First Day of School!! Holla!!!!!

 The view from my hotel room that we stayed in the first couple of nights. Grand Palm!

 First day of school at UB!!!

Dusk in Gaborone--right outside River Walk Mall

Hello, hello everyone. I know that I just posted last night but today was too crazy and ridiculous to not write at least a short post about my time. I am using this blog as a sort of diary so please feel free to skim it.

Last night was nice as I cooked dinner with my host brother, Elt making the very traditional Batswana pap which is basically thick maize. This is served alongside of some meat in a stew or sauce and some greens on the side. I had to get up early for a 7am class so tried to go to bed early as we were going to leave at 6:30.

Well, at 6 my host mom comes knocking on my door asking if I was ready. Ready??? I wasn’t even up yet. So I scrambled around and we were out the house by 6:15ish which worked out perfectly as I got lost walking to my first class. I knew where the building was but saw some ladies cutting through a construction area and thought it was a short cut. Turns out it wasn’t and had to awkwardly walk myself past many construction workers as I edged out of the zone. I then made it to my class only to discover that I was the only person there, no teacher, no other students, nada! Since there was another class I was interested in taking at that time I raced to another building where I made it just in time for abnormal psyc. It turns out it is going to be a very small class, only around 7 people and is taught by an American from Washington, DC. Small world!!!

After the 15 minute abnormal psyc class was over, I had until 4 pm for my next class so hung out on campus. Actually helped some Batswana students with registration, haha, and then ended up walking with a friend to the mall. Once getting back I thought I should try to figure out why the morning class was cancelled and spent over half an hour looking for the Physical Ed department in Block 102. Block 102 doesn’t exist!!! After finally finding the department, it was a mad house!!! Both secretaries had no idea where and what classes were being held and whether international students could take them, etc!!! I had to ask the other students where the classes were held and I was told that the reason there was no class in the morning was because it took place at the UB stadium!!

Things didn’t get better after lunch when I went on a wild goose chase to find the gym. Turns out it is located in the National Stadium that is closed for renovations which doesn’t really make any sense, but I found it!! I also went to the Student Rec Services to figure out when volleyball starts and was told that I just show up and to find the schedule I’d have to go somewhere else! Basically the school sends you from one building to the next.

Finally 4 oclock came around when I went to my last class of the day: Nutrition and Sports Performance. This class rocked!!!  The class was a huge lecture with about 200 students and the professor was from South Africa. She is a no-nonsense, straight talking professor and after class even gave me her phone number, invited me over for dinner and gave me advice on where to travel in South Africa. I don’t even care about the class but want to hang out with her.

Things got better from here as after class my registration was complete and a copy of my schedule was printed meaning I could use this to get my student ID which I could then use to go to the library, set up my internet and get my life as a UB student started=goal for tomorrow!

After classes were finally over a lot of kids were heading back over to the mall for Dark Knight so I decided to go ahead and go back to where I had been 10 hours earlier. Even this was crazy as we are getting into the movie and within a half hour, the power to the mall/cinema goes out!! Needless to say we didn’t finish watching it.

After sharing my crazy day with some other CIEE students I learned that I actually lucked out. Most people showed up for class, sat with a couple other students and the professor never showed up. One person went into a classroom that was scheduled for both Chem and Environmental Science. Another person was trying to get her internet fixed and had to bounce between buildings even being told to go to a room that ended up being a bathroom. But this is how Botswana is. Everything will get done but there are no strict deadlines and there is no real order for them—they happen when they happen. Life is too short to move at such a fast pace and not spend the time stopping and talking. And boy do Batswana love to talk. I was just walking to class and out of nowhere some guy comes up and strikes up a conversation. I’m sitting in lecture in a row basically by myself when someone comes and sits directly next to me and introduces himself. People are friendly and appreciate their time with others-a lesson that I think is important for all of us!