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!