UCT

UCT requires new students to pre-register. Completing this says that tuition has been paid. For international students it also asks questions about our passports, study visas and our medical insurance. This process for some took 3 hours of waiting in line (or a queue as they call it)! Once I heard that, a few of us decided to leave an hour early, so it only ended up taking us about a half hour – we got very lucky! First you had to fill out a bunch of forms. Once they were filled out, a woman had to check them to make sure things were completed correctly and signed correctly. From there you entered a room where there were two women on computers (that looked like they were from the 1990s) who checked that tuition had been paid. Then you had to wait again for two other people in a different room on computers who entered all of your information into the computer system for registration, which happens in a few days. I was pretty surprised how “old” this system seemed because the rest of campus is so nice. However, internet in South Africa is rarely free. At home, we have to pay per megabyte that we use! I heard one company monopolized the internet for a long time and that is why it was so expensive.

UCT registration also seemed to be very old school. When you first arrived you had to wait inline by your last name. There we would give our preregistration forms and they gave us a form and student ID number. Then we sat in another really long line where we had to fill out the form with a bunch of our personal information and the classes we wanted to take. Next there were about 10 people all sitting at desks where you would take your form and they would check everything off. They were primarily making sure that all of the students were eligible to sign up for the classes that they wanted. So, they have to find your name on a long list to see what classes we were preapproved for. If we were not preapproved for a certain class, we had to (beforehand) go to the department head with our transcript and have them sign off on a piece of paper which showed we were allowed to enroll in the class. After the person checked off the classes you wanted to take, we had to wait in another line to have all of our information put on the computers. People were sitting at computers waiting to enter our class information into the system. It was actually pretty interesting to see that UCT uses the same registration system as CU… Except UCT has all of those kind of annoying extra steps beforehand. After this, there was another 3 hour line to wait and get student ID cards. I didn’t end up waiting to get my card, and tried 4 other times to get it and finally on the 4^th time I was able to pick it up. Then you have to wait in ANOTHER line to have it activated. Wow, so much waiting in lines..

Anyway, I am enrolled in Health Psychology, Ancient Mythology and Genocide: African Experiences. The psych class seems really cool, it is a large lecture and my teacher is really nice and fun. She is really into South African music and the idea of music as therapeutic, so we get to listen to a different SA song/ band once a week… I am really excited about that since I love music. The mythology class seems pretty boring and the teacher seems pretty strict. I am only taking it to fulfill the core requirement upper division literature and the arts back at CU. Then Genocide: African Experiences is pretty much all American students, so that kind of stinks. But I think the class will be really interesting as it takes a deeper look into African Genocide. One thing my teacher brought up yesterday that I thought was really interesting was that the worst genocides (by worst I mean killing the most people) that have taken place have been in Russia, parts of Europe and Asia – not Africa.

**I will put up pictures of UCT soon! My digital camera broke and I just got a memory card for my new one. The campus here is gorgeous.. Although it is on a hill (larger than Boulders) so it is literally a workout walking to class everyday. It is also kind of embarrassing because we get sooo sweaty walking to class. Also, everyone looks nice here for class. So that kind of stinks. I have kind of a hard time trying to pick out what I’m going to wear since I would be obviously American if I wear gym shorts and a tshirt. I wonder how long me dressing up for classes will last.. And when I say dressing up for classes I mean nice khaki shorts with a plain shirt and birkenstocks, haha. Lots of girls wear summer dresses with nice flats or sometimes heels. 

