An ostrai of ostriches

What a week.  Johannesburg is quite the city.  It boasts the largest man-made forest with 10 million trees.  It also has the most gorgeous electric storms I've ever seen.

Sunday at around 6:43am, I was met by Kylie, a sweet south african employee of the tour company most likely in her mid- to later twenties.  She then picked up two older british couples and we headed to Kruger game reserve, arriving several hours later.  We were greeted by two lions right away on our way into the reserve towards the Skukuza camp.  Our accommodations could be compared to smurf village, with small circular huts with standard bathroom and kitchen units.  We headed out on our first game drive that evening and stumbled onto impala (which are everywhere), elephants, buffalo, baboons, other monkeys, a giraffe, etc.

A true african sunset...edited of course

The tour was with a limited number of guests, so the ability to document and photograph the sightings were much easier since jockeying for space wasn't a big deal.  Our guide Willem is like a south african Richard Branson, with a thicker accent, more slender body, and much longer hair, like Jesus's.

The drive lasted for about 4 hours and we headed back to our huts, and were picked up again an hour later for a dinner that was prepared by the crew.  The package I purchased included all transportation to and from Kruger, all meals, 4 game drives, and accommodation.

Go time the next morning was at 4am.  We had breakfast, then headed out and saw more wildlife, the first of which were a group of these wild dogs:

My sunset drive was several hours later which ended up with us seeing a large white rhino and her baby, which almost charged towards our vehicle.  The last game drive the next morning boasted only a few animal sightings but our journey back home down the 'panoramic route' was worth the extra hours it took to get back.  The Jacaranda trees were breathtaking.

On our way we passed the third largest canyon in the world, Blyde River Canyon with spectacular views.

That night, we headed down the street to Montecasino.  This casino is quite similar to the Venetian in Vegas which boasts a guantlet of shops and the ceiling is painted like the sky.  The theater shown below hosts concerts of all music genres.  The complex even has a bellagio-like fountain on a much smaller scale.

The recent past of South Africa is something I wanted to learn more about, so a visit to the Apartheid museum was in order.  The entrance to the facility was marked with separate "white" and "non-white" doorways.  There was a wealth of information to read about.  Gold was discovered in Joburg in 1886 and over the next few years, Joburg produced 27% of the world's gold.  This discovery brought people of all races to the area for mining operations and a short while afterwards, townships began to spring up due to the drastically increasing population growth.  These townships became synonymous with disease and crime and the largely white government attributed these misfortunes to the colored population.  They then established panels to identify all residents of South Africa by color (white, native, black, etc.).  This was a highly subjective process, and thus controversial.  This started the movement toward a society crippled with apartheid.

The museum was ripe with documents, stories, anecdotes and dealings with Nelson Mandela.  His struggle is truly quite remarkable and the only way to grasp the gravity of his contributions is to visit the museum.  Pro-white political parties, almost representing Nazi ideals embraced the ideals of apartheid, a plethora of laws were enacted to prevent non-whites from excelling, and peaceful movements started becoming violent with a few known massacres (Sharpeville).  What I learned a few days later in Soweto turned the tide against the oppression against the non-whites.

Later that afternoon, we headed to Sandton, an upscale community with massive amounts of restaurants and stores.  The new addition to the mall is shown below.

The next day, Tegan, Lauren and myself headed to Sun City, about two hours away from Jozi.   We spent several hours at the water park (wave pool, slides, regular pool, etc.) and enjoyed food service to our sand dwelling.

The ride back brought us through Hartbeespoort Dam, which has beautiful sunsets I'm told (however, it was cloudy that evening and a lightning storm was imminent).

Since I couldn't bungee jump in Bloukrans (the longest bungee in the world, 216 meters), Tegan suggested I do the Orlando Towers in Soweto...so that's what I did.  For about $60, I got a chance to go up one tower of a decommissioned coal fire power plant and jump 100 meters.  We scheduled the jump for the early morning and found four others getting strapped up as well, all of which were doing the bungee swing (amateurs).  I paid the coin, signed my life away, and ascended the tower with the proper apparatus on my person.  I suppose the trick is to never look down, but I'm human, so of course I do.  I pass those for the swing and make my way to the bungee platform, suspended in the middle of the towers.  The bridge towards it reminded me of the derelict bridges found in the indigenous populations portrayed in any Indiana Jones movie, though this was a bit more secure.  

