UCT!

(btw I wrote this entry yesterday but had some problems with my internet so I had to wait to post it until today)

Hi everyone!
I want to start of by apologizing for my severe lack of pictures. I made an executive decision that Friday will be the day for me to upload pics since I don't have class at all (hoorah!) so I can go down to Rondebosch (the neighborhood over where the UCT campus is) and use the internet cafe. And I know I've been bad with never using my Facebook but I have received all of your wall posts and messages. Since FB eats up my megabytes like whoa I try to spend as little time as possible on there, usually only enough time to check to see if there are any new messages and then to quickly stalk some of you :-P. I have so many wallposts/messages to respond to that it would take me forever to do them all so I'll wait to do that on Friday in Rondebosch. I check my e-mail fairly regularly and the megabyte usage isn't quite as bad with that so if you'd rather shoot me an e-mail you're probably more likely to get response. I swear it's not because I don't like you its just that I like my megabytes better haha. :-P

Monday was the first day of lectures. So far I've had 3 out of my 4 classes and so far I'm loving it. Medical Anthropology sounds like it is going to be particularly fascinating and I really like the 3 professors who are going to be teaching. Yesterday was my first African dance class and OMG it was amazing. I am so sore today. We get to dance to a live drummer and everything. The teacher promised us that we would be in such amazing shape by the end of the semester and I totally believe him! I'm already struggling with Xhosa ... there are 3 different clicking sounds used in the language and they are difficult to master and unlike some of my classmates I am not proving to be a natural clicker. The classes are HUGE and are held in huge lecture halls. It was sort of overwhelming entering my Med Anth class for the first time, seeing a lecture hall full of about 150 students. Here they don’t have caps on class sizes, they just change the venue to accommodate the number of students who have chosen toenroll in the class.

The UCT campus is absolutely gorgeous and is always swarming with people. It is one of the most diverse universities in Africa and possibly the world ... there is probably an equal amount of white and black students in addition to a decent Indian population. I often see girls wearing headscarves too. Many of the black students are from all over Africa like Cameroon, Lesotho, Kenya, Botswana, and Zimbabwe. The diversity isn’t just visible but also audible. Nearly all of the Indian students speak with an Indian accent. There are a decent number of Afrikaans speakers around and a major Xhosa-speaking population. The South African English accent is beautiful and sounds very much like an Australian accent … I love listening to it. Some students speak their own local languages with one another. Whenever I am with my friend from Cameroon and his friends, they are constantly jumping from French, ‘Pigeon English’ and English. The majority of the black students here are multi-lingual, usually having the ability to speak at least 3 languages fluently. Many people I have met can speak up to 8 languages. It makes me feel super lame/stupid as an American who can hardly speak two.

It feels like a real college campus with so many people around. When standing on the Jammie steps (the steps you see in front of an impressive building fronted with pillars that you'll see in any Google Image search of then University of Cape Town) and facing away from the building you get an incredible view of Cape Town (the university sits on the base of Devil's Peak which is next to Table Mountain). It is especially beautiful in the early morning when I arrive on campus around 8:30 when you can see a layer of morning haze over the city. One of these days I'll have to take a picture of it.

My schedule is pretty awesome, I have to say. I'm getting spoiled here because this would never happen at 'Berg. All classes here are only 45 minutes long and usually meet 3 (or 4, depending) times a week for lectures and then once again in smaller groups for a tutorial (a 'tut' for short). Something about the scheduling here is that the entire university runs on a period schedule, just like high school. Classes meet during periods 1-8, with a meridian period from 1-2 during which all but few classes will never be scheduled. Period 1 is from 8-8:45, period 2 at 9-9:45, etc. For my 9am class, I usually leave my dorm between 8:15 to 8:30 in order to catch the Jammie (UCT shuttle system) from Liesbeek (my dorm building) to Upper Campus. The walk from Liesbeek to the Lower Campus Jammie stop is about 20 minutes. If I decide to walk all the way up to Upper campus where most classes are held it takes me a total of about 45 minutes so yeah, won’t be doing that, like, EVER. Haha. On the Jammie it is only about 7 minutes from Liesbeek to Upper campus. As of right now, I have zero class on Friday and 4, 5 or 6 hour gaps of time each afternoon with no class. The past 3 days I've come home in between (like today) to nap/grocery shop/blog but I imagine once things get rolling I'll stay on campus in the library and try to get my work done during the day.

In other news, today marks exactly 3 weeks in Cape Town and exactly 1 month until I turn 21! Weee!

