Molweni!

I would first like to start by mentioning some of the little interactions with South Africans that have stuck out to me in the few weeks since I have been here. One thing that I have noticed is that South Africans are really friendly. A couple weeks ago I went up to campus with several other students on my program because they needed to buy tickets for an event. One guy that we asked directions from not only told us where we had to go but actually brought us to the building we needed to be at. A similar occurrence happened when we were looking for the computer lab several days later. The guy whom we asked directions from went out of his way to bring us all the way to the computer lab.

Also this week I experience my first minibus ride since I’ve been here. I guess I should explain what exactly minibuses are. They are essentially taxis (vans) take people from one place to another, picking up more people along the way. There is a driver and also another person that shouts out the window trying to find people that want a ride. On a casual walk to the grocery store around five of these honk and see if I want to ride on one. We were trying to go to the V&A Waterfront and thus had to take two minibuses to get there. The first went to Cape Town, where we had to get off and grab one heading towards either Sea Point or Camps Bay. Where we got off was like a minibus station and had minibuses heading to a bunch of different places.

On Saturday we had an excursion to Robben Island, the District Six Museum, and the Slave Lodge with Arcadia. It was a very interesting and insightful day. I just finished reading A Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela, which talks about his life and especially his part in the struggle to end the apartheid. He spent 18 years of his 27-year imprisonment at the Robben Island jail so I was excited to go to the prison and hear about his experience from another point of view. Once we got off the ferry at the island we took a bus tour around the island and then took a tour of the prison, which was given by a tour guide who was a political prisoner there in the 1980’s. He told us about some of his experience from when he was there for six years. He mentioned how the political prisoners would still discuss politics and get political literature even though they were in jail. He also mentioned that one way they passed the time was by studying, and so many prisoners came out of jail with college or high school degrees. He also mentioned that the older political leaders would take time to talk to the young ones and acted as mentors. In his book, Mandela talked about this and also that the political prisoners had to fight for their rights. They often organized hunger strikes in order to get equal food and the treatment that they deserved as political prisoners. At the beginning they were treated terribly, couldn’t study, and were given different food than the white and Indian prisoners. It was interesting to talk to our tour guide at the prison because he was there at a time when the political prisoners had won these rights. Another thing that is pretty interesting is that all of this happened recently. Nelson Mandela was realized from jail in my lifetime. It is hard to believe that so many were wronged (and that so many people in the world still are) so recently. It’s really started to hit me just how sheltered my life in the U.S. really is. On another note the spirit of the people on Robben Island really impressed me. Many people who work at the museum live on the island, even though they were imprisoned there for many years. They stress the importance that they want the island to be used as a teaching point for tolerance, respect, and non-racialism. They don’t want it to become a symbol of the hardships that prisoners faced but rather what they accomplished. I think that is a very powerful message.

After Robben Island we headed to the District Six Museum, which was also fascinating. District Six is an area of Cape Town that used to be a vibrant mixed-racial community that was uprooted and forced to leave when the government declared it a white-only area. The museum was originally set up to serve as a meeting place for the ex-residents of District Six but now serves as a place for tourists to come and learn about District Six. Our tour guide had lived there for about 30 years before everyone was forced into the townships.

UCT

Howzit!

