We have reached the very symbolic 4-week mark, meaning I am here officially one month. And I am getting restless.
As usually the case when I get a bit restless, I can't exactly tell you why. Is it because I am not in my new apartment yet? Is it because I am still spending time browsing ads, this time for a car? Is it because so many evenings look alike? No clue. Probably a bit of everything, either way I have a faint feeling of frustration.
Fortunately I have a way to cope with that: making more plans. I like having plans, primarily because I can assure myself I will do something (slightly more) useful than just hanging around. Plans serve as a benchmark : I can compare possible other activities to the one planned and see if they are better. If the activity is deemed less interesting, based on my very subjective and arbitrary judgment, I might still do them if other factors justify that: uniqueness, involving unknown third parties, overall cost (monetary, opportunity costs, search costs,...), time or other constraints. To sum up a lot of BS: I like having plans when I feel restless.
So the plans for this weekend are (non exhaustive, not compulsory list):
- finishing the book I am reading
- finding a means of personal transport, i.e. a scooter of some sort
- leaving the city bowl for a significant amount of time
- watching the rugby game on Saturday (Bokke VS Ireland)
- go and hike in Kirstenbosch Gardens (see right inlay)
- deciding on a car
- go to bank to pick up bank card
- go and check out the switching on of the X-mas lights
- to be determined
I think it is mainly because my situation hasn't changed much in the past weeks that frustration is building up. I have found a place to rent, as I mentioned before, but I still don't hold the keys in my hand. Reason being that HR are not as efficient as I would like them to be (sharp contrast to Belgian HR). My container still isn't customs cleared. I still rely on taxis to get around in the City. I still haven't found something interesting to do on weekday evenings,... and all those things are interrelated.
But the coming week is very promising: Tuesday I should get my keys, Thursday they will deliver my stuff at my apartment, Friday there is the staff party, and there is the lottery of the World Cup groups which means there will be plenty of activity around the city. Already they are putting up extra decoration and there is a sense of excitement.
Everyone knows this will be a very important moment. News stations from around the world will take this opportunity to look at how the preparations are going. Still a lot of preparations to do in these final 200 days - the organization does not take chances on safety - let's look at the stadiums - but what about those vuvuzela's -...
November 27, 2009
November 22, 2009
a place to stay
I can start this post by telling you all I have found a place to stay. I still remain a bit weary though since the paperwork is not completed yet. I will only be sure once i'm lying in my bed in that apartment.
I'm proud to say I kept my promise and I will have a nice guest room for all of you that will come over to visit Cape Town, and me. I ll give you more details on the apartment and pictures once I moved in, that should be next weekend or shortly thereafter.
The weather changed for the good. It has been warm and cloudless for the past week, and 30 C every day without fault. Luckily there is a cool ocean breaze that makes it very pleasant to walk around.
I was invited by a colleague to go and see a movie in premiere. I confess that I am a bit of a social slut these days, in the sense that I jump at every chance I get to go out and do something with someone. In this case I was also informed that there would be 8 other women. So I double jumped. And there were indeed a lot of other women: there was the mother in law, the 15 year old daughter and her friend, the sister in law... Needless to say my expectations lied in a different age category. But it was a fun night out none the less.
Yesterday I helped Nelis, a Belgian colleague who has been here for a year already, move. He lived out in one of the further suburbs and had a nice house for him, his wife and their two cats. He's now moving because his wife has found work in a suburb on the other side of Cape Town. In all fairness: the move was not a lot of work. The lion share of the work was done by the moving company who had a large truck and 6 guys to fill it.
It was a big rugby day yesterday. There were lots of games on, so I parked my butt on a chair in the Irish pub down at the Waterfront and watched all of them (Scotland won from Australia, yey!). The nice thing is that you usually can have a bit of a chat with other spectators. This time I got more than I bargained for. I ended up with four guys who work in a restaurant in an other part of Town. Nic was by far the most talkative one, Tony is from Angola and Louis and Levy are originally from Congo. It was their night out because they work 6 days a week and not on a Sunday. So they go out, talk, have a few beers and just have a good time. And that is exactly what we did.
It was great to see how easily they took me up in their group. I was very relaxed the whole time, but still on my guard. It is one of those situations where I'm sceptical because some things are happening that I (western individualist) am not used to. The thoughts that are quietly yet noticeably in the back of my mind are: Would they want me to pay for the whole bill (a popular scam in Shanghai)? Do they want to take over this table? Do they just want to pick my pockets? Do they want to find out where I live so they can come and empty my apartment? It is not something one does deliberately, and I can feel very ashamed by it if is dominating my thoughts. But nothing those guys did indicated they would want to do such things so we just had a couple of rounds together.
