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.