The Cape Town Connection.

Studying abroad in Cape Town through the CIEE program was without question the best life experience I have had to date. I walked out of the Cape Town Airport knowing not a single person in the country, and left with a heart full of fondness for the country, memories with the many students I came to call best friends, and an eagerness to return to the home that Cape Town became for me.

The most profound aspects and impacts of this experience, for me, emerged in the connections I made with other people. First and foremost, the students in my program truly became a family. Upon our arrival, my apartment complex, Rondebosch Court, became filled with American students just as wifi-deprived, homesick, and scared as I was. After only a week of orientation and bonding activities, we each turned into confident, excited, and supportive individuals who each came to recognize the extraordinary experience we were going to share with one another in the 5 months to follow. I walked out of Rondebosch court for the last time on June 11, followed by a teary group of people (strangers as of January), who came to see me off. Out of the many "unexpecteds" of this study abroad experience, I would say that the profound and deep connections I made with the students in my program, the staff in my program, and the students at UCT by far surprised me the most. The "Cape Town Connection", as I would call it, has lasted beyond the end of the trip. I have taken so many fond memories of the country and lasting friendships into the next chapter of my life and I could not be more thankful for that.