first day

I finally arrived in South Africa, the moment I had been looking forward to for half a year. I still can't realize that I am really here, at the other side of the world, in a different family. A place where it is actually not cold and where it's not raining 24/7.

Of course, for every new destination you want to go to, you have to travel, which I did yesterday. My dad and two oldest sisters brought me to the airport early in the morning and what a surprise, it was raining. When we arrived at the airport I dropped off my bag which appeared to be 27 kg, highly overweight but I managed to take out enough clothes and books and took it in a bag as handluggage. then it was time to say goodbye. It was really hard to leave my family behind and of course everyone got very emotional. I turned my backs on them with wet eyes and I could see Lotte coming to me and we went to the gate together with lourents joining us halfway. Around 9.45 we could go on the plane and start the 2nd half of our exchange.
There were many movies involved in our flight and many useless games to kill the time. Luckily I sat at the window so I could look outside and enjoy the amazing view. I have seen a desert for the first time in my life and I was amazed. there was literally nothing, only sand. This might sound obvious but I was overwhelmed by the emptiness. I then understood why there was no wildlife.

9700 km later, we finally arrived in south africa. when we stepped out of the plane we could see our host families standing a floor lower, waving at us and making these excited movements. After we took our bags we went straight to our host families and hugged them like we've known them for ages. It was really nice to see everyone again. I went straight to bed as it was around 1 AM.

the next morning I woke up and looked outside the window, seeing clear blue sky. The view which was invisible the night before appeared to be wonderful. you can see mountains and many trees. Today we went swimming in the pool which was very refreshing since it was around 25 degrees. The rest of the day, Lauren just showed me around the neighbourhood and took me to the shops where we had a lovely smoothie. At the end of the day, my host family took me out for dinner at Waterfront. A perfect beginning of an amazing exchange.