I'm skipping out on orientation

So it's insanely windy today so walking back from UCT (about a fifteen minute hike down the mountain...yay) was fun.
There's a five rand store in Mowbray that sells all sorts of ridiculous things। Of course it's run by some kind-of-Asian family that doesn't speak English. Speaking of English, we had this really fun standardized test scheduled for today.

It's to gauge our English proficiency, but it's really just like the stupid questions on the reading portion of the SAT. SO STUPID. I finished in under an hour and when one of the proctors freaked out about a few people leaving (she wanted to make sure that we were COMPLETELY DONE) I just got pissed and walked out. They were doing a shitty administration of the test. Who gives pencils without erasers with a bubble sheet? *headdesk*

Anyway, todays orientation was boring and they just talked to us about safety and stuff. I doodled in order to stay awake.

(O.o I can feel wind and my windows are closed. Bad sign. *gets up to close curtains*)

Oh, so last night Snele, Smiley, and Natasha tried to persuade me to take tequila shots with them. It was really funny to watch them though. Snele looked to be in more pain that I usually am. Weird.
Anyway, I get the impression the drinking culture (while legal) is about the same here as in the states. At least in the universities.

I have not taken advantage of my age yet (except once to try a Long Island Iced Tea) but it's kind of weird being old enough to drink here.
We had a barbeque (called a braai) a couple days back and I was tired of socializing so I was just standing around watching everyone else (I swear, people watching is hilarious) when the head of the residence hall--I dunno what else to call him--started talking to me. I just remember he asked me if I wanted to try the beer (Castle tastes kinda like Nattie Light.....ugh) and then if I drink and go out. So strange. Oh, the rule here about alcohol is that you can't have it in glass containers. Because it's glass. Not a drug. I find it hilarious.
Oh, and the smoking age is 16. weird huh? Apparently South Africa has the third largest population of adult smokers in the world. Go figure. Makes me feel like I'm in a NC university after all.

I was walking back to the res after food and R5 store shopping with another CIEE kid just now and he (Ben) made a comment about how the area feels more African than others have. I mean, yeah, the Waterfront felt very upscale American, but African? Honestly, Mowbray feels almost exactly like if I had actually gone shopping or lived in downtown Raleigh (like where Enloe is). Right down to the black people. Go figure.

Oh, on the standardized test they had a place for filling in your race. Still had White, Black, Coloured, Indian, and Other. I checked "other".

At this rate I'll post again later tonight if I don't end up falling asleep. This internet coverage is shitty, so I apologize if I cut out on your during IM conversations. :( Not much I can do.

If you have a request about what you want to hear about, I'll be happy to write about it, I just need prompting.

And thank you for the responses! I miss you guys.