So I've been away from the wonderful land of blog because I've been really busy studying (or at least intending to study) for the last week-ish. After my bday I had a carbohydrate biochemistry test on Monday, amino acid chemistry test on Friday, and then bacteria yesterday. Whew! I've been a studying fool. Also there was a public holiday thrown in there somewhere and more bday celebrating to do. I can't remember if I said anything yet about grading in SA, but the range for getting an A here is (get this!) 75-100%. I can get a score that would land me a C in the USA and still get a "distinction" here. That BLOWS my mind! I got an 82% on one of the tests I took this week, but that's still a solid A! It's like heaven. Secret Agent Brain will finally have some help. My, unfortunate, grade-centric school existence is about to shift for the better.
I singlehandedly created a major scandal this past week among the biochemistry teaching assistants...all because I wrote in pencil on my test paper. Apparently that is a major no-no here. I came into the test after it already started so I missed all those pesky directions and it was my first test in SA. I wrote in pencil cos I had so many chemical structures and stuff w/tiny easy to mess up details. My test would have looked like Jackson Pollack was at work if I wrote in pen. I just can't believe that if writing in pencil was such a big no-no that the proctors of the test wouldn't have told me while I was doing the test. 1st of all I came in late. 2nd of all I sat in the front row. 3rd of all I asked 2 questions during the test, so someone had to come over to me 2 times. 4th, I asked a question of one of the proctors when I turned in my test. 5th, I'm the American girl...not to be egotistical, but I know that's how people remember me here. Why didn't they say anything to me? So, during my biochem lab this week, one of the assistants comes up to me and says "You can't contest the grading of your test because you wrote in pencil." She was pretty pissed off at me and kind of incredulous that I would do such a thing as write in pencil. I was feeling some eyeball daggers in the air. I explained that this was the first test I ever took in SA and I came in late and didn't know better. She was still pissed off and said it didn't matter...I couldn't contest any errors made in the grading. Now I was getting angry because I felt like no one told me I couldn't write in pencil and if someone makes a mistake on grading my test...I don't want to pay for it. It's just not fair. One slip of the grading pen erases hours and hours of studying...oh I don't think so! In the end I went to the teacher before I looked at my test and explained the situation. I asked if she would look at my test to see if there were any mistakes. There were quite a few mistakes and so I walked away with a few extra points. I wanted to make it clear that I wasn't trying to cheat...I'm just a foreigner here. She was very understanding and explained that the teaching assistants thought I had purposely written in pencil to spite them. She told me that it was causing quite an uproar. So that was the scandal...that one person in like 600 in the class wrote in pencil to spite the teaching assistants. I'm a legend!
Needless to say...I wrote the next biochem test in pen!
On Tuesday of last week I went to Joburg to see Japanese super dj...DJ Krush! This was my gift to myself for my bday and to repay all that study time. He was playing at a club called Carfax, a really sweet dance-type club. There was a decent hiphop opening act called Obita...their songs were okay, but the highlight was their guitar player. Obita is a rapper dude, chick singer, and a guitar GOD. It was a pleasure to watch him play. DJ Krush was incredible. If you like to watch DJs spin records than please check out DJ Krush. It was so awesome to see him cooking up the beats on 2 turntables, mixer, computer, and I think one of those rhythm touch pads. Beautiful!!!! The guy is a genius! There was a side room w/a hiphop DJ that was really taking me back thru wax to Champaign-Urbana and the good old days of UC HipHop (represent!). I ch
ecked out the show w/some of my old friends from the Pietermaritzburg (PMB) days...Kumbi and Gary. The great friend train makes another stop! I didn't know Gary and Kumbi live together so it was a real pleasant surprise to add Gary as a stop on the train route! Also his girlfriend, Sarah, is visiting from the USA (she's from Cali). Sarah had lived here (in PMB) for 3 years, so she has been thru a lot of the same feelings/situations that I will go thru/have already gone thru here. It was really great to meet someone that has had such a similar experience, under similar circumstances, with the same friends, and in the same town. It was crucial to be able to talk out some of the things going thru my mind w/someone that can really really understand what I am feeling/going thru/experiencing. The photo above is L-R: Gary, me, and Kumbi.
