Hey folks! Know I’ve been quiet of late, especially considering the massive blog explosion of the past month, but I’ve been in transit for the last week. Back to Disneyland, but not back to the Midwest just yet. So…bear with me as I try to take it all in, process, and blog it J
I guess we last left off about a week ago with the semifinals for the World Cup: Uruguay vs. Holland and Spain vs. Germany. Right? My last weekend in South Africa was pretty much as awesome as it could be, but there was a plentiful lack of soccer. I mean it’s pretty impossible to not step in a pile of soccer in SA at the moment…but I didn’t go out of my way to get me some soccer. As I said, I felt pretty indifferent about the final teams and my departure for the USA overlapped with the final game of the World Cup so I for the 1st time in the whole month I actually had a higher priority than watching World Cup soccer. Wow.
For the rest of the week I just tied up my loose ends in South Africa. This time there were surprisingly few things to attend to…just a hard drive warranty to iron out and packing and visiting. Sweet. It’s nice not to have stress on this front cos it always seems like you leave a million things til the end when you are shifting.
Friday I spent the night at my friend Edwin’s house and we watched a bunch of cool art movies. READ: nudity and classical music…that’s pretty much an art movie to me. LOL. We watched Bitter Moon, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and probably some other things. Unbearable Lightness of Being was the most excellent movie. I highly recommend it. It was nice to chill with Edwin. He’s been my best friend and constant companion in Pretoria. It was good to spend some last one-on-one time together tucked away from the World Cup swirl.
The next morning, early, I psyched myself up to hit Joburg. It was really important for me to see my friends Bento, Daphney, and their son before I left. Priority. Also needed to head out to Kempton Park to visit my friend Nhawu. A close friend and a non-technological friend. There is a high chance I will never see him again. But you’re still in my heart, friend! Nolu, a friend from school days in SA past also asked to hang out so there was much to do and many to see in Jozi. Are you following this?
I tried, and failed, to get a posse together for Joburg. Joburg by taxi is kind of scary…even for me. So if you can bring company it’s always preferred. Bree Street (where the taxis from Pretoria drop off in Joburg) is not exactly a friendly place for anyone. But…a necessary evil when you got a people mission in Joburg. I landed in Bree Street, put on my streetwise visage, and headed out into the taxi rank madness. The ride was cool. Taxi ranks are always interesting places to check out, but can be dangerous so you don’t want to be around snap’n pics and ogling the urban landscape. I saw a hilarious shop called “MTN: Meat too nice.” MTN is a cell phone company in South Africa so it was a nice little wordplay on the butcher’s part. Well done. When my friends Ramsey and Lina were visiting from Jordan they wanted to go truck around Joburg. I was kind of against it but willing to accompany them rather then send them to Bree Street on their own. In the end we didn’t go to Joburg and I feel kind of bad for not taking them after having my own journey to Joburg this last weekend in SA. Sorry Ramsey and Lina! Cos you would have loved checking out the sights…
Navigated through Bree Street with no problems even though I had to walk a few blocks to another rank for my taxi. Got to Bento and Daphney’s place without too much static. Had some “taxi scene since World Cup” chatting with a fellow passenger. He was saying that there were a lot more white people on the taxis in Joburg since World Cup (nice!). He also said the drivers were being nicer too J It was great to see my friends and hang out with Lil B…he’s a cutie and has the most amazing deep dark wells of eyes. Adorable! My friend Cbuza swung by and we chatted and hung out over some beers. Daphney and Bento cooked up some pap and meat so I got my last fix on the pap n vleis tip…thanks! Another friend, Nolu, came by and then it was time for me to head off. Hugs to the Bento and Daph fam J Love you!
Nolu and I were going to go have some goodbye beers at the Joburg Zoo Lake Bowling Club. Probably my favoritest place to have beers in SA. The space is very reminiscent of a local Legion hall or hole-in-the-wall at home. Some down home Wisconsin wood paneling shit. Fish Fry Friday and such. Aw yeah. It’s so chill and nice at the Bowling Club. They play hiphop and other music that doesn’t suck and it’s not a fancy place at all. This is important to me. I am under the impression that many places in Joburg are very hoity toity places and that just ain’t me. Also there is just too much franchise action in SA. It means you end up drinking in the same bar in one city that you would drink at in your home town…this might be nice for some but I find it very sterile, unimaginative, and boring. Also the Bowling Club beer and food is cheap. Definitely a plus.
Nolu and I met a very nice young man that claims he wasn’t a nerd…however anyone that references so many scientific papers in the span of 3 beers is totally a nerd. Sorry Paul! Embrace it J Good conversation and chilling with Nolu. We went to school in SA in 2002 and have been in touch since. It was super great to chill with her and this was only the beginning of the night! We headed off to catch some of the losers bracket final (Uruguay vs. Germany) at a braai with some of our other friends from school days past. This was a major treat for me cos I haven’t seen these guys in awhile! I did see them once in the last 6 months I spent in SA but this was definitely nice to see them on my way out. We have been friends for like 8 years now…whoa. So there’s a lot of joy when we get together. And beer. Ha ha ha.
I guess I sort of watched some of the game. I was more interested in hanging with my friends, shooting the shit, and eating chicken wings. I don’t even remember who won…Germany? Yes, I think it was Germany cos there were plenty of “ha ha Uruguay” jokes going around. I guess their vuvuzelas were silent now. There were a bunch of ladies there and we were having the most hilarious discussion about World Cup things. It was cool to get the vibe from Joburg since I’ve mostly only been in Pretoria for the duration. One lady said that she even (slightly embarrassingly) changed her ringtone to the “Wave your Flag” song from K’naan. But we all agreed that “Waka Waka” was so getting on everyone’s nerves. One lady shared a tale of a friend of her’s that had a whole facebook photo album dedicated to pics he took with strangers that mistook him for a famous soccer star. HA HA HA. Another chick told a story about famous people shopping in Sandton Square (the most fancy mall in Joburg) and how the mall had to be shutdown when R Kelly was around. Whoa. That was an interesting little tidbit.
Also learned a new word: kumnandi…meaning “it’s niiiiiiiiiice.” Said: koom-NAHN-dee…excellent.
Nolu and I hung around a bit more and then decided to head home. I needed to be up early the next day since I was, um, leaving the country in the evening. It was so great and unexpected to see my boys from UNP…big ups and love you much.
Driving around Joburg was great, both at night and the next morning. There is so much wonderful public art up for the World Cup. I really have to hand it to SA in that respect. There is often a lot of neat public art initiatives in various places in the country…even before World Cup. I saw so many cool things like a freeway exit grassy space filled with silhouettes of hands giving various gestures. Other people have been bringing the World Cup noise visually from awesome billboards with soccer or SA flag themes to giant soccer balls filled with sand hanging from a cranes. I saw one billboard that said “In Africa we don’t ole, we ayoba!” Nice one. I even saw a small car painted in the South Africa flag design. Way to come out and show it off, SA!
The next morning, Nolu and I got the SA breakfast of champions…boerewors. I topped mine off with a Stoney’s Ginger Beer and pretty much “ate SAn” for the rest of the day. Koekesisters, malva pudding with fresh cream, and toasted sandwiches. Had to get my last fill! I headed back to Pretoria to get some people and my bags together so I could leave the country. I had a lot of things to do for the whole weekend but somehow they all happened effortlessly. It was a truly great weekend. Big love to all those that helped it out and that participated.
