yesterday i had dance class for the first time. it's pretty intense. i need to loosen up a lot more. a fair number of the kids in the class are trained dancers so they are a little intimidating to watch. i guess was mid-range in my skill level. plus i was a little sore this morning, but that felt good considering how lazy i've been.
today was the first day of class. i learned my vowels in xhosa and also how to distinguish the three different click noises. i have xhosa every day of the week. my other classes are all 4 times a week. all of the class sessions are only 45 minutes long. then i had religion, sexuality and gender, which is basically a feminist class. I think i'll learn a lot about the different main religions though, which i'm excited about. I think religion is always an interesting topic. The thing that sucks about this course is that it's all girls, and more than a third american. i really want to meet more south africans in my classes. My archaeology class should be pretty intense as well. It's also mainly girls with a lot of americans. It sounds interesting though. The best thing about classes here, besides the fact that i'm done at noon everyday is that I don't have to buy any books. The reading here is a lot smaller in volume than in the states, and the departments often print copies up for you for free! one thing that's annoying though is that they don't have spiral notebooks. strange.
also this week i signed up for clubs. All the sports clubs are "social" and i really wanted to join swimming, especially because i talked to the guys at the swim booth (soooo hot) and they said that it's not at all competitive, they practice 3 times a week for an hour and then they party a lot. but it's at the same time as my volunteering, so i can't do it. I'm thinking about doing social water polo though. which is once a week followed by drinks and sausages. sounds like a good time. Also i joined the mountain and ski club. since there is no skiing here it's really just the hiking and climbing club. It's also a very social club, but they have a lot of hikes scheduled at all different skill levels and i think it'll be a great way to see more around the area. Then i joined the Wine Society. They have tastings every week and saturday winery tours. I'm really excited to learn more about different kinds of wine and to go see the wineries. They gave us a free glass of wine just for signing up! and we were drinking right on the main campus steps at noon! this place is wild. every booth we visited they told us a little about the club but mainly they tried to get us to come to their parties. a lot of my friends also joined hiking and the wine club. a lot also joined the yacht club or the underwater club. the underwater one is really expensive though, so i'm not doing it. even though things are cheap here, i've already spent so much money. a lot of it on groceries and basic things to get myself started. hopefully that spending pattern will die down though.
they don't sell chocolate chips here. it's insane. there are also no bakeries or coffee shops near me. this strikes me as insane for a college campus. i haven't seen a single starbucks - i've found their untapped market. also, i miss television. a lot. i've started writing travel essays because i've been so bored sometimes. also we've been drinking so much at night because that's all there is to do. there aren't any theaters close by, no one has a television and it can be awkward to sit around a computer to watch a movie. i'm really sad that i'm missing the olympics. i love the olympics. and for those project runway fans in my audience - i cannot believe nick isn't in the final 3! i'm rooting for daniel v.
today was the first day of class. i learned my vowels in xhosa and also how to distinguish the three different click noises. i have xhosa every day of the week. my other classes are all 4 times a week. all of the class sessions are only 45 minutes long. then i had religion, sexuality and gender, which is basically a feminist class. I think i'll learn a lot about the different main religions though, which i'm excited about. I think religion is always an interesting topic. The thing that sucks about this course is that it's all girls, and more than a third american. i really want to meet more south africans in my classes. My archaeology class should be pretty intense as well. It's also mainly girls with a lot of americans. It sounds interesting though. The best thing about classes here, besides the fact that i'm done at noon everyday is that I don't have to buy any books. The reading here is a lot smaller in volume than in the states, and the departments often print copies up for you for free! one thing that's annoying though is that they don't have spiral notebooks. strange.
also this week i signed up for clubs. All the sports clubs are "social" and i really wanted to join swimming, especially because i talked to the guys at the swim booth (soooo hot) and they said that it's not at all competitive, they practice 3 times a week for an hour and then they party a lot. but it's at the same time as my volunteering, so i can't do it. I'm thinking about doing social water polo though. which is once a week followed by drinks and sausages. sounds like a good time. Also i joined the mountain and ski club. since there is no skiing here it's really just the hiking and climbing club. It's also a very social club, but they have a lot of hikes scheduled at all different skill levels and i think it'll be a great way to see more around the area. Then i joined the Wine Society. They have tastings every week and saturday winery tours. I'm really excited to learn more about different kinds of wine and to go see the wineries. They gave us a free glass of wine just for signing up! and we were drinking right on the main campus steps at noon! this place is wild. every booth we visited they told us a little about the club but mainly they tried to get us to come to their parties. a lot of my friends also joined hiking and the wine club. a lot also joined the yacht club or the underwater club. the underwater one is really expensive though, so i'm not doing it. even though things are cheap here, i've already spent so much money. a lot of it on groceries and basic things to get myself started. hopefully that spending pattern will die down though.
they don't sell chocolate chips here. it's insane. there are also no bakeries or coffee shops near me. this strikes me as insane for a college campus. i haven't seen a single starbucks - i've found their untapped market. also, i miss television. a lot. i've started writing travel essays because i've been so bored sometimes. also we've been drinking so much at night because that's all there is to do. there aren't any theaters close by, no one has a television and it can be awkward to sit around a computer to watch a movie. i'm really sad that i'm missing the olympics. i love the olympics. and for those project runway fans in my audience - i cannot believe nick isn't in the final 3! i'm rooting for daniel v.
posted by kerry at 4:10 AM
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