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