As you may or may not have realized Me Day Eve was a Tuesday. This means that my after-work-time involves ballroom dancing (or my new Afrikaans word of the day: langarm) followed, of course, by trivia.
Since I’m an idiot, I thought dance started an hour before it actually did, so I walked all the way across campus and had to kill an hour. I went to the library and decided to read a couple chapters of Long Walk to Freedom and came to the conclusion that Nelson Mandela is a really good writer and, despite the length of his autobiography, I think I could finish it relatively quickly...at least faster than As I Lay Dying (not that that’s saying much)
When I get to the building my dance lesson is in, the first thing I think is “wow they’re playing the music really loudly”. I go upstairs to the room and there’s a note on the door saying the lesson has been moved downstairs. That’s downstairs in the middle of the cafeteria. At 6 o’clock. In the middle of the cafeteria! Now, normally, I have few qualms about dancing in front of large crowds of people...we all remember the sokkie incident of 2009. The thing with this particular dance class is that, not unlike any dance class, there are more girls than boys. The instructor’s solution to this very common problem is not to have some of the girls do the boy parts, but to make the girls without partners dance behind a girl already dancing with a guy. That is, the girl who was already rejected by all the boys to the point where she is forced to dance alone (i.e. me), is also forced to creepily hover behind some poor couple in the hopes that eventually the guy will notice and pity dance with her. This isn’t so horrible in a classroom setting where everyone realizes that I’m doing what I’ve been told to do and it’s not an act of pathetic desperation. However, the rest of the people in the cafeteria, sitting around attempting to enjoy their dinner while Mambo No. 5 plays on repeat and a mass of people in front of them awkwardly dance with each other, do not know this. That is why I left.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
And I mean lime
I went to the rugby game last night and witnessed the destruction of a young man’s future. This poor, unfortunate soul could barely stand let alone walk and was clothed in not but a Borat-style, lime green “swimsuit”. If my parents are reading this and don’t know what that is...please, for your own sake, don’t Google it. I’m sure if this kid had been a little more lucid he would have been very embarrassed. It didn’t help the situation when people started taking pictures and the frat boys behind us started throwing empty beer cans at him. What started out as funny turned sad much too quickly. Other than that the game was pretty standard. Kurt Darren came out to sing a few sounds and the national anthem, and I came to the realization that he will be my future husband and serenade me to sleep with much too perky Afrikaans music every night and we’ll live happily ever after.
Oh and it was a close call, but we won the rugby game in the end. Meaning that we’ve won 100% of all Varsity Cups (ie. we’ve won the two they’ve had since it was created). Go Maties!
Oh and it was a close call, but we won the rugby game in the end. Meaning that we’ve won 100% of all Varsity Cups (ie. we’ve won the two they’ve had since it was created). Go Maties!
Sunday, March 29, 2009
The Cutest Thing Since Sliced Bread
On Friday I went out with some friends from trivia night, which was super fun (despite the fact that, apparently, they are all lawyers). I learned, to my intense delight that the pub we go to for trivia, isn’t the only pub in Stellies that has a trivia night. This means that I could potentially go answer random questions with strangers for 3 nights of the week!!! I honestly don’t think life could get much better than this (yes I do, if they had Tim Horton’s and I had friends to play Trivial Pursuit with in it) and I most certainly don’t know how I lived before this. I could legitimately move to SA for this reason alone.
As fun as Friday night was I had to be in bed by 10 (which ended up being closer to 11:30) to get my much needed somehow never successful beauty rest due to the fact that I had to get up at 6 Saturday morning. Yes, morning. Supervisor’s son and a friend were going diving for crayfish, so my officemate (OM) and I tagged along thinking we could chill on a sandy beach while they dove. However, getting to the specific diving spot they wanted required an hour long hike on a rocky beach (which was fantastic since I had initially wanted to go on a hike) and then sitting and waiting for them on more rocks. The latter was less fantastic. When we gave up and decided to lug all of their stuff to the sandy area so we could sit comfortably, all we received were complaints because now they’d have to rinse their equipment ‘cause it got all sandy. I know, how could we be so inconsiderate...I did have a lot of fun though :)
Saturday evening I participated in Earth Hour and I hope all of you did, too or we can’t be friends anymore. Then I spent a good three hours talking with OM’s boyfriend and best friend over skype and came to the following conclusion: Belgians are a wonderful people who like pigs and are almost as pretentious about their beer as Canadians.
Then today I spent cooking various things involving rice as outlined below in a sample menu:
Breakfast: vegetable fried rice
Lunch: tuna and rice casserole
Dinner: tomato and balsamic vinegar rice salad with leftover tuna and rice casserole
Tomorrow’s Breakfast: more vegetable fried rice
Tomorrow’s Lunch: still more tomato and balsamic vinegar rice salad
Tomorrow’s Dinner: I think you get the idea.
In between this rice cooking I spent the day lying on the grass drinking coffee and reading...aren’t I just the cutest thing since sliced bread. I finally finished As I Lay Dying, so yay!!!! Took me long enough...
As fun as Friday night was I had to be in bed by 10 (which ended up being closer to 11:30) to get my much needed somehow never successful beauty rest due to the fact that I had to get up at 6 Saturday morning. Yes, morning. Supervisor’s son and a friend were going diving for crayfish, so my officemate (OM) and I tagged along thinking we could chill on a sandy beach while they dove. However, getting to the specific diving spot they wanted required an hour long hike on a rocky beach (which was fantastic since I had initially wanted to go on a hike) and then sitting and waiting for them on more rocks. The latter was less fantastic. When we gave up and decided to lug all of their stuff to the sandy area so we could sit comfortably, all we received were complaints because now they’d have to rinse their equipment ‘cause it got all sandy. I know, how could we be so inconsiderate...I did have a lot of fun though :)
Saturday evening I participated in Earth Hour and I hope all of you did, too or we can’t be friends anymore. Then I spent a good three hours talking with OM’s boyfriend and best friend over skype and came to the following conclusion: Belgians are a wonderful people who like pigs and are almost as pretentious about their beer as Canadians.
Then today I spent cooking various things involving rice as outlined below in a sample menu:
Breakfast: vegetable fried rice
Lunch: tuna and rice casserole
Dinner: tomato and balsamic vinegar rice salad with leftover tuna and rice casserole
Tomorrow’s Breakfast: more vegetable fried rice
Tomorrow’s Lunch: still more tomato and balsamic vinegar rice salad
Tomorrow’s Dinner: I think you get the idea.
In between this rice cooking I spent the day lying on the grass drinking coffee and reading...aren’t I just the cutest thing since sliced bread. I finally finished As I Lay Dying, so yay!!!! Took me long enough...
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Sadness
I almost forgot to tell you. Someone stole my beaver at the IFE. Who goes around stealing people's cartoon beavers?!?! Horrible, horrible people that's who...saddest moment of my life...
International Food
I don’t know what feat of mathematics had me convinced that I needed 7 kilos of dry rice to make 200 100mL samples. Let me try a reenactment:
1 cup of dry rice makes 4 cups (1000mL) of cooked rice, so each cup of dry rice should feed 10 people 100mL samples. 200 people divided by the 10/cup of dry rice means I need 20 cups of dry rice or just under 7 kilos (3 cups to a kilo).
Now somebody please tell me where I went so horribly wrong that when I got home last night I had 5 pots of rice to contend with...
I had got off work later than I intended due to an unexpected work load 15min before I had planned to leave...unfortunate. So when I got home I had to run around borrowing pots and elements from people as I only had 1 of the former and 2 of the latter. I scrambled together 5 pots and my cooking partner had another two. The elements I borrowed, however, were scattered all around the building requiring me to run up and down floors checking on 5 different pots of rice in various rooms to prevent burning and boiling over, and occasionally running to the other building to check on how my cooking partner was doing. It got to the point where my fellow Canadian said to pick two more pots that were almost done and stop cooking the rest of them. This resulted in my apartment being covered in 5 pots of half cooked rice. To my extreme pleasure by the time I got home at 10, they had finished cooking them selves and I didn’t have to worry about throwing out 5 pots of half cooked rice!
My fellow Canadian had about as relaxing an evening as I did in his attempt to obtain and cook the fish. We decided that fresh fish was a necessity, so he had to drive out to get it, then de-scale, gut, and de-bone it. All of which is easier said than done if all you have is a little paring knife.
I would say we could’ve benefited from a little more planning, but the food was made and enjoyed. Now I just have to deal with all this rice...ideas?
