UCT-The Beginning

We have finally started classes, volunteering, and clubs. Registration was an experience in itself, with everyone done by hand. We got preapproved for classes in the fall, but of course two of the three I was preapproved for overlapped and one was so late in the day it would exclude me from volunteering or participating in clubs. So I searched for other classes, and finally found a few that fit in my schedule. To register, we had to wait in line after line after line, as they do everything manually. Rows of chairs were set up for us to wind through until we could talk to an advisor who would then sign our registration sheet. Then we had to go to “data capture” where another person entered our classes onto the computer. It’s hard to believe that they have everyone here (over 20,000 students) register like this each semester. When it’s time to sign up for classes at school I think I’m going to be in shock at how quick—and electronic—it is.

Despite all the time it took to register for classes, I ended up having to change my schedule significantly and spent a significant part of the first week in the humanities building with the schedule change form. (I even tried to take Xhosa but when I found out how many clicks there were and how much class participation was involved, I looked for another class). Luckily I figured out my classes and they all seem pretty good. I’m taking a sociology class, Culture in the 21st Century. The professor is new to UCT, like us, but actually may know less about the school than we do. I’m also taking a political science course (the only one I’m getting major credit for), Advanced South African Politics. I don’t have the obvious advantage of being from South Africa or ever having taken a South African Politics class, but the subject matter is so interesting and the professor is great so it should be a good class. My last class is Introduction to Philosophy. One of my friends is convinced I’ll hate it because it’s too abstract, but so far it’s okay. Since it’s an intro level class, it’s mostly freshman, and UCT doesn’t cap classes, so there are literally 450 students. Almost everyone fits into the huge lecture hall, but everyday some stragglers are left to sit on the stairs. The schedule here is more like high school, with 45 minute periods. Because each class is so short, we have each class four times a week, but it goes by pretty quickly.

In addition to classes, we also started volunteering. I am working on two projects—one through SHAWCO, an organization through UCT and one through our study abroad program. For SHAWCO, I’m volunteering with SMART, a program that tutors math and science to high school students in the township Kahyletshia. I'm tutoring math to two 15 year old girls. At first they were shy, but by the end of the first session, they had opened up. The first lesson was on square roots, and asked questions like “what is the square root of 27 between?” and I could tell they were very confused. In the beginning, I struggled with how to explain the process of solving it, but soon I taught them to make a table (like a multiplication table but with only squares, like 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, etc), and then to find where 27 would be. By the end of the time, they were asking me to quiz them on it. I didn’t realize how rewarding it would be to know that they understood and were comfortable with that subject.

Because, apparently, the first week is the week to join organizations, I also went to a tennis club practice. Being very involved in tennis at school, I didn’t want to spend an entire semester here without playing, but I also didn’t want to commit a huge amount of time to an activity that I can when I’m back home. Luckily, I found a compromise in the tennis club. They practice a couple times a week, but there isn’t required traveling that would exclude me from experiencing Cape Town and traveling throughout the country. I’ve also met new hitting partners and found tennis as a great way to meet more African students.