On Friday while doing all of the administrative hullabaloo I ended up meeting another art student named Tom, who was shadowed by his friend Ari just tagging along for the day. We chatted for a quite a while considering we both had to wait nearly an hour for the same person to return to her office. He talked about my program and how intense it is. A man Tom introduced me to stated that he is doing his Master's in Fine Arts and not in Interactive Media "because (he) want(s) to sleep." Just what I am looking for, a challenge.
So Tom has kind of took me under his wing and I have chilled with him and his friends outside of campus the past couple of nights. Went to the nearby mall and had an ostrich burger at Burger Bar, delicious. While in the car I saw many different areas and towns along the way... If you have been to Chicago, it would be similar to the difference between Wrigleyville, Lincoln Park, Gold Coast, etc.... Every house or business is surrounded by a series of walls, gates, barbed wire, and electrical fencing. The home where Tom lives is a cottage off of a main house. It has a beautiful pool, lush greenery and tennis courts. A nice dig for sure.
We really tied one on Friday night. These guys can drink. What a bunch of drunks! Well most of them at least. Brandy is the drink of choice, or Black & White brand scotch. One bottle is drank during pregaming, along with whatever else is leftover from previous occasions. Good people.
Saturday Tom picked me up and we watched Arsenal end in a draw, then went to this Chinese New Year celebration in ChinaTown. Little kids, drunks, and fireworks... an entertaining formula to say the least. There were seven of us that ended up outside of a Szechuan kitchen, eating delicious authentic cuisine for hour after hour. It was so authentic that the restaurant workers did not even know what spring rolls or egg rolls are.
And today, Sunday, I explored campus for several hours taking photographs. The campus is really coming to life now that students are moving in. The library lawns have large tents set up on them, and they had some traditional African dancers performing, one of which accosted me as I was taking pictures.
I met a young boy and a young girl while out and about. The boy's mother works for Wits. From a distance, I could see him requesting the girl her to take a video on his phone; a video of him acting like a rapper in a music video, conscious of his background setting and all. When I approached them they asked me to take their pictures. When they found out I lived in the United States, they wanted to know if I have ever seen a celebrity. They were enamored with what they believed to be the glitz and glam of Hollywood. The boy could not stop talking about 50 Cent and how he is his idol. He asked if I lived by 50. He asked what it was like "on the West Coast." I tried to convey to them that there is no need to put a celebrity on a pedestal; not quite sure how far that went. They wondered how they could obtain the photographs I took. Can I print them out of my camera right then and there? Do I mail them a picture? After explaining how they can email me and I will return the email with the picture, it became apparent that they did not even know how email worked. hm.
All of the freshmen on campus are required to perform their initiation rite. The residents of the individual halls patrol campus in groups, with the boys going to the girls dorm to sing to them, and the girls doing the same to the boys. This happens at all hours of the day and night, and will carry on for the whole week. All week they must stay with all the people from their residence hall, carooning and doing different activities.
Walking around today I did get a slight sunburn, but I would rather have a sunburn than be dealing with multiple feet of snow. HAHA! Met two Study Abroad students from Japan, Keiko and Renji, who could not have been more friendly. They invited me over for chocolate cake and we chatted for at least an hour. Anxiously I await learning more about them and their culture.
Now that I have caught up on the events, I can begin to break down intricacies of the experience here. As my step-mother graciously informed me prior to my departure, "you know, things are going to be different there." Although it sounded like an extreme understatement, it is the differences in little simple elements of life that are often overlooked that I have become aware of. On a light switch, down is on and up is off. All of their outlets have independent switches for themselves. Faucets are much like how they used to be in the states, one spigot for hot, one spigot for cold. If you want warm water, move your hands back and forth really quickly. USA uses our own measuring system, so when I talk about having 17 inches of snowfall and temperatures around -8 with wind chill, they have no idea what I am even talking about. A 20 oz. soda? What do you mean? 330mL of course. There is no Gatorade, it is Energade. Because there is no "daylight savings time", the amount of daylight never changes. Degrees at Wits are obtained in 3 years. If you are in a fourth year of study, you are getting an Honours Degree. Taxis are vans and cabs are cars. I have never seen so many VW's on the road at one time. Car models, although of the same manufacturer of US cars, are nearly all different in some way. When I went to enter the shuttle from the airport, the driver asked me if I wanted to drive because I was attempting to get in on the side that Americans know to be the passenger side. Alas, they do have a KFC here! Also, the grocery is called Pick-N-Pay; anyone remember those?
Soon I will get Flickr working. I can only upload one photo at a time. I will keep ya posted.
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