23.8.09

And it wears me out, it wears me out.

"It wears me out, it wears me out
And if I could be who you wanted
If I could be who you wanted
All the time, all the time"
-Radiohead, "Fake Plastic Trees"

Wow, was this a long, long week. Where should I start? Well, Brett was diagnosed with cancer early in the week, and he was sent home on Tuesday night. I hung out with his mom on Wednesday and showed her the Origins Center (and by that I mean Matt gave her a tour. I just tagged along and had some tea with her in Cafe Fino afterward). But I've gotten a few messages from him and he's keeping his spirits up, and he's responding pretty well to treatment it sounds like, so that's also good. We had an IHRE (that's the name of my program, FYI) get together and we talked about his condition and just kind of relaxed after the hectic week. Sarah G., Neo, and I made signs for Brett's picture.


(Please note that the exclamation point is all by itself. Also; this was the "goofy" picture, so the "we" is upside down.)

That was on Friday evening, and after that I had planned on just relaxing, but my friend Andre kidnapped me and told me I was going ice skating. So...I went ice skating. They wanted to know if I had ever gone ice skating before...fortunately, the Pettit is about a mile from my house. I used to be pretty good, but it's been a long time since I've gone. Luckily since I'm going home in winter, I'll be able to skate at home some more, because I do like skating.

Me and Maria tearin' the place apart.

On Saturday, I was invited to go play paintball with my friend Ori. We went all the way up to Pretoria to go...which I initially thought was very far away, but it turns out it's only about 50 km (about 30 miles) away from Johannesburg. It reaffirmed what I learned last week after going to the Lion Park (which was explained to me to be quite a distance away), that distances here are not seen the same way I would see them. I'd say Carnivore and the Lion Park are about as far as...maybe Germantown is from 'Stallis, or if you're one of my Iowa friends, about Pella to Pleasant Hill. So not that bad to us, but transportation is very different here, since fewer people have access to cars, and petrol (gas) is much more expensive. But anyway, Pretoria is about 30 miles away. It's very Afrikaaner there. Johannesburg is much more English...you could definitely tell by the street signs, since the Pretoria had much more Afrikaans names.

But the best part...paintball. I played a few games with Ori's friends for someone's 21st birthday (it's funny, 21st birthdays are a big deal here, but they can start drinking at 18, so I'm not sure what the big fuss is for the 21st here). I had a lot of fun playing paintball, even though I've got welts now...or as I like to call them, battle scars. It was interesting because they were much more lax on rules than what I'm used to for paintball...for example, people can drink on the course. If they even think you've had something to drink at the paintball place I usually play at, they'll kick you out. Crazy. But, I guess America is a bit more lawsuit happy than South Africa.

One of the puppies of the dog that hangs around the paintball place.

I did get to play with the puppies there after we played paintball, and I got to enjoy a braai. I had some chicken and some vors (which is basically sausage)...quite good. I had a ton of fun, it was awesome...or as they say in SA, it was totally lekker. :) I exchanged lingo with some of Ori's friends. I'm basically a South African already.

Oh, and holding the puppy was good practice for the new niece or nephew that I'm going to have in a few months! My brother's girlfriend is due on March 22nd. I'm quite excited! :)

So, I'll leave you on that positive note and go watch some episodes of House. Goodybye, my chinas!


1 comment: