Night Post Day 1

I have been here for a day now more then a full day by an hour or 2. Morning adventure with Dave and Matt went well. We didn't really end up doing anything, we wondered down past the grocery store and own a bit further, a grand total of maybe mile round trip. One the way back Dave tried to get us lost by taking us down the back roads, however I straightened him out by recognizing an apartment building that was next to our house. We also got our first view of Table mountain this morning. Apparently the neighbors house isn't very nice, or "its nice, however it has more character." also we should remember the camera in the morning cause no one brought any post it notes. False she did bring post its they are in the couch. We had some rusks this morning they were dry and crumbly, not very good in my opinion, however Matt heartily enjoyed them. After our trip around the block we came back to the house and departed for campus. Riding the "jammie" to campus was fairly similar to riding the "campus connector" It was smaller and blue and said "jammie" on the side. It reminded me of my friend Daniel Rosen who is often called Jammie by My roommates sister Katie or Katy or Kadie kattie, or like some people, we could spell it k8 e or la-a pronounced, ladasha. I would like to name my children normal things and then spell their names completely wrong. "hello my name is pay10 manning", or better yet "hello my name is yarif" (pronounced Jared) I am not sure. Our first trip to the university involved not knowing where we were supposed to go, including our mentors, having David show us where to go and then none of us having the appropriate items, i.e the trip itinerary or phone directions, or also a brown envelope. After our short hour or so long trip to the African studies department we went on a short tour of the campus including viewing some of the oldest buildings in Cape Town that are part of the UCT upper campus. We went to the book store, they don't really have any books there, mostly school supplies. Also next door we introduced, Matt and I, local student to the word Pop, whilst ordering "a bottle of coke" As the drink here is called neither soda or pop, so stop arguing about it, cause sometimes it isnt either of the things you expect it to be. Matt ordered a burger with fries proceeded to give away all the fries and then eat his burger. There was a small group of students with a Hookah, and apparently somewhere there were good looking students, but I didn't see those specific people. We had a discussion with Mark about how the UCT was similar and different to the school at Minnesota. there was also a flooded room in the Chemistry building, which incidentally is also the location of the Interstudy office, I dont know why?, it deffinatley seems like the kind of illogical thing a huge univeristy would do. It is quite a large university, there are about 30,o00 students including post graduate, which is slightly different here than in the US. It is different due to the fact that most students live off of campus as on campus housing is difficult to find and expensive. There appear to be many more students meandering about or chillen. I found it interesting that the idea is common that it is more similar to the St. Paul campus. However it is difficult for me to find out why. There were many students about, unlike st paul, it was a condensed space unlike St.Paul, it was build on a mountain, unlike stpaul, there are different style of buildings, there is just an air of St Paul campus there to me. Later on our trip through the university, mind you our hour or longer scheduled tour took very little time and we ended up hanging out for about an hour at the book store/food court. Matt after all his "criticism" of my note book that I carry around and write ideas in. Mark had a note book. Now Matt has a note book, he has been writing it quite frequently and will be forever grateful for the influence I have had on him. Maybe he will blog about it, or not. (2-0 thus far and that's not even real points just total posts, Scoring card would indicate a much higher advantage to me right now). Also Emily loves Trance, she hasn't fully admitted it but it won't take much longer, When Love Takes Over by David Guetta feat. Kelly Rowland, is here new favorite song. The house we are staying at is very loud. The ceilings are high and every thing is wood and flat. There is a scarcity of dishware in a house designed for 10 people to be staying at its quite astonishing. After our tour of the university we headed out to VandA water front which is essentially a fancy shopping mall overlooking the ocean in Cape Town, I was sweating the whole trip over there in the van, I was litterlly dripping sweat, it is a few blocks from the new soccer stadium that has been built here to help hold the world cup tournament in 2010, I wanted to walk to it but due to its size it is impossible to tell how far away it is, it holds 70,000 spectators, which I found out on google after someone told me it only held like 40 thousand but is 4 city blocks long anyway it appears to be very large. We had lunch at a very appetizing restaurant. I already cant remember what it was called 10 hours later, it makes me realize how essential my journaling and weblogging is to remembering the trip appropriately as if rembering something can be appropriate or not, to the fullest extent. At the restaurant I enjoyed a Dagwood Burger, Fried onions, fried egg, lettuce tomato, etcetera, it was large and delicious, I intended to bring the rest home as I knew I would eventually become hungry again and enjoy a delicious burger/egg, however I left it on the Pirate ship... (more following) also there was an option to "pimp my burger" but I politely declined as my burger can make a living on its own not selling its body for money. Matt and I started to coalesce over some important ideas, we discussed with Ouma, the Interstudy leader, some of the feelings we had, also we talked with our other interstudy leader, NJ, talked about his extensive knowledge of comic books, and likewise the epic moving pictures that are being produced to further the franchises. But only DC because marvel sucks and is only Superman, and he isnt a real hero any way cause he has essentially unlimites super powers and only kryptonite can hurt him, which as I have been told by a few "experts" here doesnt qualify him for hero status hes just too good that he is lame.

