Thursday, May 14, 2009

home sweet home

I'm back kids! Back to finding out I have no house if I don't find 2 roommates in the next 2 weeks. Back with no money and no nursing job. Americans are overwhelming. I need to flood my senses. NYC anyone? I can't pay for it though, so we'll have to walk and not eat and sleep on the street.

I am glad to be back though. Back to good friends. Back to a gym. Back to a way to make money. Back to lattes.

I miss South Africa already. I miss speaking Zulu. I'm trying to still use it here. Yebo=Yes. Saubona umgani= Hello. How are you? Those will be easy to use. I miss how warm and loving everyone was. I miss the warm weather too.

Call me to hang out!!!

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Sidekick rings, What's up? Holler. Text the address. I'll see you later.

I got back from Mozambique yesterday. It was quite a hectic place. The poverty was massive. I can't even begin to describe it. The desperation was even crazier. Vendors were ferocious. They followed you for blocks trying to sell you whatever they had- necklaces, batiks, tissues, kazoos, mix cd's, anything. It was hard to be compassionate about their situation when they were following you like the paparazzi on Britney Spears. Kids directly asked for your leftovers. My heart broke constantly.

I feel overwhelmed just thinking about the experience. It was insane.

We got 2 flat tires, one 2 hours into our trip. I changed them both. I had explosive vomiting, even through my nose, in 3 different countries on our trip up. Every day, our plan A turned into plan F, because of lack of information until it was too late or because of a lack of any road signs. We didn't find a real beach the entire week. Mozambique is supposed to be a beach country. There was an incredibly creepy guy at our hostel who was caught watching me sleep. Every day, we planned on checking out a new area and staying at a hostel there. Every night, we ended up back at Fatima's Backpackers. It felt like we were coming crawling back after a breakup. Oh baby give me one more chance! Won't you please let me back in your heart. Oh darling I was blind to let you go.

Driving here is fun, because you can do whatever you want. If you're behind a car going slower than you want to go, you cross the double line and pass them. Everyone is used to this system, so cars pull into the shoulder if they need to. I'm going to have to make a conscious effort not to do this when I'm driving back in the states.