Man: "Ah the man from DC, you look like you gonna shit yo pants man!"

Me: "...I wish I didn't wear white."

They buckle me into the setup, go through the checks, and without hesitation, move me to the end of the platform and tell me not to look down and proceed to countdown from 5.  Without any second guessing I jumped and the rest is history.  It felt quite amazing to be on land again.

After the jump, we went through a tour of Soweto, the largest township in south africa, and home to 5 million residents.  TK, a local gave us the very insightful tour and brought us through every corner of town.  The most interesting part was when we stopped by the Hector Pieterson museum.  This was probably the most emotionally I've felt since I've been here.  As I mentioned above, as the non-whites began to peacefully protest against the apartheid regime, violence occurred in greater frequency.  In Soweto, the government instituted that all schools teach in Afrikaans language instead of english.  This was seen as a malicious intent by the government to further isolate the black population from any economic prosperity since most did not know afrikaans.  This created tension in the area and gave rise to the Soweto uprising.  Fifteen thousands students protested on June 16, 1976 and after some commotion, shots were fired by the police which led to the deaths of 600 schoolkids and thousands more were wounded.  One of the kids was Hector Pieterson, a 12 year old, who can be directly compared to Rosa Parks in terms of how he inspired the movement.  He passed away later that day.  Afterwards, we went through more of the township.

On our way back home, we stopped by Soccer City, one of the main venues for the World Cup.

Today we headed to SAB, South African Breweries for a tour and lunch.  As with any brewery, it ruled.  

I am leaving in 20 minutes to head to the airport and will be back home in a little over a day.  

Afrikaans lesson #13

vaai - "let's go"

Pictures from the Gauteng Province are uploaded (Part I/Part II).

This experienced has taught me much about the world and about myself.  I didn't go into it thinking it would be cathartic or life changing, but I can say with confidence that it was.  I didn't get mugged though I never put myself in the situation to.  Everyone I met was extremely friendly.  Everyone I met was a proud South African.  Everyone I met made a profound impact on my life.  Their hospitality is inspiring, the culture is eclectic, their women are beautiful and I will be back at some point in my life.

CK

Club O.R. Tambo

Johannesburg is the world's largest city not situated on a body of water.  It sits on gold.

Afrikaans lesson #12

Jol/razzle - 'to party'

Though I didn't get the results that I would have liked from Stellenbosch, there were some pleasing developments my last day there, go figure.  Monday was my last salsa lesson with a warm farewell from my instructors Berlize and John.  Tuesday I saw 50/50, which I had been wanting to see ever since I left the states.  Wednesday was dinner at Anneli's to celebrate her new job and included a post dinner celebration at Opskop for one last razzle.  I got to dance Sokkie with a few afrikaans women and realized what I've been doing wrong: I'm too technical and I need to loosen up.  Thursday was the braai with all the close people I've met here.  Amazing food and great company, they sent me off on cloud 9. 

I was dropped off at Cape Town International by Helene, and headed on my way to Jozi after a heartfelt goodbye.  

I was picked up by Tegan, a little spitfire of a girl whom I met in 2009 on my euro trip.  She embodies the South African culture and is one of the most upbeat and poised women I've ever met.  The drive through the city is reminiscent of Cape Town a little, but with slightly more attractive townships and larger commercial areas.  There is definitely an east coast/west coast difference between the two cities.  People from Joburg say Cape Town sucks and vice versa, all due to the tempo of the respective places.  

Tegan has so graciously taken me in and has offered me her place to stay, which is immaculate.  I have my own room, bathroom, and am living in ultimate comfort.  

We headed to the store to get some groceries and figured out our mission for the night.

