Week 10- Expanding my horizons

Thus far, I've been rushing around trying to see "things" or spending copious amounts of time planning to see more "things".    Yes, lions and waterfalls are super cool, but other than work, I realized that I'm not experiencing the culture or the people.  I'm really only seeing what's on the surface.

What I've learned most from my travels and from living abroad is not what I've read on museum placards or from rushing from tourist spot to tourist spot, but from slowing down and taking in the simple day to day...spending the afternoon talking to people in a coffee shop or sitting at a bar in a pub and chatting with the bartender or experiencing the Spanish healthcare system firsthand (really hoping not to have a repeat of that as eye opening as that was).

Now that I'm much more comfortable driving and with the city in general, I decided that I'm on a mission to experience and not just see.

The idea all started with me complaining to my manager that I haven't really made any friends and that I'm dying for social interaction.    He replied with "I've invited you to the Parkrun 2 times now and you don't show up."   Well, this weekend I showed up.  And figuratively continued to show up all weekend.   An aside-  I've been listening to the GirlBoss podcasts this week and the host encourages listeners to state their #girlboss moments of the week and I guess this was mine.... getting a little out of my comfort zone and really taking control of this opportunity I was given.

I woke up early on Saturday, drove about 15 minutes to an area call Modderfontein, got lost, found a giant line of cars and followed them and found myself in the right place.    These Parkruns are 5k fun runs that occur all over South Africa on Saturdays.    The run itself was difficult... it was my trail run, it was at altitude and it was unbelievably steep.    I got dizzy to the point I was a little worried at least twice.   It was a whole lot of fun though.   High energy, friendly people, beautiful views.    In the beginning, the host asked if there was any international runners and I got a huge shout out for Chitown.  :)      At the end my manager and a few co-workers were waiting for me at the finish line.   I'm hoping to do many more before I leave and hopefully at least one official race so I can get some SA bling.

I spent the afternoon at a local cafe drinking cappuccino and reading.   Once the tables around me heard my accent, I was immediately pulled in their conversations.    The manager also came by treated me to coffee and made me feel welcomed.   We all chatted about politics and Chicago Fire and Mandela.   I appreciated hearing so many personal stories and experiences.

 Today I got my Meetup.com on and headed about 4 miles down the road to Kensington for a free historical neighborhood tour.  I met loads of interesting, fun, friendly locals.... who all wanted to talk about Trump and Rham.   Apparently Rham makes the news here only slightly less than Trump.   We saw some amazing mansions, architecture from the 20th century including a concrete fence and gate that was pretty cool, hiked up the kopi (cliff) for some fantastic views of the city and visited a boys boarding school, Jeppe Boys School,  that begun in the 1800's that is still a leading school in Joburg.  The tour was as much about being social as it was about history.   I made a few new friends, was  invited to some future events and to dinner!   My social meter is starting to rise.  :)   I took a million pictures... some of which are on Facebook.   Here's a few of my favorites:

Jeppe School for Boys

20th century cement fence

Oh hai, Jozi

Scottish Memorial on the topi

Jeep School for Boys

Hiking' it on up the kopi

The afternoon was spent exploring the Melville neighborhood which reminded me of Little 5 Points in Atlanta... quirky, trendy, with a new school punk rock vibe.  I found the next best thing to a Bloody Mary... a Bloody Mary Made with beer with a shot of tequila on the side.  I don't do shots and really don't do tequila... so I dumped it in.  The result-delicious.

I'm finding the people here so open and friendly.   When people find out that I'm from Chicago they are genuinely  interested in hearing my opinions and impressions of their home and eager to tell me stories and to answer my many, many questions.   I truly enjoyed meeting so many people this week and truly experiencing Jo-burg.

I'm sitting out on my balcony as I type, enjoying the sun set, drinking Bloody Marys (almost perfected... looking forward to my pepper infused vodka that should be ready next weekend).   Not looking forward to the work week...   I'm enjoying what I'm doing and the amount that I'm learning everyday.   There is just so much to do in so little time that I'm beginning to pull 10+ days to get it all done.   I'm a morning person, so I don't really mind getting in super early and staying later.  I'm my sharpest in the morning and its easier to work when its quieter, before the hustle and bustle of the day begins.

ooo...it looks like Twilight is on the Romance channel again.... it seems like its either Twilight or Save the Last Dance or YaYa Sisterhood. Every. Day.

Looking forward to next weekend, where T and I will be taking a trip to Durban to spend a couple of days on the beach... I was told there is a Parkrun on the beach, so hoping to check that out as well.

Flying Termites.

Apparently there are over 500 ant species in SA.

