Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Monday, July 26, 2010 11:30 PM Cape Town Time- My Dorm (LBG)

First day of class finally. Campus was pretty packed. It was kind of strange going to class and all that because I'm not totally out of summer mode. It's also a little intimidating not knowing anybody. The two classes I had today were pretty cool. A lot of Americans were in my South African History course, which is not surprising but a little annoying. I need to take the course for credit and such though so it's all good. My African Lit course seems pretty tight though and my teacher talked about the stereotypes and misperceptions of Africa. He had some interesting points about how the ideas of Africa come from knowledge (though limited), not just ignorance. It was an interesting point that made me think and be less dismissive when someone from back home asks a patronizing question about Africa or why I came here.

One very cool feature was that both of the classes I had today had black male professors. That makes more black male professors in one day than I've had in two years at Vanderbilt. It made me think about how few black male teachers I've had in any subject during my school (1 in elementary for a semester, 2 in high school, 1 in college). As few as that is it might be more than most people. That's kind of crazy to me but I think it was kind of a cool experience to see guys who looked like me in a classroom. It's one of those things that seems silly to people of the dominant culture but it really does I think start to affect some students when all the people who they see as the holders of this knowledge and discourse don't look like them. Just a thought.

Anyway that was the day. It was short and pretty painless. Also finally met my fourth roommate. He's cool, from Port Elizabeth. Haven't talked to him much but we shall see.

"teacher, teacher, tell me how you do it. it looks so easy like there is nothing to it."

-slick rick

peace,

nate

ps.

my dad called me at like 1 South African Time. It was good to hear his voice but I was knocked out and kinda delirious.

pps.

trying to stay up til midnight though I'm tired right now. Gonna call my family to wish my Great Grandma Bae a happy 99th birthday. 

3 comments:

Dominic said...

Man I remember Mr. Muhammad he was pretty awesome. I think he was like the Marry Poppins of our class

Meecie said...

She turned 100 yrs. Nate!

Unknown said...

I totally understand how you feel about having a teacher that looks like you.

it's so funny that you keep getting mad because of Americans. it's cute

I would be the same way though..

Peace from Ann Arbor =)