Enter Lauren:  a friend of Teags, sassy and fun, fetched me and helped me find some proper black shoes for the evening razzle (Converses are frowned upon, womp womp).  Gently pregaming before leaving, Lauren introduced me to this song, a new favorite:

Clapham Gold was the venue and I got to know Teagan's paramour Kyle on a more bru-level.  Total class act.  I was warned that women from Joburg are known for grabbing random guys walking past and...yeah.  Nonetheless, dancing quickly ensued with doubles of soco and lime and super juice.  

Super juice

(so͞opər jo͞os), noun - a concoction of several liquors including/but not limited to tequila, vodka, rum and 

soco with brutal fruit and other aliquots of somewhat anonymous 'poisons'.

After some late night shenanigans filled with rooks, tears, shots, and shuffling, we headed home.  There 

were a plethora of police checkpoints on the way home, it would seem as though drunk driving is quite 

a problem here.  

Today started off with a breakfast spread next to the pool and a departure to the rhino and lion park.  The

drive took us (us = T+K+L+CK) to Kromdraai.  We entered the park with the goals of getting up close 

with lions, watching them feed, and checking out Wonder Cave.  The pictures below speak a thousand 

words.

The Wonder Cave is a gorgeous cavern in the middle of the park, which was originally used by the Italians 

to mine Calcium Carbonate.  

They would then take the raw mineral and place them in the oven for 4-6 

weeks to yield lime, which they would then sell at the market for 50 cents/ton (quite a bit of money at that 

time but split among 40 workers or so).  They would also mine with only two candles as well.

Tonight is more of a chill night before my departure to Kruger Park tomorrow for safari.

New album is uploaded to FB

CK

"Has Facebook made it to America yet?" -Dumbo

I'm sunburnt...how's winter coming along DC?


Afrikaans lesson #11
Trou met my - 'marry me'

My bittersweet last week here in Stellenbosch.  There is still a sizable amount to do, this week will be one of the busiest yet.  Experiments and saying goodbye to the people who have taken me in here, if I were to promise them that I'd return, I would feel very confident that I could fulfill it.

Thursday night, I headed to Mystic Boer once again to do some writing and reading.  So fitting that my second day here, I went there to do the same, I appreciate the symmetry in that.  I sat at the bar, refreshed by my Carling black label.  Sitting at the bar was Nicole, a distraught 19-year old with an immense passion for the band H.I.M.  I had sat down at the bar just as a conversation with her and an ex-paramour was ensuing, which was not ideal.  After sharing a tequila shot with the bartender who sensed her fragile state, she made conversation with me and inquired as to what I was writing about.  I gave her my story and offered her some space to write down how she was feeling, an opportunity she vastly needed and enjoyed.  Her friends Robyn and Robyn came to check on her as any good girlfriend would and we all struck up conversation.  The Robyns were charming, astonishingly beautiful, and quite compassionate.  They invited me along to Catwalks with them, which was empty, and allowed me to show off my American dance style, or lack thereof, on the higher platforms where XY's usually can't venture.  Robyn #1 then rendezvous'ed with Nicole and Robyn #2 and I headed to Entourage and Springboks, bedtime came at 2:30 in the am.  It was a perfect example of serendipity.

Saturday started off at the Cape Town planetarium with Leigh and LJvL after heading to the local market to get stuff for me mom.  How lucky was I to be accompanied by two great ladies.  The exhibit boats an impressive museum of natural history as well, more biological, less geological.  We then headed to Fairview wine estate for wine and cheese tasting.  The 8 wines we had were each paired with a cheese, also made on the farm and extremely delicious (shipping to the states is rather impossible, I tried).  One of them was spiced with Chakalaka, absolutely succulent.  A dozen more wine bottles are en route to the states as you read this.  Though I could send none home, that didn't prevent me from buying five packages of cheese, which may have been a dimwitted idea considering I have five days left here.  The evening then brought us back to 5 Rynevald to meet Leigh's brother, a DJ on a local radio station and celebrate his birthday with him.  I can say I have finally tried ostrich, and it was divine (highly recommend trying).

