Date: 18/02/2011
Time: 20:32
Days abroad: 26
Oh my gosh, what a week. Classes started this week and I am WORN OUT. Their scheduling system is so bizarre…they have “periods” that are one hour long and you register for a class in a certain period then your professor tells you which days you have class…so it could be 5 days a week and it could be 2, you don’t know until after registration is over and your teacher gives you the course handout. This is very inconvenient. At University of Oregon, I can take a class at 9am Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and a completely different class at 9am on Tuesdays and Thursdays. No such luck here. If you have a class in second period your teacher owns your time 9-9:45am 5 days a week. Even if they only schedule class Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday you don’t know that until you start so you cant sign up for another and hope it is only Thursday and Friday. Nope. If 2 classes you want are in the same period, too bad, find a different class. Anyways, my point in all of this is…my schedule is crazy weird. Because each of my professors want a different day of the week off. And I have class from 9-4 Tues, Wed, Thurs but only 45 minutes of class on Mondays and Fridays…which would be fine except my volunteer transportation only goes out to the high school I am volunteering at in the evenings…so I can only go on Fridays. Because my 3-4 class meers Monday-Thursday. Talk about frustrating. I guess this is all part of navigating a new country, right?
Other than the scheduling, classes went swimmingly this week. I think I am going to really like all of them. A bunch of people in my program were kind of freaking out because the lectures here are all about 200 (or more) people and they all go to small, private schools where the average class size is like 15. I keep telling them all it is fine, all of the big classes meet in small tutorial groups once a week and you can get your discussion in then.
UCT itself is very comparable to the University of Oregon in size, I think...it has about 26,000 undergrads so I think it is just a small bit larger. (I’m not sure on UO’s exact enrollment anymore and googling it would cost me too many megabytes. Haha, you don’t realize how spoiled we are with all of our unlimited internet until it is taken away.) The diversity at UCT, though, is unlike anywhere I have ever been. As a white student, I believe I am in the minority. Barely, but still, the minority. The majority of the student body is black (full African) while a large portion of it is Colored (most people who are not ‘white’ or ‘black’ are considered ‘colored’…like everyone who is mixed race…it isn’t a derogatory term like in the states…it is just a description). Anyways, I think the population is almost divided in 3rds but the Black population is slightly larger and the White population is slightly smaller. It’s crazy because as I walk down the sidewalk I hear so many different languages and accents. And it makes class discussions very interesting because everyone comes from so many different places. There are people who come from all over Africa to attend UCT, it is considered one of the premier universities on the continent. Most of the international students are American…I have met a couple of Dutch and a couple of Norweigans…I think that is about it for world-wide representation…
The campus itself is beautiful…though it is literally built INTO THE SIDE OF A MOUNTAIN. I get an excellent cardio workout on my walk to school every morning. I’m going to have glutes and claves that will make Richard Simmons jealous by the time I get home. There is a shuttle that goes to upper campus but I would have to walk about 10 minutes to get to the shuttle stop and it only takes me 20 to hike up the hill so I’ve been walking all week. It’s good for me, right? Anyways…I’m not including any pictures this time because they cost a lot of megabytes but the picture of Jameson Hall last week should give you slight indication of how pretty campus is. I’ll put up some more pictures in a week or two...another thing about campus, South Africans walk SO SLOW. Seriously, I think they can all tell I’m American because I weave around them down the sidewalk. Oh, and because I try to pass on the right. Hahaahaha. I always step right when I meet someone and they step left because they drive on the left here and there is that awkward back and forth moment where you both don’t know which way to go..I;m sure you all know what moment I am talking about. Well Monday and Tuesday it happened ALL THE TIME. By Wednesday though, I remembered to consciously think “move to the LEFT” when someone was walking towards me.
The policy that I have officially adopted this week: attend anything on campus that promises “refreshments”. The refreshments here are always like fully catered meals. I went with a friend to a speech on Wednesday, it actually sounded cool, it was the first Black South African to earn his PhD so we actually wanted to hear him speak…it turned out to be a 2 hour lecture with about 4 speakers. All talking about investments and finance and corporations…oh my goodness, snooze-fest. But the refreshments were AMAZING. I had some lemon-herby chicken and some cheese-herb pita and sausage rolls, and little pastries filled with spinach and cute little mini-sandwiches! And, as always, Coke and Orange Fanta. They LOVE their Orange Fanta here. So, my new policy…always attend functions that include refreshments. Totally worth the awkward moment at the end where they ask you if you enjoyed the function and if you are interested in joining their society (in the case of InvestSoc, I had to politely decline). Our study abroad fee includes the cost of joining any 3 societies on campus (except skydiving club, which I’m kind of okay with). So I’ve been talking to people about the different societies. The only one I have signed up for thus far is Habitat for Humanity…since my volunteer organization through CIEE can only get me to the high school once a week I figured I’d better find some other things to do with my free time…and why not build houses? I am trying to decide on another society but it is so hard to choose! They have a lot here! I was considering yacht club, they have beginners sailing every Wednesday night; or fencing club, I could totally learn to fence; or maybe a club that has an African country in the title…like Namibia club or Zimbabwe club…I don’t know. Too many choices.
My house was supposed to go to Robben Island tomorrow (where Nelson Mandela was held prisoner) but when my RA went to buy tickets, they were sold out this week…so, hopefully next weekend. Sunday we are going to Mzoli’s which is a place in a township where you go and there are a bunch of shops and stuff and they serve you meat. Lots and lots of meat. I guess it is a really cool experience to hang out with the locals and eat meat and drink beer. I am pretty excited about it.
Also, the grocery store here, has a WHOLE AISLE for cookies and crackers. And they call them ALL biscuits. Which is so British. It kills me. They have 6 kinds of cereal but a whole entire aisle of tea-time treats. I bought some delicious coconut cookie cracker things the other day…very addicting. And the whole package was 4 rand. Which is about 70 cents US. Excellent!
I talked to a guy at a party the other night who is from Zimbabwe but he is half Belgian and half Zimbabwe-an and he went to the US for the first time last winter. I asked what area of the US he went to and he said (honestly) “New York City, Washington DC, and Toledo.” I was like, “WHAT?! Toledo?!” hahah, so random. I guess he has an aunt in Toledo but it was still hilarious. I asked what he thought of America and he said everything was so big in America! So, naturally, I asked what he meant by that and he said “the trollies in the grocery mart! They were as big as a car in South Africa!” Which I also thought was very amusing. It is always funny to me to hear about someone’s opinion of the states.
Anyways, I better be off…a couple of us are having movie night at a friend’s and I am the movie supplier…so I guess I better not be late!
Congratulations to Dan and Jayne on my little niece! And to the Gibbons on Asher’s baby sister! I can’t wait to meet all the new additions when I get home!!
Love
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