So now that classes have officially started I thought it would be appropriate to write about school here. I am attending the University of Cape Town for the semester and am in the Commerce faculty (=college, similar to the GW School of Business). The process for registration is pretty lengthy, especially for SSA (semester study abroad) students, not to mention the fact that none of it is done online. First we had O-Week (orientation week), where they “explained” the process to us (only leaving out a few crucial details). Thursday of that week all of us had to go to campus for pre-registration. We stood in really long lines so that they could make sure our fees were paid and we are legitimate students. After that they gave us a sheet that we had to bring to actual registration.
Registration for most students was the next day. I had to go to campus at 9 in the commerce building, luckily there were no lines really because most SSA students are in humanities. However, no one there really knew what was going on. When I first applied to Arcadia I had to send them a list of classes I wanted to take so that they could get pre-approved (which I think is the university just checking to make sure I had all the prerequisites). If I wanted to get a different class pre-approved then I had fill out a form and go to the head of department to get it signed. So back to registration day, all of the SSA students had a list of classes we already had pre-approved but the registration people didn’t realize they had the list and so they thought we all needed the forms. Once they sorted that out they finally started signing our forms saying we could register for certain classes. Once I got my formed signed I asked the main guy where to go next and he just took my form and said I would have to wait to get my student id until everything went through. I was about to leave campus but thought better of it and decided to try to get my id anyways because that’s what they told us to do at orientation. So I went back and was able to get my id. Once I got back to my house and was talking with my flatmates they were saying how after they got their id someone told them to go and get their student accounts and passwords set up. By then it was too late to head back up to campus so I had to wait to do that until I got back from my trip. Luckily the commerce computer lab is open 24/7 so I was able to do that the Saturday before classes started. However, once I did that I logged into peoplesoft (where you check your schedule) and vula (kinda of like blackboard at GW) to make sure they registered me for the right classes. I originally wanted to take Business Finance, Marketing, Xhosa, and Comparative Politics, but Comparative Politics and Business Finance were at the same time and they put me in Comparative Politics when I need Business Finance more.
This brings me to the next part of registration, which is the add/drop period. Once again this can’t be done online. On the first day of classes I got to campus an hour early to try sort out a new schedule. I first went to the commerce building but realized that I had to have already printed out the change of curriculum form. So from there I headed to the international student office to see if they had any. While there I found out that I needed my unofficial transcript. Once I got that back I headed to my first class (but more about that later). Then I went to sort out the rest of the changing of classes. I first had to go to the library and set up my student card for printing and then I had to print out the form. Then I headed back to the commerce building and waited in the line with my form. I was almost at the front when I realized I needed an advisor’s signature on the form. So I headed to an advisor but once I got there she said I also needed an unofficial UCT transcript to show what I am currently registered for. So I went to the commerce lab and printed that out and then went back to her. She was only able to sign off on the two business classes I wanted to add. For the Italian class I had to head to the Italian department in the humanities building. Once there the guy was super nice but said I had to take an entrance exam first, so I did that and then he signed my form. Finally I headed back to the commerce building and waited in line, only to turn in my form and say that they would process it in a few days. Sorry that was kind of a whirlwind of a description, I guess it fits with the process. It was definitely crazy at the time but it is rather comical looking back at it now that all my classes are sorted out.
Now more about the actual classes and the system at UCT. UCT is a pretty big school that has around 20,000 or so undergrads. The actual campus itself is split into 3 campus (lower, middle, and upper). It is about a 25 minutes walk to get from my house up to upper campus (which is where most undergrad classes are) and there is a gorgeous view from the top because the school is on the side of the mountain. But it is cool to be on a more traditional campus but definitely takes some getting used to. For one thing campus is super crowded because most people are there all day. I usually don’t go home between classes because the walk back up would not be worth it. Classes here last only 45 minutes. They all start on the hour and then there is 15 minutes between periods. Most classes have 3-4 lectures a week though, in addition to 1 tutorial (around 20 students, you have to sign up for them). Also for each class offered there is only one section, which means that you don’t really have a say of what time your classes are. This also means that classes are really big. My three business classes all have over 200 students in them. My only small class is Italian, which only has 7 students. In most classes we haven’t really started learning the material yet, but I’m pretty excited to. My marketing class is taught by a professor that just graduated (I’m pretty sure from his undergraduate degree) but his lectures seem like they will be interesting and engaging. My business finance class seems a little intense but I’m hoping I will learn a lot. I am also taking people management, it’s interesting because the course is taught by 4 different lecturers. My italian class is intermediate Italian but we focus on literature and poetry. It is nice to hear and speak Italian again because it has been so long. I had Italian for two hours today and I felt like I was just getting lost in a world of Italian. Random but food on campus is super cheap (most sandwiches are between $2 and $3)!

Also my blog posts maybe be changing a little bit from now on. I have to blog once a week for my contemporary issues in Africa class through Arcadia, but it is more about observations and interactions with locals, which means that hopefully I will be able to convey to you all a little bit more about the culture and life here.

Cheers!

Garden Route Tour

Hey everyone! So I just got back from a 5 day Garden Route Tour with a company called Southern Ambitions. There were about 25 of us from Arcadia that went on the trip in addition to our two guides Wes and Gary, who are both UCT students. It was a really awesome trip and a great way to spend the week I had off before school starts. Anyways here is a break down of how the trip went:

Monday:

