Aha! Well, I am in Johannesburg. Have been for four days, actually. It doesn't feel so much like a huge adventure, since it's just South Africa. Well, "just" South Africa. Maybe that takes some explaining in and of itself -- first of all, I lived here for a cumulative 9-10 months from 2007-2008 (in two separate stints), although that was in Cape Town. And second of all, Johannesburg really is not a shock to the system in the same way that a lot of places in the developing world are. There are pretty much all the modern amenities I'm used to at home, at least in the part of the city I'm staying in. You sort of have to go looking for the different parts of South Africa, or else things all seem very civilized and whitewashed.
So, I haven't really been having things happen where my first thought is, "I must run and write in my blog about that!" Part of that, to be fair, is because I literally slept the first 20 hours I was here. I didn't sleep at all on the flight here (14 hours), although I watched a LOT of movies -- so when I arrived, I chatted a bit with the girl who owns the house, and then I crashed quite hard. I slept from around 12pm through to 9:30am the next morning... not quite without waking up, but certainly without getting up and doing anything productive.
When I got up at 9:30 on Saturday, I thought I had cleverly tricked jet lag. I went with Rebecca (the British PhD student who owns the house), the other Rebecca (another British PhD student living in the house) and one of their friends, Kate, to breakfast. Yes, our party was Rebecca, Rebecca, Kate and Katie. The breakfast place was in this very upscale nook, and the food was very good. I got savory french toast with haloumi and pesto cherry tomatoes. Who even knew there was such a thing as savory french toast? It didn't really taste like french toast, but it was delicious. Rebecca also took me to a nearby shopping center to get some essentials like bed sheets. Then we all came back to the house (which is referred to as "Stafford," after the street that it's on), and they all did homework and I.... took a nap. DON'T JUDGE ME.
As it turned out, while I was sleeping on Friday night, one of their friends had moved into the spare room until the next American arrives. Imagine my surprise to wake up to a new person in the house. The guy is the ex-manager at their local bar, and is actually quite cool now that I've gotten a chance to talk to him. I think his name is Johannes, although Rebecca's South African-influenced British accent gives me some trouble when it comes to South African things I'm familiar with hearing in a pure South African accent. Rebecca's lived here for 8 years, so her accent's not really pure British anymore, but it's not South African either, so when she says things that I'm used to hearing in one or the other, I get a little... muddled. But anyway.
We ordered Indian food for dinner (delivery! oh, how I love delivery!) and watched early episodes of House on Rebecca's laptop. Obviously the internet here is too slow to stream or download TV, but she had gotten the DVDs from somewhere.
Sunday I... slept until 3pm. Oops. I guess jet lag wasn't quite done with me. I didn't have any food in the house, so I sort of whiled away the hours until Rebecca showed up, at which point I sort of plaintively asked, "If I want to eat... what should I do?" She was going to Spar (a grocery store) to get lunch for the cleaning lady who comes on Mondays, so I went with her and got a classically South African meal of.. a frozen pizza. Go big or go home, what can I say? I tried to go to bed at a reasonable time, but that wasn't happening, so I ended up sort of tossing and turning all night. I did get up at one point and edit and submit a paper for publication at about 3am, so that was.... something.
I had previously decided that my first day of work was going to be Tuesday, so I could get the car on Monday and practice driving around a bit on a day that was NOT my first day in the country. It turns out that was a really, really good decision. The car was delivered this morning. The other two American interns (both arriving later) and I are renting from a place called "Rent-a-Wreck," although their official name is Apex. They are super-cheap, although everyone seems to hate them. I was reluctant, but they are so cheap. I was dreading the car showing up, sort of expecting a giant hulking mass of metal, but... it's not that bad? It's an old Mazda automatic, and yes, it's a bit of a wreck. The whole car kind of vibrates when you drive, and the steering wheel is dreadfully stiff, and the acceleration is absolute crap, but.... well, it runs. I signed all the forms and things, and then sort of steeled myself for my first drive.
