I’m trying my best to keep with the habit of posting every week, although sometimes I miss updating Sunday nights.
This past week has been pretty standard, although I’ve been hit with my first wave of homesickness. I find myself occasionally zoning out in class, thinking about home and missing you guys tremendously. Perhaps its partially because I’ve posted pictures of friends and family all over my room… It’s weird, though, cause I’ll also find myself missing little minute details about home – driving down Oracle, the supermarket, etc. I’m not freaking out (yet), although I could def. go for some eegee’s. It helps to go into town every week and get off campus a little, get some food at a restaurant, interact with a different environment… ya know.
On the flip side, though, I also find myself continually astounded with my surroundings and my peers. I think I say this every time I post, but I really can’t stress it enough. The other night I went out with some friends and we had a great discussion about culture and Western influence in Africa. It’s really amazing to hear how others (particularly Africans) perceive European influence in Southern Africa and across the continent. The partition of Africa was not that long ago, bear in mind. We talked about issues of imperialism and the imposition of Western culture on many nations, and the differences between our own personal views on humanitarian aid in Africa.
We also talked a lot about UWC and our own personal (and differing) expectations of UWC. WK is different from most of the other UWCs because a) they have lower forms (grades) in addition to the IB and b) only a third or so of the students are sent on scholarship. Whatever way people get in, they have to go through a rigorous selection process, so all the folks here are super bright and talented (as I’ve mentioned many times before), but it also means that the aims of many of the students are different. Many of the “NCs” (scholarship students like myself) are looking for something called the “UWC experience” – everybody’s idea of the UWC experience is different, but it usually places less emphasis on academics and more on culture immersion contact with people from all over the world. At least, that’s my interpretation. But since this is also a private school to which external students can apply, there’s also a lot of students here who are primarily driven to get the highest possible score in IB. Which is perfectly fine, it just means that everyone has slightly different expectations of Waterford. I’m still trying to find out if that’s a good or bad thing, but right now I’m thinking it’s just a… thing.
Deep stuff. I think I need to start keeping a journal and writing this stuff down right after we talk about it, I feel like I’m not doing our discussions justice right now.
What else? We’ve had a couple thunderstorms that remind me a lot of monsoon season at home (without that wonderful smell of mesquite, of course). Every time we have a storm, the power cuts. Actually, the power goes out here at least once a week… usually more, in fact. I know it doesn’t sound like a big thing, but imagine if the power went out multiple times a week in the states – everyone would totally freak out, no? I guess I never thought about how much I rely on my electricity. I suppose it’s fitting, though, as I’m also learning how much I relied on my hot showers at home. Lawl.
We only have half a week of school this week, and then it’s midterm break! Hopefully (if I can get my transit visa done in time) I’ll being going to Mozambique with a group of other students to spend some time on the beach and tour Maputo a bit. It should be a good time – I’ll post about experiences (and perhaps some pictures) next week.
And as I usually try to end these posts on a light note, I should mention that I watched American Pie with a few friends from Germany and the Bahamas the other night. They were pretty shocked to learn that American Pie is not really a big thing in the states (there are SEVEN. Am I the only one who didn’t know that?), and the evening was pretty funny as I continually had to field questions along the lines of “Is this what it’s really like in America?” I think I’ve spotted the source of many of the prejudices against the US.
Missing everyone lots, I still think about you guys daily. :)
Cheers
Eli
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