Too School for Cool

Hello friends!

I've just completed my second day of orientation, and overall I am very pleased!

I managed to register on my first day (which is quite the success after the hoops I jumped through at UKZN). It was a little tricky. Once my form was filled out, I discovered I need to register as an international student first. With the help of another international from California, Eliana, I was able to hop on the shuttle to another campus, get to the office, do what I needed (special thanks to the awesome desk worker who let me print off her computer despite the rules), and get back to the health sciences campus before long. There was still a problem with registering which made me a little late to part two of registration, but it's all sorted now.

The way the MPH program works is that each course begins with three block days, each from 8:30 to 4. Sounds awful, right? The trade off is that for the rest of the semester you only go to each course for two hours every two weeks. I go back and forth between how I feel about this, but I think it might work well, especially when I find a job.

I'm registered for four courses this semester (although they make you register for the first and second semesters at the beginning of the year): Public Health and Society (required), Intro to Epidemiology (required), Biostatistics 1 (may be required depending on my track), and Gender and Health (elective). I start my three day block for Gender and Health tomorrow, with some misgivings since it is being taught by a professor with a psych background, not a sociology background...we'll see how that goes.

As of now, I am registered in the "General" track for the MPH. There are five: General, Epidemiology, Health Economics, Clinical, and Health Systems. The Health Systems track is brand new, and actually was not available while I was applying. I am considering switching to that track, but decided to put off that decision until the end of the semester. Any thoughts from other MPHers out there? Biostatistics is not required in the Health Systems track, but I decided I definitely wanted to take it either way. Plus, I want to get a little taste of everything my first semester so that I can figure what I gravitate towards and am skilled in. I loved my intro to stat course I took over the summer, so maybe I'll love Biostat, too. Or figure out that I hate it. :) But either way, it's a skill I'd like to have.

Orientation has given me a chance to meet a variety of people. I've been trying to be friendly and introduce myself while also branching out and sitting with different folks once I've become friendly with others. I love being in this program, because we all have similar interests, yet enough variety to keep things interesting. There are a lot of doctors, but also plenty of folks like me without other medical degrees.

I've been trying to step out of my bubble and not gravitate towards Americans, but I have become friends (if you can call it that after two days) with two: Eliana (see above) and Phumelele. Eliana and I are too similar to not talk to each other--we both have backgrounds in reproductive health care and she did a "honors year" in gender studies at the African Gender Institute here at UCT last year (a program I was looking at for a while). Since she's been living here for a year, she has some good information, though she is also a bit tied up in her work, it seems. Phumelele is interesting because although she has a South African name (her mom is Zulu), she has an American accent since she mostly grew up in Pennsylvania and is a duel citizen. She is very outgoing and also has been living here a few months longer than me, working on campus.

I have been successful in meeting folks from South Africa as well,
including Malrich (not sure if that's spelling right) who was kind enough to drive me home last night since they provided us with a dinner in the evening, too late for me to take transportation besides a cab. I have also chatted with classmates from Germany and Colombia, and have classmates from the UK, Canada, Zambia, Namibia, DRC, Zimbabwe, and still more places!

Perhaps I should knock on wood, but taking transportation has been working out quite well. I take a taxi (basically a minibus taken as a group that follows a semi-set route) into town, which is super easy and cheap. Then I get on a city bus, which drops me off at Groote Schuur Hospital. From there, it is about a ten minute walk to the Health Sciences campus, which is where all of my classes are. Driving would probably be shorter, but at least I don't have to deal with the EXTREMELY limited parking at UCT! It's been a long time since I've lived in a new place, so it's funny to remember what that's like--learning to sit on the right side of the bus in the morning to be out of the sun, where your stops are, that sort of thing.

I had a very productive day between orientation, shopping, and having our landlord come by to see about fixing a couple of things. I bought some food, but I'm thinking I may need a pan for the oven (or at least some tin foil) to cook what I'd like. So I'll either save it for tomorrow, or treat myself to some pasta. As I said, tomorrow is the first day of classes, so I'll probably just do some leisure reading tonight before the homework starts up!

Hope all is well on that side! Until next time...

Visa, check. One week til take off!

Hello everyone, and welcome to my blog. I'll be updating here for the next two years while attending the University of Cape Town (UCT) and completing a Masters in Public Health (MPH).

The primary purpose of this blog is to keep in touch with friends and family back in the States. I will, thankfully, be living with one of my best friends and partner, Thomas, after spending three years in different countries. This is both of our first times living in Cape Town, so he'll be the only person I know there when I move. I'll certainly be missing you all!

If you followed my blog from when I was living in Durban and attending the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) for four months in 2007  ( you can read it here), you might remember that my posts came rather irregularly. I am following the lead of my friend Ashley whom did weekly updates while completing her Masters in England. Once I decide on a good weekly time in my new routine, I'll let y'all know when to expect posts. I should have fairly reliable internet to keep up.

The name of my blog came originally from reading one of my favorite quotes (from Rubyfruit Jungle), but it's coming to have a little more meaning for me. Sometimes I feel a little bit like a cliche--young American woman wanting to change the world, heading abroad to learn about HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa (HIV/AIDS won't necessarily be my focus, though I certainly have a strong interest in it). However, I like to think that this decision is being made for many good reasons and that I have my head on straight going into it. If I have time, I'll write another post this week about the "why" of going to UCT.

The list below my blog title (top of the page) summarizes what I plan on addressing on here. Admittedly, many of my posts might be quite mundane, just catching up. I hope to also reflect on what I learn about public health, the challenges of finding employment and a niche in the feminist scene, and of course my stumbling through South African culture. :) For Thomas' sake, I won't delve too deeply into our relationship on here, although I think addressing the joys and challenges of going from open long distance to living together is certainly an important piece of the next two years.

I'd like to have a bit of fun with this blog, so enjoy! To your right you can visit my virtual pet fish and below them is a little survey--answer it, why not! Comments are welcome on all posts. Anonymous comments are fine, but please put your first name at the end (if you're comfortable) so that I can think of you and respond!

My visa and passport finally returned home to me today, so it looks like after three years of thinking about it and eight months of intensely preparing for it, this is really happening. Here we go!