Today I received an email from a church where I have worked in South Africa warning against unnecessary travel due to swine flu.
If this is a subtle invitation not to come because living in the same hemisphere as most of the swine flu victims obviously makes me a threat, I would like to remind the AIDS capital of the world that they have bigger fish to fry. I'll be just fine.
And I'm still coming.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
I'm Baaa-aaack...
So...I haven't blogged all year. Brief rundown: there was school, and then there were tests, and more school, and some papers, and sometimes I skipped class, and it snowed like I lived in the Arctic tundra, and then it snowed more, and more school, and did I mention it snows a lot here? Because it does.
HOWEVER. Today it is in the mid-80s and sunny, and I laid by the Charles River in my shorts and bikini top and read a mindless novel that had nothing whatever to do with the loads of final exams and papers about to descend upon my head, and I ate ice cream and now I will take a nap. And as I write this, I am eating chips and queso while I wait for a pizza to cook. And then I might eat ice cream again. It's how I get ready for swimsuit season, y'all.
SPEAKING OF swimsuit season, I could not be more excited for the next several weekends. Here is my rundown: May 2, I will be chilling at the Country Home with Kim and her family for her sister-in-law Mandy's baby shower (Mandy, fair warning: I find newborn gifts to be a wee bit boring. They are pastel and lack panache. I am hoping to find a disco-ball-themed mobile for the crib because that? Would RAWK.) Weekend after...so far nothing, but I've not given up hope. Weekend after that, I fly to Philadelphia for my little sister's wedding shower. We fully plan to drink our way through the shower anyway, but just in case we're not *completely* slobbering drunk by the time it's over, we'll be heading to Sonic for a cherry limeade with rum. Mmmm, summertime. Then comes Memorial Day, which is in Atlanta with Mijha and Runako and also involves rum, though perhaps not with cherry limeades, and laying by the lake. My tan will be killer, y'all, and not just in the melanoma kind of way. And then the weekend after that I am going back to Philly to hang with my sister and her fiance at the Jersey Shore. Somewhere in there are three 20-page papers to write and two final exams to take, but I haven't really figured out how they fit in yet.
And then...I head to South Africa. Where my tan will disappear like so much gossamer in the wind because it is winter there and it is wet and rainy and gets dark at 5 pm, much like the last six months of my life.
So in an effort to fend off the anticipatory Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD...awwww) brought on by the prospect of YET MORE winter, here are the things I am really, really excited about my return to SA:
1) The minibus cab. Oh, beloveds, the minibus cabs. I don't have words for the glory of a vehicle that is meant to seat seven, easily seats 15 along with children and sometimes livestock, and blares hip-hop music at rocket-launching decibels, all while adorned with airbrushed pictures of Tupac. And costs you roughly sixty cents to ride.
2) The little bakery that sells lemon meringue puffs and milk tarts, which I ate every day last summer and are exclusively responsible for the fact I didn't die of malnutrition.
3) The Labia Theater, which is NOT EVEN A PORN THEATER, Y'ALL. The name misleads, no? Instead, it is a fabulous mix of first-run releases from the US and artsie/independent flicks from all over. Love. It.
4) South African soap operas. To die for.
5) Learning to drive a stick shift. Those of you who know that I can manage to get in wrecks in my own country, where I (ostensibly) know the rules and the roads are wide and flat, can only imagine how I might fare learning to drive stick shift while also remembering to look the opposite way for traffic (an omission that has nearly cost me my life on more than one occasion) and remember the Capetonians regard traffic laws as suggestions more than rules. Hints, if you will. But I have been told I should learn to drive a stick shift there and get my international driver's license, and I might just undertake it. Or I may just rely on the aforementioned cabs.
6) Evensong at St. George's Cathedral. Beautiful, mystical, as high-churchy as you could want.
7) The beach, which is stunning even in winter, and watching the sun set into the water is one of my favorite experiences in Cape Town.
8) Breaking the code for the 14-step tea making process that one of the Cathedral parishioners has. My tea making process has three steps: 1) boil water; 2) pour over tea bag and sugar; 3) add milk. I am dying to find out where the other 11 steps fit in.
9) Eating lemon meringue pie on the floor of Lynette's office. I eat and crack jokes, she works. It's a system that works for us.
10) And finally, the experience I most hope to recreate in Cape Town: the last time I was there, Lynette, an older gentleman named Jack and I went to eat fish at Hout Bay. As we drove back, comfortably full of fish and chips, Jack put on his favorite CD. What was it, you ask? Was it the music of the resistance? "Amandla," perhaps? Bob Marley? Gum shoe dancing? No, friends, no, don't be so provincial. It was "Kenny Rogers Sings Your Favorite Love Songs." Now they were not *my* favorite love songs, or they would have included the classic "Islands in the Stream." Also? "Back That Ass Up." Timeless love songs both. But as we drove past the beautiful Cape Town coast, Table Mountain looming above us, and Kenny crooning "Endless Love" (for the record, Kenny is not as adept as I am at singing both parts of a duet. See my version of "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" if you really want to know how it's done), I got tickled, y'all. I was like: it's AFRICA, and I still can't get away from Kenny Rogers.