Our talk with Ouma quieted some of our uneasy feelings about the situation. I think one of the main ideas that it is difficult for me to rap my head around is peoples ability to experience things that are vastly different without realizing it. It is hard to step outside yourself and look at a situation or experience from different view points, it is in fact impossible I believe as you can only view a situation based on experiences you have had, you can only view a situation from a new point of view based on discription by another which is then interpreted and applied by the listener, and view points that are facilitated by thoughts of what others percieve view or experience. In reality the only view of things we can have on things is our view and our bias views based on others experiences. It is hard for me to know that I went and spent nearly 15 hours of the day with the same 10 people and yet we all had hugely different experiences, perceptions, ideas and fears. I think that this leads to the idea of selfishness and ability to comprehend situations. As Matt and I sat and ate a lunch that was worth more money than some people here make in months, we felt selfish. We felt selfish for spending money, selfish for thinking things here are so cheap selfish for the things we do at home our habits and ideas perception of everything is changed here. There is no way to not feel as if there is something more you should be doing to help or anything really. It is also very difficult as it is still extremely early in our cultural tour and have not fully realized the situation,

we all have expectations, and digressing back to a former point have false expectations, based on things we have read or been told or maybe even slightly started to see, however whatever expectations I have I cannot help but think will be inaccurate as essentially every expectation of situations in my life that I have ahead of time turn out to be completely different. To explain through story, as a child when something has broken, or a foul has been committed in the home, that deserves punishment, the child will often draft several versions of the expected situation. The child belives harsh punishment is comming for having broken the window, the child expects to be yelled at or grounded, shamed, etc, however the situation is fine there is slight anger and punishment but nothing nearly as extreme as all of the possibilities running through the childs head. In this situation however the child has some explicit advantages in knowing what to expect out of that sitation, similar previous situations, detailed knowledge of the cultural standards for such behaviours, a previous relationship with the people involved, and the ability to easily communicate and explain the situation. However I believe that assumptions held in the situation I am in are much more innaccurate, due to several ideas mentions before not only not existing, but perhaps being completely opposite for me here. I have not yet even been able to come up with any expectations for anything. False I have come up with several expectations but immediatly reject them as conjecture of the mind as that is mostly what they are, simply my mind producing possible outcomes for a sitauation that it knows little about and based on information that is far too limited to be making accurate decisions/assupmtions.

Ouma helped here best by explaining the situation, however it is still difficult to experess any concerns, or any cohesive ideas really due to the fact that I we havent experience the situation and dont know what to expect. There is know proper way to express concerns for a situation that has limited information. False I can express a few concerns, mainly 2, that is essentially a 2 part problem based on single cause. 1 I cant make accurate assumptions about the upcomming experinces, 2 I do not know what to be concerned about which is disconcerning all in itself?

Ouma's best advice to us were tellings of here experiences growing up in Rural Africa, and how we are still being a great more help than many people in this situation.

Selfishness in more detail may be discussed in a later post as it is 1 am and people will be mad if i stay up late and get up early anymore. I think that people were upset with it today as it must have come up in conversation about 30 times that I got up early today. Hey you get up early its wierd. I think though that if you didnt realize, things that a minority do arent wierd or wrong, simply different.

We wondered around the mall for sometime just Matt and I discussing fraternity problems, legislation problems, and incentive structure problems in america/greedy societies. Incentive is based usually on total profit rather than total outcome, or practice, long term effects are often set aside to greed. This situation has lead to a banking bankruptcy, which in all honestly seems like something that shouldnt happen to me. Inncentives in my mind should be based on "good buisness" rather than on total profit.

Good buisness is proper, defined accountability and decision making. In many companies feel that consumers are accountable to them, when infact producers and consumers should be symbyotic, buisness leaders believe that maximizing the profits is the best outcome, and workers strive to meet goals that promote bad buisness. Degression back to topic

Whilst Matt and I were wondering we found the tourist part of the marina. Helicopter rides, and boat cruises. To our awe what is this that stands in the distance here, Pirate Ship. 80 rand. 1 hour pirate ship cruise. I mean come on. The idea was met at first with indecision, however I beilve that it will be a valued part of our trip when members of our group started to bond, relax, and hit on pirates/get hit on by pirates? It wasnt like they well muscled and tanned, or young, atleast on of those things was an actual quality of the pirate. I left my dagwood burger on the boat. I was upset. There was a bit of theatrics on the boat. A short skit involving grown men half lipsyncing half mumbling the words to a song and story play. It was a two man show disucssing pirates black beard, and others, along with Royal Navy ties. Also a man fake sharpening a wooden sword, and ending with a pirate telling us to drink because there was a bar on the boat. I choose not to partake in 18 rand beers on a boat, They didnt have any purple draaaaank i could have so I felt like I should not indulge unless the experience was right.

We made it off the boat in time to watch the sunset over the ocean. It was 75 degrees with a slight breeze off of the ocean rolling waves about 3 feet tall and a beautiful sight. Perfect conditions, probably one of the more relaxing moments I have had since being on this trip. It makes me wish that we had take the sunset cruise instead of the pirate ship, but exchanging entertainment for entertainment I enjoyed the pirate ship. I mean real fake pirates on a real fake pirate boat doing fake things well in real life. It was a trip of novelty, however, the novetly made the entertainment value increase 10 fold. After this we went home, I didnt sweat as bad on the way home, however we did see a bus headed to a township we read about, khyashleta, it was subtle but I noticed myself trying not to notice specific things about the bus or the people, however I will never forget the face of a small girl siting on her mothers lap happy.

2 more things look up 60 ghetto names on youtube, its pretty funny, also we watched it tonight and had a good giggle over it.

During a time while try to help out a mate here plug something in I got involved in a minor altercation as I did not see that the red light was infact on whilst plugging in her camera. The situation intensified quickly and turned into quite a dilema, but alas all is well and my computer will die soon. I will post more later. I need to go now.