Three Apples and my 1st week at UCT

When we first got to South Africa, we had a series of presentations during orientation ranging from course selection instructions to safety on campus. One presentation I fond particularly interesting was on culture shock. Now, as an AU student studying international relations, I had my fair share of culture shock theory in my classes. This time, however, it was presented to us not as a theory, but as the reality we would be experiencing in the next few weeks. Quinton, the presenter, described culture shock as three apples. Imagine you never ate an apple before. The first bite is sweet and juicy and the most delicious thing you’ve ever eaten. You want to eat apples every day, for every meal, for the rest of your life. That’s like the first couple weeks abroad. Things are fresh and exciting and full of new adventures. Then you get to the second apple. You take a bite, and although its an apple just like the first one, maybe it’s a little rotten, or you’ve gotten a bit of a worm. You are frustrated, hate apples, and vow to never eat one again.

Last week, I bit the second apple.

I had just gotten back from the garden route and was enjoying each day thus far like an extended vacation. Then, classes start. For the most part they are big lecture classes where the professor spent the whole period talking at you. Then, I get a call from one of the other AU abroad students who said they just spoke to AU and all of us are taking too few classes and need to change our schedule. Now, in Africa you can’t just log online and click an add/drop button. You need to go to upper campus to print out an add/drop form, then down to middle campus to get a copy of your transcript. If the class is upper level you need to find the department head and get them to sign a course approval sheet. Then (on upper campus again) you need to wait in a line to have someone sign the sheet and pass it along to someone to input the class change into a computer within the next few days. Nothing in Africa is efficient. I started to look through on classes I could add when I get an email from AU saying they changed the formula and all students are over the credit limit and owe AU 1000 dollars.

This is when I started getting very frustrated. The communication with AU was very limited. To call the United States it costs a dollar a minute. I still don’t have any wireless internet in my room and the front desk is out of Ethernet cables so that I can plug into UCT internet. I have meetings with people at UCT and make a rather expensive phone call to AU and think I figured things out. After turning in my add/drop forms for what I think is the perfect new schedule, I get yet another email saying now I am UNDER the credit limit and need to change my schedule for a third time.

Lack of information, technology and time (the add/drop period ends on Friday and this was taking place on Wednesday) is what really put me over the edge. I also  found out that the service initiative I initially wanted to do could not coordinate with my class schedule and slots were filling up for the other volunteering organizations.

Luckily, there is still one apple left.

When you get to the third apple, you’ve had an experience that was out of this world spectacular and an experience that was downright awful. By the third bite you realize an apple is really just an apple.

I finally got into three awesome classes that AU is giving me credit for. I am taking Advanced South African Politics, Policy and Administration, and 20^th Century Industrialization. I’ve gone up and introduced myself to my professors and talked to them so that I no longer feel like a nameless face in the room. I realized that in a third world country, being constantly connected online is simply not going to happen. Internet I do have access to will be slow and expensive, so time online will have to be rationed. I ended up working with the LEAP school as my service opportunity and am now program leader for the CIEE students volunteering at this site.

Although they may speak English, listen to similar music, and wear similar clothes, this is not America. Things are slower and less efficient and I’m realizing I need to adjust my pace and stop expecting things to work exactly as I need it. There is a common expression here: TIA. This is Africa. Every time the overhead projector stops working in a classroom, or internet won’t load, or a department head decides they don’t have time to see you during office hours, or the shuttle bus just never comes, you say TIA. Things are different. Not bad, but TIA. Hopefully I’ll continue to learn and grow in this new culture and who knows – maybe when I return I’ll keep the same laid back demeanor everyone has seemed to master here.