On a side note, the drive to Cape Town, by way of the N2 (highway), brings us along the poorer parts of South Africa.  Unfortunately, this is what most Americans (initially including myself) would expect the majority of Africa to be with roaming animals and rudimentary infrastructure.  As grim as the living conditions are, the sense of community is strong in these parts, and it's comforting to know that those less fortunate can still live with a sense of belonging and purpose.  Some of these shacks have satellite dishes too....weird:

Also, after dudes night at Gino's on friday, I've come to find out that the movie District 9 is inspired by the relocation of District 6 in Cape Town (even though the movie is set in Joburg).

Since my stay here and while frequenting some of the bars/clubs, I kept hearing this song over and over and could not pinpoint its title or creator for the life of me.  Most people know how frustrating this is and how it can drive into an almost obsession.  I figured I'd take this opportunity to ask Leigh's brother, who suggested it may be Avicci "Levels".  He was right, and it's been on repeat for the past hour (after the 1st minute, awesome).  This is probably already popular in the states, maybe I'm a bit behind:

Today was my last surf lesson with Emiel.  There was also a surf competition going on in Strand.  Today was probably the least successful in terms of progress.  I've learned all the basics and now I must learn to apply it all and at this point, it comes down to endurance and practice to navigate the waves.  It's been one of my life's goals to learn how to surf and I couldn't have done it without Emiel.  I wish him all the best.

After the lesson, I met back up with Ilna, Dumbo, and their friend 'Sarah' (sara is a dude, but was introduced to me by Dumbo as Sarah, I am in the dark as to his actual name.  After picking up some Biltong, which is like a beef jerky, we took a mini road trip, with the first stop being at Cool Bay.  Some people surf here as the waves are respectable, but the rocks pose a treacherous consequence for the inexperienced.  What was spectacular was the thunderous sound as the waves crashed on the beach, it's an indescribable feeling.

We then headed along the coast and stumbled upon a huge sand dune that people usually go dune surfing on.

Another side note, I am given much crap at home for being barefoot in odd places.  Walking barefoot is part of the culture here, barefoot in restaurants, in class (obviously not in the lab, there are rules here too), etc.  It's an accepted thing to do, and makes it that much harder to leave this place.

The dunes were awesome, and the sand rather cool due to the winds in the area.  We took in the sights, horseplayed a bit, and headed back.  The drive back included some off-roading and passing of apple orchards.  Dumbo was telling me that these orchards typically plant rose bushes along the road on the perimeter of their properties, not just for aesthetics, but since roses are quite sensitive to plant-borne diseases, it's a measuring stick for the health of the apple trees.  If the roses are dying, they can prevent the same for fate for the apples.  The seven-hour journey ended with me taking a 2 hour nap until early evening.

The Neelsie is barely populated tonight and the footy is on.  Time to get some work done.  14 days until I touch down in the motherland.  Let's hope for no lost limbs and muggings in this home stretch.

Newest FB album has been made (Part III).

Miss you all more than you know.

-CK

"I caught my first tube this morning, sir."

11 days left in Stellenbosch, 8 in Jozi


Afrikaans lesson #10
daars hy - 'there he is' (there you go)
beeldskoon - 'beautiful'

This past weekend, the gang and myself went to Spier, which boasts a cheetah reserve, small craft market, and a wine farm.  The weather was a bit dodgy but stayed tame throughout the day.  The cheetah reserve is quite spectacular though at times it seems more like I was on set for a Jurassic Park movie with the immense amount of gates and fences around.  There were several cheetahs around, more cubs than adults, with the occasional signage declaring "DO NOT FEED CHEETAHS".  Of course it's an additional cost to go see them, so I did what any curious American would do and paid it to see some exotic animals.  The trainers (for lack of a better word), go into the perimeter first and see if the cheetahs are relaxed enough to bring people in to see them, some appear to be docile.  Nonetheless, we ventured closer one at a time.  You can feel a subtle difference in the cheetah fur between the black spots and the rest of the fur, and even up close, they are absolutely beeldskoon.  There are a few other animals on the property, owls, eagles, and this animal which I saw from a far, if you don't know what it is, the clip below should give you a hint:

The wine was pretty good there, my favorite still being from Uva Mira.  The pinotage from here wasn't too bad.  Pinotage is a wine mostly found in this region, though I'm told grapes have been brought back to the states for growing.

