Arriving

Once we landed in South Africa, I felt a new level of excitement. I was eager to see the palm trees and analyze the demographics of the country-- Post-Mandela. Remember when I said I did curbside check-in? Well, I asked this dude if my bags would get lost and he said no. I was in a hurry, so I trusted him and gave him a $3 tip that he hounded me for. Turns out... My bags were left in Amsterdam, so I had to pick them up the next day. This changed my whole mood, which made me look bad to my program coordinator and the other staff. I tried to stay positive but it was really hard because I wasn't sure if I would ever receive my bag. Eventually, I cheered up. We were met by a driver who took us to the campus. The campus is HUGE. We all chose our rooms and immediately planned to go out even though it was midnight and we traveled for hours. We went to "The Barn" on campus. Its a club with a bar and food station. My first impression was that we had made a bad decision because there were bullet holes in the front door. However, once we got inside everything was fine. We left around 2 a.m. to get ready for the week ahead. I began to feel more nervous than anything when I thought about what kind of research I'd be doing. I was very eager to learn something new, but I was worried that I wouldn't have a strong enough foundation to understand the chemical processes in the research project. I could either get Raghavan or a research advisor from heaven.

First night 

At the Airport in Cape Town