First Week of Classes

As I mentioned earlier, things are a little less organized in Cape Town. And by a little, I mean A LOT. I don’t think we were ever informed of many things, a few of these being 1) In addition to all of the classes you signed up for, you must also sign up for a tutorial, or “tut” in the majority of the classes, 2) “Tuts” do not meet the first week. 3)Vula, the online resources for classes 4)UCT email (I still haven’t figured out how to use mine-do I even have one? Who knows), 5)Peoplesoft (What is that? I don’t know, but I have a 7digit number and I type it in somewhere and it tells me what classes I’m registered for-first used this feature yesterday.) 6)If you register for a club or activity that does not mean you are automatically in it. No, no, in fact, it does not even mean that you are added to their contact list. You must contact them. And the contact numbers are in the IAPO Office…or maybe the SOO office, no, wait, the 5th floor of Steve Biko…but that’s only open from 14 to 16 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. And the list goes on… So the first day of class, I had no idea where I was going (because of course the internet in our house was down the night before). I literally knew nothing about where any of my classes were. Luckily, one of my housemates was in my first class so that worked out fine, Beattie 115; We got there right at 9AM. We got out of class early, and I searched the campus for 45 minutes looking for my next class, Business Law 1. Could it be in Leslie Science, where many first year classes are held? No. Okay, so the Leslie Commerce Building, since it from the Commerce Department? No. Okay, so it must be in the Kramer Law Building (on the opposite side of campus by the way). No. Oh, it just happened to be in Beattie 114, less than 5 feet away from where my first course had been. I got to class 20 minutes late and it got out about 25 minutes in. Excellent. By the way, ALL of my classes are in Beattie 115 and Beattie 114. And they’re not even related subject matter! Art History and Business Law? Unorganized. On the first day of my Art and Theory class, another teacher had booked the same room, so all 30 of us roamed the halls of the Beattie Building (I could practically give tours of this building now), looking for an empty classroom and ended up, 15 minutes later, in a room too small to hold all of us. This summarizes the expression “T.I.A., This is Africa.” When situations like this arise, there is no point in getting frustrated…this is Africa. Apart from the chaos, my first week of class went very well. It takes me about a half hour to get to class; I take the Jammie Shuttle. Campus is BEAUTIFUL!. I really enjoy both of my Art History courses (Sacred Art and Art and Theory), and to be honest, my Business Law course isn’t as horrible as I thought it was going to be. We learn about South African law, and what rights you have, courts, the judicial system here, etc. (To be fair, I did get out of Finance as fast as I could when on the first day he started rambling about accounting and interest rates and needing a financial calculator.) My classes vary in size, from a lecture hall of about 150 to a small class of about 25. My schedule is excellent; I start at 9AM or 10AM every day and end by 11AM, 12PM, or 1PM. One thing I really like about how they teach here is that most of my classes have 2 or 3 professors. One teaches the first part, then another comes in, and another. It is a nice variety and gives you different perspectives on the subject matter. I think my classes will be comparable to UW’s in difficulty, or maybe a little easier since I’m only taking 3. Hey,that's fine by me!