1 cup of dry rice makes 4 cups (1000mL) of cooked rice, so each cup of dry rice should feed 10 people 100mL samples. 200 people divided by the 10/cup of dry rice means I need 20 cups of dry rice or just under 7 kilos (3 cups to a kilo).
Now somebody please tell me where I went so horribly wrong that when I got home last night I had 5 pots of rice to contend with...
I had got off work later than I intended due to an unexpected work load 15min before I had planned to leave...unfortunate. So when I got home I had to run around borrowing pots and elements from people as I only had 1 of the former and 2 of the latter. I scrambled together 5 pots and my cooking partner had another two. The elements I borrowed, however, were scattered all around the building requiring me to run up and down floors checking on 5 different pots of rice in various rooms to prevent burning and boiling over, and occasionally running to the other building to check on how my cooking partner was doing. It got to the point where my fellow Canadian said to pick two more pots that were almost done and stop cooking the rest of them. This resulted in my apartment being covered in 5 pots of half cooked rice. To my extreme pleasure by the time I got home at 10, they had finished cooking them selves and I didn’t have to worry about throwing out 5 pots of half cooked rice!
My fellow Canadian had about as relaxing an evening as I did in his attempt to obtain and cook the fish. We decided that fresh fish was a necessity, so he had to drive out to get it, then de-scale, gut, and de-bone it. All of which is easier said than done if all you have is a little paring knife.
I would say we could’ve benefited from a little more planning, but the food was made and enjoyed. Now I just have to deal with all this rice...ideas?
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Rice-matics
I went to the grocery store today to stock up on rice for the International Food Event, but I made the mistake of not calculating how much we would need before getting to the store. It didn’t help that for some reason doing math in my head was just not working out for me. So I ended up sitting on the floor of the grains aisle surrounded by all different kinds of rice counting on my fingers.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Missing Sockeye and Cheese Curds
This is much harder to update this blog now that I have, as the kids say, irl (or "in real life") friends and am less desperate for people to listen to me ;) But I’ll try to do better and I know you all still love me.
Now I know you have all been waiting with baited breath to find out if my team won the potijkos competition? I hate to break all your hearts, but unfortunately we did not. I’m just going to blame drunk fire fighters for that one. They kept taking the mini-hose on all the chefs thereby killing the fire and causing distraction due to extreme anger and frustration. It’s good to know the city is in safe hands, hey? Anyway, our potjikos was absolutely delicious. Although I like to think that was all my doing, I can barely take any credit for cooking as all I did was hold a spoon and chop mushrooms…on separate occasions (the mushrooms were cut with a knife). We made an asian, chicken noodle type deal. I see why South Africans like potjikos though…it’s the same reason they like braais. They take so long to cook and get the fire just right that you spend most of the time drinking wine and socializing…kind of the perfect meal.
My next excitement of life is the International Food Event. I was originally going to make poutine for this because, really what’s more Canadian than cheese curds with gravy over fries…I’m inclined to say nothing, but bannock probably is…Anyway a fellow Canadian shot down this idea because to make poutine we would have to use baked, frozen fries, from powder gravy and some non-descript white cheese thereby making it not real poutine. Besides that’s really a Central Canada dish and we’re both from the West coast. So after hours of debate we settled on salmon and wild rice, unfortunately we have to settle for local salmon…it’s a little hard to get sockeye around here…mmm sockeye.
Last night, in preparation for the IFE I had an arts and crafts night with myself. I’m not going to lie, that was the most fun I’ve had in a long time. I painted a flag and Doug Fir tree as well as making a little hippy beaver sidekick for us potentially named Mike from Canmore, but it’s still up for debate. I’ve never considered myself artistic, but the beaver turned out well…you can tell it’s a beaver and that’s really all I was going for. I even got together a bunch of Canadian music to showcase our country’s talent and came to the conclusion that most of what I listen to is Canadian. How patriotic am I?!? I’m just walking proof that the Canadian content law really works!
Finally, I came to the conclusion that all people should speak in their non-native languages by directly translating from their native tongue, that or without the use of verbs as both ways inflict the same level of hilarious confusion – This revelation brought to you by my new Belgian office mate.