One of these species apparently takes a nuptial flight after the rain.   Apparently, they mate in the air, drop and lose their wings.    Since I have a gap between my front door and the floor, this meant I had the pleasure of witnessing this act of nature last night.  I had no idea what these things were.  I was convinced they were flying maggots and smashed them.    Within 15 minutes my floor was swarming with little ants in the spot of their murdered giant ant.

A half of bottle of 40% Deet camping bug spray I bought for safari-ing and a roll of paper towels later, I had the situation under control.

In the morning, my porch was covered with drowning flying ant maggot things and wings.  Lots and lots of wings.   But before I could figure out how I wanted to deal with the situation, birds began swooping in and handled the clean up for me.  :)

When I inquired about these things at work today.  I was told that I should collect them and fry them in margarine.

Correction:   I believe it was not an ant, but a termite, the Hodotermitidae, to be exact.   Although it seems like "ant" and "termite" are used somewhat interchangeably here.  Either way, super disgusting and I am stopping to by a giant can of anti flying termite spray after work today.

Week 8,9- Goodbye Chicago, Hello Again Joburg

My time in  Chicago was pretty amazing.   I had a great time with family and friends and Phil and I had a lovely first Christmas and New Years as Newly Weds.

Oh Christmas Tree.

So festive.

Family Selfie

Female tiny human #2 in a bag

Tiny male human all up in my face

My fav present from the hubby which is making this blog writing a little more pleasant 

Cat's fav present from Uncle Rev Kev

 Phil took the time off between Christmas and New Years so we had plenty of quality time including a day at the museum with the tiny humans, an impromptu bar crawl through Pilsen ending in an equally impromptu tread mill work out at 3am, and celebrating New Years Eve properly for the first time (one of us has always been sick).

"Let's go to the gym...I really like to go to the gym after the bar"

Look at me touching female tiny human.  I even changed her diaper.

Museum Selfie

NYE Selfie

Phil looking longingly at his childhood rave days.

The time in Chitown was short but luckily I was able to see a few of my dear friends, including the lovely Stephy Sue and Miss Mary (who is now also officially my PepsiCo colleague!  WooHoo!   Margarita Tuesdays are reborn!) and our darling groom lady, Val.

 

Going away dinner at Pizen with Val

 The 18 hours of airtime in Economy wasn't bad at all.   I did get upgraded for like the first time ever to first class, go figure, for the 1 hour flight to Atlanta.   Um, thanks Delta?  Tease me and than shove me in to a little box for 16 hours.    Like I said though it was no big deal.... a few movies, my specially requested vegan meals,  two HUGE glasses of wine, a couple of Tylenol PM and my fuzzy owl mask and I was on the ground in Joburg before I knew it.    Quick Movie reviews:   He Named Me Madala:  Great;  Mistress America:  Amusing;   Martian:  Okay;   Intern:  Amusing.   Although nothing I'd really watch if I wasn't trapped in a metal cage.

I arrived on Tuesday night and was back in the office on Wednesday.  The short week flew by.   I threw myself back into work... so much to do in less than 4 months.   Good news for the start of the year... 2 of the reviews I commissioned were accepted for publication.  Woot!

I don't really do resolutions because I'm happy, so do'in me must be working out just fine... but I am trying to keep to some sort of work out schedule, esp. since I don't really have much else going on these days.  I'm proud to report that I stuck with it this week and did some sort of work out every day since I've been back.   This includes my first run outside since the disastrous almost face plant.  I intentionally went a different route and encountered more hills than I've ever run on in my life.    My ass is going to be amazing if I can keep this up.    

In addition to the run, my Saturday consisted of some me time with my recently rediscover music library.    Lots of impromptu solo spontaneous dance parties in my kitchen.    iTunes is my hot tub time machine... each song that I haven't heard in years and years taking me back to a person or a place or an emotional space...and if I'm not ready to go back there yet, its just a click and on to the next place.

Today was a little more productive.    Checked out Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens which were pretty awesome... some great trails and sights including a water fall and some new critter friends. The creepy poisonous grasshopper below is the  Dictyophorus spumans, in case you were wondering.  And no, I didn't touch it, thankfully. I hope to find to make it back...there seemed to be a few more challenging hikes that we didn't get to today.  I could have stayed and hiked around all day.

Foaming grasshopper

Waterfall

Video of waterfall that may or may not work

ducks!

Orange bird, Im too lazy to link too

Lone butterfly left after the hail storm

Turtle!  I knew you weren't a statue!!

 After the park, I picked up some vodka and limes, made myself a double Moscow Mule in a water bottle and just hung out by the pool.   A perfect afternoon and I'm not even really a pool person.  Better than the cold I've been hearing about in Chitown.... sorry I had to go there.

