by Bella Tobin
3/16/2012

School has been really busy. I’m on campus from early morning until around 4 or 5 everyday, plus homework. I have two exams this week and a project that I need to get done before Easter break. I’m  working on getting an internship for the summer which takes time. I feel like I shouldn’t be doing so much work as I am in Cape Town and should be sightseeing, but I do need good grades.

I  am making  African friends. This weekend we celebrated a friend's birthday at a restaurant where downstairs was a live band in the front  and a more relaxed quieter band in the back, and upstairs had a dj and was more like a club. The music was great and they played a lot of classics and songs we know. 

The other day I read about 150 pages for my sociology class (which I really don’t enjoy), and later I went to a Mexican restaurant called Fat Cactus with friends. The food was delicious and it had a great atmosphere, a bit of an American feel to it. This is close to one of the University of Cape Town residence halls and is very popular with students.

I think there is a big difference between studying here as opposed to a semester in Europe, from what I have been told in the amount of school work. It is actually very real and difficult here. We  must study to pass here, it is not automatic. I do enjoy school though and I’m making lots of South African and Zimbabwean friends.

 Thursdays on campus are a lot of fun, as there is a party type thing on the jammie steps and a club, or company sets up a dj stand and plays music for dancing competitions. It is very popular and the steps get packed with students getting in the mood for the weekend.

Everyone keeps saying its going to get cold soon, but I am not sure I believe them. It’s going to be in the 80’s and 90’s all week and I plan on doing my work at the pool.
 

 This weekend we are going to a music festival  and taking a tour of Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens with a concert on Sunday evening. The band Freshly Ground is playing and they’re really good. 

I am having a great semester in Cape Town, in spite of studying, and I do enjoy experiencing life in a world quite different from New England.