School Night

So far my time here has felt like one giant vacation (or holiday as all the Europeans call it). Between going to the beach, having braais (bbqs) at our house and meeting tons of new people, I almost forgot one of the main reasons why I am in South Africa: to go to school. Tomorrow we start classes and its impossible to find out where the classes are and what time they are being held because most classes haven't posted all the information yet. It seems like every process here is 10,0000 times more complicated. At first is was comical- but now its growing more and more frustrating. For example, yesterday we were sent to five different people before we could obtain a proper form that needed to be filled out.

I am taking 3 classes: clinical psychology, african language and lit, and either applied ethics or liberation in south africa. I am really interested in learning more about the end of the apartheid here because I think it will contextualize some of what I am seeing but I have heard that a class that has the word "south african" attracts mostly international students and not many of the locals. I have a strong feeling that liberation in south africa would be one of those giant traps :) Anyways, I am happy to start school tomorrow- it will be nice to get into a routine.
Xhosa is a really cool language to listen to- something quite unlike any other language I have heard before. There are many different kinds of clicks and sometimes I find myself making my own click noises in the mini bus to experiment until I realize that people are staring at me. By the way, mini buses are white, van- type vehicles which drive down the main road. Normally there is a driver and a squasher who literally squashes people into the bus and hollers out the window at people on the road. Its stuffy and cramped inside the buses but I somehow I still love driving in them because it is quite an experience and one of the most efficient ways to get to down town Cape Town. You have to brace yourself though, almost like riding a taxi in NY, because they swerve in and out of traffic, and drive a million miles an hour on the left side of the road.
Its really cheap to drive in a mini bus and we take them everywhere during the day, but never at night because its not safe.


The scenery here is absolutely amazing and the weather is even more incredible. I think I make a comment about the weather everyday. And believe it or not, I am actually starting to get a little sun, but I still glow in the dark in comparison to some of the people we see at the beach. I still haven't gone for a full swim yet- between the frigid waters, strong currents and sharks, sitting on the beach is just fine for me.