Friday, February 12th, 2010
^Yes, this is our house, yes we grilled all of this, and yes it was delicious. Grilling like this in South Africa is called a braai, it’s Afrikaans for “roasted meat.” I checked wikipedia, so you know it’s good. Oh, and check out the new promo mix. I’ll get back on topic now.
On a scale of 1 to Cool, I would most likely rate my class schedule as “Cool.” I’m taking Mythology, History of Southern Africa through Colonialism, History of Feast and Famine (economic rises and falls in the world), and a grad-level class on race and identity.
The classes have all been incredible so far. My Mythology prof. is sassy and incredibly well-read, and my Southern Africa class started with a talk on dinosaurs. Feast and Famine should be interesting, and my grad-level class is allowing me to do a non-traditional work for 25% of my final grade. For those of you wondering, non-traditional includes a soundscape/mixtape, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to have such a chance to do sampling and delve into local music some more. And for those of you wondering, yes there are a lot of hipsters in that last class – with this much discussion on post-modernism, how could there not be?
But that’s not important. The important part is that my classes will be delightful, and, broken-hearted though I am over dropping African Traditional Religion, it was definitely the right choice. The class, all Americans, will be focusing for the first few weeks on ideas that Rochester’s religion department taught me freshman year. Incredibly important things, certainly, but I don’t really have the patience to sit through a month in which the professor attempts to explain to non-majors the importance of recognizing ethno-centrism’s influence. How’s that for an ethnocentric outlook?