We all met up at 7 to leave on our adventure but didn’t end up leaving until like 8:15 (gotta love South African time lol). The first item on our itinerary was a wine and chocolate tasting tour at a vineyard in Stellenbosch. First we got a tour of the vineyard and then we got to do a wine tasting. The guy who gave us the tour was really nice and even let us try wine that costs 1500 Rand ($200) per bottle. The vineyard was absolutely gorgeous. It was so green and had picturesque mountains in the background. After wine tasting we headed off to the Cheetah Breeding Centre. We learned about how endangered cheetahs are and go to see some of the cheetahs that were there. The centre was really cool because they also breed dogs that they give to farmers to try to prevent cheetahs from coming close to farms. Even though cheetahs aren’t harmful to farms many farmers don’t know that and try to kill cheetahs if they come close. The dogs are there to scare away the cheetahs and thus prevent farmers from killing them. After that we got lunch at a mall on the way to our backpacker’s (hostel) in Oudtshoorn. Malls in South Africa are pretty similar to ones in the U.S. except they tend to have grocery stores in them and high tech touch screen directories. Anyways once we got to the backpacker’s we had a braai (barbecue) for dinner. We had ostrich kebabs (which were surprisingly delicious), potatoes, bread, and salad. Along the way to the backpacker’s we stopped for some scenic pictures because the drive there was gorgeous. It is interesting because most of the signs were in Afrikaans (I’m assuming) and there seemed to be a lot of empty space without a lot of people living on it. Also we had a really interesting bus driver. His name is Arnold and he is a retired police officer. He was telling us how he grew up on farm where he learned to treat black people equally (this was during the apartheid in South Africa, which is basically legal segregation of white and blacks). He started work as a police officer in the 70’s and he treated everyone (no matter what color skin) equally and he said that a lot of times people would ask him why he would talk to black people. l had just finished reading A Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela, which talks about his struggle to get rid of the apartheid and so hearing the bus driver’s account was really interesting.

Tuesday:

Tuesday was a pretty exciting day. We had to wake up pretty early to head over to the Kango Caves, which have a lot of pretty stalactite and stalagmite formations. After that we headed to the Cango Ostrich Farm, which I was really excited for! First our guide told us a little bit about ostriches. One fun fact is that one ostrich eye weighs twice as much as their brain. Also ostrich eggs can hold up to 120 kg of weight on them. First we got to hold 10 day old ostrich chicks, which were adorable! After that we got to have an ostrich wrap its neck around us in a hug (it was incentivized by food lol). Once we did that the part I was really excited for came, which is of course riding an ostrich. Originally we thought only 6 people would get to ride an ostrich, but luckily our guide was really nice and whoever wanted to was able to. Riding an ostrich was definitely a different experience, kind of like riding a bull at a rodeo. The guys first catch an ostrich and put a bag over its head to calm it down. Then I had to climb on and hold on to the wings. Once I was all set they took the bag off and the ostrich started to run. They go pretty fast so it was quite fun and then you just have to slide off the ostrich in order to get off. I was super excited because that was one of the top things to do on my South Africa bucket list. Before we left the ostrich farm we got to stand on top of ostrich eggs. After we were all done there we headed to Knysna, which is close to our next backpacker’s. We stopped to see the view and then settled in our rooms. It was really cool because it was right on the beach. Once we got there Troy and I (and also Lindsey and Ana but they walked slower) decided to take a walk on the beach. We ended up walking for like 1 1/2 hours and on the way we saw soo many dead jellyfish. We got back just in time for dinner, another braai. There were other people staying in the backpacker’s so Lindsey and I met some people who work at the surf school that’s part of the backpacker’s and we also met two women who were backpacking around the world, which was really interesting.

Wednesday:

Wednesday was one of my favorite days on the trip, mostly because we went to an elephant park where we got to feed the elephants and actually go up and touch them. It is a free-range park, which means that the elephants can go wherever they want during the day. We got to get really close to them, which was amazing. Elephants may be my second favorite animal now (giraffes are still my number one though). After the elephant park we went to a Rastafarian community (the largest one in South Africa). The tour guide explained to us about their society, which has a sort of hippie vibe. They are very religious but are also vegetarian, peace loving, don’t smoke cigarettes or drink, and have dreads. We took a tour of the community and then listened to reggae band. The community is in a township of South Africa called Uniondale. We then headed to the waterfront for lunch and then to Monkeyland. Several of us didn’t want to pay (it wasn’t included in the price of the trip), so we hung out in the van and talked. After that we headed to our backpacker’s of the night. While we waited for dinner Lindsey and I headed to a grocery store nearby to look for supplies for smore’s. We weren’t able to find graham crackers so we used biscuits instead, but they still turned out well.

Thursday:

Thursday was also an awesome day because that was the day we went bungee jumping. However, before we did that we hiked around the Tsitsikamma National Park. We took a short hike to the suspension bridge and then ate lunch at the restaurant there before heading to Face Adrenaline at the the Bloukrans Bridge for the highest bungy jump off of a bridge in the world. We played some pump up music on the way there to calm our nerves. Once we got there and got our harnesses we had to walk across this cage walkway to get to the middle of the bridge, where you jump off. Once I got there I was not as nervous as I thought I would be. At the beginning of the trip I wasn’t planning on going bungy jumping but I knew that I would regret it if I didn’t go. Luckily I was like the third or fourth person to go so I didn’t have to wait to long. It was awesome though because they had music playing so everyone was just dancing while they were waiting. First the guy ties up your feet and then you have to stand up and they attach the bungy cord. From there they help you to the edge. They then count to 5 and then you have to jump. The first few seconds are just free fall and during that time I was thinking what did I just do (but kind of in a good way). I bounced up and down a couple of times and then a guy came down to bring me back up. Bungy jumping was such an amazing and almost liberating feeling, not to mention the view was amazing. I am sooo glad that I went, I loved every second of it! After bungy jumping we headed to our backpacker’s in J-Bay (Jeffrey Bay). When we got there there was a children’s traditional dance group that performed and then we had traditional South African food of steak and pap (kind of like couscous).

