Spinnin'

So, apparently this blogging business isn't coming as naturally as I thought it might. I just want everyone to know I'm doing well!! Mom said I'm not writing her enough information in my emails. This is true. I seem to be just a minute late all the time and showing up to the grocery store just after it's closed EVERY TIME, EVERY DAY. (I'm not going to the grocery store everyday, but I'm just trying to tell you I'm always a bit out of it and definitively a foreigner in my botching up of things.) It's not that there's nothing to share...quite the opposite. I just don't know where to start, how to sum up, nor have had I time to process half the stuff that's coming my way. (That's the view from my flat to the left.)

My first week at work was fairly a disaster, but the second and third have improved mightily. Tomorrow I'm going to downtown Cape Town to visit tour bus companies in the hopes that they might visit our strip mall on their way to major tourist attractions...our little store is located right in the middle of everything, but no one seems to see it. We're hoping this might be a way to get some more business. I had a cool experience on Friday where I was (briefly) forced to go it alone at the store and although I was nervous none of the crafters would understand me or care what I was saying, I discovered they speak much better English than they let on and they know my name! I was thinking they didn't even know that yet. We communicated and almost completely achieved our goal for the day (for an order that was due yesterday.) Anne, my American boss/missionary, is so vocal in her appreciation of me and that is very encouraging. She's been doing the work of at least 4 people for a few years now.

I live with the busiest person I know and she's nice enough to include me in a lot of things...but sometimes I'm busier than I would like to be. When I was in Malawi, I could journal about the taste of an egg for hours (not that I did that) because there wasn't a whole lot else to do and here there's enough going on/to do that I'm quite rushed and more scheduled than I had thought I might be. I've done a bunch of the tourist stuff that I somehow didn't get to in my time here last year--Table Mountain, climbing Chapman's peak (kind of), a wine tour. I thought I might space this out over some months, but I've made a new friend from NYC who's only here for a month, so when she asks me if I want to do something, I say, 'Yes.' Everyone else I hang out with has done that stuff 100 times. My reference to halfway climbing Chapman's Peak deserves further explanation...but I think I have to write it in complete form. Let's just say, next time I think I see someone too far out in the ocean, I'll think twice before I call the NSRI (the SA equivalent of the US Coast Guard.) One helicopter, 4 boats and 1 truck later, we were damn embarrassed.

I've been running on the beach, which is my happiest place, and doing a 'Pilates on the Ball' DVD in my flat--this is as hilarious as it sounds, but a good workout! Today I went surfing for the second time. Actually I just got good and smacked around by the waves, but I donned a wetsuit and 9'2" board and expended a lot of energy...it's a stretch to call this 'surfing,' but I choose to.

I haven't seen one moment of the Olympics. I mostly don't know what I'm missing, but from everyone's Facebook statuses and the Yahoo homepage, I know there's big stuff going on. It's weird to be out of the country and not watching. You know I love musical montages. My (American) friend Amanda watched the Opening Ceremony, narrated by BBC announcers. Apparently, after very respectful, panning shots of heads of state as their countries were marching out, when they got to GB, the announcers said, 'Here's a face we all know.' Interesting. One of my favorite things to do is talk to South Africans. About anything. It's just fascinating to hear what's on their minds and their opinions about world politics. On Friday night I met a South African woman who lived in Chicago for two years--in 1960!! She was hilarious--a bartender--and asked me, 'Do they still have that intersection, Rush and Division?' I laughed, looking at her a little sideways, and said, 'Yes.' She said, 'Can you believe my boss took me there? I was young and green and a little plump and he took me to the intersection of Rush and Perversion as soon as I got off the airplane.' I laughed and may never refer to that intersection the same ever again. There is just a lot of chatting that goes on and I wish I could do a better job of recreating it for you, because it's interesting, stimulating, and hilarious most of the time.

Now you know that I'm still alive. Just not as articulate or over-thinkery as normal. Miss you.