Thursday in a nutshell- 3am start, dreaded goodbyes, airports, take offs, flights and landings.
I felt that I had done this so many times, just never alone- which made me both anxious and excited at the same time. My fruit juice on my Melb-Syd Qanatas flight had the same use by date as my trip (18 July 09) which I thought a wonderful coincidence! We were over half an hour late into Sydney, but I'd left heaps of time there for duty free and customs business so there was no need to stress, although I did a bit anyway! If you're reading this, you know me! From Sydney, it was a 14 hour Qantas flight to Jo'burg. Other than the entertainment system being a bit on the blink it was a fairly good flight. I was sitting next to a guy called Brent (read Brint) from New Zealand who grew up in South Africa but his family used to live in Zimbabwe and his mum is Irish. Think that's messed up? You should have heard his accent!!! At Jo'burg I had the most lazy customs search I have ever seen, and was greeted by a guy with a Monash South Africa sign. He said he had been there since 10am (it was now 4pm) and often just hangs around waiting for students to arrive and calls the drivers. As we sat for quite a while, seemingly for no reason, he offered me a used padlock which I thought a bit suss and even though he seemed upset when I didn't trust him, I thought it best to pass on it. Weird I know, but eventually a driver turned up and some other students who needed driving back so it was ok. By the time we finally got to the uni through the peak hour traffic, I was a zombie and ready to go to bed. I had to go to some meeting about rules (don't ask me what the rules are, that was a bit of a blur!) and then there were ginormous issues about finding me a room. At times it seems like noone here is in charge- driver calls someone, RA shows up, RA calls someone, someone shows up with no key.. etc etc. It was frustrating, but I've come to learn that that's just how it is here. Sitting around, standing around, what's the hurry? TIA: this is Africa, and you should never expect anything to happen immediately. The local speakers even have just now meaning 'soon/in the next little while' and now now meaning 'very soon'. I found my room with no pillow, sheets or blanket but by 11pm I had some bedding (some 3 hours or so later). Zzzzz..
On Friday I met Will, an Aussie who came on exchange at the start of last year and loves it so much he has come back twice.. he doesn't ever want to leave and considers himself South African! He was great help though, and with another of this year's Aussies took me to get some shopping. We went to Woolworths, which is like the place to get swanky gourmet foods, and Pick'n'Pay for your regular bits and bots. The shops are uncannily like in Australia, down to the Kellogg's Corn Flakes, Curves Gym on the corner. Everything in the shops here has a plastic container. There is so much packaging that it is hard to imagine how we manage to recycle so much at home. But they also haven't heard of recycling here, not even at the uni. And the only reason you pay for plastic bags here is because they need to pay the wages of the extra person who stands at the end of the checkout to fill them!! That night we had a 'braai' (not 'bry') and to cut a long story short- jetlagged, cooking in the dark for 2 hours on hardly hot coals, meat red and so decided to just go to bed.. hungry, but bed! Zzzz...
Saturday I woke up at 4am a little hungry, and polished off a tin of pringles, yum! Found out that the library was closed, apparently just this weekend, not the one before or the next, just the one I needed it on. No reason, they just didn't feel like opening. Fair enough.
That night we went to a place called Montecasino, which is an incredibly tacky casino with restuarants and novelty stores. The place is Italian themed to the finest detail, to the point that you come to appreciate how imaginative they've been! It was a bit creepy to realise when eating 'outdoors' that it wasn't real- we were under the pretend night sky with a pretend river running alongside us when outside it was hot and still daytime! Must be a complete head spin for the gamblers though, not knowing where they are or what time it is. I had a fantastic night drinking cocktails and eating good food with Kath & Larissa, two Aussies who have been here two weeks already. We were loving the fact that it cost us under $30 AUD for 2 cocktails, 2 ciders and a big dinner!!!!
Sunday and Monday involved a bit more shopping and the arrival of a few more from Clayton. There are now 9 of us here, but 5 have gone to Durban for the week. It's on the coast and would have been awesome, but us others needed some time to settle in and will have time to do great stuff later!! The list of places to go has already exceeded the time we have though! Lucky it looks like I only have uni on Mondays and Tuesdays for now :) :)
I'm still yet to get a security pass and do anything of any real cultural significance, but it will happen. Hopefully in the next few days we will take a trip to the Apartheid Museum and Soweto, and eventually all that needs to be done will be. We just have to remember this is Africa, and here they run on a totally different schedule- or no schedule. And I'm getting used to it... TIA.
~Y
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