Arriving at Comfort

As I write this now, I cannot help but think how much I wish I had written this post this yesterday, as its emotional content would probably have been a bit more enthusiastic. In short, today was the second day of pre-registration for courses at UCT, i.e. the most stressful course registration process I have ever experienced. I will preface this complaint with the admission that I know South Africa differs in many ways from the United States, and in no way do I expect to live my life in the same way that I do at home. That said, this has been an enormously hectic (a very South African term used in lieu of 'crazy') week. To start, there is no online self-service registration at UCT, so each student must wait on line in order to get through each step of the registration process. On top of that, in order to be enrolled in any advanced course, one must approach the appropriate department head for his/her signature. As a result of this somewhat primitive system (especially for a school ranked number 200 on the list of the world's top universities!), I have spent the last two days on campus trying to sort out my schedule, and I still feel relatively lost. As was said point blanc to me by a department secretary, UCT refuses to hold its students' hands like the American universities do. Instead, it is each man for himself here, and it is very intimidating. Despite the headache, however, it has been quite an interesting adventure trying to navigate all the red tape at UCT.

Now that I have sufficiently expressed my somewhat negative emotions about my experience here, I should also share some of the many amazing things that have been happening in my life since I last posted. First of all, I have met some of the most amazing people here. For example, I went to a place called Zula Sound Bar on Monday night for its weekly comedy night, and I was lucky enough to meet some of the amazing comics after they had performed. One of them is a comedienne named Tracy Klass, and she does a hilarious set about Jewish women. We spoke at length about South African comedy, which, according to her, permits comedians to poke fun at their respective communities, such as Jews, Muslims, blacks, or females. As I have explained before, everyone is grouped, mostly by race, in South Africa, and South African comedy is no exception. By the end of our conversation, Tracy discovered that I am Jewish, and invited me and my roommate to her house for Shabbat dinner and services on Friday night. We are really looking forward to checking out the Capetonian Jewish community, as it is known to be very large and vibrant here. That is just one of the many people we have met here who have gone out of their way to get to know us and make our experience in Cape Town the best that it can be.

Getting to know these people has been really helpful in my quest to feel more at home in Cape Town. I am getting to know the area around UCT and my house much better as well, so I trust that soon I will find a comfortable routine as soon as classes begin. My only fear is that once classes start, I will not have the time to do some of the other touristy activities that Cape Town has to offer. Even though there is so much I still want to do in my own backyard here in town, I am already planning my Spring Break trip for the end of August. As of now, some friends and I are hoping to go to Tanzania in northeastern Africa to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. Also, some of us are interested in taking a weekend trip to Durban, a beach city in northern South Africa (where it is warm now!), in the next few weeks. All of this is really exciting, but I am so focused on getting my class schedule set that I cannot think of much else at this point.

I hope to be settled into classes by the next time I post, so my stress level should decrease substantially! I hope to continue meeting great people and to have more amazing experiences as I go. Thanks for reading!