I've driven a lot of miles in South Africa, though never by myself, and never this close to my arrival in the country. Oh, and never really in the city. So I was terrified. I started small, just heading to the shopping center again to get some more essential things (clothes hangers, a hair dryer) and go food shopping. On the way there, I managed to hit something. I have no idea what -- the back of my car ran into something while I was driving, and I nearly flipped out. It wasn't anything like, moving or alive, but it flipped me out. But I got to the shopping center, and got out of the car and did my shopping, and when I got back to the car, I realized that the cigarette charger wasn't working. I had specifically requested that they check to make sure it was working, because I got a GPS before I left the US, and the only way to charge it is in the car, through the cigarette charger. So I called the company up, and they told me to come in.
I was like, oh, shit. I had no idea where in the city they were, and I didn't really want to drive anymore. But needs must -- so I plugged their address into the GPS and headed out. It was really stressful, and the GPS did a lot of reeeecalculating, and I got honked at a lot, and there are a lot of surprise one-way streets in downtown Johannesburg that are quite unpleasant, but I didn't die, and I didn't hit anything else... big. So that's a win, right?
When I got to the shop, they fixed the cigarette charger, I got the insurance situation figured out (finally!), and I was sent on my way. There was a dicey situation where the friendly gentleman from the company tried to give me driving directions that sent me the wrong way on a one-way street, but pedestrians standing by stopped me and got me through without dying. Again, there was a LOT of recalculating on the way home -- the streets are all multiple lanes in each direction, and since the GPS can't tell me audibly what my next move is going to be, I never know which lane I need to be in. So when it tells me, "turn left," I don't know if I need to turn left into the near left lane or the far left lane, and if I get it wrong and then I need to turn again in 300 meters, catastrophe ensues and I end up driving around and around in circles.
Needless to say, I was very relieved when I recognized the streets and realized I was almost home.
I will take and post pictures just as soon as I'm unpacked and my room is neat enough to be worth taking pictures of. Tomorrow is my first day of work, so I will hopefully have fun things to report soon.
So, I haven't really been having things happen where my first thought is, "I must run and write in my blog about that!" Part of that, to be fair, is because I literally slept the first 20 hours I was here. I didn't sleep at all on the flight here (14 hours), although I watched a LOT of movies -- so when I arrived, I chatted a bit with the girl who owns the house, and then I crashed quite hard. I slept from around 12pm through to 9:30am the next morning... not quite without waking up, but certainly without getting up and doing anything productive.
When I got up at 9:30 on Saturday, I thought I had cleverly tricked jet lag. I went with Rebecca (the British PhD student who owns the house), the other Rebecca (another British PhD student living in the house) and one of their friends, Kate, to breakfast. Yes, our party was Rebecca, Rebecca, Kate and Katie. The breakfast place was in this very upscale nook, and the food was very good. I got savory french toast with haloumi and pesto cherry tomatoes. Who even knew there was such a thing as savory french toast? It didn't really taste like french toast, but it was delicious. Rebecca also took me to a nearby shopping center to get some essentials like bed sheets. Then we all came back to the house (which is referred to as "Stafford," after the street that it's on), and they all did homework and I.... took a nap. DON'T JUDGE ME.
As it turned out, while I was sleeping on Friday night, one of their friends had moved into the spare room until the next American arrives. Imagine my surprise to wake up to a new person in the house. The guy is the ex-manager at their local bar, and is actually quite cool now that I've gotten a chance to talk to him. I think his name is Johannes, although Rebecca's South African-influenced British accent gives me some trouble when it comes to South African things I'm familiar with hearing in a pure South African accent. Rebecca's lived here for 8 years, so her accent's not really pure British anymore, but it's not South African either, so when she says things that I'm used to hearing in one or the other, I get a little... muddled. But anyway.
