Day 17

Other than classes starting, not a very exciting week.

The sore throat I had been dealing with for a while has turned into a cold and fever so lucky for me I get to be that kid in class who is sneezing and sniffling the whole time. Unfortunate when it's a class of 300.

School is pretty good. UCT is the number one university in all of Africa, so it will undoubtedly be challenging. I got really lucky with my schedule, tutorials and all, so hopefully it won't be too painful. Everything with academics here is really unclear. One of my classes says it meets every MTWTHF, so today I went to class only to discover that it's only on occasional Fridays the class meets. How was I supposed to know? Same with the university's academic calendar as a whole. We're supposed to have two holidays, one in August and one in September, but do I have class that day? No way of knowing. The university's academic calendars don't provide any information of the sort. It doesn't even list when final exams are.

With scheduling on the mind, I'm successfully slowing down the house internet browsing through various travel websites. Ideally, I'd like to do a trip to Botswana and Victoria falls for "Spring" break, and then a few other 2-4 day trips including wine weekends in Stellenbosch, Garden Route tour (which sounds SICK but waiting until the weather gets nicer), and a potential adventure to Kruger National Park. If I'm able to fit it all in, desperation for financing might lead to starvation, but let's hope not.

My cooking skills are still quite minimal, though I was very satisfied with my homemade sandwich today. Toasted bread with a little oil on it, avocado, turkey, and cheese. Yes, I'm aware that doesn't deserve me the title of Iron Chef, but I was pleased I made something that used more than 2 ingredients and it actually tasted good. Goal for the end of the trip: perfecting the art of cooking meat. So far my skills end at cooking hotdogs.

Yesterday I joined a gym. Ambitious right? Well fortunately a campus shuttle stops about a block away and it's a cheap ride home. Makes it hard to avoid. After I signed up, I asked if someone could show me around, since they neglected to do that in the sales pitch, and I wound up with a personal trainer, Juan Pierre, who literally wanted me to crumble. Forty five minutes later, another plank was entirely out of the question and I was set free. Any kind of physical movement this morning was quite difficult. I think tomorrow my work out will consist of sitting in the steam room to de-clog my face of congestion. Juan Pierre will have to find someone else to make suffer.

Day 14

Today was an expensive day. But at least now I feel like I finally have my life together.

Bought textbooks, school supplies.... but then the day got better. I decided to splurge and drop my laundry off at a service. Don't worry Mom and Dad - the habit won't continue. We don't have dryers in our house so instead we hang dry everything. Problem is, it's so cold, nothing dries. And it's so windy, odds are things will blow away. So tonight I get to crawl into sheets that are still warm and rest my head on my amazingly soft (new) pillowcase. Ahhhh. Of course I did all this alone so I was slightly afraid I would get jumped, but all worked out fine and I made it home before sun down.

UCT is probably the most unorganized administration ever. I registered for a class last Friday, and the computer system still doesn't list me in the class, so therefore I don't have access to any course materials. At least I got my log in info straightened out this morning.... they assured me it won't happen again.... suuuure.

Tuesdays are pretty much a guaranteed night in here in Cape Town. Which means lucky for me my sore throat can rest and I'll end up doing some tidying / reading for school.

My housemates are quickly catching on to my obsession with checking the weather. At least they're getting more detailed statistics when the general go to move is to grab a rain jacket every day.

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.

Day 12

Another great weekend in Cape Town.

Old Biscuit Mill is your upscale farmer's market. Walking in to the main area a bunch of small shops and fancy dining venues can be seen. But then you see two large tents, absolutely packed with hungry shoppers, food vendors, and premade lunch items. The food was awesome. It was definitely easy to spend a lot because after buying one overpriced item, the next thing down the line looked too good to resist. Almost like the MN State Fair... but not quite.

The day consisted of torrential rain which encouraged me to go home, snuggle up, and not leave the living room for hours. Eventually I made moves and grabbed dinner with my friend, Olivia, at Hello Sailor in Obs. Great food, great wine, great company. Called it an early night, came back to prepare for our upcoming day at Mzoli's.

In a Township called Guguletu, there is a place called Mzoli's. Imagine hosting a day party at Famous Dave's, yet really unclassy, with a lot of alcohol, and platters of meat, with loud house music playing, in a really poor town. That is Mzoli's. As a part of being in the CIEE program, our RA's are responsible for getting us "engaged" with communities and taking us on Community Action Programs. My name, I assumed it was more of a volunteer thing. Instead a group of about 30 of us went to Guguletu to learn about how these poorer than poor townships were formed and how their heartbreaking way of life is entirely normal. You know the beginning of the movie Slumdog Millionaire? When you see the boys running through the township? That could have been filmed in Guguletu. Seeing how these people lived, and how they looked at me, I could not have felt more guilty / privileged for what I had. But the kids ran around with smiles on their faces full of unconditional happiness, making it hard to forget that these people are actually comfortable with their lifestyle. We were escorted around town for about an hour and a half before we landed at Mzoli's and the feasting / drinking began. Definitely a fun time.

 


We got back and the whole house crashed for a few hours, relaxing evening, actually a quiet night. Got caught up on Suits (finally), and going to bed early. Maybe I'm weak, but all the constant "go" is definitely starting to catch up. Sore throat and cough... uh oh. First day of school tomorrow! We'll see how that goes...

