TIA

chaos erupted this morning. my life here has been extremely peaceful and vacation-like, but today was intensely different. let me back up.

since we have a few days off before classes start on the 13th, a lot of people are going on trips. we decided to go on the garden route, which is a scenic drive along the southern coast of south africa; there are a lot of things to do along the way, such as elephant parks, nature reserves, bungee jumping, shark diving, etc. long story short, we thought that we reserved two rental cars last night, but i realized late last night that the rental place wasn't open on the weekends, so the request didn't go through. i woke up at eight this morning in a panic, knowing that nine of us were supposed to go on a road trip tomorrow but we had no cars. 

five of us girls spent literally six hours today frantically calling every car rental place we could google, to no avail. apparently parliament opened yesterday (what does that mean? i don't know.) and that means that there are no rental cars to be found in cape town. not only that, but most of the cars here are manual and none of us girls can drive manual, and also many places require you to be 23 years old to rent a car. all of these obstacles lead to us calling literally dozens and dozens of places, begging for an automatic car that we could pick up tomorrow. i can't even explain the chaotic scene of my flat today - we rolled out of bed and spent the day with our laptops cemented to our laps, cellphones in hand, using up all of our prepaid cell phone minutes and internet to try to find a way to go on a road trip. we eventually found a place, and are going to pick up the car and leave at eight in the morning tomorrow from the airport. moral of the story: plan ahead.

i just realized that this is the worst story ever, but i can't put into words the franticness of the day, and i'm still exhausted and have to pack. we're going to be gone for four nights, and i'm so excited. it's just five of us girls going now, as the boys decided to go a different route (drama ensued, but i won't get into that).  i'm really looking forward to seeing some new areas, and we're staying in some hostels and inns that look really cool (and cheap).

a large majority of our program has become pretty close in the past weeks, and i'm loving it. we don't necessarily know each person really well (there hasn't been time yet), but we all hang out pretty regularly. i feel really comfortable around almost everybody in our program, and i love it. a couple of days ago we spent the entire day sitting in the dirt courtyard outside of the apartment building across the street, talking and eating and laughing. it was a perfect day - we weren't rushing around or spending money or anything that we usually do. others in interstudy would walk past, and come and hang out for a while; people came and went, and it was perfect. two nights ago we sat around drinking wine in our sweatpants and pajamas, and that was also perfect. 

i absolutely love the setup of our living situation here; i can't imagine living in a flat by myself or secluded from others. whenever i want to know what's going on, i just stick my head over the fence or walk around to other flats, and people are always around. at the same time though, i enjoy the privacy of having my own room and a flat with only two other roommates.

techno music is always playing here. seriously. at nine in the morning i wake up to someone blaring it out in the streets; it's on in restaurants, and it's on right now in our south african neighbors' yard. it's kind of a running joke among us, that no matter where you are, techno music will play at some point. i don't get it.

in the movie "blood diamond," leonardo dicaprio says "T.I.A.," meaning This Is Africa, several times throughout the movie. someone said it here at the beginning of the trip, and it's totally caught on; we say it now several times a day when something happens that is particularly african, usually something that we're not used to and that would only happen here. 

examples of TIA:

- techno music playing all the time

- cars not yielding to pedestrians whatsoever

- the fact that you never get water served to you at restaurants, and if you ask for water, you'll get a tiny glass of it after about a half an hour of waiting

- the fact that servers at restaurants take an extraordinarily long time to serve anything in general

- the fact that we have to open four locks in order to get into our flats

- despite this, laptops still get stolen out of windows

- when my friend alec pointed out to the landlord a particular location at which someone could easily jump over the fence into our yard, the landlord told him that there is a plant in africa that is "particularly unpleasant" to touch and that he will put that plant in that place so that people will be discouraged from jumping over the fence

- the insane driving of the minibus taxis and their blatant disregard for other traffic or pedestrians

i will no doubt add to this list as my trip goes on. i'm off to go figure out how we get from the airport to the highway, and figure out who's going to start off driving, which terrifies me, since it's on the other side of the road and none of us have any idea how to get around the city. back in five days!