Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Things Have to Turn Around...Don't They?
If you're new to the blog, and want to start at the beginning, stop reading now and scroll down to the first post.
Great news...my sister and her Jack Russell, Jesse James, arrived for a 10 day visit on Sunday. I am VERY happy to see them. I thought my stuff was going to arrive from Canada while they were here so she could help me with setting up my place, but it only arrives in Durban on Aug 26th and doesn't get here until the first week of September. That's okay though.
Things are always the same when we are together--all about shopping. We made it a mission to get some of the appliance and house shopping done while she was here. We went out for a couple of hours and bought major stuff and managed huge bargains: fridge, microwave, vacuum, hair dryer and some odds and ends all for less than $500!!!! Insane! And we're going out to get a 29" tv...and it's on sale for $250!!!! This place is crazy, man!
Of course with the sunshine comes the rain and true to form, I am working hard to make sure all the crap stuff happens up front and I have a joyous and funfilled time whilst here in South Africa. The first month presented it's challenges with getting culturally acclimated...see previous post. I figured with the start of a new month things would get easier and run a lot smoother. See what a positive attitude gets you--the first two days of the new month have seen crap happen yet again. Last night I experienced the joy of a South African hospital. Not to worry...I live in a really nice area and the hospital was quite nice, actually. So why was I inside a hospital you ask? All I can say is Stay away from really sharp exacto craft knives if you aren't paying attention and don't really know what you're doing. Ooops, I slip with it, gashing into my left ring finger at the top knuckle, palm side. As soon as it happend and the blood spurted...yep, spurted, I knew it was bad. Thank goodness for the map book...turns out I live about three blocks from the hospital. Think stuck pig and you'll get an idea of the amount of blood...I had a look at the clamp actually inside my finger holding the blood vessel. Nice. One hour, one tetnus shot, a couple of tries at doing stitches, and one tournaquet later, all was reasonably right with the world again. It took 7 stitches but it's alright. the doctor wouldn't win any cosmetic surgery awards-- the stitches are a mess and the sides don't quite match up so there will be some scar tissue, but at least it's done. Now I'm afraid to take the dressing off...no doubt it willbe gross and will look worse than it actually is. It's a cut for goodness sake...not brain surgery!!! The house did look like a CSI episode though with all the blood.
Oh yes and today...the hits just keep on coming. Had to take the rental car back and get another one for this month. Stopped to get gas and it's a mission to use credit cards here. I decided to use a bank machine and pay cash. And something I've never done before happened...I must have left the card in the machine because ten minutes later at Hertz it was no where to be found. Obviously gone from the gas station as well. No worries...I cancelled the card with no damage but now have no way to easily access cash in a cash based society. And without the card, can't do online banking to pay off the credit cards to at least keep cash advances going there. Of course I'll figure it out, but man...when does the fun start?
On the bright side, I finally got a post box so can now start getting mail reasonably reliably. So, at least one step ahead...got to take success where you find it!
On the other bright side, the weather is getting nicer as Spring is on it's way here in the southern hemisphere, and so I look forward to using the pool...this is the "little" one across the drive from my door.
Well that's it for this time. Check in often for updates and please feel free to leave comments in the comments section.
Miss everyone!!!!
Great news...my sister and her Jack Russell, Jesse James, arrived for a 10 day visit on Sunday. I am VERY happy to see them. I thought my stuff was going to arrive from Canada while they were here so she could help me with setting up my place, but it only arrives in Durban on Aug 26th and doesn't get here until the first week of September. That's okay though.
Things are always the same when we are together--all about shopping. We made it a mission to get some of the appliance and house shopping done while she was here. We went out for a couple of hours and bought major stuff and managed huge bargains: fridge, microwave, vacuum, hair dryer and some odds and ends all for less than $500!!!! Insane! And we're going out to get a 29" tv...and it's on sale for $250!!!! This place is crazy, man!
Of course with the sunshine comes the rain and true to form, I am working hard to make sure all the crap stuff happens up front and I have a joyous and funfilled time whilst here in South Africa. The first month presented it's challenges with getting culturally acclimated...see previous post. I figured with the start of a new month things would get easier and run a lot smoother. See what a positive attitude gets you--the first two days of the new month have seen crap happen yet again. Last night I experienced the joy of a South African hospital. Not to worry...I live in a really nice area and the hospital was quite nice, actually. So why was I inside a hospital you ask? All I can say is Stay away from really sharp exacto craft knives if you aren't paying attention and don't really know what you're doing. Ooops, I slip with it, gashing into my left ring finger at the top knuckle, palm side. As soon as it happend and the blood spurted...yep, spurted, I knew it was bad. Thank goodness for the map book...turns out I live about three blocks from the hospital. Think stuck pig and you'll get an idea of the amount of blood...I had a look at the clamp actually inside my finger holding the blood vessel. Nice. One hour, one tetnus shot, a couple of tries at doing stitches, and one tournaquet later, all was reasonably right with the world again. It took 7 stitches but it's alright. the doctor wouldn't win any cosmetic surgery awards-- the stitches are a mess and the sides don't quite match up so there will be some scar tissue, but at least it's done. Now I'm afraid to take the dressing off...no doubt it willbe gross and will look worse than it actually is. It's a cut for goodness sake...not brain surgery!!! The house did look like a CSI episode though with all the blood.
Oh yes and today...the hits just keep on coming. Had to take the rental car back and get another one for this month. Stopped to get gas and it's a mission to use credit cards here. I decided to use a bank machine and pay cash. And something I've never done before happened...I must have left the card in the machine because ten minutes later at Hertz it was no where to be found. Obviously gone from the gas station as well. No worries...I cancelled the card with no damage but now have no way to easily access cash in a cash based society. And without the card, can't do online banking to pay off the credit cards to at least keep cash advances going there. Of course I'll figure it out, but man...when does the fun start?
