More about Durban...
...right now my friend Hannah, who's studying in Durban and who I hung out with while I was there, is sleeping in my bed! We're going into town today to meet Ariana for lunch and hang out on Long Street... Then later, who knows... It's going to be a fun weekend, before I re-enter studying hell.
A side note: Finals here are INTENSE. At home, we all say we need to study for finals, but procrastinate til the day before. Here, EVERYONE takes it seriously. Yes, UCT is the best university in Africa, and it's hard to get in, and bla bla bla, but I think it's more a reflection of the fact that final exams count for FIFTY PERCENT OF YOUR GRADE. Yes. Ouch. So even though I've got a first-class pass right now in every one of my classes (all my percentages are actually over 80%, and to get first class you only need a 75, OK brag brag I'm done), if I don't study this coming week, all of that work will have been for nothing. Wow.
I asked a South African classmate the other day how she revises for finals. (They say "revise," not "review.") "I'm not really sure what to study, or where to begin..."
She told me that starting this past Monday, she'd be in the library from 8-5 every day revising. EVERY DAY. That's ridiculous. I can't even study for that long at once--ever--let alone every day for two weeks.
As they say here... hectic.
But anyway... yes, Durban. I ended up going to visit Hannah that afternoon after I hung out with Virginia and her friends. We just chilled in her dorm--wow, dorm life in SA is very different from both my experience living in a house with international students, and my experience living in a dorm at home.
I noticed right away a difference in the amount of fear. I've gotten pretty relaxed here in Cape Town. You just don't do certain things because they're stupid and you're asking for trouble, but if you're smart you can pretty much stay away from trouble, barring bad luck. Yes, I'm always aware, but I've gotten over being suspicious of everyone. And in my house, within the student community, I feel very safe.
Hannah has a padlock on her door, and another one on her closet, and she doesn't want anyone in her hall to see that she has a computer because she's probably the only one who does. There's no meal plan or cafeteria, so she cooks her own food in the kitchen on her hall, but people steal food a lot--so she'll go and her milk, or her chicken, or her entire butter, will be gone. (If you need to borrow butter, just take some--why do you have to take it ALL? Come on) They put a padlock on the fridge to prevent it and only gave the combination to people who need to use the fridge, but her food kept disappearing... So it's the people who have access who are actually doing it.
And from talking to her, I realized Durban is a LOT less safe than Cape Town. Here, if you don't have anything with you that's worth stealing, you're not going to get mugged--or very rarely. In Obs, where I live, you're a target of theft if peopel know you have money or a cell phone, which is why I usually hide my money in my bra. However, Hannah told me stories of friends having their backpacks ripped off of them in town by thiefs and getting badly bruised arms... of people being thrown to the ground even though they didn't have any cell phone or bag... Whoa.
I think it was also harder for her to adjust to being here because she was a LOT more limited. And for them to go anywhere after dark, ever, they need a taxi--we can at least walk to our friends' houses or go out in Obs.
I thought it was interesting that the only white students who live "in res" (in the dorms) at Howard College (the college within the University of KwaZulu-Natal that she attends) are the international students. All the other white students live off campus, and most Indian students do as well--dorms are mostly black. A lot of the students she lives with are from pretty poor backgrounds, too, and so even though being here has made me very, VERY aware that I'm privileged, I think Hannah feels it much more acutely from day to day.
What else? I got the tour of campus, met some of her friends and her boyfriend Ulwazi, went back to the hotel... The four of us--me, Mimi, Mary and Marisa--went out for Indian food that night, and then caught a taxi to a club called One Four Four that Hannah and her friends were going out to that night. At first they were wicked sketched out: "Where is your friend bringing us...?" The club was in a very dodgy-looking part of Durban, and the regular entrance was closed so we had to enter through a parking garage, passing groups of black men who stared at us... But once we got in, we had an incredible time. It was the first time I had ever gone to a club, and sometimes I'm not that big into dancing--I'm such a ballerina and I've never been much of a normal, social dancer--but I was a dancing fool that night. And ever since, I've been really keen to go out dancing again! It was a "house meets hip-hop" night, but at first no one was on the hip-hop floor, so Marisa went up to random people all night and got them to dance with her. Good times! :)
And more to come... Hannah and I are heading into town to meet Ariana for lunch at Lola's, a really cool vegetarian place on Long Street I've been wanting to go to :)
Later...