Highstead and Settling In

The house that I moved into after spending 5 days in the UCT dorms is called Highstead because that is the street it is on. The house holds 30 people but it is split into two that are not connected from the inside. The first house, A house, is very homey and is where I live.  B and C houses are connected, but B is the downstairs and C is the upstairs. Every home (A, B and C) has its own kitchen and bathrooms. We also all have our own bedrooms. I like living in the A house because my room is pretty big. Tall/ large wooden gates that have electric wires on top of them surround our house. To open the door in the fence you have to put up a little circular thing to a detector and it will beep with a green light to let the door unlock. This is kind of frustrating though because A has a different gate than B and C so I cannot get into the other houses without them opening it for me. There is also a doorbell that attaches to a phone inside of our house so we can talk to people outside and let them in. To get out of the house we have to press a button which unlocks the door. We also have a small house for our security guard, Alison. He works five days a week from 6pm-6am. I have had a chance to talk to Alison a bit and he is very nice. I didn’t understand how he kept remembering my name since there are 30 of us, but I walked into his little house/ sitting area where I saw our passport photos that we had to send in with our names below them (haha mine is such a bad picture). On his nights off there is another security guard who comes, but we have not met yet. If we are at a CIEE house that is close by to another and choose to walk to the other one, the guards will communicate so they walk outside and wait for us to come. If it is too far for us to walk, CIEE provides us with a “guardian angel” which drives us for free from house to house. Overall, I have felt very safe at my new home.

On Monday, everyone in my house went to the beach. We all took the minibus which is very cheap –  12 rand (less than 2 dollars) for a half hour ride. Riding the minibuses is quite an experience. The drivers go very fast and weave around traffic. Then there is another person who yells out the window saying our destination, trying to recruit people to ride in the bus off of the street. In Cape Town, all of the busses end up at a bus stop. This was the first time in my entire life where I have felt what it is like to be a minority. It wasn’t a bad feeling it was just very interesting. We definitely stood out as not White South Africans, because they seem to stay away from this area. We were literally the only white people out of mostly Black people and a few Colored people. Racial distinctions are also different here than they are in the US. So they define Colored people as those who are mixed race, or have lighter skin. Anyway, this bus stop was really busy and full with people trying to go places and people selling things. From here we got on another bus to take us to the beach. We went to Clifton #4 and it was so nice to lay out and swim in the ocean, but the water is really cold! So it was nice to just jump in and cool off. Then we all went and got lunch in Camps Bay which has a bunch of restaurants by the waterfront, and then headed back home.

This is when we were leaving the beach. That's Taylor, haha. I love the palm trees and mountains.

Yesterday, February 1^st, two other girls and I took the minibus into Cape Town to walk around the city. We ended up walking to the V&A Waterfront, which was so gorgeous. It was very interesting walking from an all Black area at the minibus station to the Waterfront which was occupied by mostly, if not completely, by Whites.  However, a lot of the employees at the Waterfront were Black or Colored. Anyway here are some pictures from the Waterfront, it was cool overall. You also take a boat from there to go to Robben Island, I think we are going on Friday!

I was pleasantly surprised to see the nice parts of Cape Town are very green! The UCT campus is also pretty green. They recycle a lot and charge for plastic bags! (On the downside, there is a lot of littering here especially in the not so nice areas.)

The clouds literally look like they are floating off of the mountains. It is SO cool! This picture doesn't give it justice. 

This picture is of the four Nobel Peace Prize winners from South Africa. They are (from Left to Right) Albert Lithuli, Desmond Tutu, FW de Klerk, and Nelson Mandela. Then Taylor, Katie and I are in the middle :)

 

Peninsula Tour

On last Sunday (1/30) UCT took all of the international students on an all day peninsula tour. We arrived on campus in the morning and got on large coach busses. These busses were way nicer than any coach bus I have been on in the US. They had large leather seats and they could extend back really far. The busses all had two entrances and also had coffee makers on them. On the ride we saw a lot of cool animals including baboons!

The first main stop we took was at Boulders Beach which is known for its penguin population. We weren’t able to actually walk on the beach, but there was a wooden platform that we could all walk around on to see the penguins. Since penguins are my favorite kind of animal, I really loved being there. However, I was kind of upset that we didn’t get to play with them – even though I heard they bite. 

Once we were done viewing the penguins a few of us went to go get frozen coffee. Before walking back to the busses to leave Boulders Beach, I ran into Angela Groves who was in the same class as me at HB! It was really nice to see a familiar face from Cleveland. We were able to catch up a bit on our lives when we hiked at Cape Point. The first picture is from Boulders Beach and the second is from Cape Point.

