Shocklog!!

An assignment we got from school is to write a ‘shock log’- the idea behind that is that we have to describe our impressions before the first week is over. The things that really strike us as weird, odd, or nice and then at the end of our stay we have to go back to this and see how we see these things now and that measures how we adjusted to our new culture- quite interesting! I wrote this whole story, and then thought that it actually will be interesting for all of you as well. For school everything is in English, and I don’t really feel like translating everything- but since my mom and two aunts are following English lessons- Im sure everyone will be ok!:)

Ok, voor degenen die het toch niet helemaal volgen zal ik er ook korte Nederlandse beschrijvingen bijzetten:) Voor school moesten we een verslag schrijven van onze eerste indrukken zodat we later kunnen zien hoe aangepast we zijn aan onze nieuwe cultuur- maar deel dat ook maar met jullie:)

Someone from the University of Pretoria was there to pick us up and drove us to the main campus of the university and finally our own campus where we will live the coming months. He was very friendly and very helpful! It was very strange though to drive at the left side of the road. The driving itself isn’t so bad- but turning off streets, changing lanes- really strange! I don’t think I’ll be able to drive here myself very soon- first get used to this way of driving! I’d go wrong at the first turn! What also became clear during the drive to Pretoria is that Pretoria is very wide spread- as apparently a lot of South African cities. It doesn’t look like a city at all because it’s really wide and set up with a lot of space every where. Pretoria has 2 million inhabitants- including all the suburbs and is spread out over an area from 66 by 45 km- which is pretty big I think! We were already wondering about that because we flew over Johannesburg, but it didn’t look like a big city at all, more like small towns very close to each other.

Pretoria is erg uitgebreid, het ziet er totaal niet uit als een grote stad, meer als kleine stadjes dicht bij elkaar.

All the people here are very friendly and helpful, and have a good sense for humour and are joking a lot- which is a bit strange to me, since people in Holland don’t really do that- the joking part. In Holland it’s just straight to business. Here people ALWAYS ask first: “hi- how’re you doing today?” and expect you to say “good- how about you?” or something like that. After you’ve finished this, you can come to your point. When you leave people say “See you, ehmm… don’t know when, at some point- otherwise enjoy your stay!” I really like this part, it makes you feel as a person and not so much as a number.

Iedereen hier is heel erg vriendelijk, en absoluut niet direct in het benaderen van elkaar. Iedereen vraagt eerst altijd: ‘hoe gaat het met je vandaag?’ en dan wordt je verwacht ‘goed- en met jou?’ oid te zeggen. Ook als je weg gaat zeggen ze altijd tot ziens- ooit! Erg leuk!

The University here works a bit different I think, than Dutch universities do. We still needed to register and didn’t have any information because we just missed the letters that were send to us in Holland. We went to ask about that- and without even asking our names, or something else the lady behind the desk told us that we were not in the system! We must have looked really puzzled because then she told us that she can’t do anything for us because she can’t change the system or add people to it- security has to do that. We have to register first and make copies of our passport (apparently she understood that we were international students) so that the University could call Homeland Security (or something similar to that) and tell them that we arrived and are part of the University for now, and call them again once we leave to assure them that we’re no longer part of the University. Safety is a really big issue here. The campus is guarded, every house has a personal guard and all doors and windows have bars. I had expected that, and wasn’t so shocked by it. I had experienced these kind of things before. But what really surprised me was the security system the university works with. You first have to be approved by security, otherwise you can’t get registered with the University. We went to register and the day after we got our student card, but we’re still not approved and in the system and until that happens we can’t use any of the University facilities like the library.

Het universiteitssysteem werkt hier wel n beetje anders, vooral voor veiligheids redenen. Maar het is wel heel irrant, want we worden van het kastje naar de muur gestuurd en weer terug omdat wij blijkbaar niet als normale studenten geregistreerd zijn, maar een bijzondere status hebben en dus niet in het systeem terug komen- stapje bij stapje wordt alles geregeld- ooit kunnen we wel gewoon alles gebruiken- hopelijk!:)

While walking around we literally didn’t see any white person walking, just black people. There was 1 white guy- but he was running. What we also noticed is that, apparently, it is very popular for black men (!) to lie on the grass under a tree. When we saw women, they were just walking or sitting down on something, but never lay down in the grass as well. A big challenge was, and still is, to cross the streets. First of all the cars come from a different direction that I’m used to. So I consciously have to think ‘look to the right first, then to the left and to the right again’- as long as I think about it, I don’t run into trouble. But this works only when there are no traffic lights. If there are traffic lights it should be easier, but it really isn’t! We still haven’t totally figured out how it works. The problem with it is that if you wait till it’s green for pedestrians and then start walking it’s red again before you’ve even crossed half of the street! It is really impossible to cross the whole street during the green light! We figured that it is sort of a puzzle and that you have to figure out when it’s your turn to walk and then start walking when the light shows red for the cars. But this can be quite complicating when the cars can come from four different directions! However, it’s getting better every time- but still a challenge!

Alleen zwarte mensen lopen hier, de witte mensen hebben een auto. Behalve wij dus! Oversteken is de grootste uitdaging hier! Het is echt niet logisch, en ik snap er niets van! Er zijn wel stoplichten, maar het is niet zo dat je pas moet gaan lopen als het groen is, want dan red je het niet tot de andere kant van de straat. We hebben al verschillende theorieën over hoe het werkt- en steken nu maar een beetje op hoop van zegen over!

