Blog 3: Starting School and the Homestay

Things in Cape Town are beginning to feel normal. Not the country itself and all the things I am learning, but I feel like I finally have a routine to follow. I know where the essential things are, my apartment feels like home,  and I have finally settled into classes. Last week, because it was add/drop week for UCT, was a bit hectic. After five full days of wandering confusedly into classrooms and half-listening to lectures in classes I wasn't even sure I would keep or drop, it is an enormous relief to know that all of my classes are settled. In an uncharacteristic of me fashion, I at the last minute decided to switch out of my pre-approved philosophy course and attempt to switch into an additional sociology course. Though it required a bit more interaction with the ridiculous bureaucracy that is UCT’s add/drop process, I am extremely glad I chose to do it. From the first day I attended the class, the material was new and fascinating and almost entirely from the perspective of Africa, which is exactly what I had hoped to gain from an academic experience in another country. Coming to a continent with a history so different from my own country of origin makes the opportunity to study here that much more fascinating; I want to know so much more about the history and experience of Africa as a whole.

One thing I have noticed about the classes I am taking here is that they seem to overlap a great deal with the sociology courses I have taken so far, despite the fact that they are not related to the sociology department, and will not count for sociology courses when they transfer back to Loyola. For instance, my theology class, entitled “Religion, Sexuality, and Gender”, reminds me so much of a gender studies class I took two semesters ago at Loyola. I suppose it has to do with the fact that we are covering gender and sexuality, but it just surprised me how easily religion (theology) and sociology overlap. Perhaps I simply picked the right major that overlaps with a bit of everything.

Aside from school, every so often I catch myself doing something and I briefly realize with absolute incredulity the uniqueness of this study abroad experience. This has happened several times when I've been staring at some beautiful bit of nature (namely, the mountains or the ocean), but it also occurred to me as I was riding home after the homestay. It's difficult to explain without sounding somewhat ignorant, but there are some things about this place that are just so…Africa. The city of Cape Town to me isn't that different from what I am used to at home, but the townships just outside the city are almost every stereotype of Africa that I have ever known. They're little tin shacks backed up against chain link fence and the highway, they’re skinny dogs wandering around begging for food, they're kids with their pants around their ankles, peeing innocently in the street. They're more endless amounts of garbage in the road than I've ever seen, and they're diverse populations of skin tones, with the exception of any variation of white. I looked out the window of a cab once, and I saw what I honestly believe I have seen in the few movies about Africa I have watched: backed up against the sunset was a large group of black adults (they use race as a descriptor much more freely here, and I believe it necessary to do so to demonstrate my point) walking home from work. Many were barefoot, and to walk amongst the grassless dirt and trash was as natural to them as breathing. Mind you, I was in a cab with my two friends who were sleeping away the drive, so I could not sa anything, but in that moment I truly remembered for a second that I was in the continent of Africa. It was a strange and awe-inspiring experience.

The homestay experience in the township to me was very much like this. Although the place I stayed reminded me more of my grandmother’s house than a house in a poverty-stricken township, there were certain moments that I had to take a step back for a moment and remember exactly where I was and what I was doing.

I think this sums up my experience in Africa so far: a series of ups and downs. Sometimes it feels like I'm just a town away from home, with insignificant differences such as not carrying my favorite brand of cereal in the grocery store. Other times I feel completely in this place, I feel completely at awe at the fact that I am meeting people who grew up in places like the Congo, and doing things like elephant walks. It's an interesting way to feel, and something I don't think I will ever get used to as long as I am here.

Blog 2: Settling In

I am approaching the two week mark of being in the city of Cape Town, and I can say that my feelings have certainly changed from my last blog post. I'm feeling a bit more comfortable, a bit more settled in, and it has become easier to get used to living in this place. There are still things that I miss about home, but these things are no longer at the forefront of my mind. Instead I am learning to feel intrigued about every aspect of this new place and new culture I must become familiar with, and I am excited to see what the next few weeks have in store.

I think one of the biggest things that is difficult for me is knowing so little about the actual history of this place. I like to think that I knew more about South Africa than the average person when I went into this semester, but I still have so little idea of everything that has happened to the people here and even how recent some of the tragic history really is. It is so interesting to be in Africa, to see things such as one-room houses made out of tin, and segregation more intense than anything I have ever seen in the states, but every time I see something I find my mind grasping at straws, relying only on a sense of the word “Africans” and pictures I have created in my imagination. I want to know why and how some of the things in South Africa happened the way that they did, and I want to know the relationship between this country and plethora of other countries sharing this continent. I want to know why colored people (people of mixed-race), typically don't look anything like me (I am mixed-race). I want to know how deep the segregation really does still go in the mind of native South Africans, and if seeing only people of the same race together is or is not exaggerated in my mind.

