Photos

strike a pose

view from table mountain

waterfront
from beach



ugliest bird i ever saw
pap and veggies
daytime road block party in the townships

a new look
beach
where i work




ticket.. really good seats

at tha stadium
mexican for worldcup
zakumi
world cup at fan park
tiger
waterfall

elephants

Highlights.. from World Cup to World Peace....

Wooooow such a long time that I haven't blogged. This was due to the no internet factor. When I moved into my new place, I dint have internet access again and I could blog at work because it takes so much time to organise my thoughts and I'd start and then end up having to help someone with something.

So lets see what happened.

My top 5 HIGHLIGHTS:

5.Shock of no showers, only BATH TUBS

4.Being addressed in ZULU and people in shock when they learn that my home language is ENGLISH

3.Cape Town freezing Atlantic Ocean swim

2.Ghana vs Uruguay World Cup match

1.Meeting some really good looking guys.... I think I got a thing for Coloureds

June

Such a monotonous month. This was when I now became comfortable with what we had to do at work. So there the routine began: wake up, get ready, go to work, do the science show, chill at work, go home, watch my soaps, sleep.

I became so engrossed in the soapies there: Isidingo, Generations and Scandal... If I could only find a way to watch them here, it'd be like ah winning the jackpot.

We met up with some Canadians in a cafe one day, some from York, UoT and other schools, all on internships. One guy gave us a number for this guy who happens to have World Cup tickets... How??? I dont know, the guy says that he acquired it for his family who planned to come to SA but didnt come at all... ( hmmmm, I think it was from dodgy sources), anyways the guy gave us a discount, and even though we paid for the ticket via a debit machine in an indian food store, we really dint feel we were being scammed, although all of our colleagues at work seemed to think so. They warned us if the police pulled us aside at the ticket line then RUNNNN.. lol. But we were quite succesful and went to the match quite normally. It was the Ghana vs Uruaguay match. Everyone in the stadium was cheering on ghana..... except dis lil small section who was for Uraguay and when Ghana had to take that free penalty everyone was like yes, thats it, we won; but nope we dint score and had to go into penalty shoot outs.... The intensity was something else and then we lost and everyone just started to walk out the stadium, nobody talking, just a mass of ppl walkin in silence. I was sad that nite and thats when I realised that this was indeed an African worldcup and everyone supports africa

July

This was the month where I was like, OMG I leaving just now, I gotta do everything I haven't done yet. This was the month where I also made the most friends (I dunno if it was because I was leaving *shrug*). I went to Swaziland (Nonto's country, the country right next door) Iwas quite cool and relaxing. I went to the malls, amusement park and other areas close enough to visit. Schools were re-opened and thus this was the busiest month at work also. And once again this was another month that I was sick.

August

After getting permission from our manager that we cud get the last week off (well he told us this in our first week), We headed off to Cape Town for the week. I hadn't been touristy in Johannesburg and now I was finally gettin my chance to be myself, no uniform or dress codes and completely my style. With a full list of places to visit from the work staff, ticket in hand we went via plane (2hrs).

Cape Town vs. Jozi

1. A lot more 'coloureds'. A coloured is basically a mix of black and white (started when the white colonialists raped the black slaves and a baby was conceived). Coloureds are distinguished by their complexion and their ability to speak Africaans (one of the 11 official languages).

2. English is more spoken. There are a lot more businesses dependent upon tourists coming. Thus English is spoken by most.

3. More accepting people. In CT I found that I could be more myself, hairstyle, clothes style and everything, whilst in Jozi I felt like I had to more blend in and not portray my individuality.

Adapting.

So after about a month in the internship things that seemed so different before had started to become so natural. For example, I was learning more of the language, so when addressing people that I dint know I said in their language, so there was no immediate notice of me being a foreigner.

I also started to eat more of the food, and thus became less sick than I was in the beginning, however with less than a month to come back to Canada I became sick again.

With no showers in my appt, I began to really enjoy taking baths (tell me, isnt it economically better to have showers than baths?? doesn't a shower save time and water and heat, etc... thats just what I thought).

Also I had to tone down my accent, a Trinidadian accent is pretty hard to understand and with me doing science shows for the general public and teaching in the schools, I had to make a conscious effort to speak without my accent.

Greeting people is the same.., Eating is the same, except for this time when I was eating PAP (check the pics on the link before) with a fork, someone was laughing at me, so since then I ate it with my fingers n proud... I wear uniform so no change there.

I have become quite a good bargainer, I get like at least 20 Rands (thats their currency) off all my purchases, but not in store, at the side of the road. U can get anything at the sife of the road though!! I got my hear combed there and it was such a cool hairstyle for a cheap price...

The deep stuff?

Im a quite friendly person, so if I see you I'll say hi. I basically had to stop being extra nice to people in south africa as people thought that that was an invitation from me to be more than friends or something. This was quite challenging as this is part of me, but I tried not to do it in a way to attract these guys.

I am quite conscious now about wastage, I now take smaller portions of food, so I have no choice but to eat all. I dont throw away food as I know over there peopl go so long without food. I dont buy things that are too expensive because when a simple thing would do the trick, its wasting unnecessary money. I'm not a girl who lives simply for brand names, however, I do have my indulges, and I am trying quite hard to limit these.

Education is quite valued here and I promised myself to try to work extra hard when I return to school. People who want education here some cant afford it, or have to work to support their families. I am priveledged so I will make use of that.