Lack of Rhythm, July 27

Today was my first actual day of having classes. I am taking two history courses and an African dance class. The first two classes are very interesting. “Memory and Identity” focuses on how history copes with violence/traumatic events, with a focus on Africa. “Medicine in the Making of Modern South Africa” is a medical history class. Both of these classes are surprisingly small (something I’m not used to at UCSD), and I find myself having to listen closely to understand the professors. Even though they speak English, their accents are quite heavy. Unfortunately it is almost all international students in both of these classes. I guess that African students don’t take African studies courses?

My last class that takes place in the evenings is African Dance for international students. I was caught by surprise when I entered into this class. I went in thinking that it would focus more upon African dance theory. I was sorely mistaken. I walk in to find that it is held in a dance studio and that we are going to be dancing right away. I thought that, due to it being for study abroad students, there would be a lot of beginning dancers. This thinking however was also wrong. There were some really really GOOD dancers! It was very fun, but very fast paced. I went up afterwards to ask the instructor if I would be failed for being a bad dancer and for lacking rhythm. He informed me that he doesn’t fail many, but that it will be a tough road…not very reassuring. So we’ll see if I stay in this class. I might end up switching into another African Studies course instead.

After dance class I went up to the sports centre where the UCT volleyball club was practicing. Sports in SA are much different from in the US. Women don’t normally play sports, so the competition level was not quite what I was expecting from the college club team. It is a very interesting dynamic. The men were really good at volleyball, but it was obvious that the women had little training. Sports and athletics in general are known for being pretty sexist here in SA, which was evident by the huge skill level gap between the men and the women teams. That being said, I’m not sure if I’ll stick with volleyball. I might try a sport I don’t already know how to play…like netball? I’m not sure, but regardless I’m sure I’ll be joining some club team by the end of this week.