The Beginning

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Sooo, I've been in Africa since Saturday night (it's Wednesday now), and still can't get over the fact that I'm here. On the surface, Cape Town reminds me of what I imagine Australia would be like: attractive people, beachy, stylish, really relaxed... The school it the most idyllic image imaginable. It's set on Table Mountain, which John Rhodes donated to the city under the condition that it never be sold as housing property. That means that it's pretty much a national park with my school in the middle of it. It also means that my house is the closest residence to the school in all of Cape Town, and my walk to school is a 5-minute stroll through the woods.

There are 11 of us in my house: 4 American girls, 6 American boys, and a South African girl who is far from the dorky RA-type I imagined she would be. She's a trendy fashion designer who goes to UCT and is really fun to hang out with. She also has a car, which is nice (even though we haven't taken advantage yet). Most of our house is doubles, which makes our physical house much smaller than many of the other foreign student houses, in which the residents all have their own rooms. But none of us even mind since it makes our house seem more comfortable and cute. Plus, we have the best backyard, a DVD player, and a washer/dryer. And electricity is included in our rent.

Because school doesn't start for a couple of weeks, this part of the city is pretty much dominated by the 500 international students. We are starting to all become friends with each other because of orientation (explained below), so it's kind of like freshman year with everyone inviting strangers to hang out all of the time. It's nice, but seeing as my main goal is to make friends with Africans, I can't wait for school to start.

The first night, we went out to a bar/dance club, where the cover charge was 10 rand. That's about a dollar. Drinks at the clubs are also much cheaper, so a lot of Americans get trashy drunk here...I am mostly enjoying the fact that a $20 rand bottle of wine is better quality than a $10 bottle at home. It's awkward going out with a 100 rand bill, which equals $10, because paying with it is socially about the same as paying with a fifty. Paying with a 200 rand (which is mostly what I have, since I ordered mixed bills from the bank) is even more awkward.

My first full day here, we took a day-long bus tour throughout a lot of the Cape, driving by a lot of beaches and several vinyards, and stopping to walk around at the Cape of Good Hope. It was all gorgeous and not even worth trying to describe. The pictures don't nearly cut it either.

This week, we've been going through an orientation for international students, much like CalSO but a week long and a large focus on cultural transitions and their antiquated registration system. It's boring, and the registration is frustrating. I spent a couple of hours today exploring campus and finding Department chairs, so that they can approve my enrollment in their classes. But as of now, I think I'll be enrolled in a Public Policy course, Sex: from Sappho to Cyber (on the history of erotica), World Music, and either the History of Antisemitism or Religion and Society. By the way, campus is just as beautiful as everything else. It's by far prettier than any school I've ever seen, and surely prettier than any school in the US. Since it's on a hill, the center of campus overlooks all of Cape Town and the whole this is surrounded by trees.

Yesterday, we skipped half of orientation to go to the beach. We decided to save the 1 rand (10 cents) by taking the third class train instead of first class. This is when the Cape Town I imagined kind of entered my experience. The 10 of us (mostly American and white) loaded into the train boxcar, which was full of black workers going home to their townships. It was really sad. And they all just stared at us as we laughed about going to the beach. The way home was ever worse, because it was rush hour, so there was barely room to breath in the car. The left the train car open so that everyone could fit, and some men were hanging out of the train as it drove. I'd also heard stories of people riding the top of the train since the car was too crowded, or having to jump out of the moving car since it was too crowded to get out in time.

Today, the experience continued when we visited a township to learn more about service learning opportunities. These townships are indescribable. Literally, picture an 8x8 piece of sheet metal. Now picture three of these sheets leaning against each other, jammed together with nails, and a fourth sheet on top. This is the kind of house 1.5 million people live in. In one of the (I think) 4 townships. These townships are the kind of thing you don't want to believe exist anywhere in the world, literally shack after shack for miles and miles. They were built during Apartheid when the government kicked all of the non-whites out of different areas, and moved them into these areas. The one cool thing about the townships is the amount of pride they have, and that a lot of blacks seem able to overcome their horrible hardships.

Anyways, there's nothing really else to describe yet. I've been dancing a few times, and the night scene seems like it will be really great. I still need to go to the town center, because I haven't even seen the main areas of Cape Town yet (the university is in Rondebosch, a suberb that's about 30 minutes away). Tomorrow we have the day off, so I'm going to take a surfing lesson ($8.50 for a 90 minute lesson, including wet-suit and board).

Since the Internet is absolutely horrible here -- I tried calling mom on Skype and it took her 30 seconds to recognize my voice at all -- it seems like this will be my main form of communication this semester. Hopefully I don't get as bored with it as I did with my eurotrip travel journal.