7.9.09

Your voice is your own, I can't protect it.

"You'll have to sing
A verse no one has ever known.
Your way will never be too much for me
Your ideas have always been your own
And this moment keeps on moving
We were never meant to hold on."
-Jack Johnson, "Adrift."

So, just finished my Spring Break. It's weird having two in one year, but this certainly didn't feel like Spring Break in the States. As in, there was no talk of going to Cancun to get "totally plastered" and that sort of thing. I decided to stay in Jo'burg for the week, despite invites to Durban and Cape Town, simply due to two factors: 1) Funding and 2) traveling stresses me out. I don't mean actually going to new places, because I love that, it's the getting there process that is really icky. Planes, buses, trains, etc...I get very ill on all of them. Trust me, it is not pretty.

But! I did have a good time exploring Jo'burg and relaxing for the week. I had a small anxiety attack when I was informed that the South African Post Office is on strike and what they'll most likely do is throw away all the piled-up mail from the strike and throw it away, but since the strike is now solved, I hope that means I'll get my mail this week (and the people I sent mail to will also get theirs). But we'll see. Cross your fingers for me, ja?

I don't remember what I did all week, to be honest. Sorry! I know Friday was a party at the Explorer's Pub (which turned out less like a fun party and more like me being an RA again and taking care of a very drunk girl), and Saturday was the closing night of the Fencing Pub. It was quite sad, because "Fencing" is what we do every Thursday night, but now the bar is being torn down because of construction in the area. But, it was a fun night, indeed.

Fish and Rafael doing something that made me snort.

On Sunday I went shopping with Ori and explored a bit of Sandton (we saw an organic/whole food mart that happens every Sunday morning, but were too late to really shop around. I shall have to check it out another weekend). Then we went back to Ori's place and I baked cupcakes for my boss at my internship for her birthday. :) On Monday, Ori and I took said cupcakes to work to deliver to my boss...who, coincidentally, was in meetings all day, so we just left her cupcake (large cupcake) and present (a nice pashmina scarf) on her desk. I haven't gone back to work since then, so I'll find out on Tuesday whether she liked them or not. Then Ori and I went to the Oriental plaza to look at Indian clothes and other cool Indian things. It was really interesting, even though I didn't end up getting anything more than a chicken samoosa (delicious). Tuesday...I don't really remember. Apologies. Wednesday...I think Andre came over, and we watched Star Wars: Episode 1. It was cool, because he knows SO much about Star Wars that he was able to give me all this extra information about the storyline that I wouldn't have known otherwise. Wednesday night, Matt and I went to Gramadoelas, a really classy authentic South African restaurant in Newtown, right by the historic Market Theater. It actually has a lot of history to it, so it's really cool. I tried a few new dishes, like some kind of ostrich dish, some kind of tandoori chicken, a lamb dish, ox tripe, some Koeksisters (syrupy deep fried crullers from Batavia, from the Gramadoelas website), and some Cape Town dessert wine. I'm sure I had more, but I can't remember it all right now. Lo siento.
On Thursday...I went to lunch with Matt (American friend) and Matt (redhead SA friend), then Matt (redhead) and I went for a walk down the the pond on campus that I didn't even know existed. It's quite lovely, and it has ducks (I lied, they're geese, but I think ducks are cooler and have a better name, so that's what I--incorrectly--call them). :D Yay ducks! We then ran into some friends who were having a picnic, so even though Matt had to leave, I hung out and enjoyed the picnic...and of course, fed the duckies. :)

Well, after that, I don't remember what happened. I imagine something cool, but I do not remember. Again, apologies. On Friday, ZaZa, Matt (American), and I went to the Johannesburg Zoo. We took a taxi there, thanks to ZaZa's knowledge of how to use black taxis. We ended up going to the wrong zoo entrance and had to walk a long way to the correct gate. Eish. Of course, ZaZa and I complained the whole way. (It was hot!) Matt somehow dealt with us, and I think he got back at us by nearly killing us on the golf buggy that you can rent at the zoo (you can drive around the zoo in a golf cart! How cool is that!?). He first drove off too fast and ZaZa's bag fell off the cart, then he accidentally jumped up on a curb and popped a tire, and then we traded carts with a zoo worker, but Matt somehow broke the ignition and we had to have 2 different zoo workers help us to figure it out. It was actually quite funny. :)


We saw some really cool animals at the zoo, despite it being just barely not winter anymore. It was a good time. Friday night, Matt and I tried a new restaurant (well, new to us) at Rosebank called Europa. It was legit, I got pancakes, and they were very tasty. :)

On Saturday, we met Ameet at 6 AM (!!) to head off the Pilanesburg National Park and saw some really cool stuff.

I jumped from one rock to another on the top of a mountain, but unfortunately Ameet cut off my head. I'm just celebrating my rock-jumping victory.

We spent most of the day there, and despite being made fun of for (repeatedly) confusing rocks and lions at the Rhino and Lion park a few weeks before, I ended up spotting some really cool animals, and we stopped the car just before a herd of elephants stepped out of the bush. It was way intense.


An "ellie" (as Katie P. calls them) and her baby. :)

I made PB&J sandwiches for everyone, and Keiko (a Japanese student who also lives at International House), Ameiko (her sister who was visiting for the week, though I may have butchered the spelling of her name), and Ameet had never had PB&J before. I told them that it was an American delicacy...and they seemed to enjoy them. :) Saturday night, Ameet took me, Matt, Rosha (again, terrible name spelling....she's a German student here), and Janice (student from Singapore) out to a Portuguese restaurnt. I was texting Erik at the time, because they were playing the Germany vs. South Africa game on the TV inside the restaurant. Unfortunately, I believe SA lost...poor Bafana Bafana. :(

Sunday (today!) was another good day. Slept in a bit, then went to Rosebank with Matt. I intended to buy some shorts for the upcoming summer weather, but it appears that stores here aren't yet ready for summer clothes! The Africans don't seem to be bothered by the heat quite yet, even though I'm already dying. While I didn't find any shorts, I did stumble across the African market that I didn't know existed (well, had never been to before is more like it). I bought some really cool things, including a dress, a Springboks rugby jersey (discounted, oh yeah), a beautiful photo of the Jo'burg skyline, a miniature ficus tree to spruce (ha, tree pun) up my room, and some cinnamon sticks from another country that I cannot remember right now. Not bad, ja? I also went shopping at Wooly's (Woolworths, kind of like Super Target) and got some new tea and some ground beef so I could make hamburgers...which Matt helped me to do, and now I can officially make my own hamburgers. Oh snap I am awesome. (Not really, but I like to celebrate little victories.)

So, that was my week in a particularily large nutshell. I hope all is well with you, and now that the Post Office strike is over, I expect a ton of mail from you! :)

Go well!

1 comment:

  1. Hey, just to let you know, I found out today that we won 2:0. haha, oh yeah! Go germany!

    ReplyDelete