Still an American in a Foreign World

I am beginning to get used to life here in Africa but still there are some cultural abnormalities that catch me off guard. The number one item that reminds me that I am half way across the world is the fact that they drive on the opposite side of the road. Every time I cross the street, I inherently look the wrong direction for traffic. It actually becomes a mind puzzle. I don’t think that I am necessarily conscious of traffic while I am walking at home but any time I am walking here I become unnerved when a vehicle I think should be coming towards me actually passes from behind. Also, when taking transportation of any kind, I have to make sure that I go to the appropriate side of the street to be able to get on. It is so confusing.

In the vein of transportation, there is a difference between taking a taxi and taking a cab. When you say that you are going to take a taxi that is actually referring to a minibus taxi (15 passenger van). These runs semi routes and will pick up people anywhere along the road. You just have to stare them down in order to get a ride. They are generally less expensive than taking a cab which is our normal taxi but a cab is much safer when you are traveling alone or at night. We took a minibus taxi with our Orientation Leader so that we had the feel for one before they let us out on our own. Today, Lane and I went to the mall in Cavendish where we saw the new Harry Potter movie. We got a minibus taxi all by ourselves. It was a very big confidence booster. On weekdays though there is another form of transportation called the Jammie shuttle and that takes students of UCT to various locations. That is a free mode of transportation but it is limited and it doesn’t run reliably on the weekend.

I have found out that when a South African asks “Where are you from?” this does not mean they are asking where you are from. Instead, they are asking what have you been doing or where have you been in the last few hours. It is a greeting of sorts. Naturally, I have told people that I am from Seattle Washington maybe more than they were really asking.

Like in many other places besides America, African runs on Africa time. This means I have found that if a function is supposed to start at 9:00am then it will really begin at 9:30am. However, being raised in America I cannot remove the notion that early is on time, on time is late, and late is unacceptable. Therefore, I arrive to any function about five minutes early which is respectable in the US. Then the leaders for orientation ask us why we are so early and I mention that it is only five minutes and they finally retort that this is Africa. I am interested to see if classes are also that informal but my guess is not.

Since my roommates have been somewhat absent over the last couple of days, I have spent some time in Lane’s room. His roommates are really awesome. Vongani (at least I think that is how you spell his name…we call him Vongs) is an opera tenor. He listens to a whole bunch of classical music and told us that he could get us a whole bunch of music from the UCT library if we wanted. In addition he has been very welcoming. He invited us to go to the Waterfront tomorrow. Hopefully that will happen. Lane also has a flat mate named Adolf (awesome name). He is a biochem major so we talked for a while. The other night all of us played cards in Lane’s room. We taught them UNO and some other various card games and Adolf taught us this very mathematical game that he made up himself. It is really nice to get to know them. They are really nice guys.

My classes start on Monday. I am taking 3 classes, a seminar, and hopefully an ensemble. The classes that I am taking are “Defense and Disease” (talking about how the body defends against disease and there is a whole third of the class of the study of viruses like HIV…awesome ), “Eukaryotic Cell Signaling” (a general biology class), and “Culture, Identity, and Globalization in Africa” (Africa history and sociology basically). The seminar that I am taking is from CIEE. It is about 20 people from the CIEE program and taught by our CIEE hosts. It is called “Living and Learning in Cape Town South Africa.” Basically it will give us an opportunity to make the most of where we are and engage in the city and our opportunities here. I think that I also get to go to Johannesburg for spring break with them but regardless it should be a great opportunity.

I have probably written enough for a while but if there is anything that you are interested in hearing more about or would like to see on my blog let me know. I have been meaning to take my camera to the school and take some nice pictures but I am waiting for a nice day that I am not super busy. Now that it is the weekend, I should be able to get over there. Hope everything is well at home!

Liesbeeck Gardens: Soviet Prison Block or UCT residence?

