the start of the adventure

Anna and I left Grahamstown a week and a half ago a little teary but excited for our Great African Adventure. Our adventure began as most adventures do: hungover and running late. We had to leave very early in the morning to drive to Port Elizabeth with some friends for the cricket match - England vs. South Africa. I've gotten totally obsessed with the South African cricket team so I was so happy to finally go watch them play in person. The vibe at the game was great, with everybody dancing and chanting and waving South African flags. Cricket is a "gentleman's game," pretty slow-paced, but still exciting. (It's like a more exciting version of baseball - don't get me wrong, I like baseball.) It lasted most of the day and then we all went out at night. PE (Port Elizabeth) has much more exciting nightlife than Grahamstown. The first bar we went to we saw Wayne Parnell, one of the South African cricketers. I was very excited, because he's elevated to celebrity status in my mind. (I think I high-fived him on the dance floor... yeah, cool move, I know.) Little did I know that the next bar we went to we would see almost the entire English cricket team! It was one of those nights that you look back on and wonder with awe, 'Did that really happen?' Dancing on top of a table with Luke Wright, Stuart Broad, and James Anderson is pretty surreal. Despite my unwavering support for South Africa, I couldn't resist partying with the English. (You could compare it to partying with the Yankees and Red Sox.)

the crowd at the cricket

The next morning was another early morning as we got picked up by my friend Tanja to drive to Cape Town. We lucked out that we had a friend coming in this direction rather than having to take a bus. The drive was about ten hours and the bus would have been longer, less comfortable, and more expensive.

I've been in Cape Town for nine days, and I don't ever want to leave! I had a bit of a shock when I first got here and saw things that I haven't seen in six months - things like SUVs and shopping malls. When I was here two years ago, I claimed it as my favorite city in the whole world. Since then, I've traveled to many more places, and I can still say that Cape Town is my favorite city in the whole world. This time has been even better though, because instead of doing all the touristy things that we did last time, we feel like we are doing "real" Cape Town things. Our first night here, we were pretty tired so we thought we would go downstairs to the bar of our hostel for "one drink." Five minutes later, we find ourselves sitting at a table with a globe-trotting five-star chef and a Colombian-turned-South African ex-Israeli Defense Force soldier-turned-mercenary in places like Sierra Leone, the DRC, and Afghanistan. Now he's a journalist. That is what I love about traveling. I've met the most interesting people along my travels. The next day we met a group of English people - Paul, Simon, Wayne, and Jenny - and they quickly became our new best friends. With their thick Central London accents, they were very entertaining - especially Paul who is a walking stereotype. It'd be a hundred degrees outside and he'd be like, "Anyone fancy a cup of tea?" Our friend Jess was here in Cape Town at the same time so it was really nice to have a few more days with her. We explored the Waterfront, went to the beach at Camps Bay (the most BEAUTIFUL place I've ever seen, with perfect ocean, sand, and gorgeous mountains as a backdrop), and met her Capetonian friends.

with our Brits - Paul, Simon, Anna, me, Wayne, and Jess

Friday was the Final Draw for the World Cup next year. They made it into a street festival on Long Street, which just happens to be where we were staying. I can't even describe how amazing the day was. They cordoned off the street so it was only for pedestrians and set up a stage at one end of the street where bands performed all day long. Our hostel was in an amazing location where we could enjoy the party without having to be jostled around in the crowd below - which reached 50,000 people! Our location was so good, it was where a lot of the media set up. We shared a balcony with CNN and the BBC. We were also interviewed on a South African radio station. David Beckham and Charlize Theron were down the street drawing the teams. USA and England are in the same pool, so we got some competitive talk going with our Brits. Can't wait to see how that game turns out. We were amazed the next morning when we woke up and the entire street was cleaned up - you couldn't even tell that there had been a street party the day before! It was a good sign for South Africa's readiness to host the World Cup next year.

getting the street festival started

World Cup final draw festival

Our English friends have a rental car so we've done a lot of things that we never would have done on our own. One day we drove down the Cape peninsula to the Cape of Good Hope, stopping off in little beach towns along the way. It was a nice day and the historic lighthouse at the Cape of Good Hope has stunning views. We stopped in Simon's Town to see the penguins (yes, there are penguins in South Africa) and explored small towns outside of Cape Town a little bit.

penguins!

