Two nights ago my friends and I drove to Cape Town to break out of the partying mold and ended up at a ska show.  I accosted the lead singer afterwards, because that's what I do, and he said to come to the Stellenbosch show the next day and he'll give me some CDs.  So Graham and I packed out to the Klein Libertas Teater for what was an even more ( Read more... )

Tonight's dinner ( Read more... )

7am.  My parents are boarding their flight from Cape Town to London, where they will spend one night before heading back to Seattle.  What jet setters.  I had a fever yesterday, for no apparent reason, felt perfectly fine the day before and woke up feeling like a truck had landed on top of my body while I was sleeping.  Today I think I feel fine, ( Read more... )

Everything is going from the known to the unknown, as I pick apart the layers, as complexity unfolds before my eyes, in my ears, engulfing my senses with nuances I have never before saw, that I'll never see again.  Here, briefly suspended in this sea of newness, my lightness of being carrying me buoyantly through the incredible density, I'm able to ( Read more... )

In my near future:

skydiving (maybe)
working at the rape counseling center in Kayamundi
the beach
introducing smores to South Africans, the Dutch, Germans, Belgians, and a few inquisitive Austrians, also.
fall break
family
Durban and the Garden Route
and probably beer.

Life is much, much more exciting here.

Tonight, I was surprised with an invitation to dinner, which resulted in the most delicious Thai style soup that was cooked from scratch while I squeezed lemons for lemonade.  He then spent three hours educating me on hip hop (something I know absolutely nothing about), and we found our musical interests dovetailing ever so often but infrequently ( Read more... )

Note to self: when you sustain head injuries two Fridays in a row due to alcohol, and you still don't alter your consumption level, you might be an alcoholic me.

Owwwwwwwwww.

I'm currently involving myself in a music war with some residents with less-than-good taste who are blasting bizarre hip hop from their car outside my window, uploading photos to facebook (arduous, because the uploader isn't working correctly), writing an email to be sent en masse to my family and other interested parties, and enjoying the hell out ( Read more... )

P.S.
I've been hanging out (i.e. drinking myself silly) with this fantastic Swedish girl who's been here for six months already and knows the ropes.  She's taking me to a "trance party" (i.e. rave) that usually has a turn out of over one thousand people.  Nina is her name, she calls everyone "love" which normally I think is obnoxious but in her ( Read more... )

Living abroad as an American, you're constantly berated with questions about the coming elections.  And it's exactly not like you can tell be to shove off because it's none of their business, because the entire world seems to think they should have the right to vote in our elections.  Now, I'm perfectly aware that the American political process is ( Read more... )