They filled up the hours effortlesly with their simple stories brought with too much drama and big gestures. What was an epiphany to me was that they were quite demanding to the staff. I don't like asking waiters for too much, I even have difficulties sending back cold soup, but they were asking a whole lot of things. Nic wanted to change his glass because he was given a low glass with a handle, like a german beer glass. "That spoils my evening! It is not a manly glass. I need a tall glass, bruh. This is a glass for coffee!" Tony wanted to change channels on the TV and asked about 5 waiters to do that... and on and on. So here you had guys, waiters themselves, demanding a lot. And I started to realize that I feel akward whenever a waiter is serving me. Usually, halfway through your meal, the waiter comes to ask if everything is ok. I just nod or say "yes yes" so convincingly that it is probably clear that I don't want him to be bothered by what I want. Is it because I am afraid a master - servant relationship would occur?
I had a cold lasagna the other day but still told the waitress everything was perfect, and here you had Nic asking for a vuvuzela (the horn that makes a lot of noise) or the waitresses' number in exchange for his money... So I figured I will have to ease up and be more relaxed when waiters are around.
Louis is the only one not working at the restaurant and would best be described as the uptight guy that wants to come across as the intelligent type. He craves attention and goes to look for a new "audience" whenever he is not part of the conversation. To illustrate: he started dancing in front of the musicians at the Waterfront, where around a hundred tourists were gathered to look at the street musicians. Then he continued to take over one of the xylophones after he had asked a 60+ old women to dance with him.
When we were introduced and he found out that I am Belgian, he started talking about the relation between Belgium and Congo. A topic that unsettles me slightly as I don't really know what to say or do (see right hand side why). He called me his uncle and he was my nephew. And he tried to drag me in a discussion about why the Congolese were never given Belgian nationality although they were part of the Belgian kingdom. And that Belgium should be more involved in Congo just like the UK, US and China are doing good business. I guess I should make the suggestion to Karel De Gucht to start up the dialogue (?) with Congo again.
I'm proud to say I kept my promise and I will have a nice guest room for all of you that will come over to visit Cape Town, and me. I ll give you more details on the apartment and pictures once I moved in, that should be next weekend or shortly thereafter.
The weather changed for the good. It has been warm and cloudless for the past week, and 30 C every day without fault. Luckily there is a cool ocean breaze that makes it very pleasant to walk around.
I was invited by a colleague to go and see a movie in premiere. I confess that I am a bit of a social slut these days, in the sense that I jump at every chance I get to go out and do something with someone. In this case I was also informed that there would be 8 other women. So I double jumped. And there were indeed a lot of other women: there was the mother in law, the 15 year old daughter and her friend, the sister in law... Needless to say my expectations lied in a different age category. But it was a fun night out none the less.
Yesterday I helped Nelis, a Belgian colleague who has been here for a year already, move. He lived out in one of the further suburbs and had a nice house for him, his wife and their two cats. He's now moving because his wife has found work in a suburb on the other side of Cape Town. In all fairness: the move was not a lot of work. The lion share of the work was done by the moving company who had a large truck and 6 guys to fill it.
It was a big rugby day yesterday. There were lots of games on, so I parked my butt on a chair in the Irish pub down at the Waterfront and watched all of them (Scotland won from Australia, yey!). The nice thing is that you usually can have a bit of a chat with other spectators. This time I got more than I bargained for. I ended up with four guys who work in a restaurant in an other part of Town. Nic was by far the most talkative one, Tony is from Angola and Louis and Levy are originally from Congo. It was their night out because they work 6 days a week and not on a Sunday. So they go out, talk, have a few beers and just have a good time. And that is exactly what we did.
It was great to see how easily they took me up in their group. I was very relaxed the whole time, but still on my guard. It is one of those situations where I'm sceptical because some things are happening that I (western individualist) am not used to. The thoughts that are quietly yet noticeably in the back of my mind are: Would they want me to pay for the whole bill (a popular scam in Shanghai)? Do they want to take over this table? Do they just want to pick my pockets? Do they want to find out where I live so they can come and empty my apartment? It is not something one does deliberately, and I can feel very ashamed by it if is dominating my thoughts. But nothing those guys did indicated they would want to do such things so we just had a couple of rounds together.
They filled up the hours effortlesly with their simple stories brought with too much drama and big gestures. What was an epiphany to me was that they were quite demanding to the staff. I don't like asking waiters for too much, I even have difficulties sending back cold soup, but they were asking a whole lot of things. Nic wanted to change his glass because he was given a low glass with a handle, like a german beer glass. "That spoils my evening! It is not a manly glass. I need a tall glass, bruh. This is a glass for coffee!" Tony wanted to change channels on the TV and asked about 5 waiters to do that... and on and on. So here you had guys, waiters themselves, demanding a lot. And I started to realize that I feel akward whenever a waiter is serving me. Usually, halfway through your meal, the waiter comes to ask if everything is ok. I just nod or say "yes yes" so convincingly that it is probably clear that I don't want him to be bothered by what I want. Is it because I am afraid a master - servant relationship would occur?
