10 things that I am used to: one year anniversary special

Do you recall this little post of mine? I was lamenting the strange things about living in the US that I just wasn't getting used to.


Well today, I've been here a year!


A whole year that I've lived here. (year,here, year, here- say it fast)

I have such mixed feeling about this fact. I think it's not the being here that's hard on me today, but rather that I haven't giggled with my sister in person, had cheap sushi with Belinda, shopped at Woolworths, frantically checked my surroundings as I was entering our property late at night, in a year. So there's that.


Hold on. I feel this post turning it self heavy, and really, I'm here to celebrate the things that I have gotten used to so far...

So make some joyful noise as I present to you these minor victories.


1) Ordering breakfast.

Weird one right. I'm from a world where the options were choosing white or brown toast.  Ordering breakfast for the first time was more intense than passing airport security.
 If you're not used to making choices fast then

"how would like your eggs? Cheese on your hash-browns? Rye, wheat, sourdough, English muffin, English man making your muffin?  More coffee? Cream and sugar with that? Extra bacon with that?"

might be as overwhelming for you as it was for me. Not anymore though, I have mastered the fine art of ordering my eggs finally.

2) Spelling color without the 'u'.

But let's be honest, things are just more colourful  with 'u'.

3) Stopping for pedestrians.

LOL no, I keep forgetting to do so and that's really frowned upon around here.  Let's all hope I get used to this one faster.

4) The responses to "I'm from South Africa"

Some of the responses I've had after answering where I was from have included:

"Oh cool, I've always wanted to go to the Giraffe museum in Nairobi."
"Our uncle lived in Madagascar 4 years ago."
"My sister once went to Africa to build houses for them."
"My son just moved to Australia."

I know I sound like a bit of jerk here, because really, I love that people ask me where I'm from and then try to find a way for us to connect. You, America, would however be perplexed too if you told someone "I'm from the US" (Although, I've noticed most Americans, even while traveling abroad, will answer with their State when asked where they're from) and their response to you is "Oh wow, my cousin once worked in a tourist cocktail bar in Peru".

As I said, I'm used to this and kind of love the strange responses I've had over the last year.

5) Drive Thru's.


Fast food is one thing, but...

Banks, dry cleaning, charitable donations stores, pharmacies.

Amazing.

6) Expensive stuff,

I've gotten better at not working everything back to South African Rand. I still do it sometimes, "did I really just spend R45 on a coffee, I wonder how many tubes of toothpast I could buy for R37 and so on.

Stuff here is more expensive, I'm used it now. In fact I really look forward to my next South African visit, BUY ALL THE THINGS! Drink all the wine! Eat all the Sushi.. ALL OF IT.


7) Driving on the "right" side of the road.

Thankfully.

8) Fast and unlimited internet.

How oh how did I live without you. While we're here celebrating internet things: Netflix, I'm very much used to watching my TV and movies on demand by now. I remember in the good ol days when 2 Gigs was all our family had for a whole month.

Disclaimer: It's not like South Africa doesn't have unlimited internet, it's just that it was too expensive while I was still living there, and now I have it, so this is more a 'me' thing than a SA thing. 

9) Converting C to F temperatures.

From all the conversions I've had to learn this one has been the easiest. Probably because I talk about weather so much. People ask me a lot about weather in South Africa and I also give a daily report on the weather to my family in SA. So that has helped.

Although, 1 Degree in Celsius still seems much colder to me than 34 degrees in Fahrenheit.


10) I got used to those long days of summer way to fast, now I'm screwed with these dark at 4:30pm days. dammit.



I wonder if I'll be used to everything by the time I write the 'Two years and loving it' post. Probably not.


Hey, here's a fun idea, how about we follow each other on Twitter and you'll get see what else I'm getting used to in this fabulous country. Follow here.  

Also! This is my 200th post, yay for me.

america...and dealing with just that

at age 24 i decided to move to Hanoi, Vietnam. best decision, ever. i lived there for just under 2 years, and while i don't want to over-glorify living in Hanoi it was an amazing part of my life. talk about leaving a comfort zone, i doubt i could have picked a more different and colourful, rewarding and complex place to live out my 'itch for something different'.

not to go into too much detail about my life in vietnam here, but living there did give me the sense that no where can i possibly move to that's as challenging.

moving to Spokane WA here in the USA is by no means as 'intense' as moving to the Nam, reasons mostly being:

-traffic rules are a thing here
-prices are fixed (at much much higher)
-they speak english (more on this to come)
-no dog meat on menus or rhino horn powder for sale that i can see
-nobody staring, or pointing, or laughing at me (which i miss... i miss my kim kardashian days, sigh)
also
-i'm not here alone, i have this super hot husband now
(which really helps)

but

it's also not as easy as i thought it would be, and i definitely thought it would be easier.  there is this general idea that the USA just isn't as 'surprising' as most other countries. blame or thank Hollywood for this, i mean to say, that no other country in the world has given so much away about itself through media, and no other country even tries.  this isn't a bad thing really. there's a charm to coming to America for the first time and going 'oooh so that's what Target is all about', 'New York City, i get it', 'olive garden, pottery barn, radio shack', 'yellow school buses!!', 'pumpkins, everywhere'  (...just like in the movies)

basically, i thought i've got this whole 'party in the usa' figured out, without ever having been here.

and of course, i was wrong about that.

the USA is and wildly surprising in an undercover kind of way.

new revelations include:

-parts of it are insanely beautiful (in a' europe doesn't want you to know about' kind of way)
-you really can't just talk about politics here
(which i thought was kind of a joke at first, coming from South Africa, we talk about politics every time we need a good laugh, and it's not the same here guys, it's really not, nobody laughs, they just give you these crazy eyes that stop you mid sentence before you could get to your punch line)
-there's no point to buying anything if you're not camping out in front of the store for it, or standing in some kind of line that wraps around the building. they sure do like camping out for cool stuff these yanks (and i'm yet to 'experience' black friday)
-people have bigger 'personal space' bubbles here. walking within a meter of anybody warrants an apology. this is weird.
-it's big, i knew that the USA was bigger than South Africa but it really hit me when started having to say i live "close to Seattle" which is like saying "i lived close to Durban"... which i wouldn't have said, because Durban is like totally far, like you drive 5 hours.
-cream cheese is way cheaper here, hello cake.

that's what i'll share with you for now. it might not seem like a big 'a ha' these revelations but they've been so to me.  i'm sure there will be much more to discover as i continue to settle in here. which i really enjoy doing, honestly.  it's hard and glorious all at the same time.

you see? insanely beautiful

monday and friday

monday this:

 friday this: