Back to School?

School here, or "varsity," as they call it, has many similarities to college in the states. Some differences, too. Make that a lot of differences. I'm taking 4 classes- Modernism, African Language and Literature, Liberation in Southern Africa, and Africa: Making of a Continent to 1800. I think I will like all of my classes. It's been really hard to get back into school mode, though. The freedom I have had up until school has been amazing. While it's nice to have some kind of routine, the many papers and readings I am doing at the moment are hardly a day on the beach. At least my campus is unbelievably gorgeous, nestled right into the side of Table Mountain. I start at either 8 or 9am pretty much every day, and am finished by 1pm most days. Pretty ideal. Especially considering that the Cape Doctor, the pleasant wind that has served to cut the heat has somehow now vanished and campus can feel like the blinding surface of the sun. It's been great to meet some more South Africans in my classes. I mean, isn't that why I'm here? I've come to the realization that it's time to start pinching pennies, but the food on campus is making that pretty difficult. My favorite is this little Indian food cart in the bottom floor of one of the buildings where I have class. Lots of veggies and curry; really, really delicious. Cheese croissants are also a daily staple. To combat this horrible obsession, I have joined the local gym. 

Cape Town has started to feel more like home now that I have begun classes, which makes me really happy. I feel more confident here. There have been some pretty serious safety concerns, however, and those have recently played a major part in my life on Upper Liesbeek road. Cape Town as a city and South Africa as a whole are generally pretty unsafe places. The whole Apartheid thing has made some big rifts among people so gang warfare is common, as is unemployment (a 40% unemployment rate, if you can imagine) and domestic violence. I say this not to scare anyone, and not because I am particularly scared, but rather because I am experience for the first time what it is like to have safety concerns on my mind constantly. It's a shift in paradigm for a girl from Pennsylvania farmland. This week, my friend and roommate Matt was hit by a car on his way to campus. Today marks exactly a week that he has been in the hospital. I've really admired his determination through his injuries- a shattered tibia, broken ankle, fractured maxilla and chipped teeth. Things took a frightening turn when a pulmonary embolism, presumably fat from bone marrow that was released during surgery, ended up putting Matt in the ICU for a couple days. I am happy to say that his parents are here with him now and he will be perfectly fine. My other roommate Ian and I have been visiting him in the hospital as much as we could over the past week, along with our program director Ouma. All of our friends have been wonderful with going to visit and taking good care of him. I'm really happy that he's begun to recover and Kendal 10 will see him back soon.