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!