Arrival+2 weeks
15 May 2005
Greetings. I can't believe I've held off this long in posting, but things have been hectic - yeah, like that's hard to believe. We've been here since May 2 and I haven't stopped to take a slow, deep breath yet. The good news is we've moved into our very own house (rented) and have a small quantity of furniture borrowed from the Pinkhams. Who knows when our stuff will arrive. I'll speak more on that later. It's 7:52 a.m. on Sunday morning and I'm drinking coffee and looking out our sitting room window over the little patch of garden at Table Mountain. We are in the suburb of Newlands (everybody get out your map now) and it's gorgeous. It's about as close to the good qualities of Seattle as the Cape Peninsula gets.
We get more rainfall on average right here, and greenery and trees abound. Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens are a short 5-10 minute walk from here, and you can actually hike up the back side of the mountain from there as well. I now understand why so many people here look tan and fit. The outdoors present almost limitless leisure diversions. My mother stayed with us our first week here, so of course we took her to some of the tourist sites: the waterfront (and big Victoria Wharf mall), Boulders Beach with the penguins, and Cape Point with the Chacma baboons and famous lighthouse. We've got great pictures of all which I will post in the gallery and link here.
What can I say about my personal experience with South Africa so far? The work environment is great. We are making progress and the folks we've hired so far seem to share a quirky sense of humour. We have lunches together and there's a great deal of laughing with at least one of us getting mock-fired everyday. Well, actually there's one guy who seems to be perpetually getting sacked. Luckily it's not me... yet. We've been warmly welcomed by everyone and I've only experienced a couple short-lived moments of homesickness and a bit of panic. Susan and I both love to travel, but bits of everyday life are closing in, beyond the travel horizon. What I mean is, during travel you don't have to contend with local bureaucracy for things like telephone service, TV license (yes, you must purchase a yearly TV license, one per household. Figure that out), satellite TV (we've caved in on this... I want my F1 coverage and world news; the kids want Disney Channel), alarm service (yes, this is quasi-mandatory, even in the nice neighborhoods like ours. More on physical security later), schools for Bella and Jacob, and most pressing and infuriating, customs demerge for our household goods. Every yahoo we deal with wants to hold onto my passport physically for some period of time - BZZZT... Nope, but thanks for playing. I'm not sure if it holds true for all, but Americans are told never to relinquish their passports because of fraud, theft, forgery, etc. Luckily, there's a shiny new American embassy here, should we require their services. Supposedly we must register with them in case there's a threat announcement or evacuation order. Susan and I both nearly split a gut when we heard that.
Today our TV arrives. Yes, some businesses deliver on Sunday, which astonished us both. Most stores seem to close quite early during the week (by American standards) and there are no giant 24-hour supermarkets to be sure. So, what they miss out on for hours they must make up for in days open? Who knows. All I know is that the TV and DVD player arrive today and the kids will be watching "Finding Nemo" before bedtime. Ah, some semblance of normalcy returns.
Navigation and driving:
We are leasing a Nissan Almera. If you've never heard of it, you must be in America. There are all sorts of models here which are smaller, cheaper, made only for right-hand drive markets, etc. This one is a gutless little beast not worthy of comment. Move on. We've both been amazed at how quickly we acclimated to driving on the "wrong" side of the road and to finding our way around. The big roads are well marked and we've got the equivalent of the Thomas Guide for the area, covering the peninsula in detail. Even so, our most heated moments have been around driving. I got us sidetracked returning from the airport, going to the waterfront last week right around the kids' bedtime with them screaming in the back of the car. Fun, fun, fun. Everyone was miserable. On the bright side, I now know how to get into and out of Zonnebloem / District 6 and where the petrol station is.
Power, voltage converters and otherwise:
South Africa, like Europe, UK and most other sane countries, is on the 220v plan. I have to take some credit for our preparation here. A few months before we left the states, I began triaging our home electronics into three piles: Those which wouldn't work at all because of signal or format differences (includes TV, DVD), those which require voltage conversion, and those with multi-voltage auto-converting supplies. Those which would not work were tagged and left for storage. I began purchasing auto-converting supplies for most of the rest. Luckily, we are nearly an all-Apple Computer family and all of their equipment is 110-220 auto-converting. Once you have the voltage problem solved, it suffices to buy a physical plug adapter. (Note to Apple: The Apple world converter kit *DOES NOT* include a South Africa connector).
The physical connector here is unique. It's not the 3-blade UK plug, it's not the two-prong continental European plug, it's a large 3 pin monstrosity. For all your adapter needs from UK, European, American, etc. I recommend "The Visitor Adapter" from GO Travel Emporium (picture of the SA plug and adapter in the Gallery). We must have a dozen of these :).
Susan was "on the ball" too. She's got some freaky thick hair that requires a heavy-duty professional curling iron. On our last trip over together, she found even with a transformer / adapter, her US curling iron didn't heat up correctly, so she bought the professional equivalent from the UK, already a 220V device. She's since picked up a Euro hair-dryer as well. The only device missing now is her professional full-spectrum Ott-Lite, which we didn't get time to find in the UK. For electronics / electrics, we are finding the prices nearly 2x American prices, simply because the market is much smaller, things are shipped here from UK, where the prices are higher, import duties, etc.
What are we missing?
Ha. The irony thickens. Know what I miss most? Amazon.com and eBay. Quick shipping and low prices. DAMN DAMN DAMN.
Posted by cbrown at July 23, 2005 9:19 PM