Oh Stellenbosch...

Things are becoming a routine and time is starting to speed up a bit, which is good.

Classes are pretty good. They are kind of depressing though. All of them deal with Apartheid in some way. The only class that doesn't deal with Apartheid is my Photography class, but it still makes me depressed. For one thing, this class is not on campus. It is located across town, so I have to catch a van at 9:30 a.m. in order to get there. If I am late for the van, I miss the class. The second reason why I don't like this class is because I don't have a professional camera. I can't do the projects right, because my camera does not do all the things she asks for. It makes me mad because I usually like to try my best on things... and with this camera, I am not able to do all the things she tells us to do. The last reason why this class sucks is because the teacher is boring. She has to talk for 3 hours about photography. I learn stuff, but it's not terribly interesting. The class is just too early and too long. But, Josiah does not want to be the only Black person in the class for some reason, so he has convinced me to stick with it.

My schedule is like this...
Monday - South Africa and the Literary Imagination (9-11:50 but he always ends early)
Tuesday - Three African Women Writers (2-5)
Wednesday - An Overview of South African History (2-5)
Thursday - Social and Economic Problems in Africa and South Africa (2-5)
Friday - Photography (catch van at 9:30 and class is from 10-1)

I have a little problem with all of my classes except one. In "Three African Women Writers," the professor is a little too excited about the class and has way too many requirements. In the history class, the professor goes off-topic the entire time. The "Social and Economic Problems..." class would be perfect if it was smaller, but there are like 40-50 people in it, which is not condusive for discussions. And, I've already vented about Photography class. The only class that I really enjoy is "South Africa and the Literary Imagination," where I get to not only read good stories, but talk about South African politics and culture at the same time. I really like the class.

I must confess... I eat McDonald's like every other day. It's not that I don't like the food here. The food here is really good. I eat at McDonald's for the same reason I ate at McDonald's at home... because it's cheap and fast! I also eat at this place called Debonair's often. They have some of the best pizza I've ever tasted! There is this one place called The Hungry Lion, which is similar to Church's Chicken in America... the chicken is greasy and the prices are way too cheap. They don't have biscuits though. They don't have biscuits ANYWHERE in Stellenbosch. There is a KFC here, and it doesn't even have biscuits! When I'm not trying to eat cheap... I enjoy rice and chicken curry, pancakes (they are really more like crapes), sushi, bacon-banana-cheese toasted sandwiches, pastries with some kind of meat (or possibly bean) paste in the middle and all kinds of other items. I'm glad I am not allergic to eggs anymore, because every restaurant seems to serve omelettes all day here.There are many deli's and restaurants in town. I hope I will get to try them all.

The one thing I miss about home is the food! I MISS TACO BELL! I MISS CHINA GARDEN! I miss going to Cracker Barrel or Herman's with my dad and step-mom after church. I miss going to Red Lobster (Jasmine has an expensive taste in food) or Chili's with my momma. I miss Moe's burritoes... and cheap, salty popcorn from Target. I miss going to Ci Ci's Pizza with David. I get home a few days before Thanksgiving.. and between then and Thanksgiving, I plan on gaining at least 10 pounds. And, on Thanksgiving day, I plan on gaining another 10 pounds. Before I left the U.S., my pants were getting a little harder to get over my thighs. Now, they are loose and I'm already having a hard time keeping them on my hips. I need to buy a belt!

My friends' still like to go out partying too much. As a matter of fact, the whole school seems to go partying too much. They start partying here on Wednesdays, and they keep partying every night until Sunday. Everyone here is really social. So, people just go to bars and pubs to socialize and drink beer. Stellenbosch is a small town though, so the party scene is not that good, especially for anyone looking for a hip-hop club to dance in. All the good hip-hop clubs are in Capetown.

But, I do hear many cars blasting hip-hop music, and it's never a Black person driving the car either. It's always some White guy or girl blasting hip-hop music. Every store I've been into plays music too. Not that calm, elevator type music we play in America. They play real music. It's no thing to be at a grocery store and hear some Mary J. Blige or something. It's crazy. Also, people are big into techno music, and I can't understand why. We went to this one club and they were playing techno music... it was awful. And, people were actually trying to dance to it. Like.. they were bouncing up and down! It was funny.

I think I already mentioned how important wine is in South Africa, but let me just repeat that. WINE IS VERY IMPORTANT IN SOUTH AFRICA. Not only does everyone drink it and every restaurant sell it, but it's important to the South African economy. We went to the Wine Festival. There had to be over a hundred wine estates there giving out free samples of their wine. There were also people giving out samples of cheese, chocolate, jams, and other things. Now... I am NOT a drinker. I have a really low-tolerance level, and it doesn't take much for me to get drunk. Basically, I got drunk at the wine festival from all the glasses of wine! Everyone was making fun of me too because I got drunk off of wine! I can't help it.. I don't usually drink.

But hey, now I know that I cannot just drink wine lots of wine. Hahaha.. that's a good lesson to learn.