Thursday, March 26, 2009

Long time gone

I am so sorry I haven't been here in so long. There are always a million and one things to do and there never seems to be enough time to do it all. going to class, reading for class, meeting people for lunch, catching up with people, calling home, writing home, volunteering, working out, waking up on time, eating dinner with the house, making my way to the dorms or to lesley's homestay, going out, etc. This is not me complaining. I would take these issues any day. This is just why I have been absent.

I want to update on the gay pride parade but I don't have much time to sit down and write it all out now, so instead I'm going to jot down this list of things that i've noticed are different here...I wrote this during an african lit and language lecture the other day and i'm sure i'll add to it later:

-paying for plastic bags at the grocery store...it causes you to bring your own out of necessity...the states should try this if they really want to go green

-specifying if you want tap or bottled water, sparking or still everywhere

-when you ring out at a register they don't give you your total, there is a little screen that says what you owe and the employee will literally stare at you until you hand over the money, there's no "and your total is..." or "and your change is..." you just have to pay attention

-you never tip more than 10% here and you hardly ever tip cab drivers

-sarcasm is different, apparently...this is what my housemate Ken from Kenya tells me...i'll investigate more

-this is the most racist place on earth...and i'm starting to see it more and more
(the platforms at our local train station are stil relatively segregated...not legally of course...just socially)

-they say 'its a pleasure' instead of 'your welcome'

-they say 'cheers' instead of 'goodbye'

-the accent sounds very dutch/english/australian

-there are Obama t-shirt everywhere

-they don't sell a lot of regular, filtered coffee, it's either instant or some form of espresso. and when you order a regular filter coffee you must specify warm or cold, cream or milk

-there is a ton of avocado, everywhere, also they don't serve shrimp, they serve prawns

-the phrase "TIA...This is Africa" from blood diamond is used...i think that may not be that common...but we say it a lot and so do our RAs who are locals


hmm, that's it for now...i'll update soon:)

1 comment:

  1. Love the updates Mary! Sounds like you are really gaining some incredible life experience there. Keep posting! ;)

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