Jammin'

I love the Jammie. I am always forgetting what I already wrote and what I haven’t, so in case I haven’t explained what a Jammie is, it’s a bus… They are big light blue buses for UCT students and faculty that come and go all over Cape Town… Forest Hill, downtown at Hiddingh, at the mall in Claremont… And sometimes they even play music! Jammies are never ‘on time,’ but they always seem to come at either the best or worst times, especially the Forest Hill Jammies, which go right by my house. Luckily I am not too lazy and will settle for anything that just goes to Lower Campus… (there is Lower, Upper, Middle, Health, and Hiddingh Campus) Anyway, Jammies are almost always crowded… it is not uncommon to have to stand or be the last person on and stand in the door (that is actually kind of fun). However, it’s really nice because most of the time if the bus is not too too crowded, a guy will stand up and give you his seat. Nice! No American male would EVER do that. Never in my life have I experienced that on a bus or subway in any American city! So that is pretty great… also, Jammie drivers ALWAYS stop for you… If they are driving right past the stop and they see you, they will always stop and let you on… it is the nicest thing ever, really. Jammies are also an excellent source of entertainment. Sometimes when drivers are nice and let you on, they start driving before you are completely inside the bus… the other day I actually witnessed a guy who got half shut in the back doors and barely managed to get inside before we drove right past another bus, which could have been potentially damaging I suppose… but all that we could all really do at that point is laugh. People also have the most interesting/odd conversations. It's kind of like the Transy cafeteria on a Saturday morning/afternoon… especially on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays because going out during the week and on Saturdays is what's popular here... Friday night, not so much surprisingly. If you ask a local what they are doing, oftentimes they will tell you studying. I'm not kidding. Also, a recent development... Jammie malfunctions! Apparently someone that works for my program saw a Jammies breaks or something (I forget what it was but some boy told me it was most likely I don't remember, transmission or something, I have no clue, I'm no mechanic or whatever) went out and the Jammie literally started to roll back down the hill and there was nothing they could do at first... And this is a very hilly place... Also, it was in the school paper that a UCT bus (but not a Jammie, I just looked at it...) basically the same thing happened right outside of my program's office/student programmes,etc. The bus rolled back and crashed into two cars, which then crashed into the building. Yes, it's all very exciting here. Another common thing that I have noticed is protesting is rampant here. Every other day I feel like I see a new poster for some protest, and before I leave, I will go to one. I'm thinking free and equal education... sounds good and justifiable to me, and it's a pretty hot issue. There was supposed to be a big demonstration last week all over SA and I read that it ended up getting kinda crazy in Joberg... setting things on fire, rocks, spraying people with fire hoses... but that is Joberg for you! Here it was pretty tame and there was even a Jammie that took people to Parliament.