The University of Ghana-Legon is beautiful. There are lots of trees, flowers, shrubs, smiling faces and a decent amount of paved roads. The architecture is gorgeous and I love seeing the red-tiled roofs, white walls and archways. The campus is large and currently holds around 40,000 enrolled students. There are many dorm buildings, department buildings, and other special buildings that are strictly for innovation or international programs on campus. The only building that I know of that is off campus is the hospital/clinic for students studying medicine. After arriving in Accra in the morning on January 20th, I was first taken to the university to settle in and learn more about my new home for the next four months.
My past ten days in Ghana have been interesting. I immediately started orientation the next day after arrival, January 21st, and dove head first into learning about the university, Accra, Ghanaian culture, and anything else related to Ghana in some form. There are four university students called “U-Pals” who have helped us get more accustomed to campus. They’ve shown us the food stops, examination buildings, the sports area, and stores where we can buy fruits, vegetables, toiletries and other necessities. If I can expect anything from Ghana from the past ten days, it’s that I’m definitely going to have an interesting time.
The campus is so large that it almost feels like a small town. There are taxis and buses driving around, street vendors who come on campus to tell sachet water and biscuits, banks and Western Union, and salons and barbers. The map of the University that they gave us is sooo large and I’m still learning how to navigate around campus. However, most people are friendly and if I ask someone for directions they’ll gladly help or even walk with me to my destination. Since the campus is so large and has almost everything that one person could need, it’s not really necessary to leave campus for certain amenities. But, since I want to experience Accra and Ghana at large, I’m working on ways to find myself off campus.
I’m excited for this semester and this week is an exciting one. I start classes tomorrow and I’m looking forward to taking them. I know the some people have had problems with courses not existing that they registered for or the professor not showing up but I’m hoping any problems that I come across stay at a minimum. Tomorrow, I start my two linguistics courses and Twi language course. I’ve also registered for a history course about the economic history of West Africa from 1890-1960 and plan on taking a philosophy course relating to empiricism. I’m hoping that my courses will be as interesting as they sound!
There are a few other things coming up like my internship and adventures in finding a tailor and fabric shopping but I’ll be sure to post all about it once I get stable Wi-Fi.
Until next time (I haven’t started learning Twi yet!),
Su