First a miscellaneous anecdote: I went to breakfast this morning somewhat late and the cashier looked at me, looked in the kitchen, and said "sorry, but we only have egg, toast, marmalade, and tea today." I was somewhat confused because this is the exact same thing they have had every single morning in the cafeteria (which I am fine with and only costs 80 cents or so). It did start a nagging doubt however: is there some secret breakfast which I do not know about? Do I need to say the password? I will keep you updated.
I think that classes are finally starting (most of the teachers are showing up). We had our first real lecture in the class "Africa in world politics" and I have concluded that the teacher is a very angry man. Granted, he was lecturing on slavery and colonialism, which really f****d this continent for 600 years, but by the end of the class I felt like I should be flagellating myself for the sins of my forefathers. I think if I turned in my first paper written with my "of European descent" blood straight from an opened vein I might get an A. Interesting man, unfortunately does not understand what saying "quote un-quote" (yes I got the irony of that last punctuation) before a sentence actually means; he keeps using it inappropriately....altho he could just be really sarcastic?
My Botswana politics class is pretty awesome. Since I did not want to take the class I am really glad about this, blessing in disguise I guess. I am also in Setswana, which I am loving beyond reason (altho I keep accidentally breaking into spanish). The two bio classes- comparative physiology and parasitology- should be good. (I have a major advantage currently in comparative physiology as she is discussing marine life-forms and I am probably the only one in the class who has seen the ocean and knows what a stingray is).
The real surprise is the CIEE botswana class. I thought this was going to be like an honors colloquium- you know, share your feelings about gender roles in the country- but it is actually an intense course. We have written assignments (like 8 pg papers), we are going to visit a diamond mine, we have to do a scavenger hunt around the city, we have to volunteer in the city, we are visiting traditional courts and writing about it, and we have to interview people and give a presentation on modern botswana- mostly in Setswana! I found this all out today and I am a little overwhelmed. I am really hoping that I can get credit for this stuff at GU.... Clancy?
Overall things are going well. I am still stared-at constantly and guys keep trying to get invitations back to a "hot white girl's" room but I am trucking along... altho it has been ten days and I have still not found vegetables on campus, lindsey would not fare well.
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