Just going to to the grocery to buy some electricity

Today I moved into my new home for the next 5 months. There are 5 people living in the house and one has yet to arrive- 2 guys, one from Switzerland and one from UW Madison and then the other girl is from Norway. The number of Madison kids here is unreal. I think that the kids from other countries are getting fed up with us “Americans”; well such is life I suppose.
The landlord welcomed us and talked with us for 1 ½ about the house and her expectations and rules. It was quite overwhelming and she seems rather neurotic. Apparently there were many damages to the house last semester, so she covered all of her bases. The house is beautiful, I have my own room on the second floor overlooking the “garden” which is what they call the backyard. The backyard actually connects to another backyard with another house of 5 international students so it will be nice to hang around with them also. The house is super secure. There is a gate/barred door, then the main front door which has two locks. Then when you enter the house there is an alarm system. I’m afraid that I’m going to trip the alarm/not be able to open all of the doors. We set off the alarm on purpose just hear what it sounded like and then the alarm company called and we had to give them a password to let them know it was just us. The security here is not a light matter and with all of these protections, it becomes readily apparent.
We also you bought electricity from the grocery store and have to pay for the internet per data uploaded. So long days of spending hours on the internet…..
One thing I have learned is that Americans dress like complete schmucks in comparison to South Africans. (or at least I dress like a complete schmuck). The other day when we were hiking around I was wearing a pair of soccer shorts and some random t shirt and the orientation leader told me that girls at UCT don’t wear gym clothes or sneakers to school. GREAT. 90% of my clothes fall under this category and are now deemed completely inappropriate. I guess I don’t have to pretend I’m from SA anyways- they know from the minute they see my white beyond white skin I’m a foreigner. By the way, the accents are wonderful. My favorite is when they say “ya”. It almost rhymes with jaw in the sense that its long and drawn out. Frequently this ya business comes in at the end of sentences, as in, “its pretty yaahhh?” Watch out, I’m going to come home saying yaaaaa. Yaaaah?
Tomorrow we go on the Cape Peninsula tour to see penguins, the coastline and some of the townships. Should be excellent.