Classes

I realized that I haven't written much about my what classes I'm taking, whether I like them or what the academics are like at the University of Cape Town.

I'm taking three classes at UCT:

1. South African Politics II: I really like this professor, but I'm struggling a little because I don't really have a background in South African politics. This makes it hard to understand many of the examples.

2. Policy and Administration: This class focuses on implementing policy and the prof is specifically interested in policy disasters. We're looking at case studies of South African policy so I'm facing a similar problem of having to play catch-up in this class, too.

3.Medical Anthropology: This is probably my favorite class so far! The professor is amazing and a self described Marxist--most of the professors here don't really engage in a dialogue with students, but she does. There is, of course, a focus on South Africa in the class too, but I feel more comfortable with her teaching style and less confused by what's going on.

All of these classes are held in large lecture halls; I find I'm missing my small, sheltered classes where I get to discuss the reading with the professor. Its a little frustrating because its not the learning environment I've grown used to--the only time we discuss and interpret our readings are in small tutorials, which are basically TA sessions. I would say my first couple of classes have left me generally confused about when things are due and what reading to do for which class, but hopefully this will all clear up in the next few sessions.

In addition to these three classes, I'm also taking my class with the other Trinity students, which is tons of fun. We meet once a week for dinner and discuss our reading; there only five Trinity students so this is a nice break from the lectures. Plus, the class includes delicious food and wine!