Paul, me, and Simon at the top of the Cape of Good Hope

We had a nice week or so with "our Brits" (as we came to call them), but they left today to go home. It was sad to say goodbye, especially after we became so close so fast. But we're glad we met them and we'll stay in touch. And who knows, maybe my travels will take me to London someday.

walking back down from the lighthouse at the top of the Cape of Good Hope

a rat, a parrot, and a turkey

second to last shift! waitresses: Candice, me, Vanessa

I have two days left in Grahamstown. I can't believe it. I got pretty sad during my last shift at work - the Rat has been like my second home here. I'm so lucky to have found a job at such a fun place. I can't imagine what my experience here would have been like without all the friends I made at work. Here's the little poem that is on the front page of the menus:

A rat and a parrot devoted their life
To finding the answer to peace without strife.
"There must be a formula, package or plan,"
Said the rat. "Surely God's a Newtonian, man?

When one thing occurs then it starts off another:

Our problems began when Cain murdered his brother.

That started the pattern, that set things in motion

With wars on continent, island and ocean.

If we can't avoid fate, the solution's distinct:

Eat, drink and be merry until we're extinct."

"Oh no!" squawked the parrot in swift protestation.
"I cannot believe in such predestination.
What happened to free will? To choice and decision?
The ideas of Newton I view with derision.

It's mankind not science that causes the fuss.

The reason for all our problems is us.

We're selfish, we're greedy, we never agree.

There's a whole lack of listening. Listen to me!
We all need to talk more, to swap views and chatter.

That's why this world is as mad as a hatter."

So the rat and the parrot, they started a pub
Where good conversation was as fine as the grub.

And wise Isaac Newton forgot the commotion
Caused by gravity, apples, and long laws of motion.

Good food and good talk does make troubles decrease:

That's the Rat and Parrot's new pathway to peace.

last shift! waitresses: Fundie, me, and Melody

That poem pretty much sums up the place. I'm really going to miss the Rat. It wasn't just a waitressing job - although I was grateful for the income - but also I made such good friends there. More often than not we would stay after work to hang out. I'll miss the place... but I'm excited to get out of Grahamstown and travel!

last shift! bartending with Anthea

a sign that hangs in the Rat

bartending at a "lock-in" after hours

We had Thanksgiving yesterday - Anna and I went to our friends Drew and Steph's apartment. There were four Americans, six South Africans, and one Malawian. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday so I was really glad to have other Americans who wanted to do it right. We spent the afternoon drawing hand turkeys like little kids do. It got a little competitive and the South Africans were much more artistically talented than us.

my turkey was a pilgrim

The meal was amazing - I was expecting none of the traditional foods, but somehow Drew and Steph found a turkey in the supermarket (right next to the "Turkduckens": a chicken inside of a duck inside of a turkey... figure that one out). We had mashed potatoes (or smashed potatoes, as they're called in the Fried household), stuffing, all the traditional food. We even had apple and pumpkin pies.

the table after about our 8th platefuls of food

Drew used to be in the Peace Corps in Kazakhstan and he added a Kazakh twist to the American holiday. In Kazakhstan, every time there is a big meal, someone starts the meal with a toast and by the end of the meal, everyone will have had to make one as well. Minor detail: every toast is accompanied by a brandy shot. What a great exchange of cultures. I think that should be a new Thanksgiving tradition. We tried to teach the South Africans the story of Thanksgiving, but the combination of brandy and historical inaccuracies led to some confusion. Basically, they got the nice version of how the Native Americans and the Pilgrims were friends and taught each other things like how to grow corn. But then they got the real version that involved the whole stealing their land and giving them smallpox thing. I think it was educational.

celebrating my wishbone victory

last month in g-town

I'm sorry that it's been awhile since my last post. I just have a really hard time trying to describe what it's like living here. But I'll try. This is my last month in Grahamstown. At the end of the month, Anna and I will start traveling. We have some plans, but we're trying not to finalize them too much... in my experience, traveling is much more fun when there's some spontaneity and room for adjustment.