And then he launched into "Unforgettable," because you know what? IT TOTALLY WAS.
So there you have it...10 things I am really excited to revisit in Cape Town. 5 weeks and counting!
HOWEVER. Today it is in the mid-80s and sunny, and I laid by the Charles River in my shorts and bikini top and read a mindless novel that had nothing whatever to do with the loads of final exams and papers about to descend upon my head, and I ate ice cream and now I will take a nap. And as I write this, I am eating chips and queso while I wait for a pizza to cook. And then I might eat ice cream again. It's how I get ready for swimsuit season, y'all.
SPEAKING OF swimsuit season, I could not be more excited for the next several weekends. Here is my rundown: May 2, I will be chilling at the Country Home with Kim and her family for her sister-in-law Mandy's baby shower (Mandy, fair warning: I find newborn gifts to be a wee bit boring. They are pastel and lack panache. I am hoping to find a disco-ball-themed mobile for the crib because that? Would RAWK.) Weekend after...so far nothing, but I've not given up hope. Weekend after that, I fly to Philadelphia for my little sister's wedding shower. We fully plan to drink our way through the shower anyway, but just in case we're not *completely* slobbering drunk by the time it's over, we'll be heading to Sonic for a cherry limeade with rum. Mmmm, summertime. Then comes Memorial Day, which is in Atlanta with Mijha and Runako and also involves rum, though perhaps not with cherry limeades, and laying by the lake. My tan will be killer, y'all, and not just in the melanoma kind of way. And then the weekend after that I am going back to Philly to hang with my sister and her fiance at the Jersey Shore. Somewhere in there are three 20-page papers to write and two final exams to take, but I haven't really figured out how they fit in yet.
And then...I head to South Africa. Where my tan will disappear like so much gossamer in the wind because it is winter there and it is wet and rainy and gets dark at 5 pm, much like the last six months of my life.
So in an effort to fend off the anticipatory Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD...awwww) brought on by the prospect of YET MORE winter, here are the things I am really, really excited about my return to SA:
1) The minibus cab. Oh, beloveds, the minibus cabs. I don't have words for the glory of a vehicle that is meant to seat seven, easily seats 15 along with children and sometimes livestock, and blares hip-hop music at rocket-launching decibels, all while adorned with airbrushed pictures of Tupac. And costs you roughly sixty cents to ride.
2) The little bakery that sells lemon meringue puffs and milk tarts, which I ate every day last summer and are exclusively responsible for the fact I didn't die of malnutrition.
3) The Labia Theater, which is NOT EVEN A PORN THEATER, Y'ALL. The name misleads, no? Instead, it is a fabulous mix of first-run releases from the US and artsie/independent flicks from all over. Love. It.
4) South African soap operas. To die for.
5) Learning to drive a stick shift. Those of you who know that I can manage to get in wrecks in my own country, where I (ostensibly) know the rules and the roads are wide and flat, can only imagine how I might fare learning to drive stick shift while also remembering to look the opposite way for traffic (an omission that has nearly cost me my life on more than one occasion) and remember the Capetonians regard traffic laws as suggestions more than rules. Hints, if you will. But I have been told I should learn to drive a stick shift there and get my international driver's license, and I might just undertake it. Or I may just rely on the aforementioned cabs.
6) Evensong at St. George's Cathedral. Beautiful, mystical, as high-churchy as you could want.
7) The beach, which is stunning even in winter, and watching the sun set into the water is one of my favorite experiences in Cape Town.
8) Breaking the code for the 14-step tea making process that one of the Cathedral parishioners has. My tea making process has three steps: 1) boil water; 2) pour over tea bag and sugar; 3) add milk. I am dying to find out where the other 11 steps fit in.
9) Eating lemon meringue pie on the floor of Lynette's office. I eat and crack jokes, she works. It's a system that works for us.
10) And finally, the experience I most hope to recreate in Cape Town: the last time I was there, Lynette, an older gentleman named Jack and I went to eat fish at Hout Bay. As we drove back, comfortably full of fish and chips, Jack put on his favorite CD. What was it, you ask? Was it the music of the resistance? "Amandla," perhaps? Bob Marley? Gum shoe dancing? No, friends, no, don't be so provincial. It was "Kenny Rogers Sings Your Favorite Love Songs." Now they were not *my* favorite love songs, or they would have included the classic "Islands in the Stream." Also? "Back That Ass Up." Timeless love songs both. But as we drove past the beautiful Cape Town coast, Table Mountain looming above us, and Kenny crooning "Endless Love" (for the record, Kenny is not as adept as I am at singing both parts of a duet. See my version of "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" if you really want to know how it's done), I got tickled, y'all. I was like: it's AFRICA, and I still can't get away from Kenny Rogers.
And then he launched into "Unforgettable," because you know what? IT TOTALLY WAS.
So there you have it...10 things I am really excited to revisit in Cape Town. 5 weeks and counting!
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