"This is Africa."

Registering for classes at UCT is by far the most stressful part about studying abroad. Before coming here, students from my school had warned me that the registration process is a headache, and now I know that they were right.

Registration begins with the pre-approval process. For most courses, with the exception of 1000-level courses and those in the history and sociology departments, a student must retrieve a pre-approval form, then go to each department where he or she wants to take a class, talk to the department head and have that person sign off on the class.

Being a study abroad student who is not yet familiar with the campus and generally how things work at UCT, running around campus trying to find various departments and then waiting in a “queue” of students who are also trying to get forms signed is quite tiring.

I happened to have a horrible experience during my pre-approval process when speaking to the head of the political studies department, who told me that UCT is not afraid to fail students, it happens often, I’ve only had a “dog’s breakfast” worth of experience in the subject matter, my GPA is inadequate, I’m not prepared for classes at UCT, and the physiology course I took first semester freshman year (and did not do very well in) is why Americans look stupid according to their transcripts. Despite all of this, she signed off and gave me approval to take the course.

 I would have liked to believe that I was the only one who had a bad experience, but every other American student I’ve talked to had a similarly traumatizing experience with the same woman in the political studies department. That was not a fun day.

Once receiving signatures for all classes, then there’s actual registration. (Note: online registration is what I am used to, but nothing about registration is online at UCT.) During the allotted time slot, I went to register, filled out a form, met with someone who then goes over my form with me to make sure I have the correct signatures. Then I walked to a different building for “data capture” where I gave my form to someone who then entered the information into the computer.

Although after the registration process is over, records and information relating to classes is online, to add or drop a course is the same system of retrieving a form, getting a signature and then submitting the form to a particular department.

When talking about or asking why the registration process is not online since it would make everything easier, locals would often respond, “This is Africa.” Apparently inefficient, sometimes confusing ways of doing things are simply normal in Africa.

Side note: “Africa time” is the normal clock that people go by here. Africa time is synonymous with “late” and “if you run into a friend on your way somewhere, you are going to stop and chat with them for however long despite having to be some where by a certain time.”