Classes

Classes started this week, and the whole process of school starting is completely hectic but also refreshing. Students typically sign up for classes in one or two departments only, and because my major is International Relations and is interdepartmental, my personal registration process involved A LOT of walking. From my dorm, it's about a 20-minute walk to the center of campus. From there, departments are scattered around... my furthest class is a 30 minute walk from my dorm. Classes technically started this week, but a lot of professors don't bother showing up until next week since there are so many students adding and dropping. Last week, I walked around to all the departments I wanted to take classes with, filled out a registration form at each one (each deparment had a different form) and wrote down which classes I wanted to take. When you register, there is no timetable. The times of classes are released after registration. I registered with five departments: political science, english, french, dance and sociology. I registered for about 12 classes, which is twice as many as I want to take, but the students here register for more classes than they can take in case of time conflicts. The whole process has really taught me so much more about Ghanaian concepts of time. Sometimes it's frustrating that professors don't show up, or that people are over one hour late, even for One gear Katie (right, Dad?)!
My schedule ended up consisting of three polisci classes, three english classes, four french classes and a dance class. My favorite class so far is the french class. It's called french translation and there are two professors: one for french to english translation and another for english to french! Most of the professors and lecturers are Ghanaian, and sometimes it's really hard to understand them through their thick accents, but I am getting better at hearing what they are saying. My other favorite class is the dance class! We are learning three dances this semester and my teacher is Oh Nii, the man who taught us dance at the very beginning of my trip! He teaches with such energy and inspiration and I love that everyone really gets into the dancing instead of being embarrassed. The class is about half Americans and half Africans, which means that we can really learn well because most of the Africans already know the dances.
I am still loving it here, and trying to immerse myself into every aspect of the culture. I'm looking forward to volunteering somewhere and also joining the swim team!
Pictures are coming soon, the internet here is mind-numbingly slow.
peace and love from ghana.