What really shocks me is that there is still such a big division between white and black people! As I already said, there are no white people walking. When we walked to main campus (a 1 hour walk) and via the mall back home (another hour) the people at the international office (all white) where really shocked that we walk. They also call the mall far away- while it’s only a 40 minute walk. However, during these walks we haven’t seen white people walking, just black people. The people working at the supermarket, taxi drivers, most waiters, gardeners, security people are all black!! We went out in Hatfield yesterday evening and had dinner at one of the restaurants and that was the first time that we saw black and white people mixing up (we thought!) Afterwards we went to the square at the backside of the restaurant were different bars are and we were very amazed to find out that it was really crowed- with white people. There were maybe 3 or 4 black people among hundreds of white people. When we went home and had to wait for the taxi at the other side again we saw that at that side all the black people were. So apparently it is still very segregated.

Het verschil tussen wit en zwart is echt enorm! Het is echt bizar om dit mee te maken- zelfs in Nederland zie je niet zoveel witte mensen bij elkaar!! Iedereen is nog steeds heel erg gescheiden, de zwarte mensen gaan uit aan de ene kant van de straat, en de witte mensen aan de andere kant… heel apart!

We had asked if we could join the welcoming day for the first year students (since most people living at the Groenkloof Campus will be first year students). That was ok, so we went to the openings speech and were really surprised by a couple of things. First of all the percentage of white people (again!). We were introduced to some kind of student group and the whole board was white, I was already surprised by that. But when I saw all the new students I understood it better because there was maybe 1 black student on 50 white students. For me this was really shocking and I really would like to know why this is the case. I have to add that this was the welcoming day on the Faculty of Education, but still… Why are there so little black students?
The next shock came when the Head of the department started speeching. He said Goodmorning in Afrikaans, English and Zulu ( I think:), which wasn’t so strange, but the very strange thing to me was that during his speech he changed between Afrikaans and English without any sign that he would change. First I thought that he was just saying everything double, but when I listened more careful I found out that he was really speaking in two different languages, sometimes he even changed language in the middle of the sentence!! It was not only him doing that, but every following speaker did the same- so apparently this is very normal here. Intriguing!!

Zaterdag was de welkomsdag voor de eerstejaars studenten en wij hadden gevraagd of we daar ook aan mee mochten doen. We kwamen daar al snel op terug- omdat het toch niet zo leuk is om als eerstejaars behandeld te worden:) Bizar was dat er zoveel witte studenten waren, ik denk dat er ongeveer 1 op de 50 studenten zwart was! Ook heel bizar waren de toespraken door verschillende belangrijke mensen. Niet zozeer de toespraken op zich, maar wel het feit dat Engels en Afrikaans zonder enig aanwijsbare reden afgewisseld worden! Soms midden in een zin- er zit ook totaal geen logica in, en niemand scheen daar moeite mee te hebben!!


We also have a TV and noticed the same phenomenon in soap series. Only there they change between English and Zulu, without any reason, and in the middle of a sentence. This apparently is the practical result of a country having 11 official languages.

Ook op TV gebeurt dit! Er is een soapserie en daar spreken ze Engels en Zulu- en er wordt van taal veranderd in het midden van een zin, zonder enige reden of noodzaak… heel apart!

We were really excited about the welcoming day, because we really wanted to meet some other people and make friends and start a social life here- with not just the three of us. But it turned out differently. Apparently the houses people live in are really important in their lives. They function as a sorority/fraternity . The strange thing however is, that the students don’t get to choose where they want to belong to, or if they want to belong to the group. They are placed in a house, and that’s their group. We chickened out, partly because if we would join, Renke couldn’t come with us because the sexes are strictly separated. They are all dressed up in their house colours, have inspiring speeches towards the new students and telling them their motto’s (e.g.: “the moment you stop dreaming, you stop living!”).
After the speeches we left but we did hear from them later on. We got the impression that the first years were really drilled- we heard the typical student group shouting, songs, motto’s, mantra’s etc. and when we saw them we were really glad that we hadn’t joined them! They all looked the same! The girls from our flat (well, we live in an apartment on the side of the flat, so it’s not really our flat) were all dressed the same. Dark blue knee long skirts and dark blue shirt and a lighter blue sunshade. They walked in rows and did exactly as was told them to do! The boys looked the same as well, kaki shorts with a blue shirt and walked as soldiers behind their leaders who were all dressed up un suits with ties. I guess the bonding will be strong:)
Of course we are outsiders, and probably will stay outsiders so we can’t really comment on it- but it was sort of a shock to see what happens to the first years. Especially the fact that they are all dressed exactly the same. I had thought that they’d be happy to be done with high school uniforms, but maybe this is different- house uniforms…

De eerstejaars worden echt als eerstejaars behandeld- niet zozeer in verenigingen zoals wij die in Nederland kennen, maar hier zijn huizen. Elk huis heeft zijn eigen identiteit en motto en kleren. De eerstejaars worden dus een soort van gehersenspoeld dmv uniformen en verschillende bral liedjes- en ze worden ook enorm gedrild- blij dat wij daar op tijd van onderuit kwamen! Oh en de huizen zijn niet gemengd! Wij wonen in dit mooie grote appartement omdat Renke dan bij ons kan wonen- anders kan dat niet want meisjes en jongens zijn strikt gescheiden!