As much as I'm itching to start being a nomad, I'm going to miss Grahamstown. It is such a unique place, different even from the rest of South Africa. For one thing, the weather here is absurd. They say that you can experience all four seasons in one day in Grahamstown, and it's true. The rest of the country might be experiencing a heat wave or a cold front, but we can have both in one day. We'll also occasionally get a violent torrential downpour for about twenty minutes, and then the sun will be out again. It's really strange.

For another thing, Grahamstown is very rural. I forget that I'm in the middle of nowhere when I'm walking around town until I see a traffic jam caused by a donkey cart or a tractor moving too slowly. I've gotten used to seeing donkeys roam around town and my digsmates and I even joke about bringing one home as a pet. (We're only half joking about it.)

Grahamstown is also much bigger than I thought it was. I like to go exploring to see different parts of town. In tourist books, Grahamstown is often called "The City of Saints." I think that is in reference to the millions of churches in town, rather than the behavior of its students.

I'll definitely miss the student atmosphere of Grahamstown. I think it's been easier to transition from college to the real world by being surrounded by students. They complan about classes and exams and I think, 'you don't know how much you'll miss it, guys!' I think I've finally reached the point where I'm glad to be out of school and out in the real world. Right now, they're all in exam time, so they're studying a lot. Except they call it learning. As in, "Bye guys, I've got to go learn." I think that's one of my favorite South African-isms.

As for other language differences, I'm annoyingly picking some up in my own speech. I say "as well" a lot instead of "too," and I say it with a weird emphasis on the "as," like South Africans say it. I also find myself saying "tomahhto" instead of "tomato" to customers when I'm working. There's also this weird response, "Is it?" that I've picked up. It's kind of like saying "Really?" after someone says something. I also sometime make this weird Afrikaans exclamation "Jo!" There are also silly differences in phrases, like "You gave me a fright!" instead of "You scared me!" I can't help it, and most of the time I don't even notice when I say stuff like this. I can only hope that I drop these little differences in my speech before I come home and you all make fun of me!

As true as it is that I'm living in poverty, I really don't feel like I am. I'm living comfortably off of a waitress's salary, and I can't imagine that being possible in the States. For example, I spend the equivalent of about thirteen dollars a week on groceries. It's awesome. But I also realize how lucky I am to be able to support myself so easily, when so many people in the world can't.

I don't want to end on that depressing note, so I'll add one more thing: I love being able to go barefoot here! It's totally acceptable to go to the grocery store barefoot, or even out to a restaurant or bar. Definitely different from home!

pictures from fish

me, Anna, and Jess in front of the farm stall


me, Jess, Carmen, and Anna at the campsite


me and Anna on the river


Carmen, Anna, me, Jess, and Shelley

fish

I finally left Grahamstown for a weekend! It's a very small town to be in for four straight months, so it was nice to have some new surroundings for a few days. We went to Cradock, a town that is about a three hour drive into the interior of the country in a region called the Karoo. It was so different from a road trip in the States! Monkeys are the ubiquitous roadside animal, rather than squirrels. We even saw giraffes at one point! It doesn't matter how long I'm here, I still have those "Wow! I'm in Africa!" moments.

The Karoo is a very Afrikaans region - something I didn't know before I went. I'm used to seeing signs in both English and Afrikaans, and hearing it occasionally, but once we hit the Karoo it was so different! Afrikaans was so dominant! When we stopped at a farm stall on the side of the road, the proprietors greeted us in Afrikaans. In Cradock, we met people who didn't even speak English - only Afrikaans! Definitely a different world for me.