Friday: Friday was a pretty uneventful day. The weather wasn’t that great so we just hung around until our flight at 3:40. We flew out of the PE (Port Elizabeth- can you tell that South Africans like to abbreviate things?) airport. It was really interested because there are no liquid restrictions to pass through security. The flight was pretty uneventful (except that I had to switch seats because my original seat had a sticker on it that said it was broken). While I had a blast on the trip I’m excited to be back in Cape Town and to start classes on Monday (assuming that I know my schedule by then...)

Cheers!

Welcome to Cape Town!

Howzit (hi) everyone!

I have officially arrived in Cape Town and have been here for almost a week now. It’s crazy because I feel like I have been here soo much longer. I guess I should start with the basics. I live in a house with five other people from Arcadia (the program I’m abroad with- but the funny thing is that Arcadia is also a legit university and there are a couple people on the program who go to school there). We each have our own room and then we have a shared living room/kitchen and an outdoor patio. We live pretty close to campus (but we do have to walk up a big hill to get there every morning once we start school).

So far we have been pretty busy. The first day we arrived (which was after a 7 hour flight to Frankfurt, a 10 hour layover there, and an 11 hour flight to Cape Town) we got settled in and then drove to Camps Bay, which is a beach pretty close by. The next day we did a small driving tour of Cape Town and then met up with the UWC kids here with Arcadia to head to High Africa for orientation. It was a lot of fun there, we did team building exercises (like building a raft and paddling it around the lake) and climbed the rock wall. We also stargazed at night because the stars are soo bright and you could literally see them twinkle. Also it was awesome because I met another Phi Sig who is in South Africa with Arcadia (but she is going to UWC), so we called our tent/cabin the Phi Sig hut.

The day after we got back from High Africa we started UCT orientation. The first day we did a Peninsula tour, where we stopped at some beaches, got to see penguins, and we also got to eat lunch at a local township, where locals from there performed for us. It was really interesting because the lady in charge of the community center talked about how the township was formed because during the apartheid the people were forced out of their homes because their old town was designated a whites-only area. They literally had to build a new town from scratch. After we visited the township we headed to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope (the most southwestern point in Africa). The views from the hike there were amazing! The views from pretty much anywhere in Cape Town are amazing because of the mountains that are all around the city.

On Tuesday I had the opportunity to go to the beach. A bunch of Arcadia students and I took the train down to Muzienburg. The train was definitely a cool experience. We just made it to the train on time. On the trains there are random people who go up and down the cars trying to sell candy, etc. Also we saw several people walking down the train singing and pretending (we assume since this happened several times) to be blind in order to get money. Also to get off or on the train you have to open the doors at the stop, they don’t open automatically. But anyways at the beach we just hung out and napped. Even though I reapplied sunscreen I still managed to end up looking like a lobster (my back to bright red, and that’s not an exaggeration). But despite that it was a lot of fun.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were all UCT orientation days/registration but I’ll go more into that later. However, after registration on Friday a couple of us taxied down to the V&A Waterfront to look around and shop. It was a pretty area with lots of tourist shops and also a big wall. We wandered around for a while and looked around in an indoor craft market. After that we grabbed dinner at this outdoor place that had seafood. It was pretty good and quite amusing when birds tried to steal french fries (called chips here) right off of our plates. Another random thing about Friday is that we went to Nando’s (a fast food chain) and with our kids meals we got ping pong paddles and balls, that is like the most high end toy I have ever gotten with a kid’s meal.

Some random things about South Africa:

• You have to pay for internet by the amount of megabytes you use (which means that I normally only use the internet for about 10-15 a day- which is actually quite refreshing I must say)
• Braai’s (the word for barbecue) are really popular
• They drive on the opposite side of the road
• One common method of transportation is minivans/buses, where you hop on with other random people and then they drop people off where they want to go (I haven’t ridden one but they always honk at us)
• Everything is late (being 10 minutes late is still being early)
• On the trains you have to open the doors yourself to get out (no automatic doors)
• We call taxis ahead of time because getting them off the street can be not good
• The two most common chain restaurants from the U.S. are McDonald’s and KFC