1st post. ever.

as many of you know, i will be moving to johannesburg, south africa very soon (Dec. 2, exactly), so i decided to start this blog to keep in touch with people and to keep from having to write a million emails about how things are going (of course, that's because i have a million friends. right...). this is my first time trying anything like this so y'all will have to cut me some slack as i live and learn. any suggestions are welcome, but i'll probably post a couple times a week starting next week, then shift to once a week or so after i've been in sa for some time. most post will just be me talking randomly about whats going on.

i'm gonna back up a bit now and give a shout out to chicago (my home for the last 2+yrs). I officially moved out of chi-town last sunday. I had a great time in chicago and felt pretty sad when i was leaving in my big-ass uhaul last week. i'm glad i got to hang out with most people the last week or so before i left and will seriously miss you guys/gals; i was blessed to get to know each of you and could not have enjoyed my time there as i did without y'all (i'm trying to talk southern today!). I've been chiilin in the lou now for a week, with old high school/college friends and family, and just trying to prepare as best as I can before i take off.

so the big question: why south africa? i don't really have a good answer to that, except that I've been studying different aspects of sub-saharan african culture, politics, economics since freshman year in college and have always wanted to live somewhere in the region. south africa interested me even more when i took some classes and realized that it provided one of the best models for evaluating how politics, government, and economies should be run in africa (note that "best" is compared to other countries in africa, so not saying much). as i was coming up on my 2-yr anniversary with accenture, i thought it was about time to move on and possibly go to grad school (probably mba); i thought i'd do that in south africa. anyway, i started talking this over with my advisor last year and he mentioned the idea of transferring to the accenture office in south africa. one looong year later, and its actually happening.

now the real reason: WORLD CUP 2010. first on african soil. will produce first african world champion...

this was sort of a long first post. i don't think they will all be this long, tho no promises. but before i end i wanted to post a picture. accenture is actually treating me really well and after having paid for all my transfer expenses, they are also paying for my flight, a car for 2 weeks, and a hotel room for two weeks, or until i get settled. since the hotel wasn't named marriott or hilton, i thought it was just some random, local shack in the boonies of jo-burg. well, its not. this place looks sick. check out the pics below. i'm not sure what kind of car they rented me, but if its anything like the hotel, maybe it'll be a jaguar or similar (at least in my dreams, right?!)

The Quatermain Premier Boutique Hotel

that's all for now. in the first few weeks that im in jo-burg, i'll probably be doing some traveling; definitely to uganda, but probably also a couple other places within south africa. i'll keep y'all posted. do me a favor and keep me in your prayers. this should be a very interesting/amazing/life changing "adventure". hope everyone had a good thanksgiving.