A painting on the wall near the Cape Town train station

Upon completion of my second week of class I am still unsure of how academics compare to back home. Most classes seem to go by in a flash since they are only 45 minutes long, compared to 50-75 typically at Vanderbilt. We seem to have even less assignments, so the difficulty of grading will be up in the air for a while, although everyone attests that grading is quite tough.

I’ve come to the conclusion that all societies here (what a fancy name for a club) simply exist as a front for their actual purpose: parties. Although the wine society seems more suitably geared toward this, we’ve found that many other organizations at least partly play the role reserved for fraternities back home. Friday we went to the first event for the wine society, which took place at the top of Jammie steps, which are almost always packed with students lounging in the sun between classes. It was not technically a “wine tasting” but rather a group of people walking up to tables, picking red or white, and rapidly drinking to the tune of booming club music. It was slightly less sophisticated than I anticipated, but fun having the opportunity to talk to other UCT students outside of the classroom setting. Apparently there are actual "tastings" but I will believe it when I see it.

Jameson Hall (and Jammie steps leading up to it)

I am working with the same organization that I worked with over the summer when I was here, SHAWCO, which organizes various education programs within some more impoverished areas around Cape Town. At the orientation Saturday morning I was excited to catch up with Cyril, who organized the summer program I did in the community of Manenberg. My first day at SHAWCO was on Tuesday. I am in an area called Kensington, working with 7^th years. They were all exceptionally energetic, and the tiny room we were confined to was not too conducive to this. It was fun getting to meet all the kids, although I am a little rusty on all their names still as they decided to give us made-up names on our first attempt to learn them. I’ll be going back once a week and I’m really excited to get to know all of them better.

Saturday we went into the Castle of Good Hope, which was built by the Dutch East India company in the 1600s, and today houses many exhibits, including a military museum.

Inside the Castle of Good Hope (with Lion's Head in the background)

We then took a short walk to the Company’s Gardens, a park in the middle of Cape Town. It reminds me of areas around the National Mall in Washington D.C., with a lot of green space and several museums. We went into the Iziko South African Museum. The place is massive, so we only saw some areas, including exhibits focusing on South African human history, an awesome collection of nature photography, and some huge whale casts and skeletons that hang from the ceiling.

The Iziko Museum

A whale!