Keeping busy

So I found out recently that my mom was reading my same blog posts over and over. So these are stories that I didn’t really intend to blog about, but for the sake of her having something new to read here they are.

Story #1: When I acted like a college student

So I should probably mention that the girls upstairs, whose flat I almost broke into, do have names (Helga, Heather, and Amy). I go out with them every once in a while. Actually they took me to my first real college event. You see, I go to BYU-Idaho. It is one of the driest campuses in the US. They do not have sororities or fraternities, people don’t drink, or even swear and I was completely ignorant to the “traditional” college lifestyle until a couple weeks ago.

Apparently if you want a place to live that isn’t with your parents you have to join a “rez” (this is why I had such a hard time finding a flat) which is the South African equivalent of a sorority or fraternity. So the other night each of these rez’s was required to do a song and dance show thing-a-majig. To me it seemed like cheerleading with different costumes, black lights, and pop songs instead of cheers; but it was entertaining. One group definitely incorporated Flogging Molly which I appreciated.

I also learned that when people say picnic in South Africa they mean meatballs and boiled eggs and marshmallows and other completely random things.

Story#2: A rugby match

Rugby is a big deal among the Afrikaners. So, because I’m all about getting a feel for the local life I went to a match. It was the Blue Bulls (the Pretoria team) vs. The Chiefs (a lower team from New Zealand). It turns out that I love rugby. It’s really fast paced, and strategic, and the players pull off some incredible stunts. I ended up being a flag waving, seat jumping fan by the end of the first half. One of the things I liked best was that because they can only pass the ball backwards the teams would from these downwards sloping lines so they could pass while they ran, they looked like a flock of birds charging at the opposing team. I love it. Oh, and we won, 47-23.

Story #3: Portuguese accents are funny

There is a pretty decent Portuguese community here, who would have thought? Every year around this time they have a festival called Lusitoland. I went with Helga (a girl from upstairs), and her friend Talisa who is Portuguese. Basically there were tons of tents and people were selling things from used books to polish sausage to cheese graders. It was definitely interesting. We rode a Ferris wheel that over looked the entire festival, I ate South African fudge for the first time, I was able to try some traditional Portuguese foods, and listen to a South African band all in one night. We spent the night in Johannesburg with Talisa’s parents. Their house was absolutely beautiful, and they were so nice to me. I was told that I need to come back for lunch some day and give them my entire life story.

So there you have it, a couple stories about things I do when I’m not at work or playing with baby lions. Which reminds me, I meant to include something else in my post about animals yesterday. Did you know that cheetahs don’t have round tails like other cats? They have flat, oval shaped tails that work as a rudder so that they can make sharp turns when they are running at those high speeds. Nifty, huh?