I took my last taxi ride in SA through the mean streets of Joburg and then into the far less threatening, but no less dangerous in its own way, highway back to Pretoria. There was one moment as we were driving through Hillbrow (a very notorious neighborhood in SA) that some religiousy sounding organ music came on the radio while all the Jozi hustle and bustle did its thing outside the taxi. Crazy signs, gutted buildings, people just walking the streets on a Sunday. All against the backdrop of this moving music. It was wonderful. These are the taxi moments I thrive on and one reason why a little taxi meditation session is always in order for me. I am going to miss you, loves! I think I’m addicted to public transportation. I always get such a calm and meditative feeling from moving through the world that way. Yes, it can be frustrating and annoying to use public transportation, but it is something I truly love in an overall sense. Metra train in Chi…I can’t wait to meet you again J Then again, maybe it has nothing to do with the mode of transportation. Maybe it’s the gypsy in me just happy to be moving again.
Got home, got my things together, got my people together. Said goodbye to the neighbors and Helen, Ross, and Nicholas. It’s so weird to say goodbye to people for me now. I say goodbye a lot. Maybe we all do. Since I started travelling and being more out in the world, it has made goodbyes easier. Even for people you are pretty sure you will never see again. Although it’s not always something that makes you feel good…saying goodbye is a natural progression in pretty much all things. I think once you realize that it takes away some of the power and baggage of saying goodbye. It’s just a normal thing to me now. Some goodbyes are hard though. It was rough to say goodbye to Helen, Ross, and Nicholas. They have meant so much to me in my time in SA. My rock. I almost started crying when I said goodbye, but kept it up Spartan style. I am a viking. And they’ll be back to the USA soon or I’ll be back there at some point…so it’s just a ta ta for now…
(TTFN Helen, Ross, and my little SA heart)
Edwin, Surprise, and two of Surprise’s friends made up the airport crew. We headed to the airport and stopped off in Kempton Park to fetch Nhawu. It’s always nice to see him and I miss having him nearby. The airport is soccer crazy. You could even still hear people blowing vuvuzelas there. It’s nuts. People had like 5 vuvuzelas per carryon. I can’t front…I was pack’n 5 vuvuzelas in my bag too! We got to the airport before my ticket counter opened so we went to have a beer together. We wandered around the airport getting kind of lost. The airport has changed a lot because of World Cup upgrades. We eventually got to a place to have a drink and settled in for our last chat. My friend from vet school, Jeanne, popped in for a quick goodbye.
The final game was going to start playing at 8pm. There was also the closing ceremony on just before the last game. I feel bad for my friends because they probably missed all of that to see me off. Thanks so much, guys! As can be counted on…there was static for me at the airport. It always seems to happen no matter how much I try to avoid it by being a good thorough girl. This time, because I bought my ticket online and then changed it, I didn’t have a paper ticket or a current confirmation number. I called twice in the week before I flew to confirm my reservation. I am just that paranoid. Both times the operator said that everything was fine…but that was not the case at the airport. After some quizzical looks, shit eating grins from me, and supervisor overrides, I was able to get a boarding pass. My bags were way overweight but the lady behind the counter just let me slide on that…bless her soul.
So my bags were on. Boarding pass in hand. Time to say goodbye again. It was pretty uneventful but I had a lot of emotion saying goodbye. At the airport I turn into a different animal. Very focused on getting to my gate and waiting cos I am constantly paranoid that I’m going to miss my flight. So I hope I wasn’t too slack on my goodbye…cos I love you guys!
I headed off to my gate after that. Security check. Passport stamp. These things always go so smooth in the airport in Joburg. Flight outside the USA is so much more relaxing, usually. The way to the gate was an orgy of last minute duty free gifts. Soccer, “Africa,” and liquor. Spend your last rands. The game was playing on some of the TVs along the way but there was also a perplexing set of TVs that were just advertising things. Ten TV sets in a row. It was strange. I was imagining what it would have been like if every TV set in the airport was broadcasting the game. Really cool…that’s what it would be.
