Driving in South Africa

As many of you know, I drive to and from work every day here in South Africa, and I drive on the other side of the road (namely left).  Finding an automatic car was difficult; I even tried driving my employer's manual car (in a field, and then on this small loop of roads that a teenager and parent were also using for driving that day), but it wasn't particularly successful.  Thankfully we decided that the stress of driving on the wrong side of the road was enough, let alone learning to drive a manual.  So now I have my 2002 (I think) grey Renault Laguna.  Wouldn't be my first colour choice for sure, and it's a little slow to change gears sometimes, but it gets me to and from work. 

Driving on the wrong side of the road was very stressful at first.  Thankfully I had been a passenger for about a month before driving here so I was used to riding on the left at least.  Actually when I first arrived, my employer waited at the back of the car for me to choose which side of the car to get in.  He didn't trick me; I was concentrating too hard on getting it right.  I have definitely walked to the wrong side of the car though, usually when alone, and always when preoccupied with something else. 

I live very close to two of the therapists I work with, so when I first started driving here, they let me follow them home everyday and then came to pick me up in the morning so I could follow them to work.  That definitely helped so I didn't have to concentrate on the directions and when to change lanes, and just focus on actually staying in the lane.  I'm a lot more comfortable now, and don't find driving in South Africa too hard.  My friends here have asked if I've adapted to the crazy Johannesburg drivers.  I haven't found them all too crazy.  Usually the only crazy ones are taxi drivers.  The taxis here are actually minibuses that pick and drop off passengers pretty much anywhere.  So when driving, you just need to be aware that they will stop anywhere, cut you off, and honk for no apparent reason.  Once you've accepted that fact, driving is a lot easier and you don't get upset (usually).  Another strange thing here is that people don't usually stop for pedestrians.  Here, pedestrians are usually the ones who stop for cars.  I was actually honked at once for stopping for a pedestrian.  I have found though that sometimes drivers here are a lot nicer than they would be in Canada or the United States.  For example, they stop to give way to people when they find that it would be impossible for them to turn right (remember turning right here is the one where you cross oncoming traffic).  Finally, another strange sight on South African roads for me was the "bakkie" (pronounced "bucky", means pickup truck) full of people.  Workers often ride to and from work in the back of pickup trucks.  It's occasionally awkward when you stop behind them at a red light (aka robot) and they're all staring at you.  I asked my South African friends what to do in this situation and they said that they didn't know and also found it awkward.

That's it so far for my South African driving experience!  Hoping it will continue to be smooth and without accidents!

My car

Steering wheel on the right!!!!

Minibus taxi picture from Google

Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens - Spring Edition

I visited the botanical gardens again this Saturday to see what had changed since my last visit.  As you'll see in my sweet collage pictures (thank you Rachel for telling me about instacollage), it is a LOT more green here now.  Unfortunately that means a lot more rainy as well.  I'm not sure what kind of climate I was expecting when coming here (besides some idea of average temperatures), but I guess maybe because I arrived in winter when everything was brown and dry, I'm surprised every day by the green grass, trees, and flowers. Hopefully I'll be able to visit the gardens again in summer to see what else has changed.

Walking path comparison

Top: Below and above the waterfall in winter; Bottom: Below and above the waterfall in spring

Some wildflowers on my walk

"Look my dear, a little frog"

South African Lingo 2

So after I wrote my last South African slang post I realized there was a lot more I didn't include.  The most common greeting here is "howzit".  I'm still not positive if it is a question that should be answered (like "how are you?") or if it's just a greeting and you reply "howzit" or "hello" back.  So far, I've heard it used both ways.  I guess I'll keep treating it as a question for now.

Another common thing for people to say is "is it?" in the context of "oh really?" regardless of which verb or pronoun should actually be used.  For example, if I say "My mom just won a flight to Cape Town", people will probably reply "Is it?".  Same as if I'd said something like "In Canada we eat peanut butter and jam sandwiches", the reply would still be "Is it?".  It bugged me when I first arrived here, but I've gotten used to it now.

Something else that used to bug me was people saying "just now" or "now now" or even "now" when they mean soon.  For example, if I said  "Are you going to lunch?" and the reply was "Yes, we're going now now" it might mean 15 minutes from now.  I've gotten used to this also and I've even used "now now" when I mean "soon".

If you've seen Invictus, you might remember everybody calling each other "bru".  I guess it means  "bro" or something.  So far, I've only used it to be funny.  I don't think I can use it seriously.  Everyone here though does call each other friend, brother, sister, bru, etc, very often.  Way more than Canadians call each other friend, buddy, or guy.

A final South African word for today is "sharp" or "sharp sharp".  It means cool I think.  So for example, if someone asks you how you are and you say "fine" they might then give a thumbs up and say "sharp".

Holiday Week

This past week I've been on holiday from LUC Academy.  No particular reason besides it was the end of our third term.  Because summer is in December here, the school holidays (and the school year) are a bit different.  We get three weeks off in December and then three other weeks distributed throughout the rest of the year between terms. 

