Accept and move on

In the United States it seems that sometimes albeit the fact that we have more than we need we complain about the smallest things.  Yes, I have on frequent occasion expressed my hate for complainers, and yet I find that I complain in a round about way, joking about something that happened, yet bringing it up all the same.  Here not much is organized, it is frustrating, confusing, and I started tearing up in my first class of my first week of my new school here because I didn’t know what was going on and was 15 minutes late, not to mention soaked to the core because I had to walk 45 minutes in the rain getting lost in 4 different buildings.  Does life always go our way?  No.  Is it frustrating and annoying? Yes.  But you have two choices, you can accept or hold on. Acceptance is just acknowledging it happened and moving on, holding on is not forgetting what happened and just stewing about it.  Either way you have to move on, time will move on, it’s whether you are holding on to it or not that will allow you to see what is new.  

Today was a not so great first day of school, probably my worst ever, but I was able to get home, met some cool people in my class, and was able to chill out when I got home and eat some oatmeal and an awesome glass of hot chocolate.  Things will usually get better, and if they are not, there is not only someone worse off than you, but someone who is in your exact same position and happier because they aren’t complaining and are focusing on the small good things. (Like the fact that the card machine was down today…the wind made my hair look like Belatrix LeStrange out of Harry Potter, not pretty lol).

Go with the flow, that is the lesson God is teaching me, I thought I knew it before, but I’m learning it again, and I think this time with a better attitude.

God bless,

Aj

ps. Today it is Thursday and my week got exponentally better, all my classes are lined up, have a couple volunteer things lined up, and going to have a fabulous weekend hanging out and having fun, and it's my two year wedding anniversary with my awesome guy on monday :-) we are having a potluck to celebrate with friends, it's gonna be grand. Love you all!

The first top ten countdown...and first post in Africa :-)

July 20, 2011

Here I am 1:13 AM and amazed at my luck and friends I have already made, and perhaps the bad ideas that come along with them.  Today we celebrated my friend Cami’s birthday at a karaoke bar, it was a lot of fun, and all 50 or 60 of us had a blast, it was quite packed.  Jeremy and I are coping well with the new place as a couple which I am glad to see, I think having China under our belts helps, but during this past weekend at orientation neither of us wore our rings (partially b/c we had no idea what we’d be doing and didn’t want to lose them) and were apart all weekend to meet everyone, that way people met us separately as friends, and then when they realized we were a couple it just made us the two cool friends that were married, and NOT the married couple that they didn’t know how to approach.  It worked perfectly and so we have lots of friends, and lots of the same friends, but we can go separate places or stay together and there is no weirdness like there was sometimes in the states of us being a ‘couple’. It’s nice, I like it, we get to just be ourselves more, and so can be together without weirding people out that they can’t come up to us. J I approve. The past few days have been intense with orientation, learning people’s names and registering for classes.  I’ll post the top ten things that I think are important, I think that’d be easiest to organize the mess that is everything that has happened so far J

1.      We are wicked close to a beach, and it’s beautiful.  Gahhh, love it.  I can see it from the main street which is like 2 minutes away from our house.  Campus is a solid 30 minute walk, 20 if we power walk, but it’s 70 degrees, so every minute is blissful. 

2. We are NOT in America.  They have public transport, here you take a cab, and if you don’t cab, you walk, but you can’t walk alone at night, (don’t worry, I don’t walk alone even in the daytime).  They have things called Bakkas and they are buses that you just load in, it’s like 7 rand for what would cost your 40 rand in a taxi, so it’s wicked cheap (1 dollar compared to 6).  So that’s nice to take to campus in the morning, as one of my classes next week will start at 7:45…am.  Arg.

FYI. (7 rand = $1)

3. Things are not organized.  Which has an interesting play into how everything functions, everyone is very relaxed here, things will get done in their own time, there is no rush, and so spontaneity runs rampant, which has led to a decision to go to the Billabong Surfing World Championships this weekend, we leave at 6:30 in the morning, these early days…I’m learning fast to wake up early and go to bed uber late. 

4. Registering for classes was crazy, I’m still figuring it out, so far I’m taking “Afrikaans”(mix of German and Dutch) (thought you’d approve Adri, so if anymore harmonica players come I can translate), “Women in Africa”, which I hear is a pretty awesome class, “Traditional African Healing”, and Children’s Literature, which I figure I can use for teaching children theatre in the future.  Always good to stay a step ahead on everything. I need one more class, but they split their semesters into terms, and so I only have 2 classes a week, kind of strange…I guess that means lots of beach time and exploring for me!! I’m not complaining…not one bit.

5. I am a traveler, and am home.  I’ve been comparing this to China quite often, but this is different. There I was offering a service, here I’m home.  This is the origin of mankind, and I am here for 5 months to learn from them.  It’s been an adventure, but Jeremy and I have made decisions to say yes to everything (as long as it is safe, legal, within reason, and we are not alone).  Many things people miss out on because they think they won’t like it, or they won’t have fun, one thing I’m learning, is that pretty much everything I’ve said yes to has been amazing.  Africa has so many things to offer, and I don’t want to look back and say I wish.  Although I wish I would have stayed at karaoke tonight, I do have to be up in 5 hours and on a bus for about 8 hours tomorrow, so I think I made the smart decision, Jer on the other hand isn’t home yet, and will pry be tired tomorrow.  We will see I suppose.

