It appears I'm not completely over jet-lag. Every night I've slept here, I've been incredibly tired when I went to bed (anytime between 10 PM and 1 AM), but then I'll wake up in the middle of the night and won't be able to fall back asleep. I'll get tired again when it's time to wake up in the morning, and wind up sleeping most of the day. Although the times I've been falling asleep/waking up/getting tired at have been slowly shifting, I'm not quite on South African time yet. It's been overcast and rainy since I got here, and I haven't spent a heck of a lot of time outside in general, but I'm hoping tomorrow it will be sunny and I'll spend some time outdoors. Natural light and fresh air are the best cures for jet-lag. Your body won't know when it's supposed to sleep if it never sees the sun.
My first hosts were really nice and even though they originally only agreed to keep me for the weekend, they said that after having me there, I could stay the rest of the week if I wanted. I'd already made arrangements with another host family for the next two days, though, so I declined. It's nice to know that I can go back if need be. Henti and Bronwen taught me a lot of things about the political and economic and racial situation here. Plus, they're really friendly and their daughter Victoria is adorable. They introduced me to a few new things, like biltong (literal translation “bull tongue”) which is a lot like beef jerky but not as dry, and this weird malted milkshake whose name I don't remember but it was good and tasted very familiar, and helped me figure out some of the differences in language between here and the U.S.A. Here's a run-down of what I've learned so far:
stroller/baby carriage = pram
period (punctuation) = full stop
traffic light = robot
fries = chips
napkin = serviette
line = queue
not all burgers are ground meat (some are patties/fillets)
five minutes or so into the future = now now
ten minutes or so into the future = just now
hello (telephone greeting) = how's it
languages are very fluid here, and it's not uncommon for English and Afrikaans to borrow words from each other randomly in the middle of a sentence
So, my second host family is another young couple, Thapelo and his wife Porsche, and their baby boy, Tsebo (he's very cute, but seems much more shy around me than Vicky was). I'm probably really spelling their names wrong, for which I'm sorry. Anyway, this morning my hosts had to work, and I wound up sleeping until they came home in the afternoon. Then I spent the rest of the evening just chatting with Thapelo about just about everything. He's traveled a lot, backpacked through a good portion of Africa, and so he told me what it was like visiting other African countries. And he took some amazing pictures on his journeys as well. Porsche cooked us supper, and it was delicious. The food here isn't all that different from traditional American/European food, in general, but there are a few things I've encountered so far that the States doesn't have. Mostly they just have a bunch of different kinds of sauces/gravies to flavor their food than what I'm used to, but they're really good. One thing I tried today was called pap (again I'm probably spelling it wrong). It looks like mashed potatoes but the consistency is a little more solid. It's kind of their staple starch, like rice or bread or potatoes. It was pretty good when eaten with meat and gravy. Later my hosts took me to the casino where, again we didn't gamble, but window-shopped and stopped in a bar for a drink and to chat. Again, I just really enjoyed their company, and comparing things like racism and poverty and education to that in the U.S.A. really makes one think.
I'm writing this on Tuesday at some bizarre hour of the morning, because again I can't sleep through the night, but I'm going to try and get back to sleep now. Because tomorrow (or, rather, later today), Porsche and Thapelo are taking me out into the city where I'll actually be doing some of the tourist-y things and getting to see what being out and about in the city of Jo'burg is like. So, I really ought to be well-rested for that.
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