A side note: Finals here are INTENSE. At home, we all say we need to study for finals, but procrastinate til the day before. Here, EVERYONE takes it seriously. Yes, UCT is the best university in Africa, and it's hard to get in, and bla bla bla, but I think it's more a reflection of the fact that final exams count for FIFTY PERCENT OF YOUR GRADE. Yes. Ouch. So even though I've got a first-class pass right now in every one of my classes (all my percentages are actually over 80%, and to get first class you only need a 75, OK brag brag I'm done), if I don't study this coming week, all of that work will have been for nothing. Wow.
I asked a South African classmate the other day how she revises for finals. (They say "revise," not "review.") "I'm not really sure what to study, or where to begin..."
She told me that starting this past Monday, she'd be in the library from 8-5 every day revising. EVERY DAY. That's ridiculous. I can't even study for that long at once--ever--let alone every day for two weeks.
As they say here... hectic.
But anyway... yes, Durban. I ended up going to visit Hannah that afternoon after I hung out with Virginia and her friends. We just chilled in her dorm--wow, dorm life in SA is very different from both my experience living in a house with international students, and my experience living in a dorm at home.
I noticed right away a difference in the amount of fear. I've gotten pretty relaxed here in Cape Town. You just don't do certain things because they're stupid and you're asking for trouble, but if you're smart you can pretty much stay away from trouble, barring bad luck. Yes, I'm always aware, but I've gotten over being suspicious of everyone. And in my house, within the student community, I feel very safe.
Hannah has a padlock on her door, and another one on her closet, and she doesn't want anyone in her hall to see that she has a computer because she's probably the only one who does. There's no meal plan or cafeteria, so she cooks her own food in the kitchen on her hall, but people steal food a lot--so she'll go and her milk, or her chicken, or her entire butter, will be gone. (If you need to borrow butter, just take some--why do you have to take it ALL? Come on) They put a padlock on the fridge to prevent it and only gave the combination to people who need to use the fridge, but her food kept disappearing... So it's the people who have access who are actually doing it.
And from talking to her, I realized Durban is a LOT less safe than Cape Town. Here, if you don't have anything with you that's worth stealing, you're not going to get mugged--or very rarely. In Obs, where I live, you're a target of theft if peopel know you have money or a cell phone, which is why I usually hide my money in my bra. However, Hannah told me stories of friends having their backpacks ripped off of them in town by thiefs and getting badly bruised arms... of people being thrown to the ground even though they didn't have any cell phone or bag... Whoa.
I think it was also harder for her to adjust to being here because she was a LOT more limited. And for them to go anywhere after dark, ever, they need a taxi--we can at least walk to our friends' houses or go out in Obs.
I thought it was interesting that the only white students who live "in res" (in the dorms) at Howard College (the college within the University of KwaZulu-Natal that she attends) are the international students. All the other white students live off campus, and most Indian students do as well--dorms are mostly black. A lot of the students she lives with are from pretty poor backgrounds, too, and so even though being here has made me very, VERY aware that I'm privileged, I think Hannah feels it much more acutely from day to day.
What else? I got the tour of campus, met some of her friends and her boyfriend Ulwazi, went back to the hotel... The four of us--me, Mimi, Mary and Marisa--went out for Indian food that night, and then caught a taxi to a club called One Four Four that Hannah and her friends were going out to that night. At first they were wicked sketched out: "Where is your friend bringing us...?" The club was in a very dodgy-looking part of Durban, and the regular entrance was closed so we had to enter through a parking garage, passing groups of black men who stared at us... But once we got in, we had an incredible time. It was the first time I had ever gone to a club, and sometimes I'm not that big into dancing--I'm such a ballerina and I've never been much of a normal, social dancer--but I was a dancing fool that night. And ever since, I've been really keen to go out dancing again! It was a "house meets hip-hop" night, but at first no one was on the hip-hop floor, so Marisa went up to random people all night and got them to dance with her. Good times! :)
And more to come... Hannah and I are heading into town to meet Ariana for lunch at Lola's, a really cool vegetarian place on Long Street I've been wanting to go to :)
Later...