6. You make friends for life here.  When you meet people in another country it is a whole different experience, you are both here to change your lives and others, and so the bonds you make are fast and tight and intense.  It’s an exhilarating experience, one friend named Tricia has become my closest and dare I say will be and already is my best friend here, already we have had a girl date and have many more exciting adventures planned, one being the world’s largest commercial bungee jump.  I’m excited and nervous about that one, but mostly excited. There are people from all over the world, the Germans are hilarious, the French make fun of everyone but are a blast to hang around, the Danish are flat out crazy, and I’m not sure they will all leave Africa alive, the Norwegians are so sweet and caring, and the Americans are funny and feel like brothers and sisters.  Everyone helps each other, and we are all trying (sometimes in vain and in great entertainment to everyone else) to learn each other’s languages, not to mention some of these foreign names.  I’m still working on a few.

7. We have the BEST NEIGHBORS ever.  They are the coolest people ever. The first day we came we went over to meet them and asked where we could buy blankets, and pillows and towels at and they were like do you not have any? “Well, no” so they gave us all of it, and said they’d take us this upcoming weekend to go buy it, and have helped us in some moments of desperation to be connected to the world, and save money.  We have dinner with them on Saturday I believe, who knows.  They have two daughters, and their parents ran the iron man…THE IRON MAN. They are wicked great people. 

8. Speaking of neighbors, we have 4 other roommates, but haven’t met anyone yet…Canada girl is supposed to be here but is not…not sure if she’s missing or dead or on vacation.  We’re talking to the manager of international students tomorrow, she left some really bad brownies, either she was smoking when she made them and accidentally mixed in the cigarette, or is just a bad cook.  We don’t know yet, but suppose we will find out.  All our roommates smoke…we know this from all the cigarettes and lighters…EVERYWHERE. Our house doesn’t smell though at all (thank God), so they must smoke outside.  We have an AMAZING backyard, (grandma Grace, you remember me talking about a garden?) We have that, plus a small pool, right now it’s filled with rain water and really gross because it’s not clean, and we don’t know how to clean it.  I think something might be radioactive in there and come eat me if I come to close, not sure, it’s only 4 feet deep but I can’t see the bottom.  But the foliage is AWESOME. It’s winter but it’s 70 degrees in the day, then again it’s like 40 at night, so there is a pretty big drop. I will take pics of our backyard and house soon and post them.

9. Flight, our flight was great, it was about 24 hours of flying almost straight, I don’t even know, but I know that when I was finally able to show in Joburg, I was so excited and so tired I almost cried.   I’m glad to be done and I do not want to fly for a few months…lucky me, I have 5 till I need to again. J

10. The food here is good, but I can’t figure out what is South African food and what is everyone else’s culture food that just happens to be here, maybe that’s because they were colonized so much, or because the apartheid, I’m not sure.  I’m sure I’ll figure it out sometime or another.  We are going to the apartheid museum tomorrow. ::Edit, we went today and it was intense, I will write about that later, I wrote this last night, and so wanted to post it:: We’ll see how that goes, I hear it’s pretty intense, understand the history, and you understand the people.  Love most of the people, so I’m interested to discover more.  Anyways, I should get some sleep, love you all, if you’d like to send me emails you are more than welcome to at amber.aj.smit@gmail.com or post a comment on my blog about anything you’d like to hear more about or your thoughts.

God bless,

Aj the passionate adventurer

 Sorry this is so long, I had a lot to update.

Item on list checked off this week: Zip lining (way awesome)

4 days and counting...

Here I am again, this time last year I was in China recuperating from the epic Great Wall of China hike that we took on the 4th of July.  I remember singing the national anthem with all of us American teachers and all of these tourists were looking at us like we were crazy.  We leave for South Africa in 4 days.  Jeremy and I just got back from Michigan at the cabin, we were able to watch fireworks over a lake, and they have something called the ring of fire.  Around the lake, they post flares every 5 feet, so it looks like the lake is on fire.  It was beautiful, I got to see my family for the last time before South Africa and had a fantastic time.

In other news, I am now applying for a program in Georgia(the country not the state), to teach English for five months, this would be in Jan. after we get back from Africa, and after the Burlesque show I'll be working on.  Talk about being a busy bee!!
One thing I've learned lately is that sometimes you do better just sitting back and absorbing, I've always been a chatter box, but I've found it's quite nice to just sit back and listen, and boy can you learn alot by asking questions.  Well, I think that's all for me, we're going to go buy some dummy wallets for Africa just to be safe, and start packing, trying to get ready is pretty crazy, I just hope I remember everything...probably won't, but that'll be half the fun I suppose!
God bless,
Aj