ecked out the show w/some of my old friends from the Pietermaritzburg (PMB) days...Kumbi and Gary. The great friend train makes another stop! I didn't know Gary and Kumbi live together so it was a real pleasant surprise to add Gary as a stop on the train route! Also his girlfriend, Sarah, is visiting from the USA (she's from Cali). Sarah had lived here (in PMB) for 3 years, so she has been thru a lot of the same feelings/situations that I will go thru/have already gone thru here. It was really great to meet someone that has had such a similar experience, under similar circumstances, with the same friends, and in the same town. It was crucial to be able to talk out some of the things going thru my mind w/someone that can really really understand what I am feeling/going thru/experiencing. The photo above is L-R: Gary, me, and Kumbi. After a raucous party in honor of my bday and DJ Krush, Wed was a public holiday...Human Rights Day. Public holidays are days that sees everything come to a halt, a lot of people don't have to work, students don't have to go to school, etc. It's not like in the USA where President's Day is only important to furniture stores or Casimir Pulaski Day is only celebrated in Illinois. Everyone is on the same "let's not go to work in honor of this thing" page. Human Rights Day is an international holiday that is celebrated throughout the world on December 10 to commemorate the United Nations' adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. In South Africa, it's celebrated on March 21 to remember the 1960 Sharpeville 
massacre. I'm not sure if the two days share anything besides a name, but I think they are the same in spirit. On March 21, 1960, police opened fire on a group of blacks protesting in a township called Sharpeville. To learn more about townships, check out this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Township_%28South_Africa%2928South_Africa%29 cos it's sort of hard to explain a bunch of aspects of the townships. I think this link does a good job. The protest that happened in Sharpeville was against the use of passbooks. Remember that S Africa only scrapped apartheid in 1994, so in 1960 the system was still going strong. Passbooks were like passports that people had to carry in their own country because the movement of people (especially non-whites) was restricted to certain areas. Mostly non-whites were not allowed into white areas...unless cheap labor was needed. 69 people, many of them women and children, were killed in the massacre. 180 were wounded. Now the police claimed, as any good police force would, that they started shooting into crowd because there were agitators and such. Actually the exact words from one of the lieutenant's was:
massacre. I'm not sure if the two days share anything besides a name, but I think they are the same in spirit. On March 21, 1960, police opened fire on a group of blacks protesting in a township called Sharpeville. To learn more about townships, check out this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Township_%28South_Africa%2928South_Africa%29 cos it's sort of hard to explain a bunch of aspects of the townships. I think this link does a good job. The protest that happened in Sharpeville was against the use of passbooks. Remember that S Africa only scrapped apartheid in 1994, so in 1960 the system was still going strong. Passbooks were like passports that people had to carry in their own country because the movement of people (especially non-whites) was restricted to certain areas. Mostly non-whites were not allowed into white areas...unless cheap labor was needed. 69 people, many of them women and children, were killed in the massacre. 180 were wounded. Now the police claimed, as any good police force would, that they started shooting into crowd because there were agitators and such. Actually the exact words from one of the lieutenant's was: "The Native mentality does not allow them to gather for a peaceful demonstration. For them to gather means violence."
