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)