They may find the registration lines tedious, but speak to any of the 229 international study-abroad students who dropped anchor at UCT recently, and it's clear they're going to revel in the next four-and-a-half months here.

Casey Golomski, a junior (third-year) at St Norbert College in Wisconsin in the US, not only plans to add a dash of African flavour to his anthropology studies, but also looks forward to taking in plenty of sights in and around Cape Town. And Lindsey Schaefer, a humanities junior from Alfred University in New York State, wants to see some wild animals, so she'll be making a turn at some local game parks.

As part of its regular orientation programme, the International Academic Programmes Office set the sightseeing ball rolling for the students, squiring them on a trip around the Peninsula - with stopovers at Boulders Beach and Cape Point - and to Robben Island. The students also visited locales off the regular tourist track when student organisation Shawco hosted stops at some of its sites.

Golomski was among those who soaked it all up. "It's going to be a great four months here," he observed the morning after a rousing welcoming function.

Schaefer, seated next to him during registration, nodded in enthused agreement.