Wait, I have to go to school?

This week can only be described as “Hell Week”. Classes have finally started and culture shock has definitely set in. I have realized I’m sick of people using the excuse “This is Africa” when things are slow or disorganized. Another exchange student pointed out to me that it’s only the public services that are not run well. If you go into a supermarket or shopping mall, there are lines and people know how to follow directions. When it comes to university, on the other hand, there is utter chaos everywhere. I compare it to an assembly line; everyone knows their job but if you need help on something else, they cannot help you. I ended up bouncing around like a human pinball for my first few days trying to get assistance. Let’s start at the beginning.

I had my first class, accounting, on Monday at 7:45am. At NMMU, they register for both semesters in January so the professor spent most of the class period talking about the possible outcomes of the class and what happens if you fail. It’s incredibly encouraging early in the morning to hear about how bad the next five months is going to be and why this class in particular causes students to drop out of school altogether. With fifteen minutes left in class, the professor remembered that she had a lecture planned and crammed the essence of accounting into our brains faster than I thought possible. I left the lecture hall dazed and confused. My next class was about 15 minutes of going over the syllabus and then we left. I went to get my registration papers which had our username and password for the internet at my house. This was my main goal of the day because I was sick of running to campus every time I wanted to skype with people. We were then directed to the card office to get our student ID cards. We finally find the office and there are close to 200 people in the waiting area. It turns out that all of the advisers share this waiting area so most people are in these lines. Still, there are 20 people ahead of me and my friends and the office worker is moving at a snail’s pace. After an hour, I finally get into the officewhere my picture is taken (even though I have already given them two pictures for ID’s) and a card is printed. I leave and sit with friends as we try to get on the WiFi. Our attempts are futile and it will not connect. We go to the help center where there is another long line and only two people helping. There are five people in the office but the others were just sitting on their computers or drinking coffee. When I make it to the front, the person resets my password and sends me on my way. I try to get internet but again, not happening. I ask them how and they send me to a different help desk in a computer lab. When I try to use my card to gain access to the lab, I am denied. I wait for someone else to go through and I follow them. I talk to the guy and he says I have to pay to have him set up a VPN or I can do it myself for free. I opt for the latter and look up instructions. I do it perfectly but it’s not what I want. A VPN doesn’t give you WiFi access but I have to go to class before I can talk to him. I get to the right room to find out that my class has changed times and it interferes with another one of my classes so I have to switch classes. The only option was to take a class on Tuesday and Thursday so now I don’t have those days off. I go back to the VPN help desk only to find that he has closed half an hour early. I only find this out after waiting in line for 20 minutes. There was a sign on his door that said “Be back in 5-10 minutes”…LIES! I’m aggravated and I call it a day, deciding to come early the next day.

Tuesday starts with me fixing the internet. It took close to an hour of help but we finally got it! The solution was to type in the correct username and password until it worked. The magic number turned out to be right around 120 times. Next came fixing my ID card. I had to wait in line again but this time it took close to an hour and a half. I made it into the office and explained my situation. The man took my card and clicked two or three buttons on his computer and I was all set.  I then went to my new class to find that the first week of lectures had been canceled and I should come next Tuesday. All my friends had left for the beach by the time I got back so I took a nap.

Wednesday was better and my classes were pretty interesting. I made a friend in accounting who understands the material pretty well so hopefully we can get through it together. After class, I went to my first volleyball practice. There was no net up and we had two balls for close to twenty people. We did more conditioning in one practice here than I did with the club team at Stout all year! After practice, I watched an extremely average soccer match between Manchester United and Real Madrid and then got to sleep in the next morning.

Thursday I lounged around and went to the beach for a bit before heading to the townships for a Valentine’s Day Braai (barbeque). There was entertainment after dinner and it was a great night overall.

Today I had one class that was very interesting and now I’ll do my mountain of homework. I’m hopefully travelling this weekend but I don’t know where quite yet. Look for another post early next week!