Lane calls Liesbeek Gardens (LBG as the locals call it) a soviet prison block because that is exactly what it looks like. In fact many of the locals comment on the state of the dorms here too, (though I have yet to see a fabulous dorm so what could I really expect). These accommodations are not exactly what I expected but I am sure with time that they will become home sweet home. My room is absolutely huge and it has very nice parquet flooring. (You can only see half of my room in the picture. Really my room looks nice but it is the outside that looks...interesting.) I do not have much stuff though and so it continues to look empty. I have met one of my roommates but he has not been there very much and I have not met the other. It has been difficult to get questions but I am hoping that when school starts that they will be around. I am sure that as I am here I will learn the ropes and know all the little procedural things by the time I leave but right now, it is a little bit frustrating. I feel like a freshman again only worse because I do not even understand the culture.

Orientation has been a whirlwind. We have done a lot of procedure stuff but there have been some really fun events to break up the monotony. A couple of days ago we went to a restaurant called Marco’s African Place. I am not really sure what any of the dishes were but I sampled all that came my way and it all was pretty good. We also had an authentic braii, which is the African term for a Barbeque. Though, my all time favorite African dessert is malva pudding. It is absolutely delicious. When I find a recipe and learn how to make it I will be sure to make it at home. Yesterday we went on the peninsula tour where we were able to see the surrounding Cape Town region. We ate lunch in a township called Ocean View.
Most of the townships were established during the apartheid and the black and colored residents were forcibly removed from their land and put in communities separated from the original land. People are still a little sore about the oppressive regime of the government, but they are learning to cope with their new home and change things for the better. It was a very refreshing visit. We also saw some very pretty sites. We saw the place where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet. We also saw the African penguins, baboons, and ostriches in a natural preserve. We took a hike along the coast that had breath-taking views. It was a fabulous day and I was happy to be able to see the area. We toured a little bit of Cape Town proper, and there were many museums and historic sites to which I would like to return hopefully some weekend. Finally today we had an African drum lesson. It was neat to learn some of the African rhythms.

I finally got to go to the grocery store today, which was a very good thing. At orientation they have fed us at least one meal per day but the rest are on our own. It is not really safe to go out at night unless you have a big group and we don’t have cars so each time we would have to take a cab, not to mention orientation is an exhausting event so I haven’t had the opportunity to get any food. It is a good thing that I brought some Cliff bars. They have been a consistent and reliable diet for an exhausted and unsure international student. Therefore it was a blessing to get some food today. I still need to get some more but I have a few days to tide me over. One of these days I may even cook. First I need to clean all my dishes (CIEE provided), which I have not had the time to do and figure out a place to store them. There is still a lot to do but everything hopefully is becoming more manageable.

In orientation, we began to learn about how to register for classes. Unfortunately, it is not as nice as web registration. Locals have told me that it can take up to 3 or 4 hours. I really hope not. But before I can register I have to find the faculty of science and see if they will accept me into their classes. Also, I have to audition with the music department to see if I can play with them.

But I am feeling empowered at the moment so UCT can bring it on!

Touch Down: Cape Town South Africa

I made it: A 27 hour journey across the world. I finally arrived in Cape Town after a layover in London. The only hiccup during the journey was with London security. They didn’t enjoy some of my oboe tools, so I ended up having to reorganize my stuff and check that bag. I didn’t really have anything better to do with my time though so it wasn’t such a big deal I guess. While in the London airport, I met many people who were on the same program as mine. That was kind of nice; I could finally have a conversation with someone which relieved some loneliness.

We made it to Cape Town at around 8am in the morning. We were well received by the CIEE staff and taken to the hotel, however we were not able to get our rooms until 5 hours later. Quite delirious and exhausted I waited in an uncomfortable conference room, awaiting a shower and a bed. The bright side is that it forced me to stay awake which hopefully ebbed some of the jet lag. We had a short meeting that evening to welcome everyone and then we each rented a cell phone. CIEE recommended for each of us to rent a cell phone so that family can get in touch with us and the CIEE staff can communicate with us as well. All incoming texts and calls are completely free for me, but the outgoing is all on a pre-paid basis and it is not cheap for sure.

