First Experiences, First Impressions

I have officially been in South Africa for one week, which means that I have spent the last seven days confused, delighted, anxious, and excited.  Moving to a new country is a truly enlightening experience, and certainly the process of getting settled makes one understand the diversity of other cultures quickly.  I mean this in the most reverent way.  

I arrived at O.R. Tambo International Airport last Monday around four in the afternoon (South African Time).  The flight had been long, but not unpleasant.  My host counsellor, Andre Hattingh, from the Bedfordview Rotary Club met me at the airport, and it was clear that he is just as kind and charming in person as he is through e-mail.  We drove to his house in Edenvale ( a suburb of Johannesburg), where I was warmly welcomed by Andre's gracious wife, Diane.  We had a lovely dinner together, and chatted for several hours.  

The next day, Andre and I headed to The University of the Witwatersrand, known more simply as Wits (pronounced with a V sound instead of a W, as in the Afrikaans language.)  Our intention was to get me settled into my on-campus apartment and register for class.  We underestimated the task at hand, however, and when the day came to a close we had achieved little.  Everyone was quite kind, but we had a bit of trouble knowing where to go or who to see.  It was - to say the least - a bit overwhelming, and not at all similar to my experience at university in the States.  The next day got off without a hitch, though, and within a few hours I was able to complete my registration (thanks in great part to my lovely friend, Adriann, who is also a Rotary scholar here).  I am now officially a Masters student in the International Relations faculty!  The classes I am taking this semester are International Relations Theory and Transnational Issues in International Relations.

The Wits campus is beautiful, with blooming flowers, green lawns, and hundreds of trees.  How they manage to keep such beautiful landscape in the city is beyond me.  It is still summer here, and everywhere I look, there are lush, green hills.  The weather has been mostly in the 70s (Fahrenheit) and it has rained about once a day.  Although, when it rains it does not last all day.  There is typically an hour or so of a brilliant thunderstorm with torrents of rain, and then it is over.  The dark red mud quickly dries to bright red dirt, and everyone continues on their way.

On Thursday, all of the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars at Wits went out to dinner together at an amazing restaurant called Moyo.  Moyo is more of a cultural experience than a place to eat.  The food was excellent, don't get me wrong, but the truly spectacular part was the atmosphere and the service.  The restaurant serves many types of African food from across the continent. (I ate a delicious lamb tagine, which is a kind of stew from North Africa.)  The servers at Moyo provide services found in some African traditions, such as singing, washing guests' hands, and painting faces.  It was wonderful getting to know all of the scholars; we spent about four hours at dinner, laughing and telling stories.  All together, there were seven of us: Adriann, Sarah, Katharina, Ryan, Chris (and his wife Mary), and me.

This weekend Adriann and I were able to go shopping at some of the beautiful shopping centers around Jo'burg.  They're quite like American malls, but with more diverse shops.  Neither of us girls had anything to outfit our residences, including bedding or a single dish for our kitchen.  Thanks to our two wonderful host counsellors, we made quite a dent in our shopping lists.  Now we are set up and ready to begin our year of schooling, which is good because today I was able to enjoy my first class of the year.  

Tomorrow I will be attending my first Rotary meeting in Bedfordview, and on Wednesday morning I will be experiencing one of their largest service projects - a type of international book collection.  I will explain it in more detail in my next entry.  I am excited to meet all of the generous people at Bedfordview Rotary, who have been eagerly awaiting my arrival.   From what I can tell, South Africans are very hospitable and genuinely caring people, on the whole.  I haven't yet had the opportunity to explore much of what Johannesburg has to offer, but I can tell that in my adventures here I will be surrounded by warmhearted friends.  And that will, by far, be the best part.