I stayed in Joburg for the holiday but did get to do some exploring of my city and also run a few errands that had to get done. 

After relaxing and doing nothing on the first day of holidays, last Sunday I went to the Taste of Joburg to try some interesting food.  They gave us a menu while waiting in line and I started picking out things I know I like (especially from the Thai place).  But then I woke up and realized that I should be looking for African food or at least something I wouldn't get in North America.  So I settled on a "Duo of Springbok" (leg and loin, coco bean ragout, shitake, tamarind, two way pureed and roasted cawliflower) and a "Neck Meets Tail Terrine" (trio of ostrich neck and star anise, pork belly and citrus, oxtail and red wine terrine with tomato atchar and chakalaka salad).  I was a bit nervous when I got the terrine.  It looked a bit like the head cheese that I used to slice when working in the Farm Boy deli.  Thankfully it tasted nothing like the head cheese smelled.  It was actually very good.  The springbok was also very nice.  I was expecting it to taste like venison but I thought it tasted more like beef.  I also found some craft beer.  I had Darling Brew's Bone Crusher, a very yummy wit beer.  I finished off with a delicious Cranberry, Pomegranate, and Rooibos cupcake.

Monday I went to the China Mall with my friend Roz (a therapist at LUC Academy).  It's basically just a mall with lots of stores filled with things from China and primarily owned by Chinese people.  The most successful purchases of the day were my wall stickers.  They took a while to put up, but hopefully help make my apartment look less like a prison (as the people with whom I've skyped have described its appearance). 

Tuesday was an errand day.  I finally bought some patio furniture.  It's not very pretty or special but it will serve its purpose for the year.

On Wednesday I went to the Joburg Zoo.  The reviews online were not particularly positive but I hadn't been to a zoo in a while and it wasn't too expensive so I decided to go anyway.  I was impressed by the number of animals I saw, especially since the reviews made it seem like you were unlikely to see very many.  However, I was not impressed with the maintenance of the zoo.  Many of the paths were not well maintained and not placed directly beside the animal enclosures.  Also, there were signs indicating to go inside "The Ape House" if the apes were not outside, so I went in (since the doors were open).  However I found an abandoned looking enclosure with someone welding something at the far end.  When I realized I probably shouldn't be in there, I went out the way I came, but got the evil eye from some person who suddenly appeared in the first exhibit which looked like a "science room" (I don't know how to properly describe this, but an area behind glass where people work, not animals).  There was another "science room" in the zoo for visitors to examine the conservation efforts of some endangered frogs.  However the room that held the frog tanks was dirty and looked like it was falling apart in a couple places.  Overall though I wasn't disappointed with my visit.  As I said, I hadn't been to a zoo in a while and it was nice to see some animals in Africa, but not nearly as nice as it would be to see them in "the wild" (please imagine Marty from Madagascar saying that). 

Can you see who's waiting inside?

Monkey (a gibbon I think) with a newborn

On Thursday, I went downtown with my friend Elaine (another therapist at LUC Academy) and her husband.  I was very happy when she invited me to come with them.  I'd wanted to go downtown but I was nervous to do so by myself.  We started off by walking through Gandhi Square to the Carlton Centre, the tallest building in Africa.  We went up to the top for a view of Joburg.  Far off to the north you could even see "The Dome" that I drive by everyday to and from work.  After that we drove to Newtown and walked around a little bit.  We then went to the SAB (South African Breweries) World of Beer and went on a tour there.  It wasn't anything too special and there were quite a few unnecessary videos about beer around the world.  And of course thanks to Dan I already know the basics of beer.  The most interesting parts were the ones about Africa.  We got to try some traditional African beer (the kind made in villages) and learned about the history of the big breweries in South Africa.  At the end there were two "free" beers (included in the entrance fee), chutney chips, and peanuts.  We ended our day at the Oriental Plaza.  It was kind of like the China Mall but Indian.  We had some samosas for lunch and then visited the spice shop before heading home.

To the east

To the south, you can see some mine dumps far in the background

To the north where I live... very far north

Friday was another errand day.  I headed to Home Affairs to see what had to be done about my visa (long story short, I need a small extension).  It was boring and far (in Randfontein) but about as successful as I could have hoped for given the horror stories I had heard about Home Affairs.  They didn't do anything for me then, but gave me the requirements and told me to come back in April.  I spent the afternoon relaxing by the pool.

Yesterday I visited the Groenkloof Nature Reserve near Pretoria.  Like most of the reserves I've visited, the website informed me of the animals that live there, but I didn't have any particularly high hopes of seeing any.  Amazingly though I did get to see some animals!  Giraffes!  I was very excited.  I took tons of pictures.  Later on my walk a turtle was sitting right in the middle of my path.  As I got closer he hid in his shell, but I got some pictures of him from far away. 

The sky is limitless

Overall I had a very good, relaxing holiday.  Now only two and a half more months of school before the Christmas holidays when I get to explore the country with my family and Dan!