On the bright side, I finally got a post box so can now start getting mail reasonably reliably. So, at least one step ahead...got to take success where you find it!
On the other bright side, the weather is getting nicer as Spring is on it's way here in the southern hemisphere, and so I look forward to using the pool...this is the "little" one across the drive from my door.
Well that's it for this time. Check in often for updates and please feel free to leave comments in the comments section.
Miss everyone!!!!
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
3 weeks down, 101 to go...
Yesterday marked the official three week mark of my arrival. It seems like closer to 3 months not three weeks! Settling in has been a bit of a challenge and I'm patiently (okay...not so patiently) waiting for the fun and excitement to start. you kow that stuff that everyone's talking about when they say "You must be so excited!" when you tell them you're moving to South Africa.
As much as everthing seems pretty similar on the surface to North America, there are some very real differences that cause some cutural consternation.
1. Opening a bank account. This takes at minimum 5 trips to the bank, not including the trip you make thinking they'll have regular work hours. Now I understand "banker's hours". Banks close at 3:30 here and 11am on Saturday. Well, now I know. Anyway, because of fraud and serious capital flight risks caused by people sending money out of the country at the end of apartheid, it takes a lot for foreign nationals to open accounts...even savings accounts. Chequing accounts take 3-6 months longer, once you've proven yourself! So it takes proof of a residence (and if you live in a room rented from someone else they have to write a letter stating that); proof of a job contract in letter including contract duration--and when you provide that they will then tell you they can't open the account today--they have to call the employer to verify;ID obviously; and 3 passport photos. Not exactly sure why and they had no explanation. To get the work visa to come here only took 2 and they sent one back. Since I don't have a printer here yet, that means going a half hour to the mall to get the print offs and pictures taken care of. Then more trips to the bank.
2. Food. Retaurants are similar here...pizza places, hamburger joints including McDonald's (that's the only western hamberger place I've seen), and KFC is big here too. But other than scrambled eggs and peanut butter sandwiches, i have yet to have anything that tastes close to reasonable. I had pasta and ham& mushroom cream sauce the other day--the sauce tasted like neither ham nor mushrooms. More like plastic. Not good. Having said that, food in restaurants is very good generally. Slightly different, but quite good. Other than I got food poisoning from some pasta I ate on Monday.
3. Security. We've all heard about the high crime rate in South Africa, and they are well aware of it here. I live in a gated community with a guard house and high walls with electric wiring. But that hasn't stopped at least 5 break-ins in the last few weeks. Luckily it isn't violent crime, more portable theft...laptops and ipods. It's pretty easy to jimmy open the slider door and just walk off with it. My next door neighbour and the guy up stairs have been hit in the last 2 weeks. It's tough to know what to do--if you take that stuff with you, someone could break into your car. I'm going to get slider door bars so I don't get broken into.
On the plus side, it has been amazing for winter. We had a cold snap of 45 - 55 degrees for a few dsays and someone said snow in Joburg but I must have been sleeping. It was the first snow in the city in 25 years. It's cool and cloudy today but it has generally been about 75 degrees (22C), clear and sunny most days.
I'll be getting my furniture delivered in about 10 days and my sister, jaclyn in coming at the beginning of next week, so it's all looking up!
As much as everthing seems pretty similar on the surface to North America, there are some very real differences that cause some cutural consternation.
1. Opening a bank account. This takes at minimum 5 trips to the bank, not including the trip you make thinking they'll have regular work hours. Now I understand "banker's hours". Banks close at 3:30 here and 11am on Saturday. Well, now I know. Anyway, because of fraud and serious capital flight risks caused by people sending money out of the country at the end of apartheid, it takes a lot for foreign nationals to open accounts...even savings accounts. Chequing accounts take 3-6 months longer, once you've proven yourself! So it takes proof of a residence (and if you live in a room rented from someone else they have to write a letter stating that); proof of a job contract in letter including contract duration--and when you provide that they will then tell you they can't open the account today--they have to call the employer to verify;ID obviously; and 3 passport photos. Not exactly sure why and they had no explanation. To get the work visa to come here only took 2 and they sent one back. Since I don't have a printer here yet, that means going a half hour to the mall to get the print offs and pictures taken care of. Then more trips to the bank.
2. Food. Retaurants are similar here...pizza places, hamburger joints including McDonald's (that's the only western hamberger place I've seen), and KFC is big here too. But other than scrambled eggs and peanut butter sandwiches, i have yet to have anything that tastes close to reasonable. I had pasta and ham& mushroom cream sauce the other day--the sauce tasted like neither ham nor mushrooms. More like plastic. Not good. Having said that, food in restaurants is very good generally. Slightly different, but quite good. Other than I got food poisoning from some pasta I ate on Monday.
3. Security. We've all heard about the high crime rate in South Africa, and they are well aware of it here. I live in a gated community with a guard house and high walls with electric wiring. But that hasn't stopped at least 5 break-ins in the last few weeks. Luckily it isn't violent crime, more portable theft...laptops and ipods. It's pretty easy to jimmy open the slider door and just walk off with it. My next door neighbour and the guy up stairs have been hit in the last 2 weeks. It's tough to know what to do--if you take that stuff with you, someone could break into your car. I'm going to get slider door bars so I don't get broken into.
On the plus side, it has been amazing for winter. We had a cold snap of 45 - 55 degrees for a few dsays and someone said snow in Joburg but I must have been sleeping. It was the first snow in the city in 25 years. It's cool and cloudy today but it has generally been about 75 degrees (22C), clear and sunny most days.
I'll be getting my furniture delivered in about 10 days and my sister, jaclyn in coming at the beginning of next week, so it's all looking up!
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