Now I know you have all been waiting with baited breath to find out if my team won the potijkos competition? I hate to break all your hearts, but unfortunately we did not. I’m just going to blame drunk fire fighters for that one. They kept taking the mini-hose on all the chefs thereby killing the fire and causing distraction due to extreme anger and frustration. It’s good to know the city is in safe hands, hey? Anyway, our potjikos was absolutely delicious. Although I like to think that was all my doing, I can barely take any credit for cooking as all I did was hold a spoon and chop mushrooms…on separate occasions (the mushrooms were cut with a knife). We made an asian, chicken noodle type deal. I see why South Africans like potjikos though…it’s the same reason they like braais. They take so long to cook and get the fire just right that you spend most of the time drinking wine and socializing…kind of the perfect meal.
My next excitement of life is the International Food Event. I was originally going to make poutine for this because, really what’s more Canadian than cheese curds with gravy over fries…I’m inclined to say nothing, but bannock probably is…Anyway a fellow Canadian shot down this idea because to make poutine we would have to use baked, frozen fries, from powder gravy and some non-descript white cheese thereby making it not real poutine. Besides that’s really a Central Canada dish and we’re both from the West coast. So after hours of debate we settled on salmon and wild rice, unfortunately we have to settle for local salmon…it’s a little hard to get sockeye around here…mmm sockeye.
Last night, in preparation for the IFE I had an arts and crafts night with myself. I’m not going to lie, that was the most fun I’ve had in a long time. I painted a flag and Doug Fir tree as well as making a little hippy beaver sidekick for us potentially named Mike from Canmore, but it’s still up for debate. I’ve never considered myself artistic, but the beaver turned out well…you can tell it’s a beaver and that’s really all I was going for. I even got together a bunch of Canadian music to showcase our country’s talent and came to the conclusion that most of what I listen to is Canadian. How patriotic am I?!? I’m just walking proof that the Canadian content law really works!
Finally, I came to the conclusion that all people should speak in their non-native languages by directly translating from their native tongue, that or without the use of verbs as both ways inflict the same level of hilarious confusion – This revelation brought to you by my new Belgian office mate.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Leprechauns from the old country
Ahhh people wearing green and bonding over a common love of spending countless hours in a haze of blissful delirium.
Hmm It’s like a forestry party.
Hmm It’s like a forestry party.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
The Wilds of Life
I forgot to tell you about my trip to Cape Point on Sunday. Some of the people I met at the braai on Friday invited me to go with them to Cape Point. On the way there, they were asking what I wanted to see in SA while I’m here and what I’ve seen already. I haven’t seen much yet, but the two things I really want to do are A) see penguins, and B) hike Table Mountain. So we went to Boulder beach on the way there to see all the penguins. Penguins are the most wonderful creatures on Earth…except for the biting. They were chasing each other around and splashing in the water in acts of utter cuteness. I also learned that they lose a lot of penguins when it’s hot out because they don’t know enough to just go into the water when they’re hot. Proof that nature says you can’t be both cute and smart at the same time…
As fantastic as the penguins were, seeing a man get chased by a baboon was possibly better. See baboons are like the seagulls of SA…except there are seagulls here, too. But what I mean is that if they see food, they’re going for it. So, this one baboon was chilling on the roof of a car and a man walks past thinking to himself, “Neat! Wildlife!” because most tourists think in one word sentences (I say that as if I’m not one, but I was guilty of holding a camera myself). Unfortunately, for the man he was holding a delicious looking empty pop bottle, which the baboon went straight for. This caused the man great distress and he proceeded to run around with his pelvis out to ensure it remained as far from the baboon as flexibility permitted. Needless to say I was extra stealthy getting into the car with my full water bottle as there was a baboon sitting on the car next to ours.
In other news, I’m getting an office mate today. I’m so excited, I love potential new friends!
As fantastic as the penguins were, seeing a man get chased by a baboon was possibly better. See baboons are like the seagulls of SA…except there are seagulls here, too. But what I mean is that if they see food, they’re going for it. So, this one baboon was chilling on the roof of a car and a man walks past thinking to himself, “Neat! Wildlife!” because most tourists think in one word sentences (I say that as if I’m not one, but I was guilty of holding a camera myself). Unfortunately, for the man he was holding a delicious looking empty pop bottle, which the baboon went straight for. This caused the man great distress and he proceeded to run around with his pelvis out to ensure it remained as far from the baboon as flexibility permitted. Needless to say I was extra stealthy getting into the car with my full water bottle as there was a baboon sitting on the car next to ours.