Asara wine estate was also on the list for saturday, which has an unbelievable view.

The wine wasn't bad, and the food was divine.  Still, not as good as Uva Mira's.  Dinner brought us to 5 Rynevald, a sort of bohemian/hipster type restaurant.  

Me - "Hi, we have a reservation under U.S.A."

Hostess - "...I don't think the table's big enough."

It looks like an older home that was converted to a restaurant, with scores of books on the shelves and even on the walls themselves, letters on the ceiling, coffee tables and small tv sets adorned the adjacent room with a plethora of tea lights giving the atmosphere a smoother ambience.  The food was pretty good.

Sunday was surfing, once again.  8:30am go time.  Emiel surfed out with me today, further beyond the breaks we lingered at for the first few lessons.  It was cold out, windy, and cloudy, and the wetsuit didn't help much.  Amidst the exhausting of paddling, trying to catch a wave was rather daunting, but still extremely exciting.  This was my first lesson in putting all the aspects of surfing together.  I caught a few waves with the occasion wipe out (fall off board, wave carries you down, board hits head, water up nose, head submerged, adrenaline pumping).  Next sunday is my last lesson, and I will thoroughly enjoy it.

I spoke a little at group meeting yesterday and was suggested more experiments to do to elucidate some of the results I've been having.  My main project is tied to the sorption instrument which takes forever and a day to run, so hopefully I can use it round the clock to ensure speedy results since I leave here next friday.  The other project involves crystal growth of a specific compound of mine.  It crystallizes into two forms, a less interesting form (mono P)...

 and a more interesting form (rhombo R).

The latter gives rise to 9 angstrom channels throughout the crystal which may be a porous material as well.  The crystal is also solvated, meaning that it contains a solvent molecule in addition to the parent molecule in its crystal packing.  This is peculiar because there are very few examples of porous solvates in the literature.  Nonetheless, we think the rhombo R form converts into the mono P form and is irreversible, so our goal is to isolate the rhombo R form as a room temperature/air stable crystal to do further studies on.

I leave next friday, so this weekend I was thinking of ice skating and dinner with everyone I've met here.  We shall see.

I'm loving all the Halloween pictures from back home, and I'm loving my soon-to-be living situation once I return.  Mexican dinner soon when I get back and a raucous evening at Blackfinn.

Miss you all.
CK

Primaquine - available in your grocer's freezer

Crazy week.  A little more than three weeks to go here.  Let's see what's been on the docket.

Seeing as how Matteo is as italian as they come, I asked him if he had a Vespa, which he doesn't.  But he told me the history of how the Vespa came to be.  The italian aircraft manufacturer Piaggio was forced to suspend its operations after World War II and as a result, needed to find a business strategy to cope with the harsh political ultimatum.  They had a versatile array of aircraft parts still, including wheels, which became the basis for the scooters themselves.  The rest is history...

Afrikaans Lesson #9
klap - to smack

Salsa is very much like Sokkie.  A trip again to Opskop this wednesday night gave me the chance to have a more open dance floor and thus a greater chance to try new moves and become comfortable with the flow of a 'free-flowing' type of dancing.  As I also watched some of the other couples dance, you can see the chemistry some of them have and the different styles they show.  I guess what gets me so fascinated with it is the contrast to American clubs.  Using DC as a macrocosm, most clubs/bars with dancing are typically filled with many 20-30 somethings surround by good friends, lurking to find a new hook-up, murdering the dance floor, or meandering through the venue massively intoxicated.  These conditions typically spur a type of dancing, something we've all been used to and have all experienced from time to time.  From a girls' standpoint, there is nothing classy about a guy coming up from behind her and continuously pelvic thrusting.  From a guys' standpoint...from a mature guys' standpoint...they should know that the best way to dance with a girl is to make eye contact and approach her from the front, feel out the chemistry, and see what happens.  This scenario, if played right can turn into pelvic thrusting in the end...but I digress.  My point being is that most dancing you see is rather monotonous.  The songs they play at Okskop can definitely give rise to said dancing styles, but once the sokkie songs come on and it's only pairs on the dance floor, it's something to really enjoy.  There is an attractive innocence with this style.  It's fun.  It's refreshing.  It's creative.  It's Afrikaans.

The most important part of my sorption experiments have anything but ideal.  Unfortunately, initial experiments on many chemical compounds do not turn out to be attractive figures for publication.  Typically tweaks to the experimental methods must be made to optimize the results.  I have tried sorption of ethane with my cavitand molecules (below), the orange represents the void space that a small molecule can potentially become trapped in:

These experiments are typically done on porous materials, which possess large channels for guest insertion.  My molecules are not formally porous, but may be transiently porous, meaning that is does not contain atomic scale channels but may still possess a structure which allows the guests to permeate through to find the void spaces in the molecule.  More tests are being conducted.

Looks like at the end of February, I will be heading to Boston for an MIT/Bruker sponsored chemistry conference on crystallography.  Never been to Boston, should be fun.

With all the things I've done here thus far, there's entirely too much to do in only two months of time here.  After thinking about it, there are a number of things that I'd still love to do upon returning (knock on wood).  Namibia has quite beautiful scenery I've been told, a trip to bungy jump at Bloukrans Bridge would be amazing if it weren't 8 hours drive away, among many other attractions.  Most of my failure is doing these is the remote location of Stellenbosch.  I'm curious to see what Johannesburg has in store for me.

I booked my safari for next month.  It's a three day adventure, with 4 game drives, lodging, meals, and transportation included.  This recent development prompted me to head into the campus pharmacy to pick up some anti-malarial pills for the trip.  There are a few varieties, but the pills the lady suggested had me taking a pill before my Kruger Game reserve departure, the three days while I'm there, and up to a week after I leave.  The other pills she said I'd have to take up to a month afterwards and could potentially "make me go bonkers".  I will gladly pay the extra rand for 11 pills and no substantial psychological side-effects (R556).  Getting malaria may sound cool (to some), but I'd rather not deal with the effects and the trouble in entering the US while sick, and the inability for me to give my O negative blood at donor drives.

Tomorrow is wine/cheese taking with the group.  Maybe out tomo night?  Surfing on sunday, maybe wakeboarding?  Who knows.

Econ = Runs/Overs Bowled

An excellent weekend indeed.  Friday night was my first trip to the proper cinema since my arrival where we saw the 'new' release Contagion, which boasts an excellent insight into the modus operandi of disease control and prevention, highly dramatized of course.  One odd practice they do here is having assigned seating in the theaters, and you pick your seats when you purchase your ticket.  Intel passed onto me suggests that massive confrontations have occurred for movies that are sold-out in theaters without an assigned seating protocol.  

Those of you that are familiar with my culinary expertise in mexican cuisine should understand how much I enjoy cooking large amounts of food for close friends, which is exactly what happened on saturday.  Sadly, corn tortillas, a staple in many dishes, could not be found here, so flour tortillas had to do.  The company was fantastic, friends from the laboratory with the food prepared that day, and plenty of alcohol to go around, several times over.  Matteo's response after taking a bite: "oh, it's actually good."

Today was surfing in Strand again at high noon.  I can proudly say I never disembarked from the bike on the entire route there and back, but my legs are in pain.  Pride for pain...even trade-off.  Emiel was my teacher again today, and we started with an 8 foot board.  This time we also discussed proper paddling technique and how to maneuver the board in preparation for taking a wave.  These are exhausting practices, paddling just to get to the wave is a work-out in itself (balance and positioning whilest being bombarded with waves).  I didn't excel as much as I wanted to today, though the concepts were more technical today.  No one said it was going to be easy.  I'll be back there next week.  Emiel is a very patient and informative instructor, and antonym of Paul Rudd in this favorite movie scene:

There have been a plethora of cricket matches on tv the past few days.  As far as the rules are concerned, I'm still somewhat in the dark.  There can be a variety of points scored per bat, there are 6 balls thrown per over, the bowler runs up to the batting area to gain momentum before bowling, and when they hit the wickets, they are elated.  Trying to comprehend the sport reminded me of this brilliant clip from a very underrated movie, though the sport they talk about is somewhat fantasy, for comedic effect:

When I had arrived in Johannesburg, en route to Cape Town, the plane showed this advert for the South African rugby team, in time for the 2011 World Cup.  My likeness for bokkie the springbok is on par with Pascal from Tangled (which is an immense amount).

