January 12rh--First day of Classes

Monday January 12th, 2009

Today was the first day of classes, which was an experience in and of itself. I have one class on Mondays and Wednesdays, two classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and one class on Fridays. At the beginning of the day I went to an office and a group of us International students were there, attempting to get everything set up with schedules and what not. It was interesting, because the campus was finally full of people. I wandered around campus and attempted to meet people, but I would like to say that it's actually a difficult thing to do in a completely different culture. I'm an extremely outgoing person, but I still have issues with the whole breaking that barrier. It's difficult when you don't really understant what the other person is saying, and as soon as you run out of things which you both mutually understand, well, then it gets awkward. Also, the ratio is completely reversed. There are so many more girls than guys. It's kinda nice. I met my roommate today, and she's fantastic.

Despite all the good things that are happening, I'm still having some culture shock occur. The best time of the day is when we all go out and get dinner. The food in the cafeteria is worse than Sodexo (the only good things are the mango juice and something that I can't remember this late at night(mandazi)). Coffee isn't the staple drink that it is in the United States...I think I've quit drinking coffee. This idea has come about mainly because I haven't had any coffee in the past 4 days. None. I guess that's one way to get rid of an addiction. Instead, there is this amazing mango juice. The server and I have a nice little relationship going on, and the caf has only been open for 2 days...she also offered to teach me how to make this really cool food item, and I think I may take her up on it...(I did warn her that me + kitchens == natural disaster, but she didn't care. I dont' think she understood the extent of the destruction I can create if you give me flour and an oven.)

Any ways: class. So I show up to my class and see a Japanese international student who has been teaching me some random kiswahilli. So I sat next to him, and this other girl who is a 3rd year from Dar es Salaam (sp?). We ended up getting into a conversation about different education systems, and how an education is useless if you cannot change the world with what you have learned. If you only learn one thing worthwhile in a day, that day is worth more than you can imagine. The way she phrased it was really amazing. The class I'm taking is African International Relations. It's a stereotypical international relations class, except it's told from the point of view of the oppressed. Not the oppressors, or friends of the oppressors, and the energy in the classroom was much different. I was sitting behind two african students, and the professor was talking about ethiopia, and was like :the only african nation that wasn't occupied, other than for a short period of time by the italien, during their history is ethiopia. The Nigerian student kinda shook his head, while his friend smiled, and was all proud, and kinda like 'that's right bitches', except not that exact phrase. The Kenyan looked at him and was like, “don't even say anything. Just shut up.” It was a very raw exchange as well. Another moment that struck me during class was the professor had been held up by an accident for half an hour, and he was explaining how he had parked so horribly that the security guard had come up and talked to him about it. The professor explained how he was really late, and the security guard asked “do you want me to lose my job?”, the professor retorted with “Do you want me to lose mine?”. In a rhetorical question, the professor turned to the class and asked, “now why should one man's job mean more than mine?”, the same student I mentioned before muttered “welcome to africa” under his breath, kind of in the same manner that disenchanted Americans will say the same thing when there is a stereotypical moment of what so many of us hate to represent.

So far, I have essentially learned that people are people no matter where the hell you are. A different culture just means different customs, it doesn't mean that they are aliens with similar shape. They are human beings with similar ideas. Tonight after coming back from the bar/dinner, I was stopped by a guy who I had met playing guitar under a tree, and we ended up having a political discussion for over an hour, ranging from the pros and cons of O'bama, Bush, the world's interpretation of countries, how countries relate to each other, the second coming of Christ in the form of china, and philosophies on illegal substances. I had also locked myself out of my room (big surprise), so I had to go find the RA type person. This is what I live for. I hope that I can continue to find it where ever I go...not just in the states.

It doesn't seem like things are all that different on the top, however, it's getting difficult for me to try to explain all of these things. Everything is just so completely different compared to life as usual. The matatu, which is the local public transportation, the way teksi's operate. Everything is so foreign, but makes so much sense at the same time. Oh man.