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