First Thoughts

It's now my fourth day in Cape Town. There's already been some highs and lows, and I'm still two weeks away from classes starting. I'm starting to get a little impatient for classes to start, I feel like I don't have enough to do with my time. I'm sure I won't be feeling that for long though.

I'm at the end of two days of international student orientation. Most international students are undergraduate, so I felt very old taking part in all the activities. Hopefully though this will be the last time here that I will have to, say, get up and dance every fifteen minutes because the leaders think that in listening to presentations we are not exuding enough energy.

Whenever I am surrounded by different accents, I find myself thinking in those accents. Today was all Afrikaans in my head. Unfortunately I'm not usually able to speak those accents.

I ended up arriving at campus almost two hours early today, and spent the time wandering and taking pictures. I started out in upper campus, which is higher up the mountainside and also the older portion of the main campus. This land was bequeathed to South Africa by Cecil Rhodes, a very controversial figure in African history, but who was very influential in the early growth of South African industries, chiefly diamonds and wine. I then moved to middle and lower campus, which were built later - you can see this in the changing architecture.

Upper campus, looking East

Upper campus, looking West

Jameson Hall, at the center of upper campus

The statue of Cecil Rhodes. He is sitting looking East towards the rest of South Africa. The University acknowledges his controversial and racist influence on the country but also recognizes the impact he made on the UCT community by gifting the land to the South African nation.

Kramer Law Building, Middle Campus

There are several places on the lower campus where vines are being trained up the sides of the buildings, perhaps to mimic the ivy-covered buildings of upper campus.

Baxter Theater, Lower Campus

Dread - Solitude - Ecstasy

In the airport, waiting for my first flight.

Every time I leave the country for a while there's an emotional routine that I go through. Stage One: A few days before leaving, I start to feel immense dread, as I start to realize what I'm getting myself into. I worry about all the things that I have to do before leaving, and I worry that I'm not spending enough time with friends and family. I worry about what I'm packing, about being in transit, about forgetting something. I'm usually pretty bad about getting much sleep or eating. If I were to have to make the decision to go again in this stage, I probably wouldn't go. Stage Two: I arrive at the airport, say my goodbyes, get past security, and then just feel very solitary. Not lonely really, just independent, alone. Like I'm the only surviving connection between this world and the next. Like I'm the one being shot out of the cannon into the wild unknown. And I will be alone until I find a new community. Stage Three: I don't get excited until I can see the ground at my final destination creeping closer and closer through the airplane window. And then I am ecstatic. Then every little thing becomes an adventure: customs, currency exchange, baggage claim, my first taxi ride through the city, my first accommodations.

I've got a long way to go on this trip. I fly from Seattle to L.A., then to Amsterdam, then to Johannesburg where I'll hole up in a guest house for the night. I'll then fly out to Cape Town the following day, arriving about 44 hours after departing from Seattle. I'll be moving straight into graduate housing, which means I'll have to hit the ground running, shopping for food, linens, and kitchen supplies as soon as I arrive. Then I start international student orientation on Monday, with my program orientation the following week, and classes starting the week after.

It's going to be a long slog. Even more so because I'm already missing Ian. This is the first time leaving behind a boyfriend has been a part of the emotional mix, so the pre-trip apprehension has had a deeper feeling behind it this time. But I know this is the right decision, and luckily I have an incredibly understanding and supportive boyfriend to back me up. An incredibly understanding and supportive boyfriend who'd better visit or he's in hot water!

Well, my plane is boarding. Off to a new adventure!

It's here!

My visa came in today! I made it through the melting snow to work, and as luck would have it, my visa decided to show up during the short time I was here. I am now legally allowed to be present in the country of South Africa for educational purposes from now until the beginning of 2014. *Sigh of relief*. Now the biggest thing on my to-do list is to sell my car. Anyone looking for an old but durable Volvo?

Motivation

I found this quote a while ago, and I really love it. It's a beautiful way to describe what keeps drawing me back to Africa, better than I can say in my own words:

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life. I wanted to live deep, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms. And, if it proved to be mean, whether to get to the whole ingenuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world, or, if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it.

-Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Till now, it's been sublime. Here's hoping it keeps up.

A New Year

It's now less than three weeks until I board a plane to South Africa. I'm starting to get that end-of-the-world feeling that I get every time I leave for a long period of time. I have three weeks left to live! What am I going to do in that time? I have to remind myself that I will have time to do things in South Africa too, and that Seattle (hopefully) will still be here when I get back.

In the meantime... I'm slowly ticking things off on the to-do list, and for now I mostly have to pack and hang out with people. I'm still waiting on my passport and visa to come back from the South African consulate in L.A., and I'm still waiting to hear the final results of my loan applications, but most everything else is in line. I've got all flights booked and a hotel booked for my Johannesburg layover. I've got most of the stuff I need to pack, minus a few little things, and a suitcase to put it in. I also have (the most exciting part) housing!

I am being assigned to a brand new residence hall near the university that will be entirely for graduate students. The building was just completed in November, and I'll be among the first batch of students living there. There are 880 beds, each in a single room with its own bathroom, and communal kitchens shared by 8-10 people. It's in the Observatory neighborhood, about a 30 minute walk from the University. The little architect in me geeked out a bit about this and found some construction photos and news releases about the building, and even the architect's website. Here's some pictures of the building:

It's built about a block or two from the national park, so, like the University itself, has a beautiful mountainous backdrop. Google street view has some pictures of it, but before the building was there:

But then I poked around a bit more on Google and found the OTHER views from the new building, right across the street:

What a shame, I was so looking forward to getting away from American fast food. Oh well.

Anyway, my new place is also a couple blocks from Groote Schuur Hospital, where the first human heart transplant was performed in 1967. It's in a part of Cape Town that's known to be a bit more progressive; it was one of the few areas of Cape Town that, during apartheid, was not segregated. Inside the residence hall students will be grouped by program of study, which means I'll be living with the same people that I attend class with.

Anyway, that's the update for now. Fingers crossed that my visa comes in soon!