The Grass Is Greener On The Other Side

The first week of classes has started up but I am still recovering from orientation week. Shortly after arriving back in Cape Town the next group of international students began their orientation and I was working as an orientation leader. Takes me back to when I first arrived and had no idea about anything at all; I still have no idea but I'm better at hiding it now. The week was filled with many early mornings setting up and many late nights introducing the newbies to the nightlife of Cape Town (unfortunately, we don't get overtime for that work). I found many of the talks to be much more interesting the second time around now that I had some context to apply it to. I have stepped up personal safety measure to an almost absurd level but the muggers know that new students have arrived and are out in force. With an average of at least one mugging a day I now do little things like removing my SIM card from my phone if I walk anywhere to avoid the hassle of getting people's number if it gets stolen but some of the stories are just plain ridiculous! On your first night in a new city don't get really drunk and walk home alone at two in the morning! Since I was helping out I got to know the staff fairly well and that made my registration go really smoothly; what good is power if you don't abuse it? Some of the new arrivals have also deluded themselves in making me a target for beer drinking. I'm just not that interested in competitive drinking and the nine litres I drank at the Scrumpy Jack last term was just a one time thing but try explaining that to a new arrival. The only reason I did that in the first place was to force a couple of local friends to one up me and it worked better than I could have hoped (fifteen litres and a two day hangover was the result). My mother must be so proud of me. Topic change! I'm trying to play the international student card as much as I can and have been allowed to sign up for an architecture class here. I'm attending several different lectures and seminars and will try and decide by the end of the week. I explained several times that I have NO EXPERIENCE in architecture but somehow they feel that taking a post-graduate level course is fine. I love being an international student. Finally, the only 'downside' of being an orientation leader is that most of the new students know who I am but I can't possibly remember all of them. As long as I don't offend anyone... On more of a downside, the last of my friends that only came for the first term are heading home. I felt at the begining of the year that 'good times come and good times go' and I would just enjoy it and leave it, no problem. It'll be interesting to see how that opinion changes since it has been tougher than expected to say goodbye to the friends I have made here. No goodbyes then, see you later.