Week 6: All Settled in

Classes are officially in session! This week I decided to organize the blog by days for the sake of remembering what happened. So. . . 

Monday: 

A bunch of us are taking Global Change Ecology so we walked to the jammie, which we now do everyday. To our horror the lines were longer than the line for a Beyonce concert. As a bunch of students from small liberal arts colleges, this was shocking. Despite a sign warning of a capacity of about 60 people, the bus definitely has over 100 people packed on it regularly. Despite a few off-color coronavirus jokes made, the first day of classes was pretty calm. We had an ecology practical (lab) the first day which involved watching a documentary on wilderness. I ended my Monday with an ice cream sundae to celebrate surviving my first day.

Packed on the jammie, standing a few inches away from the driver.

Tuesday: 

My Tuesdays typically end at 11am, and I get to go home early. This Tuesday I decided to nap to catch up on some sleep. Some interesting concepts covered in class included complex systems thinking and discussing US politicians and their views on global warming. To my horror we spend a lot of time talking about US politics and Trump in my South African classes. Trump is truly a hot topic across the world, and not in a good way. I returned to campus later in the day for ballroom lessons which are by fun one of the most fun things I’ve done since arriving in Cape Town. I look forward to learning how to jive, fox trot, and salsa, (we also line danced to cotton eyed joe). The whole house typically ends our Tuesdays watching the Bachelor every week (no judgement please), which is also one of the most exciting parts of the week. 

Rest of the week: 

This week was a little sad because the Shoprite (grocery store) a few minutes away from our house closed down; however, this has led to some fun adventures to other grocery stores. We ventured out to the Cavendish Mall Pick n’ Pay which was really nice, and I finally got to go to Clicks which is a lot like CVS. We attended an underwater party on Wednesday where we met two awesome, hilarious UCT students from Joburg named Gina and Edith. They should have their own sitcom. I also finally met with my DSP advisor to discuss potential research project topics. We’ve decided to focus on sustainability practices in the City of Cape Town, but I’m still designing the specifics of the project. Valentine’s day was spent at an 80’s party hosted in EVOL, a very interesting club. I’ll let the pictures do the explaining. 

The toilet from your nightmares. Yes that is a mouse.

Weekend:

This weekend a few members of the house decided to throw another house party. Sadly a lot of rude American students soured the atmosphere. That led to bonding amongst Charlton residents as we complained about the random strangers snooping around our rooms and climbing onto our roof. Sunday Dena invited us to a beach picnic with a bunch of her friends, which was a lovely day. We rode the train, got delicious food from a little market, and got wiped out by a few big waves. We ended the day eating a South African delicacy: KFC!

Reflections:

Somehow, no matter where I sit, I end up next to another student from the U.S. We seem to attract each other, or maybe we’re just the only ones with no one sitting next to us? There’s a high volume of us studying abroad in Cape Town, which I didn’t really expect. I’ve also found myself recoil whenever the U.S. is mentioned in class, mostly because I am tired of hearing about it. It’s interesting to see how much everyone else in the world knows about the U.S. compared to our general knowledge of everyone else. Despite my aversion to U.S. related things, I miss my friends and family A LOT. Thanks to the time difference, conversations with everyone back home are rare, and usually in the form of a few random texts every day. Besides that, I feel like I’ve finally settled in here. My trip to the beach made me realize how sad I’m going to be when it’s time to leave and how close I’ve become with everyone. We really do feel like a family! Overall, I’d say it’s been a good first week of classes, and a great first month of studying abroad.