It must have been the hottest day of the year. If we had
television and they talked in terms of Fahrenheit here, it was positively over
100. So. Hot. And to top it off, it was the first day of classes.
At noon (I don’t have class until noon on Mondays!!), I
began with my first mainstream class, Biome Ecology. This means that instead of
attending class with international students, as I will in my other 4 classes,
I’m in a class with about 50 South African students and a handful of other
Americans from my program.
I left my room ½ an hour before class just so I wouldn’t get
lost! It only took me about ten minutes to walk there, but I was proud of my
navigational skills. Ok. It was just straight and then right. But still. I
think I’ll even be able to do it without a map next time!
The class was very introductory, I learned that we would
have a number of professors teaching the course and that it would meet 4x/week,
for up to an hour each time, but on Tuesdays for up to three. Classes end when
the professor is done with the information they have prepared for that day, so
I see many early dismissals in my future!
Powerpoints will be up on WebCT, which is essentially the same thing as
Blackboard, so it’s pretty straightforward. Most mainstream courses are taught
in a combination of English and Afrikaans, but science is luckily an exception.
After Biome Ecology, I made my way downtown in the heat to
buy some paper and binders to use for classes. The walk felt like the longest
thing ever. Obviously I decided to buy jugs of orange juice and powdered
laundry detergent too….my arms were pretty tired by the time I got back! All in
all, the walk couldn’t have been more than ½ mile both ways, but in the heat I
felt it.
At lunch, I ran into some friends and stopped to get a
falafel sandwich for R30 – about $3.80. That was a meal that came with fries as well! I’m loving what
a deal food is here, and I’m finding more vegetarian options for myself.
I had drawing from 5:30 – 8:30 pm. And I hated, or strongly
disliked, every minute of it. Our professor is very nice and encouraging, but
I’ve never drawn. I need to have an art class for a core requirement (sigh) and
I saved it for study abroad. I’m going to give it a shot, but sitting on a
stool for three hours drawing things like “excitement” and “darkness” and
“bewildered” only in the form of lines is a bit nerve-racking. We also had to
draw a picture of someone at home, so I drew Tanya. I drew Tanya based on the
drawing she has of herself someone else drew. Oops. Then I drew my friend
Katharina sitting across from me. They looked nearly identical except for the
hair. You can see my problem. Hopefully next week will get better. For
homework, we have to draw an egg cracked open. I’ll save that for next Monday
at 4:00 pm…
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