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A tragic typo

September 28, 2014

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Consumption

It has been a couple years since I have touched this blog. A lot has happened. I mean A LOT. Hopefully I will fill some of that in soon/later.

But first, in the interest of the previous purpose of this blog, I have to touch upon something that may concern anyone doing some travel and study abroad.

As part of my preparations to begin graduate school (like I said, more/soon/later...), I again had to get a TB test. They required this of anyone who lived for longer than 4 weeks in a list of high-risk countries. South Africa was on that list. Three years earlier for my visa application, I had to do a lot of medical exams, including a tuberculosis (TB) skin test (or PPD). That is the preferred (and simplest and cheapest) method in the U.S. for anyone who has not previously received one of the vaccinations (of variable efficacy) sometimes administered in other countries.

Well, my test came back positive. While the normal bubble on a clear test almost completely disappears within a few …

Kopano

For some reason this morning, either the loud downpour of rain or the shouts of drunk international students returning home, I am awake early and unable to return to the warm comfort of sleep. I know that I am still very excited to be here. Now, the early morning birds are chirping away outside my window (a more pleasant noise than the get-to-bed students).

When we arrived, the IAPO (International Academic Programs Office) people (called green shirts because of their distinctively visible lime green uniform t-shirts) brought us from the airport to Kopano, a vacation dormitory on the lower UCT campus. The rooms are a touch rudimentary, with bare wood furnishings, a padlock for your door, and a surprisingly comfortable cot. The toilets smell like toilets. The walls are quite thin. Still, each room is a single occupant, so my first couple nights did not need to navigate sharing a sleeping space with a stranger. Small blessings.

While preparing for this trip, I applied for my housing thro…

Thank God for Steel

On one of my last days in South Africa, my housemate Sachi and I went to a great white shark cage dive.

We were picked up in the pre-dawn hours and driven to Kleinbaai, a little over 2 hours east of Cape Town. We were given a breakfast as part of the package, in addition to the standard liability/indemnity forms that dominate just about every activity one can do in South Africa. Even the field trip for my biology class, and the form actually said that they agents of the university could intentionally cause me harm without being held liable for any damage to my person. Everyone always says that the forms are not legally binding, but they give me confused and ill looks when I suggest that if not legally binding, then there is really no point to them. I guess I am just being a difficult American.

I am pleased (for lack of a more appropriate word) that I had the foresight to consume a small breakfast of only very soft foods (fruit, some scrambled eggs, tea). While I was the first of our…

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