Regardless of how lost I might get on campus, very excited for some routine and something new.

Day 10

To honor the birth of Nelson Mandela, many organizations dedicate a day of service for underprivileged communities. CIEE (the program I'm studying with) organized bringing students to a village near government sponsored housing about 45 min out from Cape Town where we had the opportunity to read stories to children, play sports with them, face painting, gardening, or painting their houses.

Imagine a neighborhood of old chicken coops... or something like this: 

There were hundreds of these shacks lined up. And this is normal. 

I chose to be in the group that painted the houses. Once the little kids saw the clearly American crowd roll up, they were so excited and fascinated, they did anything to get attention and participate in our work. Some would grab brushes out of our hands and go over completed walls just to feel they were a part of something too. Getting their pictures taken and later reviewing the photos on a digital screen was a huge hit. 

After resting from working in the (actually hot) sun, most abroad kids went to Stones, a classic bar on a Wednesday night.

Observatory, locally known as "Obs" is a little hipster-esk pocket with only a handful of destinations, Stones being one of them. I went out with a friend who goes to Berkeley but in a different program; Finally a Californian. Since my ambition is to hang out with the locals, we tried to branch out from the other American kids which ended up leading us to hanging out with a pack of Danish girls and Norwegian men. The amount of "oh yas" and "ya knows" that were exchanged made me feel right at home. 

They asked me where I was from, and assuming they would have no idea where Minneapolis was, I said the United States. They gave me a weird look and said well obviously, but where are you from? I couldn't believe how well Europeans know American geography. And they all spoke great English. I felt pretty cool the next day at pre registration knowing all the attractive Scandinavians.

Other things I've noticed about this culture / being American:

1) No one here wears North Face anything. Good thing I own about five North Face jackets (happened to only bring two) and a backpack so I'll certainly be identifiably American on campus.

2)  There is no storage or electrical outlets in the bathrooms. Maybe this is just my house, but I find it entirely weird. 

3) No one has a night stand

4) No one uses laundry bags here. Instead plastic baskets are used. So not efficient. So my dirty clothes are in a pile under my desk. Lovely. 

5) Desk storage? My desk is a counter built into the wall. 

Yesterday two guys in my program got mugged at gun point. Apparently they went to the back to get some currency exchanged and were followed on their way back. 3 against 2, they forfeited their cash, passport, watches, the works. Fortunately CIEE has been really good about helping them communicate with the embassy and the police and getting everything taken care of. The route they walked was a path I went on alone just two hours later, not knowing what had happened. 

Today was registration day for classes. What a scene. After a lot of correspondence with multiple departments at Santa Clara and the CIEE academic advisor, I scored. At UCT you have to take between 72-90 units. I'm taking 60, and somehow I got approval. Classes will be hard, especially those in the Commerce Faculty (business ie Economics). I ended up registering for Religions in Africa, to fulfill my SCU Religion 2 requirement, Intermediate Macro (equiv to Econ 115) and Cooperation and Competition, also known as Game Theory, for an econ elective. Three classes 4 days a week with "labs" on Fridays. Not too bad. Start at 10AM, out at 1PM. Like I said, I scored. 

It's pouring rain outside, so not exactly a good day to explore town though I literally have nothing to do. So instead I'm enjoying having the house to myself and probably venture out when things get rowdy - not a rare occasion here at Malleson. 

Day 7

Who needs a stair master when you have Table Mountain?

Today was the first day since we've been here with a consistent temperature. 65 degrees and sunny, great day for hiking. Challenge accepted.

A group of five of us left trailhead early afternoon thinking we were going to have a great day with beautiful views. It lived up to it's expectation, except the altitude sickness / dehydration and wanting to physically collapse were not in the plan. I thought I was going to die. The hike was literally 2 hours of seep stairs out of boulders. Once we reached the top, it was all worth it. On one side, the view was of other peaks and the ocean. Turning around the entire city of Cape Town was viewable. Absolutely breathtaking.

 

House dinner tonight, went to a thai restaurant. A couple of the boys thought they would enjoy their food "extra spicy". Beads of sweat and teardrops later, pepper eating contests commenced.

I probably won't be able to walk tomorrow, especially since my legs are already sore. But the plan is to volunteer for Nelson Mandella day and deliver food to underprivileged children and help paint their school. Should be quite the experience.

Day 6

Sunday night was the first clubbing experience in Cape Town.

So a few people decided to go to this place in Camps Bay, a very similar beach town to Santa Monica or something like the SoCal scene. It was rather quiet when we arrived, and an absolute scene when we left. Bottle service commenced, joints were rolled, and lots of American dancing, which undoubtedly consisted of cranking out a few Zumba / Jazzercise moves. Of course I felt the need to ditch being a part of the American cult and make friends with the DJ (thanks Dad for raising me where chillin out in the sound booth is normal) and his friend who turned out to be the club manager. Needless to say it paid off being friendly and I got a few drinks delivered on the house, including a promise for welcoming recognition next time I decided to go back. 

Attempted UCT orientation today which was a complete fail for most who participated. My sole purpose was to get a campus tour, annnnd that was definitely not in the cards. But the campus is beautiful, literally a city on a hill. Pictures to follow.

One thing I learned today, I'm going through culture shock. But not because I'm in South Africa, but because I'm surrounded by American students from the East Coast. Prior to this trip, as far east as I was familiar with was Michigan.