When we arrived at Cape Point we were able to hike up to a lighthouse and look out at the amazing view! It was so amazing. We also hiked down and around Cape Point which was really fun. We spent about 2 hours exploring here before heading back home.

First Impressions of Cape Town and Orientation

The flight to Cape Town was really long, but I had two seats to myself so that was really nice. Flying over Cape Town was really cool because we got to see some really awesome views. I arrived in Cape Town at 10:30am and was greeted by the RA’s in my study abroad program, which is called CIEE. At that point I was still wearing sweatpants and my Patagonia and I was overheating because it is so hot here. We waited for other kids to come in then about 40 of us took a bus to the dorms at University of Cape Town (UCT) where we would be staying for orientation. The drive to UCT was interesting because in the beginning we passed a lot of townships, which are pretty much the same as slums. Then after driving a little further things gradually turned nicer until it looked very modernized. When we drove past downtown Cape Town it looked very much like an American city. Then we arrived at UCT where we checked in and put our luggage in dorm rooms. The RA’s then told us that we would be going on a very easy hike at Table Mountain, which they said would take maybe 45 minutes. This was a lie. The hike took about an hour and a half and it was intense because of the pretty steep and constant incline. It was definitely a bonding experience for many of the students as we all struggled with the jet lag and hot sun. However, the view from the top was well worth all of the sweat and sunburn. Then instead of walking back down, the RA’s bought us tickets to take the cable cars down the mountain. The cable cars were cool as they gave us a different view of the surroundings. Overall, the hike was really rewarding and fun even though it was difficult.

Since then orientation has been fun but very tiring. We have to get up at 7am for breakfast every morning – ugh! We have also been going out quite a bit, and things here seem to be very cheap. For example, at this bar we go to called cybar beers are 12 rand which is less than 2 dollars. Tomorrow we move out of the dorms and into our houses. My house is actually three small houses that holds 28 students and 2 RA’s. They must be pretty nice because we all have our own rooms! Our houses have security guards outside of them every night from 6pm-6am. Also, we just found out that we have people coming to clean our houses Monday through Friday. We are pretty spoiled because they are cleaning everything except our own rooms – so they do our dishes for us! Crazy. 

Last night we went to dinner at a really cool place called Moyo near Stellenbosch. The restaurant was under a massive tent. The dinner was buffet style and it had so many different options. I ate springbok and antelope – yum! Then we went to downtown Cape Town after dinner and partied on Long Street. It was very fun!

A Twelve-Hour Layover in London

The flight to London was six hours from Cleveland, and I slept for maybe half of the time. The flight was pretty nice because I had three seats all to myself! Once we landed it was 9:30am in London and I took the underground to Leicester Square. There I met Elizabeth’s friend Alex who took me to brunch at a little local spot in Soho. We ate a really good breakfast and she showed me where to go to see all of the tourist hotspots. Then I went off on my own first heading to the National Portrait Gallery/ National Gallery. I spent a really long time at the galleries viewing so much amazing art - including Van Gogh’s Sunflowers which I love. Then right in front of the National Gallery is Trafalgar Square, which has a bunch of statues and fountains. Next I headed down to Big Ben and Parliament, which were so cool to see in real life! Finally, I headed down through St. James Park to see Buckingham Palace. The park was beautiful, but I personally thought the Palace was kind of a let down and boring. I thought Big Ben and Parliament were more impressive. I loved how old London looked. The architecture of all the buildings was gorgeous, especially of old churches. I also thought that the cabs were really cool because they look like old cars. After all of this walking I was really tired, especially because I took a really long detour trying to find Buckingham Palace (not on purpose). So I headed back to the airport on the underground and hung out for a while. I ordered a beer and a salad then fell asleep at my gate waiting for the plane. I woke up from an old man tapping me and telling me it was time to go… Good thing. It was an awesome day but also very long and tiring.

Typical struggles

On my way out the door to head to the Cleveland airport, I realized I had spilled on my shirt. After quickly cleaning it, my mom and I left home. On our way to the airport, I remembered that I left my raincoat and glasses at home. I'm now really bored (and not even nervous anymore) in the Newark airport waiting to leave on my red eye to London...