The other day I was speaking with a mentor from ISA (the program through which I am studying) and he began speaking about Hout Bay, a place only about a thirty minute drive from where I am living, and how it had recently declared itself independent from South Africa in order to continue using the racial segregation laws. Hout Bay is one of the most beautiful places I have seen so far in this country, but to think that it is a place still abiding by archaic laws, and to think that there are still people in this country who believe in such racist ideals makes me feel very strange. I wouldn't say it turns my stomach—I have such a difficult time believing that this information is even true—I just don't know what to feel. It is information I am trying to process with such a limited understanding of this foreign place.
Although the process of registering for classes is more complicated and difficult than any experience I have had so far at Loyola, and although after two weeks I still do not know exactly what classes I will be taking, I am looking forward to the start of school. I want to learn about this country in the words of people who actually live here, who have actually lived South Africa. Being part sociology major, I find it so fascinating to think about all the things the people here think about and use to understand this world; although I get the idea that most South  Africans hate Americans I would truly like to know what their  ideas about who we are actually are. I can definitely understand the stereotypes and how these ideas of Americans would paint a negative picture of our culture, but I am very curious to understand their ideas of themselves compared to us Americans. After all, we have a somewhat similar history of segregation to South Africa, and when compared I think it would be interesting to examine the differences between what happened to them and what happened to us. Perhaps because they are in a different stage of development in their country comparison would be difficult but I really just would like to know what the South Africans think about segregation in their own country compared to the extreme decrease in segregation in the United States.
I think the biggest change between last week and this week is my gratitude and appreciation for this opportunity. Other than the absolute raw beauty of this country, I am so grateful to be able to expand my mind to such new horizons, even though it has been difficult. I hope that at my next blog post, I will have learned something new and fascination about this country’s rich history that I can share.

Blog 1: Learning From and Accepting the Difference Between Expectations and Reality

When I first learned a little more than a year ago that I was going to be studying abroad in Cape Town, South Africa, I was ecstatic. Even before I knew much about the country, ideas flew immediately into my head; I would swim with dolphins, cage dive with sharks, ride an elephant to class everyday, etc. All of the totally amazing things about a country like South Africa overwhelmed my mind and I immediately adopted an attitude that no matter how unhappy I was here and now, when I eventually got to South Africa, everything would be well. Everything in my life would be at peace and I would finally find an internal sort of happiness. I suppose I just created a vision of Cape Town being this place that would fulfill every idea I ever had about study abroad, and would cancel out every negative thing that ever happened to me in college beforehand. Cape Town became the answer, and living my everyday life just became a means to an end.

I don’t want to speak poorly about South Africa when I still barely know it; from my two days here so far I have been impressed by the absolute beauty of this country, it’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. I’m so impressed by the cool cultural things I’ve seen and by all of the incredible things this city has to offer. But what I will say is that Cape Town so far has not lived up to my expectations.

Perhaps that’s too powerful a statement for a student on day two of a five-month long study abroad journey, but I strongly believe that my first two days have been very eye-opening about what type of experience this time living abroad is actually going to be.

My flight to South Africa was somewhat uneventful. Aside from some of the worst turbulence I’ve ever experienced, the fifteen hours actually flew by pretty quickly and before I knew it the plane had landed and my journey had begun. But I didn’t feel any different when I stepped off the plane. Not that I expected to be changed just by the fact that I had been on a flight that long and was emerging in an entirely different day on an entirely different side of the world. But I did expect to feel something. And it turns out the something I really felt was the need to constantly convince myself that I was actually in Africa, that I actually physically was in this place I honestly knew almost nothing about.

In all the anxiety of the plane ride and the weirdness of not immediately feeling changed by my abroad experience, I found myself feeling a little overwhelmed and sad on my first day in Cape Town. Not to mention that I forgot one of my favorite jackets on the airplane (one that is totally irreplaceable) but that is a different story. The main point is that after finally arriving from the longest journey of my life, the only thing I really truly wanted was what I had spent so long trying to get away from: home. I was excited to be in the place I had been thinking about for so long, but in the moments as I unpacked all I felt was anxiety, and the desire to be with what I knew again.

Two days in and things have gotten a bit better. I’ve spent a little more time with the South Africa I always wanted to, spending time at the beach and talking to people I never expected to interact with. I’m definitely still dealing with the anxieties, but I’m easing into things a bit more. And I’m still fighting to find my jacket, which certainly hasn’t helped things.

I don’t know what I’ll be saying a day, a week, or a month from now, but today I can say that I think I’ve learned a pretty powerful lesson about South Africa, and about all countries in a general sense: they are just other countries. Sure they all have their social norms and there are things that cause culture shock and there are certain things people just cannot understand about a place unless they have grown up there, but at the end of the day South Africa is just another place where people live. It’s just another place where I’m living right now. Soon I will be used to this place the way that I’ve grown to be used to other places I’ve called home. And in these two days so far I’ve learned that I do miss home, I miss it more than I ever thought I would. And through that lesson I’ve also learned that I don’t think my biggest fear about my experience studying abroad in Cape Town should be getting on the plane to go home.