Why South Africa? Written by Katrina Dank PO’ 20 Cape Town, South Africa
我经常听到这样的问题:“你为什么选择去南非留学??’ I’ve known I was going abroad in Cape Town on the Globalization, Environment, and Society program since early on in my freshman spring of college. The initial inspiration came from my academic advisor Professor Taylor. Maybe it’s serendipity or maybe it’s just classic confirmation bias, but ever since that decision the stars have never ceased to align, backing up my reasoning. 我由衷地相信，我再也找不到比这更适合我的海外经历的地方了.
On an academic level, GES项目为我追求环保理想提供了绝佳的机会. At Pomona, 我的化学工程学位背后的潜在动机是使其成为一个环境化学工程学位，专注于绿色创造力和可持续解决方案. However, 我的许多医学预科和化学要求使我无法像我想的那样探索环境问题. 经过仔细的计划，我有策略地制定了一个四年的时间表，让我可以从自然科学中抽出一个学期的时间，全身心地投入到我的激情中. 当时，我并没有意识到我的项目中的环境主题对我的经历有多么重要. When one studies a subject like math or chemistry, 他们通常是在教室里学习一个普遍的知识体系——无论你在世界的哪个地方，这都是相对相似的. However, 环境问题因地理位置而异，了解它们的最佳方式是亲身体验. 我发现自己和14名学生和14名博士一起自驾前往喀拉哈里沙漠，通过旅程的每一段了解风景，并在魔鬼峰的底部为我的生态学课程进行研究项目. I have a deep understanding of the fynbos biome, protea distribution, and water crisis – concepts inherently South African in nature. 我的留学经历让我沉浸在了解我所居住的地方，从每一次必读到每一次课外远足，这让我建立了更广泛的联系，并对每一步都有了更深入的理解.
我在这座城市住了六个月，它的主要文化可以通过欣赏每一次日出和日落来定义. With the exception of Spring Break, I never left South Africa. 相反，我沉浸在一个地方，感觉就像家一样. 我们对当地所有的公园音乐会、市中心博物馆散步和抗议活动都了如指掌. 我关注了所有的UCT表情包页面，并认同那些令人筋疲力尽的9周学期和椋鸟午餐窃贼的情绪. 每天早上我都和坐在我旁边的学生一起骑杰米去学校. 我养成了习惯，习惯了每天五点半进行体育训练, Effective Altruism philosophical discussion and tea every Wednesday afternoon, and Marine Explorers surf lesson outreach every Friday. It was like the first semester of Pomona all over again, learning the systems and social constructs of a university community. This time it was one with 27,000 students and 300-person lectures instead of 1,600 people and 9-person ID1’s. 不要成为那种在这种短暂的经历中找到“家”和“自我”的俗气留学生, 但我极力想把注意力集中在现在，一想到不回莫布雷那间角落里的小房间就觉得不对. In choosing a location as isolated and remote as Cape Town, I chose a single place rather than a continent; I chose a city and community to call home.
Yet, 尽管我在以户外活动为主的悠闲的开普敦社区找到了即时的舒适, 我寻求在开普敦学习的主要原因之一是它将迫使我面对的不适应. My life in a relatively wealthy and suburban 100,拥有5000人的城市和精英学府皇冠体育学院(Pomona College)让我对财富和特权的概念产生了扭曲的看法. 我确实意识到并感激我有多幸运，但很难理解其中的重力. 我用一些小事来证明我的经济良知，比如外出吃饭时从不买饮料，或者旅行时选择露营和旅馆而不是酒店. It’s alarmingly easy to convince oneself that these are responsible and careful habits, to overlook that traveling and eating out are in themselves privileges. 超过一半的非洲人每天的生活费还不到2美元，而我却因为没有喝3美元的酒而暗自庆幸.50 Starbucks cappuccinos. Walking down Main Road one encounters dozens of resident beggars, traditional healers in their burlap sacks selling remedies for under a dollar, and fruit-stands with owners who trekked miles that morning to be able to bring you two avocados for a dollar; things that don’t happen on the neighborhood streets of South Hill or in the manicured village of Claremont. I came to Cape Town to confront this world outside my Westernized bubble, 这是一个庇护所，它使我能够轻松地适应街道的白色分界线和社区的尖桩栅栏.
我的留学经历反映了我作为一个学者和一个人的个性，从第一次决定地点到说最后的再见，再一次意识到我将与我认识的每个人都相隔数百英里. I didn’t meet up with all my best friends in foreign cities on weekends, but as a result I made best friends where I was at. While my friends were harshly welcomed with frigid winter weather, 从一开始，我就一头扎进了这个热带夏日天堂，看着白天慢慢地变得越来越短. 而那些在东欧的人发现，他们要面对语言障碍和奇怪的文化习俗, to my surprise, I found myself fitting in seamlessly with the laid-back Capetonian vibe. University of Cape Town was honestly much harder than expected. 他们的评分系统很差劲据说有三分之一的新生不及格, I’ve never stressed about my marks so much in my life. As a hard-science student immersed in humanities programs, I’ve also never written so much in my life. This was one of the most unexpected learning outcomes of Cape Town: how to write. I wrote more than I ever have in my academic career and I’m proud of what I produced. I not only rose to the occasion, but I continued to pursue it in my free time. I was able to record my reflections, realizations, adventures, and above all my happiness through my blog. 我在开普敦度过的那个学期，生活和学业都让我筋疲力尽, 但在整个过程中，我发现自己对自己所处的位置以及它如何塑造了我感到非常高兴. I couldn’t be happier with my decision to study abroad in South Africa.