...To Show Dad I Am Not A Fool

I see more people walking around on upper campus between classes than even go to Pomona. Literally thousands of people flood the main walk, and I recognize (if I’m lucky) 3 of them. It’s really intimidating. And it’s even worse during lunch. Every Thursday during lunch (which they call meridian, and is a period scheduled into the class day) there’s a concert right on the Jammy steps, the most central location on upper campus. There must’ve been 3000 people there yesterday – the entirety of the 30 rows of steps was filled, plus people standing around about 20 deep on the sides. To say the scene was hilarious is an understatement. Coming from Pomona, a school where the buildings are so small that they’re almost personal, to this is the furthest departure I could imagine. And I’m loving it.

The whole UCT schooling system is totally different from schools in America. You enter university having already selected a major and a certain path in that major, and you can only take the exact classes designated for that path. For instance, a philosophy major could not take a math class. Though there are several different paths within each major, once you pick a path you’re sticking with those classes all the way through. University is only three years, with a fourth year graduate degree and a fifth year masters optional if you do well enough. When I’m sitting in my 3^rd year economics class, I’m sitting amongst students about to graduate who have taken at least 20 other econ or econ related classes already. Still, the classes aren’t that bad at all. It’s very different to go from a class of 20 to a class of 120 (my biggest class), but I’ll get used to it quickly.

The makeup of courses is also different here. Even in econ classes you don’t get problem sets. Instead, there will be a combination of papers and tests throughout the semester, never totaling more than 50% of your grade. The final is always worth at least 50% of your final grade. My econ class doesn’t have a test until September 20^th, after mid-semester break, so I will have absolutely no work besides reading for that class until then. I’m taking two music classes, neither of which has any outside work: African Music Ensemble and African Instruments. The second is a 6 person breakdown session of the entire ensemble. The only thing we do is bang on drums and other crazy instruments. It’s gonna be dope. My last class is called Culture, Identity, and Globalisation in Africa and studies the misrepresentations and misconceptions the west portrays about Africa: if the exist, why they exist, and to what extent them existing is a reflection of reality. Kinda cool, but also kinda fluffy. It’s alright, though. There are only 5 or 6 Americans in the huge economics class and a couple other Americans in the Ensemble class, but the Africa class has 60 kids, 90% of whom are American. Funny how that works. My schedule is the diggity-dank. I never have class before 2 (except on Tuesdays, when I go bang on drums from 11 - 12:45) and never have Friday class. Loving it.

I’m definitely going to be doing the majority of my learning outside the classroom here. On that note, a few other random observations about UCT / South Africa on…

• Race. People here are more comfortable talking about race than anywhere else I’ve ever been. As I mentioned earlier there are three main races here: white, black, and coloured (mixed race, though you can be coloured by culture as well). I think that as a result of apartheid people became more open to talking about racial issues. They want people to understand the complexities between the races (even within a race there are several different types of people, for instance, blacks in South Africa are Xhlose, Zulu, or one of 11 other types of race) and to understand their history, and the best way for them to do that is to talk openly and honestly about it. Race is a part of every day life here. It’s reality. They embrace it. Keep this in mind, as I’ll be using a lot of racial terms, but none of it is racialist (I hope you’re reading this, Dad, I threw that in there for your sake).

• UCTs student body. It’s about 50% white and 50% black, coloured, Indian, Asian, or (their last category) other. The overwhelming majority of whites are from South Africa. There are so many hot blonde Afrikaans girls walking around it’s almost a joke. The overwhelming majority of blacks are from outside of South Africa. One of my flat mates is from Zimbabwe. I’ve met people from Kenya, Rwanda, Nigeria, Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia, and I don’t even know where else. Many of the coloured people come from Cape Town (including one of my flat mates). Almost all the Indians are from Durban. This sounds really racist and like I’m labeling and over-generalizing, but it’s a reality. The dorm I live in, Liesbeeck Gardens, has over 600 people in it. One guy I was talking to at a bar last weekend told me that housing is “randomly” decided but that pretty much only blacks live in Liesbeeck. I didn’t believe him at first but I have not seen one white student (other than the other 33 Americans living here) either in the computer labs, walking around the dorms, or getting on the shuttle from the dorms to go to campus.

• Cooking. This might be the area in which I learn the most while I’m here. Though our first week was very mediocre (including a botched attempt at vegetable pasta, but a semi-successful attempt at mashed sweet potatoes), the second week of cooking has been outstanding. We’ve made delicious risotto, pesto pasta, tuna melts, and garlic mashed potatoes this week. We haven’t fucked up one meal. We’re on a roll. I also made marble square brownies. The first time I made them I used too much butter (the butter here is way stronger), so I toned it down this time and they’re delicious. I’m gonna come back as a master chef, at least of some dishes. Definitely garlic mashed potatoes.

• Minibus culture. I go through periods of both loving it and hating it. Basically, minibuses with four rows drive a pre-prescribed route all day and you can jump on or off wherever you want. We were warned that minibuses are very dangerous and to not take them (especially alone or at night), but we’ve been taking them in groups and they’re far cheaper than taxis. If you want to get a taxi to downtown Cape Town from here it’ll be at least R100 (about $15). If you hop on a minibus it’s R6 (less than $1). They’re also really fun / funny inside: they blast music and fit up to 20 people in the space created for 12. The thing I HATE is that any time they see you walking down the street they honk at you and yell where they’re going, i.e. “Cape Town” or “Wyneberg” or whatever, in a really annoying voice. Sometimes I love it and think it’s hilarious that they’re doing it. But sometimes I just want to smack them and tell them to shut the fuck up and that I can clearly see that they’re there and I will use them on my own volition. Them yelling at me where they’re going isn’t a deal breaker.

• Homeless people. You literally cannot walk more than 4 blocks without getting asked for money. Every single day on my walk to lower campus (about 15 minutes from the dorm, where I either hop on a shuttle to upper campus or walk an additional 25 minutes to upper) I get asked at least twice for money. Walking in the streets of downtown Cape Town is even worse. When we were at Mzoli’s last Sunday we were having a beer with one of the local dudes from the township we were in. He taught us a famous Xhlose saying, though I forget how to say it now. Translated into English it means, “when I see you, I see money”. This is referring to white people. When I’ve walked around with my local friends I actually have not been assaulted. “When I see you, I see money.” Damn, that’s some real shit.

• Lingo. The terminology here is so different from in the United States, but that was to be expected. Instead of someone telling you that you need to do something they tell you that you “must” do it, i.e. “You must go to Mitchell’s Brewery.” You don’t “want to” do something here, you “are wanting to” do something. Food isn’t “tasty” or “delicious”, it’s “nice”. “Cool” is “lekker”. “Bro” is “bru”. It goes on and on. One of my favorites is that my flat mate, Babalwa, says something is “hectic” when she thinks it’s cool or funny. So far from the English connotation with hectic, but I like it.
  

Holy shit. I didn’t realize how much I was rambling. If you’re still reading after 1500 words of me blabbering then you’re a real trooper or really bored. I don’t think I’ll ever write another blog entry this long (or this informative) so cherish it while you can. I’m off to go to a rugby game tonight, though I don’t understand the rules of rugby in the slightest, and shark cage diving tomorrow. Gonna be another hell of a weekend.