First Week

Hi everyone

I safely arrived in Cape Town a week ago, after a long trip. I flew from Seattle To Chicago, Chigago to London, and London to Cape Town. With layovers this was about a 32 hours trip.
I am living in an apartment right in the center of Cape Town, with two girls who are also interning in Cape Town, one is from Australia and the other California. My room mate from Australia has been here since mid-November, and will be leaving Mid-Febuary. However my other room mate will be here for the same amount of time as me, until end of March.

I have spend a lot of time this week wandering around town, and figuring out where main aspects are located. The city center of Cape Town is small while the rest of Cape Town is very spread out, and can be reached fairly easily by train, bus or taxi. The city seems very European and is full of museums and gardens to visit.

I began my internship on Tuesday morning at the University of Western Cape Town. I have been taking a train every day to commute, which takes about 20 minutes. The Campus is great, and full of students as their new term is just beginning. I am interning at the School of Public Health with a research project called PURE. It is a long term study located all over the world looking at the health effects of development. My superviser at UWC wants me to experience all aspects of medical research, so I will be doing a large variety of tasks. This week I worked in the office doing data input and working with a few statistical analysis programs. The PURE study has many aspects, and this week I worked with the stacks of surveys which have been completed on food frequency. All the data from the surveys has to be put into a computer program, SPSS (similar to Excel), in order to understand the significance.

Along with interning and wandering around the city, I have been doing some tourist activeties. I have been to the National Gallery and the Natural History Museum, both of which are excellent. The Natural History Museum is enormous, and has information on geology, plant and animal life, as well as native groups who lived in Africa. There was also an incredible photo exhibit from photographers around the world . Yesterday I went with some other interns to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. It is rumored to be the most southern point of Africa as well as where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet. This is not true. However it was beautiful landscape and we were able to see Ostrichs, baboons, and many species of birds.

There is a big night life scene here as well, with a lot of people from around the world occupying bars and clubs almost every night of the week. It is an interesting combination, as the city center has a lot of tourists and bars, which the townships that surround Cape Town the poverty and inequality is abundent. The effects of Apartheid are readily seen in predominantly white or black neighborhoods.

Overall I am enjoying Cape Town. It is a beautiful place. Thank you all for your support. I will keep you updated in the near future.

Chelsea