I am nearing that all-important “I’ve been here a week” mark. And as I sit here typing I am in the same position I was that long week ago—without permanent accommodation. When I was first making decisions about studying abroad, I was faced with deciding between a program like SIT where the bulk of time is spent with 12 or so other Americans or a university-based program where all classes are taken at the university. There are also a few other programs, I’ve recently learned about, that are university-based, but do a whole lot for the students from finding housing to getting cell phones to organizing fun sports and travel opportunities. As a big senior in college with many debts accruing I decided to take the cheapest route and directly enroll--no frills, no nothing. I figured I could get it all worked out somehow. After all I know people who know people. That’s gotten me quite a ways so far offering very unique experiences, but I am still stuck with my small town understanding of how to figure things out in a big city...hence me not securing housing yet. One perfect opportunity has popped up, but with Cape Town being a first-world city, it costs a pretty quarter, which I cannot decide if I am willing to pay or not. Tomorrow I am heading out of the city and will give the decision-making machine a rest as well as giving the energies of the world time to sort out a few things.

As long as I’m on the topic of searching for things, I should add that if you’re ever searching for a worldly experience or if you’re the type of person who wants to travel the world, you could save yourself time and money by taking one big trip here to Cape Town. I have learned more about Northern Ireland by chatting with they Northern Irish girl I have been staying with the last two days than in all my years combined. I’ve also been informed about Botswana from a Ghanaian who grew up in Botz and now lives in NY, but is planning to move to South Africa. The only people I have yet to find are probably Mongolians. Of course, there are a few other nations I haven’t found, but Cape Town is quite a mix of anything you could think of. It’s perhaps like New York with half the population. You can see Chinese, Indians, Persians, Malay, English, Americans, other Europeans, a few South Americans, and Africans from around the continent as well as any mixture combination of the above. It’s pretty interesting to be in a place where culture and identity feel so fluid and dynamic. However, once the census comes around there are only 4 choices of race to choose: White, Black, Indian, or Chinese, creating a very stiff social construction around race changing what could have been “Out of many, one people” to “Out of many, four people.”

Lastly I want to give Macalester a thumbs up for its international recruitment, especially when it happens to get kids straight from their home countries. There are a lot of really cool, deserving people out there who may never have heard of a UWC. Plus it has been these kids that have been the ones who are known by people I have met. One Italian boy from Arusha I met went to high school with Elliot Kinsey and the Ghanaian from Botz went to high school with Ssebbaale. It’s a crazy small world.