First Week of Class

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I survived my first week of classes but I still don't have my schedule completely figured out. UWC is not very organized and it has been tough trying to find classes that don't overlap since the timetables are not always right. One of the other Arcadia students, Sarah, and I tried to go to our anthropology class on Tuesday only to find that a different class was taking place in that lecture hall at that time. We asked the prof of that lecture when and where ours was and he sent us to the anthropology department where we discovered that our class was at a completely different time and location than the one listed on our schedules. I spent a lot of time this week going around to different departments to find out what time the classes actually are and which ones are actually offered this semester, so I should be able to finally finalize my schedule at the beginning of next week. It won't really matter that I missed the first week of classes that I am adding because most profs don't really do anything the first week since so many people have to drop and add classes.


Other than the problems with organization I really like UWC. The campus is great and all the students I have talked to have been very friendly. If you ask someone for help finding your class they don't just tell you how to get there they actually walk you to the class. So far no one has given me a hard time because I am American or white; actually most people get very excited when you tell them you are from the U.S. and want you to tell them about it.

A couple things I did this week other than school are I went to Muizenburg Beach on the train with some of my housemates after school on Thursday. I wish I would have taken my camera because I have never seen so many waves before at one beach. It's a really big surfing beach because there are so many waves. It had been really really hot at school that day but when we got to the beach it was actually pretty cold because it was so windy. I ended up playing soccer with the two guys that live in my house, Evan and Tyler, and 2 other guys one from Switzerland and one from Mexico, so that was fun.

I also went to a rock climbing gym that is in the town next to mine with Cidney (one of my housemates). She is really into rock climbing and taught me how to belay (the person who holds the rope while the other person climbs) and just taught me a lot about climbing. It was really fun. Cidney and I also went on an adventure last night looking for somewhere to eat and decided to try an African restaurant in Mowbray even though it was a little sketchy looking. We had rice that was really spicy and chicken and cucumber salad, and it ended up being really good.

Today we had class on Saturday. We went to a museum to hear a talk on sports in South Africa. It was mostly about the World Cup and Tourism. I didn't mind hearing about the World Cup but it was mostly about how to attract soccer fans to go to museums and stuff so it wasn't very exciting. After that though we got to go to eat lunch in a township (Guguletu) at a place called Mzoli's Meat. It was a really good meal but I have never seen so much meat at once before. I tried to take some pictures of the township but I'm not sure if they really capture what it was like. These pictures are the other side to South Africa; so many people here are living in terrible conditions because they don't have anywhere to go. There aren't nearly enough jobs for everyone and there is no where for them to move to. This Township is actually nicer than some. There are actually some small houses in Guguletu, but some of the Townships are nothing but tiny shacks. It's hard to believe the difference between the different areas of South Africa that were caused by Apartheid.

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Photos

My lunch
Unfortunately I don't remember what all the different foods were called
Everything was really good though

Comments

[Donna]

hello
hi Stacy- good to hear you have arrived safely and already diving into the local culture. Did you girls eat those whole platters of meat yourselves? If so we won't recognise you when you get home. Take care and be safe. Love, Mom Hall