When they say to look both ways, they mean it

This morning started out with a lecture on the history and politics of South Africa. Our lecturer, Zwelethu Jolobe, is an instructor at UCT for comparative politics. He was really interesting to listen to and really knew a lot about the history of South Africa - he knew dates and details of events right off the top of his head. I found it pretty interesting to listen to the history portion of Apartheid and where the country stands as of now, but the politics were hard to follow. I don't know enough about politics in the first place, so trying to follow a political discussion today regarding the U.S. and South Africa was tough! He was very charismatic and interesting none the less. 

For lunch we checked out the food court at UCT, and I have to say I am not a fan of African cuisine so far...that is, until I had the chicken at Nandos tonight for dinner (Nandos isn't exactly African food, but it good!). I guess the spices and the way they prepare things don't appeal to me all that much. This makes me a little nervous for the homestay we're going to be going on soon. 

After lunch we went to the District Six Museum to learn more about the history of apartheid on a more personal level with people's actual stories and photographs. The man giving us the tour had a lot of interesting things to say, but to be honest, I was getting a little sleepy when he talked for so long, but I do appreciate what he had to say for the most part! One thing I thought was interesting that he mentioned was that during apartheid, white people and black people were so separated that at the post office only a white person served a white person and only a black person served a black person. I figured that was the case for the most part, but then he mentioned that if a person of one race was severely injured they would have to wait for doctor of their own race to treat them, even if there was someone of the opposite race already there. Hearing that really brought the reality to the situation in my mind. Working in heath care, something like race segregation for the care of another human life seems absurd. 

History is great to know while visiting another country and culture because it makes you more aware of the things that are going on today and why things are the way they are. After a long day of lectures about history, it was nice to walk around town and see the culture first hand as well. We walked to a market where the locals were selling things that they have made, which was sold based on bargaining. I always feel weird asking someone for a lower price than what they are offering because for some, it may be their only income. I learned quickly that bargaining is going to happen whether I like it or not, otherwise I would be taken advantage of by other vendors if they knew I was paying full price for things...so I played the game.

Finally, after a long day and a lot of walking we all went to dinner at Nandos for some amazing chicken. I always like winding down the day as a large group because we all talk about what we did that day and get to know each other a little more. When dinner is over, we all kind of do our own thing, which is nice because we all relax in different ways. 

The photo above is just an idea of what the city looks like that we walked through today. The title of this blog is "when they say to look both ways, they mean it" because when we first got here the Interstudy staff made a big point of saying that we MUST look both ways before crossing the street and to always stay in the crosswalk. There is no Minnesota nice here, the cars will run you down if you are in the way. This seemed like common sense at first to look both ways, but now we are all realizing that you have to keep looking both ways even while crossing because cars and busses come out of no where and people drive on the opposite side of the road than we're used to so we have to be really conscious pedestrians. 

Random things that have happen:

1. Brian tackled Cole in his sleep and screaming while doing so in the middle of the night... hilarious.

2. Laurie almost got hit by a bus when she, Aaron, and I were walking together - scary, but lesson learned.

3. Both of our houses managed to blow a fuse last night, but we were able to fix that... eventually.

4. Our van driver today was cut off by another van and he got really upset about that so he drove frantically on the shoulder of the road to catch up and scream at the other driver and cut him off too. The other van looked really similar to the one we were in, and after our driver cut him off (on the freeway) by coming at him from the shoulder, a police officer pulled the the other van over instead of the one we were in...we think he got the two vans mixed up because they look so alike because our driver was defiantly more in the wrong when he retaliated. People all drive pretty nuts around here - I'm glad I'm not driving!