Day 3: It's Official!

Today was a very good day. 

First, let me pick up where I left off. We made it to the cottage last night. The gate code worked and the cottage keys were in the mailbox as promised. The cottage was tiny but neat and clean. We were too tired to care. Unfortunately, it was quite cold. We turned on every heater we could find and made the best of it. 

This morning, we met grad student extraordinaire, Mark Schneider.  After treating us to a wonderful breakfast, he took us to get our car. Apparently a Toyota Corolla is considered full-size in this part of the world!  Thankfully, they were able to find us an automatic transmission. I wasn't ready to shift gears with my left hand while driving on the left side of the road!!

Next stop:  the University of Cape Town. Two words: oh my! I'm pretty sure that this is the most beautiful university campus that I've ever seen. There are three campuses:  lower, middle and upper -- all nestled in Table Mountain. We parked adjacent to middle campus so that we could see my office in the new Commerce building. From there, we walked to the upper campus. Once there, I happened to look back at middle campus and couldn't decide which view was more spectacular:  Table Mountain straight ahead or middle campus and all of Cape Town down below. Wow!

After a visit with the Dean's assistant, we headed off to get my official ID card and parking 'disc'. 

Now I'm ready to get down to business!  Beforehand, we still needed to finish getting settled at the cottage. We stopped at the grocery store and stocked up on essentials. Upon returning to the cottage, I stopped by the office to ask about a phone card and learned that we didn't have a phone in our cottage. 

Wellllll, I can live with cramped quarters for six weeks, but no phone? I politely asked if we could move to a larger cottage (one bedroom vs a studio) at my expense. At that point, I really didn't care about the cost. I was starting to worry that once the hubs left, I would be lonely and depressed in my little room. Thankfully, sweet Martin said that he could move their later bookings but it would cost me. I flinched and asked the price. 10 rand ($1) per day!  But he was quick to add that he would give me a 20% discount due to my extended stay. Bottom line:  double the space and a working phone for $32. Get out of town!

I think I can make this work. As my colleague Arline would say, the people are "quite lovely", the city is beautiful, the university is extraordinary, the cost of living is unbelievable and we haven't even been here 24 hours. 

Yep, I think this is going to be pretty good!!  My nervous stomach is beginning to settle and even my 12-year-old has already asked if I can bring him if there is a next time. I am happy. I am thankful. I am blessed. 

Thanks for reading!