Well I have been living here for three weeks. I like my housing pretty well so far. I have my own room, nice housemates and internet, which is pretty great because many of the student accommodations don't provide it or if they do it is not very reliable. Our house, like most all of the houses in the neighborhoods that used to be designated for whites, is heavily fortified with tall gates and electric fencing. I have to go through two gates to get to my front door. It is always hard to tell if all of this security is really necessary but it is a very prominent aspect of South African culture. You sometimes see houses with minimal security but they are the exception to the rule.
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| Gate outside of my door |
My room is fairly simple in set up but pretty damn spacious. It comes
with a bed, a desk & chair, TV, mirror, and large closet.
The kitchen is super cute also. It makes up the center of the house, literally. We don't have the best set up for any intense culinary work though. We have a little plug in stove top and frying pan, but lack an oven or much space to cook multiple things at once.
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| Sadly this is all we have for cooking. |
Our bathroom is also newly renovated. The shower is HUGE! and has a little bench/shelf built in it, which we mostly just use for storing our shower supplies. It has no mirror however which has been strange and makes putting makeup on a little bit hard because the lighting in our rooms is not great for it.
For the most part most of the houses are similar to this. Some of the other internationals live in houses that are more like family homes that have been renovated to have 8 or so rooms for each person and multiple bathrooms, which is surprisingly cozy and often where most of the socializing happens.
