Happy Valentine's Day

My first official day of classes began much like all the other days here have started: to the sound of traffic and mini taxis out on the road below my window zooming by, hollering and honking at 6:30am. Not the most loving way to start off Valentine's Day, but at least I don't have to worry about over-sleeping for classes.
Firstly I walked myself across the suddenly teeming campus trying to find the Humanities Graduate building, which is further down the main strip of campus than I'd traveled before: very interesting territory. The course convener, Nigel Penn, is a bit monotonous but if you pay attention he has a very entertaining and dry sense of humor. Southern Africa to 1900 should be a deep and comprehensive course that covers South Africa from the pre-colonial period until the 1880s or so, and with no actual assigned books to read (two recommended, however) I'm optimistic that the workload won't be too overwhelming (although the two essays count for 50% of the grade and the final exam counts for the other 50%!).
Forty-five minutes later (classes here run for only forty-five minutes, but most classes are at least three times a week with a tutorial or seminar, basically another semi-related class, added on during the same period on another day, so you're really taking more classes than just the ones you signed up for) I was headed back across campus for my African Languages and Literatures Studies 1 class, which oddly enough is housed in one of the many science buildings on campus. The first thing the convener said when he began class was, "This is African Languages and Literatures, Studies 1. If you thought this was biology, you were wrong. That's next door" and then a significant portion of the class tried unsuccessfully to inconspicuously make their way out of this enormous lecture hall. Oops.
I was a bit surprised that both classes were overwhelmingly dominated by study abroad students and white people. I know from talking to my flatmate Serame that a lot of countries in Africa only allow students to go to outside universities, such as UCT, if they're studying something like engineering or other sciences. Serame himself wasn't allowed to leave Lesotho unless he studied engineering, so that's what he's doing, even though he hates it. Education, in any subject, is more important to him than his overall happiness, and he hopes that one day he'll be able to pursue something he actually enjoys. I feel awful for him: I'll never complain about having to take an Early Period requirement in the English department again.
After my two classes today I was able to catch up with some friends from the CIEE program at the main cafeteria area on campus, then headed up to the Student's Union center where we signed up for come societies and volunteer organizations here on campus. I chose to sign up for an organization called SHAWCO, one of the oldest volunteer groups in the country (I believe it was founded at UCT in 1941 or so) which takes students off campus and into the townships to provide education and tutoring to students at community centers. There are different sub-programs to work with, but I chose a program called Star, which provides arts and crafts, drama, and English tutoring to students 7-13. I have training on Friday, so I'll know more then about what specifically I'll be doing once a week for three hours. I also joined the Wine and Culture society: I'm not entirely certain what they provide, besides the obvious, but it sounded like an interesting way to get involved on campus but not seriously committed to anything. Something fun and different from school back home. We'll see how that plays out.
We had to go down to the Sports Center on Middle Campus to sign up for clubs and physical activities, and I chose the Hiking and Skiing club (apparently there's skiing here in the winter, although I find that hard to believe, especially today when it was around 90 degrees and absolutely cloudless) which is basically an outdoor club that coordinates hiking, biking, camping, rock climbing, outdoorsy things. I've heard there are some amazing hiking trails in this area, so I'm eager to get out and explore!
Then it was off to the CIEE Office to ask about opening a bank account (no luck on that score) and sign up for a volunteer program through CIEE at the TB Hospital nearby. I hope you're all sitting down for this: they need volunteers to help with the younger patients, mostly infants and toddlers, who are left there by their families and are grossly under-developed due to lack of interaction and socialization. We were given a tour of the facilities two weeks ago, and I can't get the image out of my head of this almost two-year-old boy who couldn't even sit up because he was so behind in his development. I know it sounds particularly out of character for me to be working with children in any capacity, but I'm on this kick of trying new things and racking up all sorts of experiences, because you don't know who you are until you test yourself and push your understanding of you. So, I'm pushing: we'll see what, or who, pushes back.
Despite my best intentions to head over to Claremont in search of a good used book store (I have plenty of novels that need reading for class), I ended up heading back to the res early this afternoon to get some work done, only to find that when dinner time rolled around and I was ready for left-over pasta, I had to eat it cold because we don't have a microwave. Honestly, how did people exist without microwaves? It boggles my mind. Did they just not have left-overs? Or was everything just cold and unappealing after the first night? And our stove still doesn't work, despite the assurances of the girl at reception this morning that someone would be around to repair it today. I keep telling myself these are all character building experiences. So cold pasta inhaled, I'm spending Valentine's Day trying to find a gym in the area and figuring out classes for this summer and next semester, and reading some poetry assigned for tomorrow's literature course. At least the poetry is of the romantic genre...