I got some food and watched a few minutes of the game. Said my last “Dankie, mamas” for now to the café ladies and then this paranoid android headed straight to her gate. Everything went pretty smooth from there. Got on the plane. Shed a few tears as we breezed over the nighttime Guateng urban carpet. Actually slept a bit. Read a book. Played with the little kid next to me. Usually I can’t sleep on planes so I take a sleeping pill and drink an airplane bottle of red wine. Knocks me out every time. Egypt Air, the carrier I was taking home, was a dry flight so that idea was out the window. But for the most part I slept well and was otherwise entertained. Random note: some Egypt Air flights still use metal silverware…cool. One of the stewards asked to kiss me in a late night back of the plane chat…I wasn’t really amused so I just went back to my seat and passed out. Weirdo.
When I got to Egypt I had to change planes. It was at this point that I realized I didn’t have another boarding pass for the flight from Cairo to NYC. Usually when you check in and check your bags then you get all the boarding passes you need for the rest of your trip. But I only got one in Joburg. I went to a counter in Cairo and tried to get this sorted out. My first question as I approached the counter was: “So, who won the World Cup?” The lady told me Spain and smiled. Yay!
All joy aside now. The ticket people proceeded to tell me that I didn’t have a flight for NYC. I didn’t have a paper ticket to show them (in Joburg they told me I didn’t need one) and no other way to prove my flight except for my name. I did have some email that had important information, but I didn’t have a way to use email just then. So they kept telling me I’m not booked. I keep telling them I paid. Etc. Finally I ask if I can use a computer somewhere in the airport. They allow me to use the one they have behind the desk. After a lot of hassles connecting and using crap browsers (Chrome lover…and can’t go back!)…I connected and got my info. The customer service people did their thing and recovered my place on the plane. Remember I called twice in the week leading up to my flight to the Egypt Air office and they kept telling me it was fine. I must exist in some computer somewhere! After standing my ground and working with the super helpful agents…I had a boarding pass in hand. Success!
The security in the Cairo airport is hard core. I went through x-ray security twice before boarding the plane. These folks do not mess around. I had to open and empty parts of my bag at both places. But in the end I did get on the plane! I had problems at the gate with my enormous bag but again the baggage fairies shined on me and everything got worked out. Major airports in almost every place look about the same when you are right on the runway…sort of empty and desolate. In Chicago this feeling is aided by all the concrete. In Cairo the runway emptiness comes from the sandy desert feel of the place. Like it was a place swept out of the desert for its purpose. Maybe this is just fantasy on my part, but that is how it felt.
My companions for the trip were an overweight lady with diabetes that had to keep switching seats then getting up. She just needed a lot of help, but me and the other guy sitting in our set of chairs were more than happy to help her out. And the other companion was a hot young Egyptian man…nice one. I mostly slept a lot and read and re-read the reading materials I had. We were given Egyptian newspapers for free so I read some of that. Slept a lot in little pockets. The cute young man I sat next to slept almost the whole time and somehow it helped me to sleep too. This flight was 12 hours and for some reason it seemed to take a million years.
It was interesting to take a flight from an Arabic country. There was a different feel to everything. I just met a nice young Muslim in South Africa and that has sparked a lot of simple cultural questions in my head. Things like: Is it okay under Halal guidelines to eat Mopani worms?, Are there different Arabic fonts like with our characters, such as heveltica, etc?, Do you use more ink printing a paper in Arabic or characters like in English?, and Do Muslims believe in something like angels? It was cool to be in a plane where everything was in Arabic and English. The magazines, sugar packets, toilets. Everything. Egyptian TV shows in Arabic broadcast for inflight entertainment. Saw people praying in their seats and at the back of the plane. My brain was working in overdrive curiosity mode.
Eventually we got to NYC. No hassles there. Got a cab and headed off to meet my friend.
I’m going to end the story there for now. This is getting long. Next installment coming soon J
Again…to my SA family…thanks for everything. I love you all very much. Until we me again…keep well and hugs from me!
As always…keep the faith and spread it gently
Love
Lynsee
PS: Congrats to the Spanish World Cup team!
No comments:
Post a Comment