In other news, I’m getting an office mate today. I’m so excited, I love potential new friends!
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Baby's First Braai
I got invited to my first braai, which is what the crazy people of this lovely country call a BBQ, on Friday, which was very exciting. I decided that I should combine my first braai evening with my first time eating ostrich, so it could be an exciting night of firsts. I go to the grocery store, my mind awash with the giddy excitement of 6 year old’s first day of school, to get ostrich. I bee line for the raw meat section and then the hunt begins. Beef. Lamb. Pork. Chicken. Ostrich? No luck. Finally I stop awkwardly wandering around and decide, in an unaccustomed moment of genius, to ask someone where the ostrich section is. After a confused look, she takes me to the “ostrich section”, which consists of one or two packages of ostrich hidden amongst chicken and various marinating meats. I pick up the package of ostrich and there are instructions on the back. Possibly the most intimidating instructions I’ve ever seen on a package of meat. Cook using olive oil. Make sure ostrich steak is 13.65 cm from the flame. Flip using tongs made of steel forged in the heavens. Needless to say I walked back over to the safety of beef. One can only take so many firsts.
After the braai, we went to club where I was told there would be sokkie or a sokkie or whatever is the grammatically correct way of saying sokkie was involved. Either way, it was the most fantastic thing I’ve ever experienced! There were boys…dancing. Not only were they dancing, but they were enjoying it. This wasn’t club dancing where you’re minding your own business one minute and getting assaulted from behind the next. This was the kind of dancing where you are held in a formal position and get spun around the room narrowly avoiding smacking into other people doing the same. In short, it was heaven. *sigh*
However, there was also normal dancing. At one point I’m dancing like a lunatic…as per usual, and this woman comes up to me and says something along the lines of “I like your dancing, but since you can’t actually hear me…” *thumbs up* I smile, nod and say thank you. Thinking this is the end of the conversation I turn to leave, but she grabs my arm and says something else. “I’m sorry, I must have misheard you.” Nope. Can I spin on my head?!?! Whatever “dancing” I was doing before was a far cry from spinning on my head let alone any type of break dancing. The next question, actually posed as more of an order, can I do the splits. Ha! Unfortunately not, but she doesn’t seem to believe me. Now, I’m not going to lie, if I could do the splits I would work it into every conversation I had just so I could show off my skillz. We back and forth for a while about my lack of talent and her lack of understanding of this, until finally I just give in and show her my inability to do the splits. Bad idea…
After the braai, we went to club where I was told there would be sokkie or a sokkie or whatever is the grammatically correct way of saying sokkie was involved. Either way, it was the most fantastic thing I’ve ever experienced! There were boys…dancing. Not only were they dancing, but they were enjoying it. This wasn’t club dancing where you’re minding your own business one minute and getting assaulted from behind the next. This was the kind of dancing where you are held in a formal position and get spun around the room narrowly avoiding smacking into other people doing the same. In short, it was heaven. *sigh*
However, there was also normal dancing. At one point I’m dancing like a lunatic…as per usual, and this woman comes up to me and says something along the lines of “I like your dancing, but since you can’t actually hear me…” *thumbs up* I smile, nod and say thank you. Thinking this is the end of the conversation I turn to leave, but she grabs my arm and says something else. “I’m sorry, I must have misheard you.” Nope. Can I spin on my head?!?! Whatever “dancing” I was doing before was a far cry from spinning on my head let alone any type of break dancing. The next question, actually posed as more of an order, can I do the splits. Ha! Unfortunately not, but she doesn’t seem to believe me. Now, I’m not going to lie, if I could do the splits I would work it into every conversation I had just so I could show off my skillz. We back and forth for a while about my lack of talent and her lack of understanding of this, until finally I just give in and show her my inability to do the splits. Bad idea…
Friday, March 13, 2009
Sometimes
I like to make Canadian bird calls to the South African birds to see if they're confused...I think it works
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Pretty Kitty
I woke up this morning opened my window and there was this cat staring at me. “Awww,” you say, “how precious” And you’d be right. This was an adorable, kitty except for the massive bone hanging out of its mouth. Ok, I get that cats are carnivores, but this was no mouse or even a rat bone. It was, at the very least, the bone of a small child.
But what is the question?
