University Day 1: A Reveiw

Friday the 12th of February, 2016, was my first day at UCT, not including all the orientation days in which we sat in circles desperately trying to think of interesting facts about ourselves, traipsed around upper campus (which is on a mountain side) and sat in massive lecture halls trying not to snore too loudly while getting doused in information about curricula, courses, and General Important Things (GITs). I was not sleeping, however. I was paying close attention and writing notes. The very definition of an eager beaver. So why did I feel as if I was getting waterboarded on my first day?

It honestly felt like I had just been explained all the rules of a rather complicated game and then all of a sudden I had been thrown into it, amongst experts, without even really knowing how to score points.
I ventured forth with a timetable in hand, ready to take on the world and my future early, Friday morning. My first lecture was the introductory lecture to English, one of my majors. I was seated near to the back, my reasoning two-fold: 1) I had dawdled outside, fretting about whether the lecture hall was MY LECTURE HALL and also I saw a friend who could answer all my obvious questions that I just wanted to know for SURE (thank you for your patience) and 2) I didn't want to draw too much attention to myself as the risk of humiliation is far too high and to be honest if there is a slight risk of humiliation, it is more than likely that I will suffer the worst possible consequence.

3 minutes into the lecture and I realized that I was definitely one of the least cultured and worst read students in the hall. I managed to get about 2 references made out of the total 143 (I assume). Luckily my cousin who is doing a couple of my courses was doodling next to me which put my mind slightly at ease. You have your future hanging in he balance here, Jen, calm down and stop taking everything so seriously.
Fortunately most of the people lecturing me seem inspiring and passionate and all the things important in someone teaching English. However, one of my lecturers I think had the impression that his voice was loud enough to carry throughout the lecture hall and this resulted in him not speaking into the microphone and instead walking around the hall and up and down the aisles. This is about as wise as thinking your voice will carry around a stadium. Slight exaggeration but you do get my drift. He did, once or twice walk past the microphone so I did catch a syllable of his words a couple of times but this wasn't quite enough to put together what he was trying to say. Still, people laughed at regular intervals so he seemed nice enough.

I missed my next lecture due to the unfortunate event of not have my ever-refreshing e-mail celotaped to my forehead in front of my eyes but no matter. I have since been to a lecture in the subject and I didn't miss much.

Otherwise all has been relatively successful. I am writing this paragraph whilst sitting outside a lecture theatre the Wednesday after my first lecture and I am feeling significantly less like I'm drowning. I'll update you as things continue!

Until Next Time,
Jen x