Every year Cradock hosts "Fish," a national 'canoe' race down the Great Fish River. (South Africans call them canoes, but they look like kayaks to me.) We camped at a campsite near the river and had such a good time! Friday was consumed by a neverending feeling of smugness after us four girls put up our tent very quickly and easily. Saturday was the big race and we all went down to the river to watch and cheer the kayakers on. We got a spot near the "wier" (man-made waterfall) and more often than not, people would fall out of their boats and we'd have to help them. The weather could not have been more perfect - we had sunshine all weekend long. It's finally turning into summer here and I'm loving it.

my house

my house

my street

race, race, race

Over the past few weeks I've definitely started to notice some of the bad aspects about South Africa. Well, not "notice," because I've always noticed them, but somehow having these things be a part of my daily life for so long has started to influence me. But I just try to remember to take a step back and look at everything as a whole. This sounds very generalized, so I'll try to make sense of it with some specifics. I hate the segregation and inequality in this country. Reading about South African history, I thought I grasped the concept of racial conflict here, but it is so much more complicated than I ever could have thought. Even studying here I didn't really grasp it, but I think I'm starting to now. It's not just blacks and whites. There are blacks, whites, coloureds (people of mixed race), Indians... even among whites there are Afrikaaners and then there are people of British descent. It's hard to wrap my head around, since I grew up in such a sheltered, different environment. When I first came here, I thought, 'wow, it's only been a little over a decade since apartheid, they've really made a lot of strides,' and that's what most people outside of South Africa think, because that's how it looks from the outside. But living here, living with South Africans, I've learned so much about racism. Racism isn't always blatant, it isn't always obvious, it isn't always white versus black. A lot of the time it manifests itself in a 'anyone-who-isn't-like-me' kind of way. Yes, there are bars in town that mostly white people go to, and other bars that mostly black people go to, but it's so much more than that. (I go to all of them.) I brought a black friend to a 'white' bar one night and she sat there uncomfortably and said, "Why am I here? I'm black." I looked around and she was the only black person in the whole place. I honestly don't know how to react when someone tells me something like "Indians don't tip," or calls someone who is taking a lot of pictures a 'Chinaman.' I always respond to things like that by saying, "Hey, that's not cool," or something equally as lame and ineffective, while my mind reels at the comment. But those are the blatant things. I don't know how to describe the other things. I think it has a lot - A LOT - to do with people's parents and how they were raised. It makes me really sad that I have friends who think and act like that. I have friends who are racist. I can't believe that I can say that. I have racist friends. Sometimes I think, would they be friends with me if I weren't white? Of course it's not everyone, and there are a lot of people who are open and friendly and love everybody. And those are the people I try to surround myself with. And I try to remember that this country and its history are so incredibly complicated that I can't even begin to understand the cultural dynamics after only living here for a few months.

how the world turns

So, I've been pretty bad keeping up with this blog thing. I've been working a lot, trying to save up. I'm having a great time with my friends - and making new friends from work - but I feel like I'm starting to get a little disillusioned with how the world works. For instance, all the beggars here. I used to always give them a couple coins. But there are SO many that it's impossible. If I gave to every beggar I encountered walking from work to my house, I'd have no paycheck left by the time I reached home. The worst is the street kids. They're so sad. But one time I gave this little eight year old boy my staff meal and the next day I saw him smoking a cigarette! It's turning me into a cynical person, when I used to be somewhat of an optimist. Also a lot of the time with the street kids, you give them money but their parents or someone just takes it all for themselves. (Think Slumdog Millionaire.) It's just hard to live my relatively care-free life when there is such desperate poverty surrounding me. At home, it's easy to forget stuff like this exists, but it's pretty hard to ignore when you walk past it twenty times a day. But what can I do? What kind of influence can one person really have?

