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