Thursday was a brutally rapid orientation to Stellenbosch University campus, which is huge. And not organized around a long linear Sheridan Road. I am going to get lost so many times. I just know it. It
is a beautiful, aesthetically pleasing campus, and all the buildings were
designed to match/look the same. Which means they all look the same. Which means
I can't tell them apart. There are no hideous eyesores like NU's library with
it's 1960s' architecture, but eyesores make great landmarks. Also, wasn't
expecting this, but the architecture is mostly Georgian or California mission
style. I don't know if that's what it is officially recognized as or called
here, but it certainly looks just like that.
Another thing I wasn't expecting: everything is in
Afrikaans. Everyone here speaks Afrikaans, but English too - at least the
people on campus do. All undergrad students must take 50/50 classes in
English/Afrikaans. But all the signs are in Afrikaans, so pronouncing them is a
huge challenge. Especially since Afrikaans seems to prefer words of 15 letters
or more.
The South African accents are beautiful, and everyone
I've encountered on campus so far has had impeccable English. They just speak
it so quickly and with such a thick accent that I have to ask them to repeat a
lot of things. But it goes both ways - they are always saying "Come
Again," - as in 'please say it again,' but they say that with such heavy
accents too that I end up having to ask them "What?" and then they
say "Come again," and the whole thing really gets quite
confusing.
Stellenbosch University is playing in the country's
Rugby finals on Monday evening. It's kind of like their March Madness...it's a
big tournament in March where all the best university teams in the country
compete against each other for the National Rugby Championship title. Serves a
great parallel to the Final Four going on at home this weekend. And I'm going
to watch it since it's right here in Stellenbosch!! Go Maties! I learned that
their mascot is a squirrel...named Pokkel. And their mascot is a professor named Prof (pronounced in a heavy heavy Afrikaans accent). Apparently
they have two mascots?
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