updates soon to come!! Love you!