In an attempt to meet people here, I’ve decided to join some clubs and maybe take some sort of…class. So I looked on the school website for what clubs they had and found out they had, among others, a dance society. I emailed this dance society along with a bunch of other clubs saying something along the lines of
“Hi! I’m Canadian. What do you do and how do I do it too?”
I got a reply back from the dance society (and the other clubs too, but we’re focusing here, people!) with the basics on how to join. Then I realized that I had a bunch more questions, so I kept emailing this guy back and forth. I really don’t know how he put up with me, but now I’m really excited to meet him. I’m not going to lie…a big part of that excitement is that he got my Hitchhiker’s Guide reference. But really now, it takes a special person (I know, I tested this by making the same reference to a bunch of people and receiving only confused looks in return). Yay for potential new friends!
“Hi! I’m Canadian. What do you do and how do I do it too?”
I got a reply back from the dance society (and the other clubs too, but we’re focusing here, people!) with the basics on how to join. Then I realized that I had a bunch more questions, so I kept emailing this guy back and forth. I really don’t know how he put up with me, but now I’m really excited to meet him. I’m not going to lie…a big part of that excitement is that he got my Hitchhiker’s Guide reference. But really now, it takes a special person (I know, I tested this by making the same reference to a bunch of people and receiving only confused looks in return). Yay for potential new friends!
Monday, March 9, 2009
More burning
Sunday March 8, 2009
Is it just me or is it bad when you can see a forest fire from your bedroom window? I don't think I've ever been this close to a burning forest. I was having dinner saturday night and I glance up from old episodes of Degrassi High to see a red glow from behind the mountain, "oh dear" I think to myself, "how unfortunate." Halfway through episode 2 I glance out my window again to see the flames peering over one side of the mountain. To put this into perspective Degrassi High episodes are 22min long without commercial breaks, so that fire is moving really freakin' fast. Anyway today, the entire upper ridge of the mountain is in flames. Now this is a small mountain by Vancouver standards, but it's big enough that I don't giggle when I say mountain. If I was able to get my pictures from my camera to my computer I would show you just how massive this fire is. I'll tell you one thing, I would not want to be one of the brave people fighting that fire tonight.
Side note: I feel like my feet are constantly dirty. I think it's the linoleum. I've never missed carpets' uncanny ability to lock in dirt more than I do now.
Is it just me or is it bad when you can see a forest fire from your bedroom window? I don't think I've ever been this close to a burning forest. I was having dinner saturday night and I glance up from old episodes of Degrassi High to see a red glow from behind the mountain, "oh dear" I think to myself, "how unfortunate." Halfway through episode 2 I glance out my window again to see the flames peering over one side of the mountain. To put this into perspective Degrassi High episodes are 22min long without commercial breaks, so that fire is moving really freakin' fast. Anyway today, the entire upper ridge of the mountain is in flames. Now this is a small mountain by Vancouver standards, but it's big enough that I don't giggle when I say mountain. If I was able to get my pictures from my camera to my computer I would show you just how massive this fire is. I'll tell you one thing, I would not want to be one of the brave people fighting that fire tonight.
Side note: I feel like my feet are constantly dirty. I think it's the linoleum. I've never missed carpets' uncanny ability to lock in dirt more than I do now.
Friday, March 6, 2009
PROTEIN!
Something struck me today. I was working, editing a forestry handbook, and I noticed something very different from forestry in Canada. When they go into the human labourer aspect of forestry, it’s not just making sure your employees are comfortable and trees don't fall on them. It's make sure they don't get HIV/AIDS. I mean obviously, I knew AIDS was an issue here before I came, but it didn't occur to me just how much it affects people's everyday lives. Especially to the extent that you would have to worry about something that huge, as well as all the normal hazards, while you were at work.
I think the reality of all of this hasn't sunk in yet 'cause I'm not in real Africa...I'm in tourist destination Africa.
On a happier note, some relatives of mine from England are coming to visit! Small world, hey? They’re coming to do this million km cycling race that everyone I talk to seems to be doing. It was 41 degrees today, so I’ll be impressed if they get half way through it without collapsing. Some people are just crazy and I’ll never understand it. In actuality it sounds really cool. My supervisor and his son are doing it, too. I went with them to the registration place yesterday. There were all these booths set up selling cycling gear, vineyard tours and protein bars. There was this one protein bar about the size of a smaller end chocolate bar, maybe a bit smaller than a Mars bar, which these people were trying to claim constituted a meal due to the 10g of protein it contains. I’m sorry, but I would not be able to get over the psychology necessary to make having one bar be my entire meal. No thank you. I will have the 10g of protein found in a delicious steak instead. Slightly less creepy and vastly more delicious!
