Dave is…
Officially a UCT student.
Now I almost wish that girl the other day hadn’t given me that whole bag of orientation materials. It just provides too stark a contrast to the Law Faculty’s registration. Of the estimated 15-20 names on the exchange list I think maybe ten ultimately showed up for it, most of them late. Late was problematic cause it only lasted approx five minutes. We got a packet for course selection, the guy told us what was in the packet, told us where to go to get our IDs and the presentation part of registration was over. No lectures on safety, no discussion of how to use your keys as a weapon, nothing. All that was left was to sit there till the academic advisor could get to you to discuss your course options.
That at least was useful. Thanks to him (and recs from Chris) I ended up in Intl Law on Disputes and the Use of Force and Punishment and Human Rights. I also learned I shouldn’t take the LLB course on South African Const Law cause it’s a basic course for undergrads, and that my two courses are enough to meet my 12 credit hr requirements. I am pretty sure that’s not what NYU said but I definitely don’t want to take an incredibly boring intro course that will tie up two days I could be spending at ICTJ so I didn’t sign up for it and we will see what happens.
Getting my ID took approx 5 times as long as registration, pretty much cause the only direction we had to that office was a satellite picture of the entire campus with the building the office was in circled. Cept it was a big building. And it was the wrong building. So it took awhile. And then it took even longer to find the traffic office to see what is required for a parking disk.
Accomplishing that at all was only thanks to Nicole who happened to be on campus and who I called and browbeat till she agreed to help me. Once I had all my paperwork we then spent an hour two arguing about what modern day dictator had the most panache. Clearly the undisputable answer is Idi Amin, but Nicole put up a spirited fight going so far as to do research later. Her best candidate: Saparmurat Niyazov of Turkmenistan. He outlawed lip synching at musical performances (for which he has earned my undying loyalty) and replaced the Hippocratic Oath with an oath of allegiance to him. Solid Dude, but he never offered to help Queen Victoria procreate so he loses.
The kind of discussion that would take place amongst students hanging out in the college quad cause they have nothing better to do. If I had to put it in a word, that word would be collegiate. Which is really a trip for me. Thanks to doubling down at NYU the closest I have ever come to attending a conventional university is the weeks I would spend living on the couch at Sean/Tommy/Big Pone’s house at Carbondale, and that doesn’t really count cause the Springfield presence was so heavy there I knew everybody. I contrast that with how I reacted when I happened to find myself on other campuses. I remember visiting Susan at school in Athens, OH during Greg, Sean and I’s epic road trip back in 2002 and feeling wildly intimidated when I found myself walking down a campus block surrounded by a mass of college students. Or how out of place I’d always feel when I’d visit U of I. House parties were fine but every trip out to the bars just seemed to underline how out of place I felt. Anyway, point being, it’ll be interesting to give the conventional college experience a try, I just wish they had a football team. Oh and that I wasn’t almost ten years older than most of them.
Misc Notes:
• On my way out of school as I drove at a reasonable pace down a steep but smooth hill part of my bumper fell off. The bolt must have shaved off or something and the left half just dropped, a fact I discovered when suddenly there was a horrible grinding noise caused by the free floating half rubbing along the tire. If it wasn’t for the fact that I was two blocks from the rental place where they screwed it back on I dunno what the hell I would’ve done. I need to get rid of this piece of shit.
• ICTJ premiered a documentary short on gender violence as a weapon of political repression in Zimbabwe tonight at the Center for the Book across from Company Gardens in town tonight. I had to and work it and when it was done, about 8ish I went the block over to get dinner on Long Street. Long Street is the famous, bustling tourist and drunk destination. It’s the only thing Cape Town really has that could be called a strip or that allows for bar hopping without driving, and yet sad to say I have never gone out on it. I either haven’t had friends or the friends I have aren’t the type to go out there, be it cause they are too laid back, party in the suburbs or are too South African to want to deal with the heavily international crowd I just have never made it. But walking around tonight it looked like a lot of fun. Shoot, at 830 I couldn’t get in anywhere that wasn’t fast food without a 40 minute wait, something that I wasn’t willing to do alone. It was actually a pretty serious bummer. Really made me feel like the uncool kid in high school combined with the idea that I am seriously missing out on something that could be awesome with some people. At the same time it was way too loud, crowded and lively for me to try to cold-start interactions so I settled for a hippie bar off the strip, which while an institution is very low key, and I watched the Kaiser Chiefs/Pirates game and went home. Feeling more than a little lame.