The first day of school all over again

So today was my first day of classes at UWC, and it felt very similar to the first day of Kindergarten. I had no idea what to do or where to go and I knew absolutely no one on campus. Three out of twenty-one of us had class this morning, so we were few in numbers and really nervous about our first day! Registration and timetables for classing are extremely confusing, not to mention the number of times I have already witnessed them being blatantly inaccurate. It makes things tough for an exchange student. While the other two girls unfortunately discovered that the class they registered for is actually next semester, I had pretty good luck with my first class. I even had time before my 12pm class to wait in the hour-long line for a student ID card.  People were pretty friendly and obviously picked up pretty quickly from my accent that I was not from SA. However, even being the only international student in the room quite often and the only white student most of the time, I felt quite welcomed. I didn’t really feel out of place or treated differently at all. Many students knew one another and were embracing friends they hadn’t seen in a while with hugs and kisses, but besides that many first year students were in the same boat as me, not knowing exactly what to do.

When I finally made it to class at noon, I was really exhausted from the morning. I wish I had been able to be more alert because even the first class was really interesting! The class is a History course called Colonial and Post-Colonial African History, or something along those lines. I am really excited to explore more about the history of this continent and build on what I studied last semester in Cultures of Africa, as well as learn about the crises throughout Africa that I have only heard of in the media, but have never studied. The professor seemed great. He is Italian, and his accent was sometimes hard to understand, but I will get the hang of it. He also talked a lot about the class this semester and it is really confusing because words like tutorial, exam, and essay, mean much different things here than they mean in the states. Tutorial is like a practical or a lab apparently, it is an optional class taught by a “tutor”, who I assume is like a TA, and that is where we hand in assignments and receive “marks”. So even though it says “optional”, it seems required to pass the class. Hopefully I will understand that concept better after I have been through one tutorial.

So all in all it was a good day. I still haven’t found the places on campus to register my laptop so I can get wifi, and I still haven’t found a place on campus, nor in South Africa, where I can get a good iced coffee, which I am going to desperately need if I have to be up at 6:30am every day for school or service! I also have yet to make a friend at UWC, but I tried very hard to talk to all the students there, and they seemed friendly but I still haven’t made that connection. Hopefully I can also become involved in some extracurricular activities and meet people that way. Being in third year classes, it seems like many students already have their groups of friends and therefore sit near them, but hopefully I can find some students willing to let a foreign girl into their group!

Lastly, UWC is a beautiful campus. I will try to remember to bring a camera and take some pictures next time I am there on Wednesday. As you will see in the photos, it is the busiest campus I have EVER seen. I am used to a school with less than 4,000 students and although I am unaware of how many students UWC actually has, I can say it is A LOT. There are students everywhere at every time of day. Every surface, chair, sidewalk, room, is occupied at all times. It feels alive and vibrant with so many young people chatting and laughing, heading to class or just hanging around. I must have asked ten different people for directions throughout the course of the day. They were nice and willing to help and the good thing is there is always someone near by to ask!!