a real grown-up

I paid rent for the first time ever! I feel like a real grown-up. Sort of. Maybe. A little. I don't think I've really wrapped my head around the fact that for the first time since I was five, I won't be going back to school in September. I got a job waitressing at another restaurant where I make a lot more money and I quit the other restaurant. This new place is called the Rat and Parrot but everyone just calls it the Rat. It's a bar as well as a restaurant and it's popular with the students. I like working there, except that it's 2 stories so I have to run up and down the stairs a lot! Anna, Aimee, and I got to see our friend Myrna a few weeks ago. She is from Holland and she was studying here with us when we were here studying abroad. She came back to visit Grahamstown since she was living in Cape Town for six months doing an internship. She's gone back to Holland now, but it was nice to see her again.

our last lunch with Myrna at the Rat - Anna, Aimee, Myrna, Me

It's interesting how we get our drinking water here. In the Western Cape, in places like Cape Town, the tap water is fine to drink, but here in the Eastern Cape it's not advisable to drink it. It's not horrible, but it's not great. So we drive a few minutes outside of town where there is a fresh spring! Anyone can go and fill up. And the water tastes so much better. A very stereotypical 'African' experience, I'd say. We also have to pause the washing machine if someone's doing laundry and we want to take a shower or use the sink. Makes you appreciate the bountiful water supply in the States, doesn't it?

getting water

Also, doing laundry is a bit of a mission because they don't have dryers here, only washers. We hang all our clothes out on a line with clothespins. It makes me feel very domestic, like a housewife from the 1940s or something. Waiting a day for clothes to dry is definitely testing my patience, but I'm getting used to it. Also being dependent on the weather - we can't do laundry if it's raining. Definitely a whole new way of life over here.

updates

Okay so some news quickly. I'm finally moved in to my digs! Anna and I are sharing Chloe's old room. It's nice to finally unpack; I've been living out of a bag for two months. The past two weeks have been pretty uneventful. I've been working a lot. Grahamstown got totally empty after Fest ended. It was such a ghost town. All the students are back now because the semester starts tomorrow, so the town is starting to come alive again. Carmen's parents and grandparents drove her back yesterday and it was fun meeting them. I'm finally not sick anymore, so that's good. I went to see the new Harry Potter movie - for some reason it's the only movie that comes out at the same time as home. Kind of funny that the previews were for movies that came out months ago at home. Going to the movies here costs about the equivalent of five hours of working, so it was a one-time thing. I reactivated my Peace Corps application for next year and should hear next week where I'm going! It will still be somewhere in Africa but I'm not sure where yet. Chloe is from Zimbabwe and she went home and got in a bad car accident last week! She broke her pelvis and some ribs and has to stay in the hospital for two weeks. She's okay though. Also in the bad news department, an American student studying abroad here got stabbed the other night. He's only been in the country for a week. Apparently he was trying to break up a fight between two street kids. Pretty dumb move. I feel bad because Anna and I met all the Americans who are studying here this semester and offered them our wisdom, guidance, call it what you will... and now one of them goes and gets stabbed. Granted, our guidance usually unfolds in desperate circumstances such as "Where can we buy food at one in the morning?" and "Are we allowed to drink a beer while walking down the street?" Very crucial things like that. I know, I'm very wise. But apparently the American kid is fine, he got slashed across the chest which wasn't serious but is in the hospital having surgery on his arm where he was stabbed pretty badly through the tendons. No idea if he's going to stay for the semester; I can't imagine that he would. Can you imagine if that had happened to me or one of the other Americans when I came here to study abroad two years ago? Within the first week? Don't worry though, I'm fine, I'm going to buy pepperspray. And generally stay out of fights that are none of my business that take place between dodgy characters.

