lessons learned after 1 week....

....so when it rains in joburg it pours! i've never seen weather so schizophrenic before. when the sun is beating and shining one minute it will abruptly turn on you and rain like no tomorrow. you think it's going to last for the rest of the day but it'll go on for about 20 minutes straight and then the sun instantly comes out like nothing ever happened, as if to say, 'just kidding! this has happened quite a bit since i've been here. hello south african summer!

i'm in the company of a good group of guys who have been my lifeline here. i'm living with some of them for the rest of my stay here in joburg. they're all funny characters and they treat me well. one of them, nhlanhla had the best pick up line i've ever heard in my life. he tells me "...only in africa you will find the greatest love, it is here i can provide you with a family and 30 cows!" i giggled at first because how else do you react to that? and then i bursted out in laughter realizing afterwards he wasn't kidding. apparently nhlanhla's family owns a lot of acres of land and has livestock. i told him that if i did't want to live in canada so much it was something that i would possibly consider. i mean nhlanhla has a lot going for him, he's intelligent and i genuinely like him as a person, he knows how to have a good time and 30 cows would have me set for life!! then i told him how i can't cook very well-then that was it. all bets were off. there is no way he could marry someone who couldnt cook. he has an old world mentality but i still think he's mad cool!

being around a bunch of jocks i've learned that cricket, rugby and soccer (they say soccer not football) are the holy trinity of sports here. cricket season is now, rugby season starts in february and world cup is in june and july. world cup season in south africa is gonna be ridonculous. they tell me as a tourist i shouldn't worry so much of bad things happening to me because the last thing this country needs is for 'tourist incidents taking place before world cup. they want to uphold a better and safe image as all eyes of the world will be on SA during the world cup. regardless im still stringently cautious.

in this country, there are 11 official languages. the most spoken here are english, zulu, xhosa, afrikaans (what the white south african's speak that have dutch influence) and the others i cannot spell or couldn't even name! one of the first things i noticed was when i was at the airport on arrival and waiting in the customs line, one of the security guards was calling out to a woman to move forward and he called her mama. i was like that's crazy that a security guard at the airport would use that kind of urban slang on an older woman. but then i was taught that blacks use words like: mama (mother), baba (father), sisi (sister) and bhuti (brother) as a sign of respect. they're very community-based and everyone in the community is your mother, father, sister and brother. it makes sense..

some terms i've picked up: when people here speak of jay-z it is not the rapper. they are referring to jacob zuma. he is the president of the country who is zulu and has 4 wives. in zulu culture, polygamy is acceptable (i dont personally agree but who cares what i think!)

traffic lights here are called robots. when i kept on hearing about broken down robots, i was like 'what fu-shnicken robots are you talking about..where are they??' then i was schooled that traffic lights = robots. aha!

how are you? they say how zit?

i hear a lot people say what what a lot. they'll use it at the end of a sentence when they're rambling and it means "etc...or blah-blah.." like "christine is learning a lot of south african slang and what what!" lol.

another one is eish that they say a lot. i think it means damn. like they'll say "eish, it's hot" or "eish im tired" or "eish, is that what it really means? eish!"

i've eaten chicken everyday i've been here and i believe it's a staple. there's this other food that is a staple that is very south african and it's called pap. it's this corn meal cooked with water. everyone who cooks in the house im staying in will usually prepare pap. it's good but you cannot eat it alone because it's so starchy.

the popular fastfood joints here are: mcdonalds (i dont bother), nando's (equivalent to swiss chalet..great chicken!) and steers (which is like a mcdonalds but they serve better meat, so i'm told!) and debonairs pizza (kind of like amato's)

grocery shopping: checkers and pick 'n pay, they're all over the place..

drinks: castle lite beer and hunters dry (that has cider in it). i swear by these two drinks for now. they are so good and smooth..but i've yet to try the others..

these are the main things i've picked up so far...im sure i'll have a longer list by the time i leave. i have to say im having a great time. im clearly a minority here but the people i've met have been gracious, welcoming and kind-hearted. so far, i can say that joburg is not the gangster city that i envisioned. some people and the media blow it's rough image out of proportion. i know that crime and killings do exist but it's like any other big city. i steer clear from the townships (not unless i'm with people who know it) and i got common sense. really, i know i'll be just fine.