Day 13

The beginning of Finding Nemo "first day of school! first day of school! first day of school!"

That was so not my thought when the alarm went off at 8:15 AM.

Hopped on the Jammie (campus shuttle) at 9:20 for just enough time to figure out how the heck to find my 10AM class. Fortunately I was able to figure it out on my own with out making it entirely obvious I'm an International Student.

There is next to zero help or clarity to explain where classes are. To map it out, one has to log in to an online site, which half the time isn't functioning and you need an account thats a pain to get. Then once you look at it, the locations are abbreviated so then you have to google and guess what they mean.

Finding my first class was a success, the second had a few minor difficulties (I knew my destination but I forgot what class I was going to), and the third... far more complicated. The abbreviation from the website was "James" so OK I think I'm going to Jameson Hall, this beautiful big building with large steps leading up to it. False. I walk in the front door to find a large empty room, two people standing in the middle asking me what I was doing there and if I needed anything. Needing an impulsive cover, I used the International Student title to my advantage and said I was new and had never seen inside the beautiful building. I scurried the hell out of there. With five minutes remaining until class time, wandered campus trying to find another building with the name "James" in it. Victory with seconds to spare.

Then of course I found another kink in the system when trying to register for tutorials (discussions / labs) and the network decided my username and password were no longer valid. We'll see if there are any openings by the time that gets up and running. Unfortunately the relaxation of the UCT admin has not been working to my advantage.

Waking up early to buy books and school supplies. Apparently mechanical pencils and college ruled notebooks are not common.

A significant portion of the UCT student body is beautiful and dressed to impress. Pressure's on.