photos

with anna

with chloe

with trevor and jess

with kristy and laura (fellow waitresses)

fest

Anna's here! Jean-Michel and I drove to Port Elizabeth (an hour and a half away) to pick her up from the airport last week. It's awesome to have her here, even though I saw her all the time at home since she lives near Boston. It's fun to have another American here to understand all the cultural differences. Every year in July Grahamstown hosts the National Arts Festival, aka Fest, which is so crazy. This year it's from the 2nd until the 11th, so we're halfway through. Apparently it's the second biggest arts festival in the world (after Edinburgh). I can't believe how much different Grahamstown is during Fest. It has transformed from a sleepy little college town into a bustling place. People come here from all over the country and the world for Fest. There are tons of plays, dance shows, comedians, concerts, even a hypnotist, and all the sports fields have been converted into open-air markets with people selling everything you can imagine - clothes, crafts, you name it. And every inch of the sidewalks has been taken up by vendors. Unfortunately I'm not enjoying it as much as I should because I'm working so much... every other day it's seven in the morning until noon, then a few hours off, then back at five until midnight, and the other days I just work in the afternoon. It's rough, but I'm glad to be making money. The restaurant is the busiest it's ever been. I've been sick as well - just a cough and general fatigue from this hectic work schedule. And I can barely walk, I think I have stress fractures in my feet. Vince, Tamsin, and Kirsten came for the weekend and brought friends from home, so our house was full again. Now it's back to just me, Kirsten, and Jean-Michel. Fabi is originally from Venezuela - her family moved to Cape Town a few years ago - so she went back to Venezuela for break and caught the swine flu! She was quarantined for a few days and now she's better, but yikes! That's scary. We have a spider who lives in our shower and usually when I go to take a shower I'm a total girl and call Vince or Jean-Michel to move it for me, but the other day I was very proud of myself; no one else was home and I took care of it all by myself. 'Taking care of it' meant trying to drown it while squealing with disgust, failing miserably and only half-drowning it, so it was just pissed off, but hey, at least I tried. And it hasn't returned, so ha! Score Fried: 1, Spider: 0. This post sounds like I'm miserable and complaining a lot, but really, I'm absolutely loving life. Many times I've been walking down the street and I look up and see the hills in the distance and I'm like, hey! I'm in Africa! I never stop smiling. And the waitresses I work with are all so awesome. When I came here I was expecting to just hang out with my old friends, but it's great making so many new friends too. I love picking up their lingo and not even realizing it - words like "bru" and "shame" and "keen." And they love poking fun at my American accent and the fact that I drink beer (apparently no girls drink beer here and the fact that I do makes me cool).

another amazing sunset

vac

Anna gets here tomorrow! She is one of the other Americans who studied with me here two years ago. Most of my digsmates have finished exams and gone home for vac. (It's their winter break now.) They'll be back in late July. Jean-Michel and I are the only ones left in the house, at least until Anna gets here. A lot of my other friends are staying here over vac though, so I still have plenty of friends around. I'm still trying to adapt to South African life - like finding spiders around the house (huge but harmless), not going to the doctor for anything less than a severed limb (I thought I had pink eye the other day, but it was just my contacts irritating me), and getting used to power outages. (Seriously, try waitressing with no power. Kind of difficult.) I've even stopped converting everything into dollars. I'm definitely appreciating things more - things like electricity, the internet (they have quotas here), and people in the service industry. I can't believe I've already been here almost a whole month. Time sure is flying by.

the sunsets here are beautiful!

