So Apparently Other People Go to this University Too

So classes started yesterday. The class thing actually wasn't that weird because it was a small class that met for a whopping 45 min. However I walked out of my door and started the trek to class and suddenly found myself stepping into a huge mass of people. I kind of forgot that the amount of people who had been on campus the past couple of days was a microscopic percentage of students on this campus. It was a little overwhelming. Especially since it seems like every students hangs out on the quad area or steps leading up to classroom buildings or benches surrounding the campus. I can understand it because a lot of students do not live on campus, so it's not like they have dorm rooms to go back to and hang out in. I don't know though, I'm going to take a picture one of these days to give you a sense of how crowded it is. I know if I went to a larger university I'd be much less impressed, but I go to tiny Vassar and the amount of students was shocking.

Anyways, in the morning yesterday I went to the bank for the second time since I got here to get money exchanged. Very exciting stuff. Actually we got a much better rate this time, which was exciting. Then we went to the pick 'n pay again, I swear I go there like every day, and I tried to find bowls. I had no luck. I've taken to eating out of Tupperware containers because the single bowl they supplied doesn't hold anything. It is tiny and shallow. I did buy a serrated knife. I thought I had more to cut actually, but I think I overestimated my need for a knife. I'm sure it will come in useful sometime in the future. Hopefully. Whatever, it was fairly cheap.

We had class at 12:30. And by we I mean the international students and a few other Wits students. It was for our internship class, and the program prefers that Wits students who take the course to be those who participated in IHRE last year. Mainly because they can't devote their entire schedule to IHRE classes because they have to take classes for their actual major as well. And because they want students to do an internship in their final year rather than their second (University only lasts for three years here) so that they are more competitive when applying for jobs. The class was actually really kind of stupid. I mean sure, it was only introductions and an overview of the course, but honestly, the way the teacher explained the course was so self explanatory. Seriously, I could have taught that first class. She asked us questions like 'what is a human rights defender?' and 'who can be a human rights defender?' You don't need to teach me these things, I can guess the correct answers on my own. I'm hoping the next class will be better. It's a longer block and we'll have read some articles for the class, so maybe it will be. I'm still glad I'm taking the class though, because I think the internship itself will be a really cool experience. We're having a lunch with our mentors from our internship sites this Thursday. Though the invitations were just sent to our emails today and the time they posted was from 12:30 to 12:45. If we stick to schedule, it's going to be the quickest lunch slash meet-and-greet ever.

What else did I do yesterday? Oh a lot of the other American girls wanted to create posters for their schedules (they don't have icalender, which is what I use) so we hunted down colored paper and bought some markers (which are called umm something else here. It was weird and I don't remember it. They call permanent markers markers and normal markers something else) and then we hung out in the common room coloring. I made an 'Everything is going to be OK' sign in honor of Vassar. Though I had to explain it to everyone because out of context it makes it seems like I have a lot of panic attacks or something and need to remind myself that I'll get through it. For those who don't know, people write that around Vassar everywhere.

Afterwards I brought over cooking supplies and cooked dinner in Teresa's (another American) room. We were joined by three other people and eventually put on Heroes. Yes, I am corrupting more people. I have no idea how many times I've watched the first season of this, but it hasn't gotten old yet. I also learned that apparently video chat doesn't work on Wits' network. I can still im, but that's the extent of real-time communication. Oh, and I can call out of my room using a calling card, but my minutes are a little limited. I did get to talk to my parents and David last night though, which was nice. People can technically also call my room, but if you want to consider doing that I would get an international calling card because otherwise it will be way to expensive. The number is 011 27 11 717 5484.

I'm going to make lunch now or something, and prepare for my insane 2hr 45min class this afternoon on media and human rights. Wish me luck for staying awake during that.