Marie-wind! Take Ten

Fun, Facts, and Follies From the Last Few Days...

• A few South African word substitutions relating to food:
• Dessert = Pudding
• Cookie = Biscuit
• Bun = Roll 

• Houses here are made out of concrete and brick, not wood and drywall. Because of this, family homes do not have fire alarms installed. Yet, I still cringe in anticipation of that familiar shrill BEEEEP! BEEEEEEP! every time I burn toast.

• It's getting cold here! Yes -- cold. I kid you not. We're in the throes of winter and temperatures now go down to under 10 degrees at night. It may not sound too bad, but remember: they don't have heated homes here! I had to buy a wheat bag to keep my tootsies warm! 

• Cars are very important to South Africans. What you drive defines who you are. So you'll never ever find a self-respecting CEO or lawyer rucking up to work in a 2001 Matrix. We've even spotted BMWs sitting outside shacks in the townships! They'd rather drive a sweet car than put that money into a better home. Along the same lines, it is very common for people in SA to drive brand new cars right off the lot, meanwhile that doesn't happen very often back in Canada. Also, high end brands such as Mercedes, BMW, and Audi are a dime a dozen here. For a developing country, this place is teeming with expensive rides! 

• Phones ring in two sounds here. Instead of the one, long "brrrriinngggg" that you get in Canada, you hear two short pulses: "brring brrring". 

• This past weekend Jonno had us over to celebrate his and his wife's birthdays. It was Mexican themed and boasted a punch made up of two bottles of vodka, two bottles of cane, a dozen limes/lemons, and some ice. Needless to say, the evening ended with six of us --all holding university honors and masters degrees -- holding hands, running around in a circle, and belting out every word to Disney's Lion King song, The Circle of Life. Our precious Disney sing-along moments were only outshone by my sokkie dancing with Chris to cheezy Afrikaans music :) :) What a good night! 

• A car blinker = flicker here.

• Cars don't stop for pedestrians! The attitude is "car first, person second". SA drivers simply expect pedestrians to make way for their vehicle and to jump out of the road to let them through. This is a tough lesson to learn for a Canadian who previously lived in Wolfville, Nova Scotia -- the town where cars would stop for you the second your body leaned ever so slightly towards crossing the street! My SA friends are constantly pulling me out of harm's way in parking lots.

• In the produce section in grocery stores you have to weigh your fruit/veggies and print out a price sticker not at the till, but right then and there. Sometimes you must do it yourself but most often times than not there is an attendant who's sole job is to weigh and sticker price the produce for you.  

• Rain boots are called gum boots.

•  A few weeks back Ian and Didier took me to Lusito Land, a Portuguese festival in downtown Joburg. It was a little dodge driving there amongst all the dilapidated buildings and sketchy street people,but the sunshine and yummy food (chourico & rolls, sugary sweet farturas, and ice cold caipirinhas - yummm)   we soaked up once we arrived made it all worthwhile. There were hundreds of vendor booths set up, along with a main stage with live music and about a dozen Portuguese restaurants to choose from. We got to meet up with Ian's cousin and while they took a ride on the scary amusement park rides, I enjoyed a fried corkscrew-cut potato on a stick. No joke. haha 

• Interesting items of note that I've found in grocery stores:

Check out these decidedly African flavors of canned pate! Kudu, Springbok, Impala, Ostrich, Zebra, and Wildebeest!...and no, I didn't try any. 

The name-brand coupled with the product is enough to make any 10 year old giggle