safety issues

Ah, another long weekend full of work. Yesterday was K-Day, which is a big rugby match between the two private high schools in Grahamstown. A lot of alumni of the schools come in to town for the weekend from all over the country. Which translates to lots of obnoxious white kids and their equally obnoxious parents in the restaurant. I really hope I wasn't that obnoxious when I was 14 and 15. Other than that, I'm really enjoying work. The other waitresses are great to work with and the women in the kitchen treat me like a daughter. One woman, Pinks, always greets me with, "Hello my baby!" They feed me really well too. I've moved into Kate's room at her digs since she finished exams early and went home to Durban. It's a little bit farther away from work than Carmen's place - a 25 minute walk as opposed to a 10 minute one - but that's okay. I love everyone who lives here. It's also in a safer neighborhood. It's strange how everyone here is used to the idea of break-ins. When I first got here I noticed that all my friends lock their bedroom doors when they go to sleep. I asked Carmen, "What if there's a fire?" And she looked at me like I was stupid and said, "Uh, then I unlock it, duh." I didn't realize that the bigger and more real threat is a break-in. Everyone I know has been broken into at least once. The only part that scares me is that it's such an accepted fact of life. How is a break-in not that big of a deal? The other night when I was at Carmen's we all woke up around 5:30 in the morning because we heard someone climbing over the gate into our backyard. He couldn't get into the house, so he left, but we called our security company and they came to take a look anyway. The next day our friend Xanthe who lives a few houses down the road told us her house got broken into around 6. Presumably the same guy. But at her house he got inside. She is crazy - she started cursing at him and even got a few good kicks in and he just grabbed her cell phone and ran off. She was pretty shaken up, but she's really tough. So now I realize, hey, I'd better start locking my door at night. I don't mean to worry anybody - I can imagine Mom and Dad freaking out as they read this. Don't worry! I'm fine! Here they have a saying, "TIA." ("This Is Africa.") I'm just accepting it as one aspect of life here - this life that I am loving. I'll take the bad with the good.

things i love about this country

My friends are slowly but surely getting through their exams. They hate me because I'm having such a great time. I am lovin' life! Especially now that I got all my finances sorted out. I worked so much this weekend - Friday night, all day Saturday, and all day Sunday. I'm already training other waitresses. I think I have officially fared better than Jeremy with his disastrous waiting attempts in Spain. Granted, I could never do it in a second language. I'm thinking I need to list some of the things that I love about this country.

Things I Love About South Africa:
1. How everyone is so politically aware, not just about their own country but about others as well. How many Americans can discuss the political situation in any other country, let alone South Africa or Zimbabwe?
2. How they drive like absolute maniacs. Stop signs are mere suggestions. And I have to remember to look the other way when crossing the road since they drive on the other side.
3. The obsession with Denzel Washington. Why are all of his movies always on TV?
4. The sports - rugby and cricket are so fun.
5. The slow pace of life.
6. How people here hear my story and respond with, "Oh wow. So you just came back to South Africa? Just like that? That's so great!" (As opposed to people at home: "What do you mean you're going back? Why?!? What are you going to do there?")
7. The accents and the vocabulary. And how I have no problem understanding them. (When I was here studying abroad, it took me about a month and a half to understand some people, like Carmen and Kate, who talk super fast. I did a lot of smiling and nodding.)
8. The complicated race relations that are so much more in-your-face than in the U.S. I can walk into the computer lab or the grocery store or the bank and be the only white person in the room.
9. The way everyone just hangs out outside on the streets. It rained yesterday and the town seemed so empty!
10. The way everyone complains about the cold. It's winter and it's 60 degrees.
11. How there is a countdown to the World Cup on the news every night.
12. How much tea they drink. And how if someone gets up to make a cup of tea for themselves, they ask if anyone else wants any. And then they proceed to fix everybody cups of tea.
13. Hearing unfamiliar languages. And having people look at me like I'm an alien when I say something in Spanish.

That's all I can think of right now. Really, the list goes on and on. I absolutely love it here. I could not be any happier with my decision to come back!

