My first week in Cape Town

Hey guys

So, this is my first blog in english. So please forgive me grammar or spelling mistakes.
The last seven days were very very interesting and exciting. I had a lot of impressions, i met a lot of new people and i tried every day to improve my english.

First, i feel good - really good. My host family is very nice and the meals always delicious. I'm really in good hands here. My flatmate, gambo the gecko, lives still with me and he's always trying to take away the insects from me.

school: I had a good start in the school. The students are very nice and here's always a social climate. Everybody is talking with everybody, its really cool. The students comes from all over the world. From Brazil, South Korea, Lybia, Yemen, Taiwan, France, Colombia, Germany and of course from Switzerland. I always try to speak in english, also with the swissguys but sometimes its difficult, you know:) Very funny: There was one guy (he left us on Friday) from Switzerland. After a talk with him, i realized "i know this man, I ve seen him once before in my life". And yeah, he is the man, who works in the globetrotter-filiale in Aarau, where i've booked my flights to Africa. Three months ago, he gave me some africa-prospects when i was there, in Aarau. We're living in a small world...
During the lessons, sometimes I've got problems with speaking. My problem: The vocabulary. When the teacher is speaking, I unterstand a lot, I think. But speaking ist at the moment my biggest "Baustelle". And of course grammar. I realize that my last english lesson in Switzerland is a long time ago (about five years).

city: Im here since only one week, so its difficult to tell a lot.
My opinion after a week: Cape Town is other than the citys i've seen in my life. The town is huge and beautiful. There are many sight-seeings (more --> activitys). But you can feel the history of South Africa, every day, i think. There are many differences between black and white. In Switzerland it sounds like racism when you compare black with white. But here you talk only about white people and black people. The discussion about skin color here is omnipresent, i think.
An other omnipresent thing, particularly by students, is the safety. I heard a lot, from my school, from my host family, from other students. And at the moment, it's difficult to categorize all the informations. In fact, i think you may not be naiv but also not frightening all the time. But no-go's, they everybody says: "Avoid empty or dark areas. Avoid using public transport or the MetroRail stations after dark. Do not display items like, cell phones, cameras... , After dark: stay in groups and rather use taxi. I live not in the city center (a bit outside in Rondebosch) so you must be well organized, when you want going out.

activities: the school offers a lot of activities. So i've already booked two activities last week:
- The table mountain and
- a cap-tour (inkl. cape of good hope)

Both trips were amazing. On Friday we hiked up to the top of the table mountain. It was very hard, and a lot of students had really really problems. With my Wirzweli-legs i had no problems to reach the top. The view on the top is so beautiful. You see over the sea, Cape Town, the lions Head, Signal Hill etc. - AMAZING
The cape tour was also great. We were only two students from our school, the others are visiting the school in the city centre. It was cool, so i know the guys from the other school.
The stations of our trip:
- Camps Bay
- Hout Bay (we did a boat trip and saw a lot of seals (they smells horrible)
- the cape of good hope (a beautiful place, really. Unfortunately we saw baboons only from far away)
- Simons Town, where we saw a lot of penguins.

I look forward to the next activities.


Yeah, Im feeling really good here. You'll hear more from me next week.

En Gruess usem no emmer sonnige ond extrem warme Südafrika
DARIO

Pictures:

                     On the top of table mountain!

    Cape of good hope

    Chapmans Peak Road - Hout Bay in background.