There is residence hall here called Rochester. I flipped out the first time I saw the Jammie that said “Rochester” on the top. So even when I’m in Cape Town I’m never far from Rocha-cha :)

I love the exchange rate here. Ten rand is approx. 1 US dollar. Baller!! Meals on campus cost approx. R26 ($2.60) if you include a soda or something. I can do a major grocery run for about R300 ($30) and take a cab ride for R7 at the very most. OH and laundry is free here at Liesbeek. I am spoiled rotten here. Spoiled, I tell you!

Ok well I believe that is all for now. Sorry for the majorly long entry. So yeah, pictures on Friday! I miss you all very much.

Love,

Melissa

I have no idea what to title this entry

I realize my last entry was somewhat vague and perhaps leaving some of you wanting more details, so in this little edition I'll go into a little more detail of some of the interesting activities I have been taking part in here. Tuesday was the first day of UCT orientation. After an entire day of sitting in a lecture hall hearing talks about safety, the class registration procedure, etc. was an African drum circle! We all walked out of the building and set up on the plaza were rows and rows of chairs in the shape of a semi-circle, each chair with a drum on it. As we entered the plaza and took our seats, 5 drummers (3 smaller bongos and 2 large bass drums) were playing a beat and we joined in as soon as we got our drums. The drum session was basically a call and response sort of thing, with the leaders doing something and us (attempting) to do the same thing back to them. At one point the leader actually taught us a little 3-part song that we could try in small groups or solo if we wanted. I volunteered to do it with my friend Abby alone and it was pretty fun! I wish I had brought my camera because it was a pretty amazing sight/sound, with probably 200-something drummers on the plaza playing at (somewhat) the same time. My hands hurt like crazy by the end of it! When the drum session was over they brought out refreshments and a marimba band started to play. I danced the night away with some friends to the marimba music--those guys were great!

Thursday we took a bus tour of some of the volunteer sights that we could work at if we wanted. With the way the timing worked out we unfortunately had very limited time at each sight but we got a chance to see the sorts of places that we could be spending our time helping during the semester. After that we made our way to the beach! Sadly it wasn’t really beach weather because it was sort of overcast and VERY windy and sorta cold so we just sat on the boardwalk/put our feet in the water. We had to take the train back to Mowbray (my neighborhood) so Neo, Lindizwe, and Thapz (SOL-mates) took us. When we were on the train, Thapz explained to us why we took the train instead of using the busses that took us to the beach. He told us that we were riding 3rd class and that it will be a good experience. We were confused because everything seemed pretty normal to us but a few stops later the train got absolutely PACKED. I was sandwiched between 2 people so tightly that I couldn’t even breathe fully and I was practically in a headlock of random arms holding onto the poles. People were shouting over each other in Xhosa (a regional language here) and the 20 or so CIEE kids were certainly the only white people in the car. At each stop the doors aren’t open for that long so when it was time for us to get off we had to shove our way through people to get through. We didn’t really know when to get off and Lindizwe was supposed to whistle when it was our time to get off but he didn’t so we had to ask the people next to us and when we stopped at Mowbray they just started shoving us towards the exit. I have never been in a place so crowded in my life…it was insane! It was rush hour (around 5:30) when we were there so the majority of the other people on the train were commuting back home from work. They were right, it was certainly a memorable experience.

This afternoon CIEE took us to a soccer game. Soccer here in SA is equivalent to football or baseball here-the fans get REALLY into it and there are cheerleaders and halftime and everything. The entire stadium was full of roaring fans with noisemakers and flags. Something the CIEE program director told us to pay attention to at the soccer game was the kinds of fans who were there. Well it didn’t take long for us to realize that the 100-ish of us were the only white people in the entire stadium. We all sat in the same little section and I think by doing that we sort of made spectacles of ourselves. Many of us did get really into the game … I know I certainly enjoyed cheering along with crowd for the Cape Town team the Santos, sometimes referred to as “the People’s team”.

Other random things: Barack Obama is a hero here. I see Obama shirts on the local people here all the time. I even saw an ‘Obama burger’ option on the menu of a local restaurant, the burger description being something along the lines of a classic American style burger. Pretty cool stuff. Oh and guess what? I get to go through election season all over again! Aren’t you all super jealous? Elections here are in April. It will be interesting to compare election season here to home, but I can already tell you that election fever has already spread. I see posters and t-shirts for the ANC everywhere. Apparently Obama’s victory in the states already inspired many young people to register to vote and get involved in the elections. I guess I won’t be getting away from the politics and schmolitics for a while. I registered for my classes and got my UCT student ID card yesterday! I will be taking and African studies class called Race, Identity and Culture which looks at identity in South Africa. Some of you know already but last semester I wrote a research proposal for studying identity in post-apartheid South Africa, so this class should be fascinating! I can’t wait. I’m also signed up for African dance, Xhosa, and Medical Anthropology. We start classes next Friday the 13th (dun dun dunnnn).