We ordered Indian food for dinner (delivery! oh, how I love delivery!) and watched early episodes of House on Rebecca's laptop. Obviously the internet here is too slow to stream or download TV, but she had gotten the DVDs from somewhere.
Sunday I... slept until 3pm. Oops. I guess jet lag wasn't quite done with me. I didn't have any food in the house, so I sort of whiled away the hours until Rebecca showed up, at which point I sort of plaintively asked, "If I want to eat... what should I do?" She was going to Spar (a grocery store) to get lunch for the cleaning lady who comes on Mondays, so I went with her and got a classically South African meal of.. a frozen pizza. Go big or go home, what can I say? I tried to go to bed at a reasonable time, but that wasn't happening, so I ended up sort of tossing and turning all night. I did get up at one point and edit and submit a paper for publication at about 3am, so that was.... something.
I had previously decided that my first day of work was going to be Tuesday, so I could get the car on Monday and practice driving around a bit on a day that was NOT my first day in the country. It turns out that was a really, really good decision. The car was delivered this morning. The other two American interns (both arriving later) and I are renting from a place called "Rent-a-Wreck," although their official name is Apex. They are super-cheap, although everyone seems to hate them. I was reluctant, but they are so cheap. I was dreading the car showing up, sort of expecting a giant hulking mass of metal, but... it's not that bad? It's an old Mazda automatic, and yes, it's a bit of a wreck. The whole car kind of vibrates when you drive, and the steering wheel is dreadfully stiff, and the acceleration is absolute crap, but.... well, it runs. I signed all the forms and things, and then sort of steeled myself for my first drive.
I've driven a lot of miles in South Africa, though never by myself, and never this close to my arrival in the country. Oh, and never really in the city. So I was terrified. I started small, just heading to the shopping center again to get some more essential things (clothes hangers, a hair dryer) and go food shopping. On the way there, I managed to hit something. I have no idea what -- the back of my car ran into something while I was driving, and I nearly flipped out. It wasn't anything like, moving or alive, but it flipped me out. But I got to the shopping center, and got out of the car and did my shopping, and when I got back to the car, I realized that the cigarette charger wasn't working. I had specifically requested that they check to make sure it was working, because I got a GPS before I left the US, and the only way to charge it is in the car, through the cigarette charger. So I called the company up, and they told me to come in.
I was like, oh, shit. I had no idea where in the city they were, and I didn't really want to drive anymore. But needs must -- so I plugged their address into the GPS and headed out. It was really stressful, and the GPS did a lot of reeeecalculating, and I got honked at a lot, and there are a lot of surprise one-way streets in downtown Johannesburg that are quite unpleasant, but I didn't die, and I didn't hit anything else... big. So that's a win, right?
When I got to the shop, they fixed the cigarette charger, I got the insurance situation figured out (finally!), and I was sent on my way. There was a dicey situation where the friendly gentleman from the company tried to give me driving directions that sent me the wrong way on a one-way street, but pedestrians standing by stopped me and got me through without dying. Again, there was a LOT of recalculating on the way home -- the streets are all multiple lanes in each direction, and since the GPS can't tell me audibly what my next move is going to be, I never know which lane I need to be in. So when it tells me, "turn left," I don't know if I need to turn left into the near left lane or the far left lane, and if I get it wrong and then I need to turn again in 300 meters, catastrophe ensues and I end up driving around and around in circles.
Needless to say, I was very relieved when I recognized the streets and realized I was almost home.
I will take and post pictures just as soon as I'm unpacked and my room is neat enough to be worth taking pictures of. Tomorrow is my first day of work, so I will hopefully have fun things to report soon.
Sleeping aside - sounds like you are settling in quite well. Delivery of Indian food? We don't even have that here in Silver Spring! Not too shabby. Be safe on the roads, post those photos and keep writing! I am your biggest blog fan! :) xoxo "Evil Step-Aunt" Lise (I know, I'm a real aunt, we've established that, but I like calling myself evil! :)
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