Just so you know my phone number for whatever reason it is 011-27-82-310-7969. The 011-27 is the country code. No pressure to call but in case someone needs to contact me for whatever reason, the above is my phone number. In order to mail anything to me my address is the following:

Lauren Thiele
C/O Quinton Redcliffe, CIEE
International Academic Programs Office (IAPO)
Lovers Walk, Lower Campus, University of Cape Town
Private Bag
Rondebosch, 7701
South Africa

When/if sending any package to South Africa we were told that the sender should use some traceable company such as Fed Ex/UPS/DHL and that you should claim that it is secondhand and under $10 in value. The mail is sometimes corrupt and it is just safer to send things in this way.

In addition today, I learned that I am living in a dorm on campus. They are 4 person flats and each person gets a single room. In addition we will be living with two South African natives and one CIEE student. I am really excited because I think that this will be a great opportunity to see the culture first hand and I won’t be able to avoid becoming immersed. I think we will be moving in on Saturday so more to come on the living situations. I will hopefully take some pictures at that point.

Jetlag has been interesting. About the time I should be going to sleep I am finally awake and then when I finally do go to sleep then I wake up early. This morning I was up at 3am. I went downstairs to the lobby and read a book so that I wouldn’t disturb my roommate. The staff at the hotel thought something was wrong, but really the jetlag has kept me on a weird schedule. My goal is to stay up as late as physically possible today but we will see how late that ends up being.

I haven’t had a chance to take pictures but the area is absolutely beautiful. You can see Table Top Mountain from the hotel window and the University is nestled right at the base of the mountain. I will take picture when I can. There will be more to come later. I hope everyone is well. I am enjoying my time in South Africa and am really excited for what is to come.

Lulu

Take Off!

My bags are packed and the nerves are starting to set in (not just me, the whole family seems to be a little on edge today). I know that I will miss my friends, family and "normality" and that I will be missed even by my seemingly apathetic brothers :P , but really I am excited because in just a few short hours, I will start my adventure. I will come backed changed and broadened and I can't wait to share that with everyone.

My flight leaves today at 9:15pm PST from Seattle. I hope that I have everything that I wanted to bring but I guess if I don’t then I didn’t really need it :P For anyone who wants to track my flight the link is as follows: http://flightaware.com/ My flights are on British Airways and the flight numbers are BA0052 for Seattle to London and BA0059 for my flight from London to Cape Town. My flight should get in at about 11pm PST on Tuesday and I will do my best to make sure that I let everyone know when I get there.

I promise I will be safe so no one should worry. Love you all!

The Adventure is About to Begin

In exactly 7 days and a few hours, a british airways flight leaves Seattle-Tacoma International Airport with Lauren E. Thiele, a passenger aboard, on it's way to London's Heathrow International Airport, where a second flight will take the same passenger to the final destination, Cape Town South Africa. The total flight time is about 22 hours and the total time for travel is around 27 hours.

It is weird for me to think that this trip that I have been planning for months (maybe years, I don't really remember) will begin in one week. I am going to South Africa to study at the University of Cape Town. I chose this specific place because I think that Africa doesn't really get a lot of press in terms of culture and the people who live there. It is really because I know little about South Africa that I thought it would be the perfect place. Though, I also thought that it fit into my career goals as a doctor becuase South Africa is the leader in Africa for HIV/AIDS prevention and has state of the art medical practices.

While I am in Africa, I will be taking 3 or 4 classes at the university. I am definetely cutting back though! (I want to be able to experience the culture and not be in my dorm room studying my trip away!) In addition, the program that I am with has arranged some trips for us on the weekends. I might go on some additional trips as well. I know for sure that I want to take a safari at some point and see the penguins. I also want to do some voluteering at a local medical institution. It would be great practice and a really different experience.

I hope I have answered some questions that you may have had about my plans and adventures to South Africa. I am only one person and I have many people who care about me, so I thought I would set up a blog so everyone can hear the latest. I will try to post a blog weekly or when something really cool happens so that I can keep in touch with everyone at home. I will definetely be in touch through e-mail as well so please do not hesitate to shoot me an e-mail. I would love to hear from each and every one of you.