Before we came to Africa, we expected the city to be nicer
in the sense that it would be safer. In America, we take for granted the level
of safety we have even in a city as big as Austin. At orientation, Arelis
showed us a picture of a girl sleeping on campus with her bag right next to
her, which demonstrates how many Americans are not primarily concerned about
the safety of their property or even the safety of their lives. This weekend,
three students in our study abroad group almost got robbed with multiple
witnesses around (two of which are in this blog group). At orientation at the
University of Cape Town, several speakers informed us of the ways we must
increase our awareness during our time here. This is not an awareness we would
normally need to have.
We did not realize Cape Town would be so urbanized. Even in the cities we grew up in, there were not people constantly shouting in the streets like those in Cape Town. We were surprised to see the amount of traffic that exists because we expected more open, barren land than we have seen so far. Even though we knew Cape Town was a developed city, we expected wildlife such as safaris to be more accessible and common. Due to our lack of exposure to the reality of this country, we had stereotypical expectations for this area that have now been proven wrong because we have seen the development of the city.
Lastly, we never expected Cape Town to be so Americanized. We never would have imagined coming and seeing McDonalds, KFC, Burger King and so forth because we assumed everything we ate here this month would be something we had never eaten before. When we traveled to Century City to go shopping, the food court was so fancy and flashy that it looked like something you would see in Vegas. While we looked at the clothes, we expected to find more “African” or “indigenous” clothing rather than the Hollister, Guess, Express, Lucky, Forever 21 brands we can find in our own mall back home. The music we hear most often is the music we hear on the radio in America, like songs by Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran. Even though we stand out as foreigners, the similarities between Cape Town and America hide some of our differences.