An update from James

Lazy Saturday today. I am sorry that I have not contributed to the blog yet but life is going quite quickly here and time has been hard to find. Our host family is avid fans of these late night soaps and I am “forced” to watch them unless there is a relevant soccer match on. I have become a full fledged fan of the Orlando Pirates because they seem to be the maple leafs of SA football because they are always disappointing every season and they have a great fan base. It is also fun to poke fun at the best team in south africa the kaiser cheifs, who I have dubbed the kaiser thiefs, because they have stolen all of their championships because of the rampant corruption of the soccer officials, just like in the states.

We are getting along pretty well. The big stir is that a new grocery store has opened here and they have brought things such as exotic cheeses and cow tongue. It was so packed the first that it opened that people were not allowed in and it took about an hour to check out. This morning we got to go to two funerals and it was a really interesting experience. I am really in love with the fact that people bury their own dead here. That is something that I am always going to want to do for myself and for the people I love the most.

As you can tell this is some sweet stream of consciousness stuff that you get from me. Becca will give you the bigger better picture if you want it. We are about one week away from learning our site and I could not be more excited. I have been telling everyone that it is the time when you find out who your real friends are going to be for the two years because now you will know who you will have to put up with. This monday is also our fantasy football draft. We are doing alive draft during our lunch break and then we are going to enter them in online. This makes me extremely happy because even though I have been here a month my only contact with sports has been one day we kicked around a soccer ball for a little while. Hopefully, this will be a sign that I will get to be a little more active.

The last thing I will report on is that we went to a mall last week in Joburg and wow. I am really creeped out by that place. I cant even describe how much I did not like it. Good thing we will be far away from there and not have to do with such silliness.

Thanks for listening
Cheers
JC