Initial Impression of Cape Town – Pablo De La Garza

Howdy! My name is Pablo De La Garza, and I am a sophomore accounting major from Brownsville, TX. Our group arrived in Cape town about a week ago, on December 30th. There is so much I have to say about this place, and I would like to start off by emphasizing how much I love it. It is one of the most beautiful places on Earth, and it should be on everybody’s bucket list. Everywhere I look, I am taken aback by the beauty of this place. We stayed in the city for the first three days, and my favorite activity was paragliding. On our fourth day, we went two hours outside the city to the Aquila Safari, where we saw all sorts of animals, like elephants and baboons. I also particularly enjoyed our conversations with safari employees about the management of the safari and their conservation efforts. I learned how they integrate sustainable practices into how they conduct business. After a night on the safari, we finally came to our final accommodation, ?The Team House.? This house is situated on Noordhoek beach, and the views are amazing. This is the most beautiful beach I have ever seen, and it is so cool to have the views right from our living room. On our first day at the team house, we heard a speaker talk to us about apartheid and how it has affected the business world in South Africa. I learned about the South African economy’s setbacks in the last couple of decades compared to the United States. It was interesting to see how unemployment and job opportunities are discussed differently than it is in the U.S. We also got to tour a township. I was really impacted by how different people live across the area. I learned how different cultures have drastically different values and people have different perceptions of what it means to succeed. Overall, those two experiences impacted me greatly and taught me things I would have never otherwise learned. We now have a little over a week left in South Africa, and it?s all going too fast. I hope to continue having as much fun as I have been having while gaining a deeper understanding of how the South African economy and businesses operate, specifically in the context of how they evolve in a post-apartheid South Africa.