a v good bday wknd

phew...i waited a quarter of a century for this moment! sounds like a long time, hey! i'm getting seriously old, man. anyway i had a really good saturday, and then a relaxing sunday and monday (with a bit of a stomach ache mixed in).

at the risk of being "TOTALLY OBLITERATED" by billary, i have a bit of bone to pick, with society. it has to do with a certain double standard in our world today. saturday i was set to have a bit of a rendez-vous lunch with someone at a nearby mall (of course), so of course (being the gentleman that i am) i got there in good time, maybe even a bit early. well, this someone didn't end up showing up for a good 1.5hours after said rendez-vous time. what's up with that. now, the whole time i was thinking, if the roles were reversed, and i was an hr and a half late, any girl would have jetted off long ago and not waited at all. but being a good guy i waited. and waited. she finally showed up, and i guess, redeemed herself by being pleasant during lunch. so lunch was v good. then i had to immediately jet from there and go clean up my place and prepare some munchies (probly the most i've cooked in a while, and it was just a couple of snacks...). i wasn't really done with all that before people started showing up, but we had a good time at my place for a couple hours, then off to dinner and other fun activities, saturday night. the night was good, and then i woke up thanks to my parents early birthday call (thanks mom/dad!), and then the stomach ache(s) began and lasted most of the day. that was not so fun. we also had monday off (cuz SA realizes its my bday and we need an extra day off to celebarte the momentous event) and i had lunch with some other friends and took care of some errands, blah blah...here a few pics from sat night:

mysteries. revealed.

yoh! its been a while since i posted i know, but nothing really earth shattering happening in the part of the world lately (minus zim); so consider this a coffee table, easy read:

--I finally made it to alexander this weekend; about time, i know. alexandra is one of the largest and most populated and poorest urban areas in the country. and is nicely situated right beside sandton, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the city. the difference between this area and sandton or fourways (where i live) is stark. i commented to my boy that it reminded me of a lot of places in lagos (also extremely populated), except most of the roads were paved here. i thought that was pretty impressive (or strange): ridiculously run down and unfinished shacks on either side and paved roads with speed bumps intersecting them. anyway, we had an extremely delicious lunch (one of the best ive had since ive been here). i dont fully know what to make of the experience yet, but im sure i'll let y'all updated.

--went to see the wits choir again on sat night and it was awesome (again). they did a collaboration with a band made up of 2 guys (called themselves "five men 3 missing"). apparently they were a bit nervous about doing this collaboration as it was their first time ever, but it actually turned out really well. the 2 guys seriously sounded like 5 men playing; they had i think 4 guitars, an electric drum set, some mixing equipment, etc. im not one that knows a lot about music or creativity, but i must say it was altogether pretty impressive.

--sunday at soccer i got my first save as well as first assist, after many many weeks of playing. whatever, man, i'm a true defender! my job comes in blocking shots, not scoring. and if anyone asks me when ill get my first goal, i'll hurt u!...for now, im satisfied with a save and an assist.

--so the big news is i've started seriously studying for the gmat (standardized test for mba applicants), i guess, looking beyond life at my current job (dont tell anyone!). I'm still not sure when i'll actually start grad school and also not completely sure it'll be an mba (still considering development studies), but at some point i'll be going to some school, prefereably in south africa. i should say tho, that after so being bored with work for so long, it seems like things are picking up and i'm getting busier, and more importantly, we're starting to look to do things that are pretty exciting (hows that for vague...)

--another discovery: my fellow st. louis-ans can take refuge in the fact that i've found people that are bigger "rubber-neckers" than them. st. louis is known for its rubber-necking, apparently (the act of twisting, bending, and extending your neck to watch some kind of accident or occurence on the road; this is always directly and positively porportional to the amount of pressure applied to the brake pad). joburg-ians, i believe, are much bigger rubber-neckers. i've noticed this on at least 2 separate occasions now as i'm driving along and wondering why traffic's so backed up at a non-peak hour, then get up to the spot of the accident and immediately after passing, the road is completely clear. eish!

--many of u (probly very few) will remember one of my early posts about finding an answer to the question of what the hell am i doing here in sa. well i think i found the answer. answer = FATE. my birthday ( coming up sunday april 27th) just happens to fall on the same day as "Freedom Day. Freedom day is South Africa's independence day, kind of, when in 1994 the first democratic elections were held; also the day in 1997 when the new constitution took effect. so there. hope that answers all the critics. also it means that SA gives me a day off every year on my birthday. this year it'll be on monday. holla.

--im starting to miss certain aspects of the US. most recently, its Qdoba, the best tex-mexican food that side of the atlantic. mmm, qdoba, uve been on my mind all week now. and if any of you consider yourselves true friends, u'll go get some chicken fajita burrito (both medium and hot sauce, green peppers and onions, no beans), package it in those spiffy stay fresh packages and send it my way. you'd def be my top friend. hmph.

Drakensberg

So I took this past friday and monday off to make it an extended weekend getaway to the mountains of drakensberg (the highest in southern africa). the weekend was a lot of fun (though my knees and ankles don't think its very funny...), but now i'm back to work and thats not nearly as fun. here is a brief picture description of what happened. you can find the entire picture album at : http://picasaweb.google.com/okunadef/Drakensberg.

we got there sometime friday evening, all smiles, not knowing what was ahead, and this was the view at the "tower of pizza"- where we stayed:

after a good nights rest and yummy pizza, i brush up on my zulu/xhosa/tswana, and we started on the hike for day one:

after 20 minutes, we (cough, marcel) realized it was the wrong route, so we turn around, dodge some trees/bushes/forests and head back to the correct destination:

this next photos are after about 4 hours and multiple stops, we reach the destination (though according to some wise souls, "the destination is the way..."). we relax...not looking forward to the hike back. def not thinking of the next day:

after ~ 6hrs we made it back to the car:

day 2 rolls around (and my battery dies, so there aren't too many pics). we hike (more like climb and crawl) for a good 3 hrs or so, and as i thought we were nearing the end, i look up and see this. this thing was perfectly vertical. and perfectly perpendicular to the ground. and 100+ meters. and, so, this is where i go no further. luckily i had some company...(and btw, we weren't afraid, just cared enough about our friends/family that we didn't want them to go through the trouble of cleaning up the bloody mess when we fell off or making funerals arrangements...):

after another ~6hrs of climbing, we are on our way back down. the road is completely covered in fog, but inside the car...we are warmly serenaded by the much "hollow" cosmo:

monday morning, knees and ankles killing me, we head back to the crazy world of jo-burg. as another wise soul said, "it's tough to work in the south africa..."