money woes and cricket passion

Well, this is fun. ATMs here don't seem to want to let me access my money. Awesome. I'm literally living a hand-to-mouth existence. Well, my friends are feeding me. So it's not as bad as it sounds. I'm just glad I'm working a lot this weekend, since trying to sort this bank stuff out is taking so long. I'm staying at Carmen's for a while, which is my future home. She lives with Jess, Danielle, Chloe, and Jan. I'm taking Chloe's spot when she leaves in July to go study abroad in England. I absolutely love the house and all the girls! In case you didn't guess, I'm putting off the trip to Mozambique since I got a job. Jess and I were thinking about going in July during their school break, especially since it'll be cold here. Right now I'm pretty much just loving life. It's the weirdest feeling to not have any schoolwork to do. My friends are complaining about studying for exams. I keep telling them they'll miss that student stress one day soon! I've gotten really into cricket lately. Seriously. It's so fun to watch. (Way better than baseball - sorry, Mom.) It doesn't hurt that the South African team is really good. They're in a tournament in England right now and they're totally dominating. Jess and Dan laugh at me because about an hour after they teach me the basic rules, I'm already commenting on the game... Things like, "We've broken a hundred already and we're only in the eleventh over," and "Albie's a great fielder tonight," and "64 to win with 67 balls, we totally got this." You know it's bad when I'm calling the players "my boys," like Mom does with the Red Sox.

employed!

I got a job! I'm a waitress at a restaurant called 137 High St. Dad, Denise, and I actually ate there with my advisor when they visited. I had my first shift last night - a training shift, so I didn't get paid wages, but I got tips. Respectable tipping here is 10% so it's a bit different than home, but I'll take anything at this point. This really nice girl named Sam trained me - she is in her last year at Rhodes. My usual shift will be Friday nights, which is nice because it's usually the busiest night and I'll make more money!! And starting in July I can pick up more shifts. I've got to say, I'm much better at waiting tables than Jeremy already - one lady hugged me when she left and said that I was "the nicest girl ever." (She had had a little wine.) The only problem I'm having is the stupid complicated cappuccino machine - why are there so many different versions of freakin' coffee?? Cappuccino, mochaccino, machiato, cafe latte, and on and on and on... I have no clue how to make most of them. And South Africans really like their coffee, so they order it all the time. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it soon.

Some cultural differences I never knew/forgot about:
1) I walk way too fast.
2) Cream soda here is an unnatural color green... but it tastes pretty much the same.
3) Ketchup is called "tomato sauce" ("tomahhhto sauce").
4) "Just now" means "later," and "now now" means "now(ish)/soon." So when someone says "See you just now," they may be walking out the door, and are saying that they will see you later.
5) Buying electricity: You go to a stand at the grocery store. You give them your address. You pay however much you want. They give you a receipt with a number on it. You go home and punch that number into a keypad on your circuit breaker. It's pay-as-you-go electricity!

getting into the swing of things

I'm staying at Kate's for a few days. She lives with Tamsin, Kirsten, Vince, and another guy I never met before: Jean-Michel. It's so weird that everyone lives in digs now (aka off-campus apartments) rather than res (aka dorms). And they drive everywhere! Very different from the last time I was here. Everyone's studying for exams, so I'm thinking of taking off to Mozambique for a week or two until they're done. Why not? I've always wanted to go there. And it's way warmer there right now so it'll be nice. I'm trying to be very thrifty so this is going to be a very low-budget trip, but I think it'll be fun. My friends are saying how awesome it is that I can just pick up and go somewhere on my own... I'm like, why not? I'll make friends, chill on the beach, have a jol (good time). As you can see, I'm quickly reverting back to South African lingo. I keep saying things like "hectic" and "bru." I'm so happy to be back here in Grahamstown but it's kind of rough being homeless... I can't move in to my digs until Chloe leaves after exams (July). Mozambique will be fun! I'll come back to G-town before Anna gets here on the 28th.

arrival

I'm here! I can't believe it. It really didn't hit me that I was going back to South Africa until my bus pulled into Grahamstown. I literally started crying when I saw the familiar landmarks: Checkers, Mr. Price, Red Cafe, the arch. My first night, Carmen, Danielle, Chloe, and Jess came to meet me at the gaol. We went to Pirates and Kate, Tamsin, and Teri met us there. I can't even describe the reunions. Pretty emotional. I'm so happy to be back.