Week Two!

So we've just finished week two of classes.. which for many of my classes was the first week. It took some time but I think everything is pretty much settled. I attempted to attend a psychology class here (Abnormal Psychology) this week, only to find out that the head of the department found my utterly unqualified for pretty much all of the psychology classes here! Apparently, even though I only have two courses left to complete my psychology major at Wheaton, all of my courses only amount to three credits here, placing my firmly in the first year first semester category of students. haha so I'm taking a lower level psychology course.... but suspiciously enough finding it almost entirely a review.....

Other than that though my courses are going well. I'm taking:

Setswana - which is loosely organized chaos, attempting to teach us the local language and some cultural points here. My roommate has been helping me out with this one.

History of 20th Century Europe - I needed a history, and wasn't able to fit anything related to Africa into my schedule, so I'm taking a European history which is turning out to be really interesting. It deals mainly with the 1st and 2nd world wars.

Societal Views of Mental Retardation - They have a huge number of education courses here, and though I again ran into the problem of scheduling conflicts, I actually am enjoying this course which has sort of a sociology aspect to it. We are discussing how people view the mentally challenged and how that has changed over the years and why.

Biological Basis of Human Behavior - This is a psychology course which looks into the brain-body relationship and how the physical body effects the personality etc. It's pretty interesting, but thus far a lot of review.

Psychology of Work & Labor Relations - This course appears like its going to have a lot of hours of work put into it, but I'm hoping it will be good. It's a psychology that isn't offered at Wheaton, dealing with the workplace and how that can affect a person mentally. It also deals a lot with ethics and how that plays into it. We discussed last class how the pace of work in Botswana is very slow, and why that is. This course also makes fun of the USA a lot, so at times I find myself having to defend us a little, but apparently the entire class finds me hilariously entertaining even though I'm attempting to be serious.

Outside of our Setswana class there are tons of lime trees, and during our break we pick limes. Some people eat them, mostly we just play with them, they smell really good. During the day I've been avoiding eating at the cafeteria as much as possible (rice and chicken gets old pretty quickly) and there is a kiosk that sells something like hot pockets, but they are big and flakey like croissants. I get the chicken and its just like a chicken pot pie cooked in a croissant. They're really good and only 6 pula, less than a dollar at home.

One thing I also was having a lot of awkward encounters with was walking on the left side. On the stairs or the sidewalk here since they drive on the left, people walk on the left. Which has taken me forever to get used to and caused for a lot of walking into people and awkward moments.

The lack of toilet paper has actually been even harder to remember. No where on campus do the bathrooms have either toilet paper or soap. I purchased both for my room and bring them to the bathroom, but it's something that you don't really think of when leaving for class in the morning... did I bring my toilet paper and soap? haha so thats been interesting. The school does give each person four rolls of tp per month, at the beginning of the month you come back to your room one evening and voila! toilet paper on your desk.

The cleaning ladies here also clean your floors twice a month, this is wasn't aware of until I woke up at 8 am one morning to find a woman in my room. She and I go way back though as I've been locked out of my room twice after a shower and needed her to let me in.. The cleaning ladies are really nice! haha

Everything here happens so early! Most people wake up between 6 and 7, and when I sleep til 8 my roommate is utterly impressed/offended. I think its because theres so little to do at night people go to bed around 9. Except for Thursday-Sunday. Last night was Friday and they have a "hip-hop club" at the dining hall, with music, and pretty much just the entire campus gets ragingly drunk, and when we walk by at 8 am the next morning, people are STILL out there drinking and dancing amongst the ankle deep carnage from the night before. It's pretty impressive, and I completely believe this could not happen anywhere else, at least at Wheaton we'd recycle our bottles!! haha here most bottles wind up smashed on the ground.

Today I'm planning on going by the pool and relaxing a little, maybe later going to a soccer game, the profession league is only about 3 USD's to attend. So really cheap. Other than that just a regular day!