Whoa as I type I am experiencing my very first African rainstorm- thunder and lightning and everything. Ahh scary/cool.
Aaaand now I’ll attach a few pictures from my time here so far. More to come!

Sunrise from the plane as we approach London

Sarah and Table Mountain
Me at the Cape of Good Hope, the most south-west point on the African continent

My enormous room- on the left next to the window is a door that leads out the the balcony.
Soccer players & fans
Lots of love, Melissa

First update! sorry it took me so long...

Greetings from Cape Town! I am finally settled into my permanent room for the semester-- a HUGE single room (bigger than my room at home) that is part of a 4 room apartment with two bathrooms and a kitchen. One of my roommates is an American student from the same program as me. She, Ellie, goes to Skidmore and we actually have some mutual friends who go there too who I know from Hebrew school/youth group/Chavurah. As for my other two flat-mates, one of them is Neo (pronounced Nay-oh). He was actually a “SOL-mate” (SOL=student orientation leader) orientation leader for the CIEE program. The SOL-mates (about 20 of them) are all UCT students who showed us around Cape Town and helped lead orientation activities. I’m excited to be living with Neo and I think it will be helpful and comforting to have a SOL-mate actually living with us once all the orientation stuff slows down and we’re on our own a little more. Our 4th roommate hasn’t even moved in yet, so we shall see who it ends up being!

I have been very busy since the moment I stepped off the plane, hence the long wait for my first entry. CIEE orientation started as soon as we got to our hotel and continued until Sunday. Then Sunday we began UCT orientation which goes until tomorrow when we register for classes. During my very limited free time I have been exploring Cape Town a little. It’s hard to make any declarations about how I feel about this place since I’m still getting settled and am that whole “WOW I’m in Africa” state. But my initial impressions are that
a) if not anything else, this place is absolutely gorgeous. At first glance and from here on my 6th floor room it looks very much like Florida or California: bright colored houses with burnt-orange roofs surrounded by trees. But then when you look out past the rooftops you see the magnificent sight of Table Mountain, a landmark here in Cape Town. Table Mountain is a REALLY tall and flat mountain that overlooks the city. The University of Cape Town, my academic home for the next 5 months, is built at the base of the mountain. Often late in the day Table Mountain gets a “table cloth”— a mass of clouds over the top of it. It really is a magnificent sight. From other places you can also see the many township communities which are basically rows and rows of shacks where many South Africans live. We’ve already visited two townships in groups and I will be returning to them regularly for volunteering projects. These volunteering programs are a major part of the CIEE study abroad program that I am taking part in and many of them involve being role models, teaching math, science, English, music, and self confidence to the township children.
b) The weather is fantastic. 80-ish degrees and a cloudless sky every day. It’s also extremely breezy here which helps with making it not feel like I’m baking when I’m outside. Apparently later on it will get less windy and a bit hotter but I’m OK with that. This is loads better than negative temperatures and multiple feet of snow back at home! OK, I’m done bragging now :-D.
c) It will probably take me a while to become comfortable here than I would like. First of all this is a big city, which I’m not used to. I’m not accustomed to having to walk or take public transportation everywhere. I must desensitize myself from the children who approach me on the street asking for food and money, which happened to me yesterday for the first time and really shook me up. I also need to learn to be more aggressive/confident in nearly almost every social situation, from confidently walking down the street as to prevent looking unsure and make myself victim to a mugging, trying to order a drink at a crowded bar, pushing through the hoards of people all trying to get on the same bus, to hailing a cab and then calling him out when he’s not going the right way and trying to scam me and get the meter up (all situations I have found myself already). Also I’m simply not used to sticking out like a sore thumb. There is a good amount of white people here but especially in my neighborhood I feel like I’m always being stared at. The moment I open my mouth people will know I’m American so I have to be aware about where I choose to open my mouth and talk. Finally, the university teaching system here is way different than ‘Berg (huge lecture classes, a final that counts for 60% of the grade, no asking questions during lectures or much contact with the lecturer at all, etc.). And let’s not forget that I’m in a different country halfway across the world with different customs, expectations, politics, etc.

I certainly have a lot to get adjusted to so I must be patient. I’ll try to upload some pictures but I have to pay for my wireless per megabyte, so uploading pictures onto the internet is pretty costly but I will perhaps pick out a few favorites and post them here for you.

Soooo this is the end of my first entry. I’m already working on the next one and it should be up soon. I think of home and you all a lot. Sending you some African lovin’ and African sunshine!

-Melissa