This week is going to be extremely busy.  I will hopefully update in the next few days.  We are about 28 days from my arrival back home.  I'm going to enjoy this for as long as I can, and return to you all safely.

Until then...miss you all.

-CK

More rhombohedral, less monoclinic

The events of this week has been paired with the weather almost perfectly, some days are rainy with little or no real productivity, some have been sunny with a few intriguing results.

I feel as though many other people do this, but I find it funny that when I walk by the hundreds of students on campus, I find that I recognize some of the people as people from home, but then I realize that I'm in Africa, and it's probably not so and so from Woodbridge, VA.

Afrikaans lesson #8
bokkie - term of endearment, like 'girlfriend'
teef - 'bitch'

Quite the antithesis of words, but it seems I got all the swears down now, just in case.

Yesterday I thought my laptop was stolen.  I had left the room to check on the x-ray diffractometer and came back to a vacant spot on my desk, which sent that feeling of absolute trepidation throughout my body, where you suddenly feel like someone has taken your soul from you, in the shape of a 15 inch, silvery-colored, dense wondermachine.  After a few minutes of assessing the situation and determining if I had turned on the gps feature of some apple products (which macbook pros do not possess, only iphones and ipads), Matteo came in and pulled my pride and joy from a desk drawer and let me understand the gravity of the situation that could have been.  I wasn't upset that he taught me that lesson, it was just surprising at how quickly tragedy can happen.

I use the word 'tragedy' loosely, especially when it comes to losing an inanimate object over let's say, a person.  I use it because like most people, I keep the most precious of possessions on this machine, all of which are intangible memories in some form (music, pictures, data, etc.) that can never be replaced.  I backed up my hard drive within 5 minutes of getting my laptop back and started locking the door behind me.

I watched the Caps vs. Pens game via a live stream here a few days ago, which is inconveniently on from 1-4am.  Now that it's hockey season, I am missing DC that much more.  As with traveling anywhere, you pick up on the small nuances that you take for granted when back at home but you appreciate the different benefits you receive from being abroad.  For instance:

Missing in DC/USA: Halloween, pumpkins, pumpkin-related concoctions, the fall foliage against the eccentric colors of georgetown residences, walking outside in the crisp air and it smelling like a bonfire, rocking the red at Verizon Center and watching the Caps usually win among close friends, the slightly faster internet speed, central heating, wendys and taco bell, tosh.0, the time zone, bocce in front of Basic Science, happy hours with friends, etc.

Appreciating in Stellenbosch/South Africa: the hospitality of perfect strangers, Dom pedros, the exchange rate, rugby and cricket matches, wine country, breathtaking landscapes, relaxed atmosphere, the night lights illuminating university buildings, the abundance of traffic circles (while riding shotgun), lesser known but better movies at the Neelsie, the slightly different vernacular, the food variety, exotic animals, the gratitude of servers/bartenders when you give them a big tip (though typical of the amount in the states), a large supporting cast in the lab, etc.

Some of the vernacular differences are subtle:
We say texts - They say SMS
We say line -  They say queue
We say apartment - They say flat

I am 30 days in, and have 30 days left here, with 21 in Stellenbosch, and 9 in Johannesburg before I touch down at DCA on November 20th (around 10am).  I will be working hard and playing hard these next three weeks in the Western Cape.  It's a mexican dinner saturday night with members of the lab, and possibly surfing/wakeboarding on sunday.

Thanks for all the support and kind words from back home.  Miss you all.

CK