However, most of the victims were shot in the back. You do the math. The massacre was one of the major events that sparked off the anti-apartheid struggle, locally and internationally. There was such heavy protesting in South Africa that the government called a state of emergency just 9 days later. For more information on the massacre you can check out this link at wikipedia (the entry is short, so don't be scared!): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharpeville_massacreA lot of the old public holidays (during apartheid days) have been amended now to include events that were important to the apartheid struggle...don't worry...I'll update your SA history book as these public holidays happen. For more info on all S African public holidays:
I spent the public holiday at the Walter Sisulu (an apartheid era hero) Botanical Gardens near Joburg with Sarah and Gary. It was exactly what I needed. First of all...I got to drive around in a car w/the windows down, which is something I love. There is just something peaceful about a face full of wind that leaves you with nappy hair. Ace Ventura had it right all along. It was nice just to travel anywhere. I've really been sort of stuck in my little 5 block by 5 block area where the university is. I would get the same feeling in Urbana when I hadn't left the town in awhile. It's just nice to go somewhere in a car sometimes. Or rather just to travel a distance. I got a lot of time to think about stuff that's been bugging me, mostly just little adjusting issues, and got to spend some time with people I feel at ease with. I realized after hanging w/Gary, Kumbi, and Sarah that it's been awhile since I chilled w/people that I'm automatically at ease with. I mean, for good reason...I just don't know anyone well enough yet. So even social situations where I'm having a good time are still sort of stressful cos I don't know the people I'm hanging with. It's not that major of a thing, but I guess something I did notice while chillin' w/Gary, Kumbi, and Sarah. We hiked up to the top of a waterfall in the gardens and checked out some other places. Also had a nice picnic. The best part was randomly meeting up w/2 of my friends from the PMB days, Colin and Niall. It was really weird actually. We were just walking along and I looked at this guy approaching us from the opposite direction thinking "man that guy's face is familiar...oh..cos it's Colin!!!!" So there was another surprise stop on the great friend train. Below L-R: Colin, me, Niall...PMB represent!
Yeah so the rest of the week has mostly just been studying. I have spent some time with one of my new friends, Luso, and another new friend, Kenzy. Both chickies from the radio station. I went to a social at my dorm which was at first sort of freaking me out (big social situations where I don't know anyone and no one talks to me have sort of been freaking me out lately...which is weird), but it turned out okay cos I did see someone that I sort of knew but hadn't met yet...if that makes sense. And I got good free food...bonus.
Our "spring break," which is really more of a fall break since it's getting to be fall here, starts on Thursday. I'm going to be heading over to St Lucia on the East coast. St. Lucia is a huge nature preserve (for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_St._Lucia_Wetland_Park) that is mostly a big wetland/estuary type thing. I went there w/my dad back in the day. Lots of hippos and crocodiles and birds. Jon Warner, one of my friends from U of IL (who also studied in Pietermaritzburg), is doing snake research there. So I'm hoping to check out his project, chill with a fellow U of IL/Univ of Natal homie, and maybe do some fishing. Maybe check out the beach, etc. Then I hope to swing down to Durban to add a few stops to the great friend train tour. Roisin and Tongai...here I come! I don't have any definite plans yet except that I'm getting a ride with this guy on Thursday at 6am-ish toward St Lucia. The rest is unwritten...nice!
Radio station stuff has been going good. I think I'm making really good progress with my audio production studies. I just need to do a lot more shadowing so I can learn cool techniques and shortcuts and stuff. My brain isn't exactly wired for audio stuff, so there's a lot of learning and "getting in the zone" that needs to be done. I'm actually really enjoying this stuff cos I realized that audio production is something that I don't really know anything about and is something I'm not naturally good at, per se. So it's a nice challenge compared to other things I might take on...things where I'm pretty sure I'll succeed. Last night I made my first ad that was going to go out on the air, but the event got postponed until June. D'oh! I'm sort of happy cos I've been focusing a lot of energy on work and it will be nice to not have anything on my plate for the next few days except packing up my bag for my holiday!
I've added photos to my "General Photos" album in my public gallery:
Also my mom added photos of the celbration she and my bro had for my "Hippy Bartday." You can check them out at:
So...I'll be gone for a week or so. I probably won't get to update the ol' blog til I get back, but we'll see. I still haven't collected my bday packages, but should get them tomorrow! Thanks!!
Later later
Love Lynsee
