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