Saturday, June 20, 2009



Just in case some of you thought that i was not living up to the title of this blog or shirking on my responsibilities to making this a true adventure, i would like to re-assure u that this is not the case. follow me as we venture into the life of moi, over the last couple of months:

evidence #1: not only am i exploring a brave new world otherwise known as botswana, im also learning some new tricks. for example, i've been forced to learn how to drive a manual/stick shift vehicle. that's right. and if i must say so myself, im a pretty damn fast learner and i'm pretty damn good at it. botswana is mostly flat with few hills, etc, so sure i havent been tested too much, but i've gone thru some rigorous testing and came out alive (more on this later).

evidence #2: while working in botswana, i decided to take up french classes. first logical question: do they speak french in botswana? answer: no, not even close. 2nd logical question: why not take classes on the language spoken in botswana (setswana)? answer: cuz i didnt feel like it. it was an 8 (or so) week course that i kind of started in the middle and went into one of the "high" levels thinking i would struggle...but if i must say so myself, neanmois, je n'ai appris presque rien pendant le cours!..

evidence #3: and this explains the photos u see. this past weekend i went on a mini-holiday/vacation to this tiny town/village somewhere in between gabarone and joburg. it was such an amazing weekend. first, it was the furthest i had driven with my new (rental) manual/stick shift car. plus, i drove it all by myself (my friends were all coming from the joburg side, and i was coming from the gabarone side). this trip included some "major" off-roading, if i must say so myself. and i passed with flying colours. no mishaps, no stalling, no getting stuck. i think i was born to drive a manual...well not really, i still enjoy my automatic when in joburg, especially in traffic. anyway, the rest of the weekedn was excellent. we actually just stayed in a self-catering lodge, saw none of the town (with all its 3 shops), hiked, relaxed, cooked, ate, and drank. there were about a million tangerine (naartjie, in afrikaans) and lemon trees; so we went tangerine- and lemon-picking and sat and ate them and it reminded me of lovely times of long ago...i really don't remember the last time i had such a relaxing and nice weekend. I've been so used to either coming to joburg and trying to fit as many things into 2 days as i can or running errands or seeing people or doing laundry. even while taking vacations, u try to see as many things as u can in the span of a week or 2. this mini-vacation was all about relaxing. i woke up whenever i wanted to, walked where-ever i wanted to whenever i wanted to, ate whenever, read whenever...no tv, no phone. also, not only did i make some amazing fires (i was in charge of the fire and braai-ing the meat for 2 nights), i schooled my friends at scrabble! i sound almost like a hippie, w/o the drugs. anyway, it was super, as the french would say. hope to do it again soon.