I think the reality of all of this hasn't sunk in yet 'cause I'm not in real Africa...I'm in tourist destination Africa.
On a happier note, some relatives of mine from England are coming to visit! Small world, hey? They’re coming to do this million km cycling race that everyone I talk to seems to be doing. It was 41 degrees today, so I’ll be impressed if they get half way through it without collapsing. Some people are just crazy and I’ll never understand it. In actuality it sounds really cool. My supervisor and his son are doing it, too. I went with them to the registration place yesterday. There were all these booths set up selling cycling gear, vineyard tours and protein bars. There was this one protein bar about the size of a smaller end chocolate bar, maybe a bit smaller than a Mars bar, which these people were trying to claim constituted a meal due to the 10g of protein it contains. I’m sorry, but I would not be able to get over the psychology necessary to make having one bar be my entire meal. No thank you. I will have the 10g of protein found in a delicious steak instead. Slightly less creepy and vastly more delicious!
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Orion's upside down and the sky runs with blood
February 27th, 2009
I intended on having an early night tonight since I had to get up early tomorrow, so I was just sitting in the little café underneath the hostel. The room was really busy what with it being a weekend and all, so I just needed some chill time. Then one of the new girls staying in my room came down and we started chatting. Anyway, she turned out to be crazy. She’s this hairdresser, who’s been traveling around South Africa by herself on a two month trip. Just hanging out, meeting people, cutting hair when she runs out of money and hitchhiking to get around. Am I crazy or does that seem kinda sketchy to you? Ok, well maybe she’s not crazy, but definitely more adventurous than me. I must say, I’m pretty impressed.
February 28th, 2009
My supervisor’s wife is an artist and she was having a show at these botanical gardens in Cape Town called Kirstenbosch today. So, they invited me to come along. It was amazing! There was such beautiful art and the grounds were lovely. After that they insisted I come home and have tea with them. I accepted and ended up staying the night and going to a movie with his sons. We went to go see Seven Pounds. That is an intense movie. I really had no idea what it was about ‘cause the trailers were so cryptic. I can see why now, but wow I was not expecting that. We walked out of the theater just looked at each other and “oh…”
March 1st, 2009
My supervisor’s family invited me to stay over for Sunday lunch and I helped them make a cheesecake. My first! It was all very exciting. I love how people keep adopting me into their homes; first Frankfurt and now here. I feel like a well-loved stray puppy.
March 2nd, 2009
I finally found a place to live. Well, actually, I found 3! I was planning on going to see this one place after work, but I thought I’d check at the international office to see if there was any room in the residences over lunch. They had one that just became available, so I jumped on it. As I’m leaving I get a call from one of the girls I had called before saying that not one of the 3 people she was trying to choose between wanted the place anymore. Then, like an idiot, I still went to see the place I had initially planned to see and, of course, loved it. What can you do though…I’m sure the residences are fine.
March 3rd, 2009
I moved in!!! YAY for having a home! It’s not really what I expected though. I have my own room with a bathroom coming of it. Then my roommate and I share a “kitchen” (people do not seem to understand that I kitchen requires a real stove, oven and fridge…I wanna make cookies darn it!). Then the two of us share a “living/dining room” and another bathroom (which nobody uses ‘cause EVERYONE ALREADY HAS THEIR OWN BATHROOM!!) with 8 other people. My roommate seems nice, even though I only met her for about 38 seconds last night…and more importantly hers was the only clean kitchen in our little group of 8.
After moving, in I went for dinner with a friend to a place specializing in burgers. I ordered a double patty ‘cause I’m an idiot and thought I was hungry when apparently I don’t know the meaning of the word. This was NOT a normal burger. It was the circumference of a normal burger…possibly a little on the small side. However, it was at least twice as tall as it was round! It was so tall it needed to be skewered to stand up straight. It fully needed to be fastened to part of a tree in order to support its own weight. I just don’t see how they can expect a person to eat something like that.
