As excited as I was to get back to Texas after over 24 hours in the air? I will miss my time in Cape Town dearly. Participating in a study abroad course has been a goal of mine since the beginning of college and this experience exceeded all my expectations! From visiting historical areas to speaking to business owners, my perspective on the country of South Africa changed immensely.
Looking back at my time abroad, I am thankful for our stay in a hostel in the middle of cape town for the first few nights. We were thrown into the South African culture before we could even have our morning coffee. Every morning, and night, we were always running into people from several different countries and engaging in thought-provoking conversations. They were curious about our culture and we were curious about theirs. One guest at the hostel even shared her journey with us of working on various business ventures virtually while abroad. This experience was really eye-opening in every way and allowed my peers and me to appreciate this opportunity to learn even more.
During my first blog post, I mentioned a couple of businesses we had already been to that formed my first impressions. We visited several other businesses during the remainder of the trip and I learned that in some aspects, business in South Africa isn?t that different from America. While they have more hardships involving infrastructure and government biases, they had similar business models. Although, one difference I noticed, which I believe America needs to adopt this idea as well, is that South African businesses consider the environment and their culture heavily in all business decisions. They wish to tell a story and make a difference. It was truly refreshing to speak to these business owners that were truly passionate about their customers and the environment around them.
I would recommend this trip to anyone looking to go abroad! Even if South Africa isn?t on your bucket list (it definitely wasn?t on mine at first), it could be one of the best experiences of your life! I will never forget the EDU Africa staff, our Texas A&M faculty that was with us, as well as all the friendships that I was able to make. There are lots of opportunities to bond when you go abroad!