meat meat and more meat

I made it through day 1 of school. The first class I had was applied ethics and surprise surprise the professor was 30 minutes late and looked very confused when he came into the classroom. He said he was told the wrong location and had been sitting in the other room for the whole time wondering where people were. Oddly enough he is a visiting professor from UNC and seemed to be just as lost in the world of UCT as I am. It crazy how you can go so far away and yet never really escape. After ethics I had African literature and the professor was on time so that was a big plus. Then I had clinical psychology which was my favorite class. I love the professor and have read a book of hers entitled A Human Being Died that Night. I am looking forward to seeing how psychology is taught here.

Yesterday was probably my favorite day in Cape Town thus far. We took a mini bus to Mzoli’s which is a meat market/restaurant in a township, Uguleto. I have never seen so much meat in my life- its definitely not a place for vegetarians. We ordered pounds and pounds of meat and then devoured all of it with our hands. Of course I had bbq sauce all over my face. After eating there was also a dj playing music and handing out free prizes. We danced for a long time to local music and I won a backpack which will be really useful for going to the gym.

I am getting much more used to the way things work here, including buying electricity at the market, riding the jammie, and navigating campus. One thing that’s getting really old is the continuous America bashing. From fast food restaurants to not knowing how to drive a manual car- the ganging up on the good ole stars and stripes is endess. The best comment thus far came from my adorable Norwegian roommate. She said that her English is going to get worse because she will be around Americans all semester. This made no sense to me so she explained that in Norway they teach them mostly British words, and she is afraid her english will become Americanized. For example, in school she was told specifically to call pants trousers. Whats most interesting to me is that people think they know what America is like because of the TV shows they watch and they are dead serious. I'm sorry- but just because I live near Boston does not mean that my life resembles Boston Legal or Boston Public, but nice try.