It is now almost noon in South Africa. I met Jamie and Ivan yesterday at the airport. To my relief, I did not leave the airport alone. Ivan is our driver. He’s lived in South Africa all his life and seems to be a great guy. Since it was night when I got here, I really didn’t get to see much but I still got to see Table Mountain in all its glory.
Can I just say that already this place is rocking my world. It’s so beautiful and different and yet in some ways it reminds me a lot like home. From what I’ve seen so far, it seems to be very segregated. For example, Ivan is I guess what you’d say “colored” but I’m not sure. He kinda reminds me of Mexicanos. Also there’s our maid. Yeah that’s right we have a maid. Her name escapes me right now but she also seems very nice. She comes three times a week to clean. I can’t believe we have a maid!
And did I mention the house. I mean I guess I should call it an apartment but really it’s a house. There are two bathrooms, two kitchens, a living room and six single bedrooms! I get my own room without having to be at home. I may stay here just for that reason.
But anyways, what I was trying to say is as we were driving to our place, I couldn’t help thinking: no wonder white people like it here. All the black people are in their “place” and what I mean by that is the place of servitude. It just reminds of Belmont with its very few black teachers and staff and Kirkwood which is very much the same. I wanted to come here to escape that and I guess in a way I did. Getting off the plane was great because most the people I saw were black including those helping out at customs. The guy I went to was really great and asked me why it took me so long to get here. He also went to UWC (university of the western cape) but didn’t really like it.
So I’m here. It’s great and the next couple of days are supposed to be really stressful. We’re supposed to be registering for classes. I hope that I’m able to get the ones I requested.
Oh and I should share my first experience at the grocery store. There’s a shop rite right down the street from our house. Oh and a liquor store, which is unfornate because that means lots of homeless people are sitting outside of it drinking. L but back to shop rite. I’m not sure how I feel about the whole having money coming out of my ears thing, everything seems overpriced (but American standards) and I’m not sure if that’s exactly true. But anyways, when I went to pay, I gave the woman my money and she said something as she was handing me back some of my change. It was really bad because I couldn’t understand her. I think she was telling me to wait for the rest of my change or something. It was really embrassing. I’m going to have to learn Xhosa so I can not have another experience like that. I felt so bad for not being able to understand her.
Right now, I’m trying to figure out the money situation because I have no idea how much I have spent. I bought some internet time at the Amsterdam airport and that was 12 Euros which I have no idea how much that is in American dollars and called my parents no idea how much that was and yeah, so I’m going to attempt to call bank of America and see if I can transfer some money. I may just need to go to ATM but I’d really rather not…
We did end up going to the ATM but it didn't really help because I can't transfer money. But I did inquire on the amount so at least I know what I have. Andrea (the program director) is picking us up around three so we can meet Joe whose also a student studying at UWC. I think I'll nap til then. Fair thee well
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