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February 05, 2005
Adjusting...
I'm sitting in an internet café in Muizenburg, South Africa, because we decided to go to the beach today. Little did we know that it was cloudy and rather windy half an hour away from our sunny University, so I'm being more productive with my time today. Hopefully we'll get some internet access at the University soon, although it is most certainly not anything like the connection at HWS. The problem is that UWC has 14,000 students, and 11,000 of those live in the area and are required to commute to the University every day. Therefore, most of the student resources on campus close around 4:00 or 5:00, and everyone seems to evacuate the area.
I'm getting rather tired of trying to survive on unperishable food, but UWC is still working on getting us refrigerators and stoves. Hopefully they will come soon and be in somewhat of an accessible location, because I'm getting rather hungry. A lot of things like the kitchens and the bus service have been very disappointing to both the professors and the students, and hopefully both will be worked out before we leave here in four months.
Classes start on Monday, and I don't think I've ever been this excited to start studying again. We've been touring around the cape peninsula this week, and next week we'll finally be able to do some settling in and such. Registration was a nightmare and one man in particular made me extremely upset, but hopefully I'll be attending a math course this semester which looks basically like a combination of set theory and combinatorics. The word's still out on that one, though, as I haven't completely squared everything away with HWS and I don't even know when my class meets. As you can probably gather, life is fairly disorganized here at UWC. I like organization.
Again, I miss all of you, but I'm starting to get used to life here in Cape Town. And I'm certainly not complaining about the weather, which has been sunny and in the 80's almost every day. I'm also learning a lot, not only about the culture and environment of South Africa, but also about myself and various areas that can still use some improvement. When I can get online more regularly and without such a time constraint, I'll be excited to be able to tell everyone about what has been going on! I love and miss you all. Keep commenting!
Posted by rgutwin at February 5, 2005 06:51 AM
Comments
Too bad about the lack of food and organization. I hope, for your sake, that both of those improve in the coming days. I suppose you could go out to a restaurant if you were really, really hungry... I hope you enjoy whatever classes you end up taking.
Posted by: Diana at February 5, 2005 11:20 PM
Unfortunately, there aren't any restaurants within the gates of UWC, and there isn't anything within walking distance. Also, I've been eating out for almost a month, and the whole money situation is beginning to develop. I'm surviving, though... I just might come home a few pounds lighter.
Posted by: Rebecca at February 7, 2005 04:09 AM