After gorging myself and not even finishing half the food, I went to trivia night with 4 of the girls we share a “living/dining room” with. This was fun. I love trivia and all the random research I did with my brother a couple months ago about lakes, really paid off. We lost, but we got prizes for coming dead last, so I think I’m ok with it.
March 4th, 2009
The bank stopped all my various cards. I knew I forgot to do something before I left. Well at least I know they’re looking out for me…hmmm. However, I did manage to get a bank account here. Unfortunately, I am not able to put money in it because of the aforementioned issue. Another problem with this is that I have run out of cash before I was able to find out how to get a long distance calling card…making calling the bank…ahem…difficult.
I will eventually get internet access, then skype, then (hopefully) my precious cards back.
I intended on having an early night tonight since I had to get up early tomorrow, so I was just sitting in the little café underneath the hostel. The room was really busy what with it being a weekend and all, so I just needed some chill time. Then one of the new girls staying in my room came down and we started chatting. Anyway, she turned out to be crazy. She’s this hairdresser, who’s been traveling around South Africa by herself on a two month trip. Just hanging out, meeting people, cutting hair when she runs out of money and hitchhiking to get around. Am I crazy or does that seem kinda sketchy to you? Ok, well maybe she’s not crazy, but definitely more adventurous than me. I must say, I’m pretty impressed.
February 28th, 2009
My supervisor’s wife is an artist and she was having a show at these botanical gardens in Cape Town called Kirstenbosch today. So, they invited me to come along. It was amazing! There was such beautiful art and the grounds were lovely. After that they insisted I come home and have tea with them. I accepted and ended up staying the night and going to a movie with his sons. We went to go see Seven Pounds. That is an intense movie. I really had no idea what it was about ‘cause the trailers were so cryptic. I can see why now, but wow I was not expecting that. We walked out of the theater just looked at each other and “oh…”
March 1st, 2009
My supervisor’s family invited me to stay over for Sunday lunch and I helped them make a cheesecake. My first! It was all very exciting. I love how people keep adopting me into their homes; first Frankfurt and now here. I feel like a well-loved stray puppy.
March 2nd, 2009
I finally found a place to live. Well, actually, I found 3! I was planning on going to see this one place after work, but I thought I’d check at the international office to see if there was any room in the residences over lunch. They had one that just became available, so I jumped on it. As I’m leaving I get a call from one of the girls I had called before saying that not one of the 3 people she was trying to choose between wanted the place anymore. Then, like an idiot, I still went to see the place I had initially planned to see and, of course, loved it. What can you do though…I’m sure the residences are fine.
March 3rd, 2009
I moved in!!! YAY for having a home! It’s not really what I expected though. I have my own room with a bathroom coming of it. Then my roommate and I share a “kitchen” (people do not seem to understand that I kitchen requires a real stove, oven and fridge…I wanna make cookies darn it!). Then the two of us share a “living/dining room” and another bathroom (which nobody uses ‘cause EVERYONE ALREADY HAS THEIR OWN BATHROOM!!) with 8 other people. My roommate seems nice, even though I only met her for about 38 seconds last night…and more importantly hers was the only clean kitchen in our little group of 8.
After moving, in I went for dinner with a friend to a place specializing in burgers. I ordered a double patty ‘cause I’m an idiot and thought I was hungry when apparently I don’t know the meaning of the word. This was NOT a normal burger. It was the circumference of a normal burger…possibly a little on the small side. However, it was at least twice as tall as it was round! It was so tall it needed to be skewered to stand up straight. It fully needed to be fastened to part of a tree in order to support its own weight. I just don’t see how they can expect a person to eat something like that.
After gorging myself and not even finishing half the food, I went to trivia night with 4 of the girls we share a “living/dining room” with. This was fun. I love trivia and all the random research I did with my brother a couple months ago about lakes, really paid off. We lost, but we got prizes for coming dead last, so I think I’m ok with it.
March 4th, 2009
The bank stopped all my various cards. I knew I forgot to do something before I left. Well at least I know they’re looking out for me…hmmm. However, I did manage to get a bank account here. Unfortunately, I am not able to put money in it because of the aforementioned issue. Another problem with this is that I have run out of cash before I was able to find out how to get a long distance calling card…making calling the bank…ahem…difficult.
I will eventually get internet access, then skype, then (hopefully) my precious cards back.
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