I'll just leave you with this in case you missed it on the Facebooks:

 

Home Sweet Home

Last week was a very short work week followed by a very long flight.

I'm not positive if this product is available outside of SA, but we celebrated the launch of Doritos crusted Pizza Hut.

Not a huge fan of Doritos on pizza, but I did like flavors.

I took the red eye on Tuesday night, stopping in Amsterdam.   The flights were not too bad... I really enjoyed my Owl Eye mask.

Upon arriving back in Chitown,I had some priorities which included Bloody Mary's ( I have yet to find a decent Bloody in SA),  getting my hair chopped off, the German Christmas Market, bonding with my cat, and Star Wars.  Well, StarWars was totally not MY priority at 9am on Saturday, but at least I got to see Kelly and Mark.

Having a great week back in Chi-town despite the cold and rain.  Almost over jet-lag and almost done with Christmas shopping and present wrapping.

Happy Holidays to everyone!   And I hope to see as many of you as possible in the next week.  :

Week 6- UK and BBQ and other stuff

Somewhat less sick and very much less crabby.   This week I went from feeling like I'm getting a cold, to a stomach thing, to, currently, a perma-headache.

I feel like Monday was months ago and not just a few days ago.   Monday 

and Tuesday, I was at a meeting in Reading, UK  working on a special project for the nutrition sciences part of my job- not really related to the global rotation part.   It was nice to see my NS peeps and catch up and to finally wrap up this project.   It was a lot to accomplish in a short period of time but potentially it will have a big impact.  Hopefully.  It was hard work.

Nutrition Sciences represent

My head hurt so bad at this point, I couldn't see straight...not sure why I'm smiling

My head was in migraine mode and I almost passed out at that dinner.  I'm not sure how I am smiling... it must have been delirium.   It was nothing 2 Aleves, 3 Ibuprofen and a small cider couldn't handle though.  Well, that cocktail handled the headache... it didn't do much for the stomach ache... all I could force down was a little soup and a hand full of chips (ie "fat" fries).

The flight back wasn't too bad.  I didn't spill red sauce all over my favorite white running jacket, like I did on the flight there.  I changed my seat to the isle so I couldn't be skipped for breakfast.

My magic flight remedy did allow for a few hours of sleep.  And I watched 2 movies... Rikki and the Flash and Trainwreck.  Both Okay.

sleeping aid

The 11+ hr red eye flight left Tuesday night, and arrived at 7 am on Wednesday.    It was straight to work- it was gift exchange and cake day.  I had bought a specialty rum chocolate sauce for my gift and was totally teased and made fun of with my coworkers claiming I bought body paint.   Normally, I probably would have though it was funny, but I was sick, had not slept and I genuinely had  put thought into the gift.  Honestly, my feelings were a little hurt.   I received a couple of cacti, which I am psyched about.  My apartment needs a little life.  Hopefully, they don't die.  I'm pretty positive all my cacti and basil are dead at home.  Phil sucks.

The rest of the week was pretty tame.  I took a sick day Thursday to get some reading done and to not have to worry about  not making it to the bathroom in time at work.   Friday, my stomach was on the mend and I spent the day at the Isando/factory office in packaging training.   I learned a lot about bags and made my first bag. 

My little bag baby.

Friday night we finally made it out to see Hunger Games.   Eh, it was okay.  Hard to enjoy due the couple on our right talking loudly the ENTIRE movie and the guy on my left shaking his cool drink like a maraca.

Yesterday, we had high hopes for this Christmas craft market at the casino that people at work were raving about.  It turned out to be pretty lame, so we did some retail therapy at the mall instead.

Say hello to my new amazing sleep mask/sleeping headphones fleecy owl thing.   Yes, I'm totally rocking this on the plane, quite possibly in my Qatar Airline PJs, even though I'll be on KLM.

Today we were invited out to lunch with Doe and Jay at a BBQ restaurant their friends just opened.  It was a lot of fun, despite the anti-feminist chatter.  Another lesson in keeping my mouth shut.  Yo. I'm getting good at this.   Or I'm just saving it all up and will be extra extra asshole-ish when I'm home in a few days.

Jozie Blonde-  a new fav.

Yum. Meat.

Me and Doe and Tracy in the background

I finally bought some random crap off the guy outside the grocery store.  Every time I walk by he tells me to take a look and every time I tell him that one day I will.  Today was that day.   Random guy on the side of the road souvenirs for everyone!  

Back to packing my ass off.   I'll be back home on Wednesday!   I expect lots of Festive cocktails.