Yes, I do still attend classes here

Classes …Well for starters I am taking four, African Literature, African Pop Music, Psychology of Religion, and Costume& Make-up. It was a very frustrating process of signing up for classes. There are many restrictions when it comes to choosing to a class. First off in order to classify what year you are in, it goes by level. So instead of Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior, it is level 100, 200, 300 and 400. You are only allowed to pick classes in your level. Also there are certain categories such as Grouping #1: Math, Sociology, French and Linguistics that you can only chose one subject to pick classes out of, you can’t cross courses. So I couldn’t pick a math course and a French course but I could pick two math courses out of. All of the restrictions are set up to make examination period run smoothly with no overlapping examination times. It is very complicated but needless to say I have all my courses settled and got almost all of the ones I wanted.

When you finally decide by looking through the course book on which course you would like to take you have to individually go to each department on campus and check to see the times it is scheduled. The first week and half it would be a toss-up whether or not a time-sheets are up that tell when your classes would be during the week. So when you finally figure out if the classes that you want will work and that they don’t overlap

It took about 2 weeks for classes to actually start compared to their planned start date. Things here in Ghana move quite differently… we like to call it “Ghanaian time.” I think considering I am always kind of late myself that I am fitting in just fine!

All classes are taught in English however some of the heavy African accents are hard to understand. The professors never show up on time and are normally a half hour late. There are about 200 students in my largest class and 20 in my smallest. Obviously, I am a minority in the classroom but all the students are very welcoming and friendly. There are about 10 white students in my class of 200 students and about 1-4 white students in my other classes. I thought maybe because I was a foreigner I wouldn’t get called on often but that is definitely not the case. I have been called on numerous times sometimes I think it’s BECAUSE I am foreign.
Also, I have yet to catch on to Ghanaian humor. Sometimes the professor will say something and I will completely understand and the whole class will burst a gut laughing and I didn’t think it was funny at all. Sometimes I try to laugh along anyways until the one time the professor said… “You know what’s a good thing about foreigners?” “They will laugh at joke even when they don’t understand.” …. so maybe with time, ill get the humor. hahaha

My favorite class is African Pop Music. We have a British professor, John Collins, that I would assume is in his late 40s and is soooo full of life. The purpose of the class is to learn about how music came to be in different parts of Africa. Some of the music is really ancient and he brings in samples of the music. It’s like going back in time listening to these ancestors chant and sing their songs. Everything he teaches is full of rich history and not the boring stuff either … It is the really exciting stuff of why things are the way they are.

My other classes are nice. They definitely don’t have the work load that I do when I am back home. You take notes when the professor is lecturing. Sometimes the professor will read what feels like a page or two of a quote that you will have to write down that address some point/topic in class. These classes are very lecture based and not very interactive or discussion-based.

As for homework, I haven’t gotten much until this week. I have two 4-page papers I have to write and a bunch of reading to do. It is hard to get books here so instead you have to pay 3-8 cedi a week for class readings that have been photocopied.
Right now I think I am going to use to rest of my Sunday and relax, only 3 days until my boyfriend Matt comes and visits and we go off on our own adventures!! I can’t wait!! 
~Stacie~