I had a cold lasagna the other day but still told the waitress everything was perfect, and here you had Nic asking for a vuvuzela (the horn that makes a lot of noise) or the waitresses' number in exchange for his money... So I figured I will have to ease up and be more relaxed when waiters are around.
Louis is the only one not working at the restaurant and would best be described as the uptight guy that wants to come across as the intelligent type. He craves attention and goes to look for a new "audience" whenever he is not part of the conversation. To illustrate: he started dancing in front of the musicians at the Waterfront, where around a hundred tourists were gathered to look at the street musicians. Then he continued to take over one of the xylophones after he had asked a 60+ old women to dance with him.
When we were introduced and he found out that I am Belgian, he started talking about the relation between Belgium and Congo. A topic that unsettles me slightly as I don't really know what to say or do (see right hand side why). He called me his uncle and he was my nephew. And he tried to drag me in a discussion about why the Congolese were never given Belgian nationality although they were part of the Belgian kingdom. And that Belgium should be more involved in Congo just like the UK, US and China are doing good business. I guess I should make the suggestion to Karel De Gucht to start up the dialogue (?) with Congo again.
November 16, 2009
First Post
hello All,
sorry to keep have kept you waiting for this blog. Hope you can understand I had quite a few things on my mind and it is not easy finding a decent internet connection. I am at the office now and still struggling a bit.
Quite a few things happened in the past 14 days.
First of all, I had a great send off by friends and family. In the past weeks I have had to say many good byes, which was weird because it still feels like I won't be away that long... but that might still come. Either way I am very glad to have seen almost all of you before I left.
I had a good flight. Even the baby - because there is always at least 1 baby on a long distance flight - kept its (cute little) mouth. Upon arrival I found my luggage immediately, and had a driver waiting for me at the exit. To top all things off, I was brought to a very nice hotel. Perfect ride, almost. At the hotel they didn't know I was coming. But a cup of coffee and a few calls later that was sorted as well.
The first week at the office was quite busy from the very beginning. Of course there is the pile of paperwork to wrestle through (insurance, bank account...), a househunt to start and next to that I had to immediately join high level meetings with the top guys about a big contract that will be negotiated soon. A dive in deep water, but an interesting one at that. I wouldn't have wanted it otherwise.
The first Friday night is easy to sum up: farewell drink for a MISE colleague leaving to Dubai and watching a rugby game in a bar. I'll leave it up to you to estimate how many beers that took. Saturday was dedicated to house hunting, Sunday was the day of the Big Walk. The Big Walk is an annual event where thousands of people walk 10-20-40 or 80 kms on one day to raise funds for charity. It all ends with a festival like happening. It was a lot of fun even though it rained quite a lot.
The second week was filled with visiting apartments, work and looking for a car. I would have liked to be able to say that concludes the search, but alas.
Last weekend I joined a couple of colleagues at their house to have a braai and watch the Bokke play France. The braai was a result of 8 men going grocery shopping: too much meat, a few rolls and a small bag of lettuce that was left unopened till the end. It must have been the thought that counted. The same goes for the national anthem sung by a rastafari at the beginning of the game. It was a complete embarassment. The guy sounded like he had sworn never to sing one note right, and was very enthousiastic about it. He squeeled for the entire stadium and thousands of viewers on television, inducing the rage of the Bokke fans (look on youtube). Fortunately for the organising country, he was assigned by the SA embassy. I think he better stays in France for a while.
sorry to keep have kept you waiting for this blog. Hope you can understand I had quite a few things on my mind and it is not easy finding a decent internet connection. I am at the office now and still struggling a bit.
Quite a few things happened in the past 14 days.
First of all, I had a great send off by friends and family. In the past weeks I have had to say many good byes, which was weird because it still feels like I won't be away that long... but that might still come. Either way I am very glad to have seen almost all of you before I left.
I had a good flight. Even the baby - because there is always at least 1 baby on a long distance flight - kept its (cute little) mouth. Upon arrival I found my luggage immediately, and had a driver waiting for me at the exit. To top all things off, I was brought to a very nice hotel. Perfect ride, almost. At the hotel they didn't know I was coming. But a cup of coffee and a few calls later that was sorted as well.
The first week at the office was quite busy from the very beginning. Of course there is the pile of paperwork to wrestle through (insurance, bank account...), a househunt to start and next to that I had to immediately join high level meetings with the top guys about a big contract that will be negotiated soon. A dive in deep water, but an interesting one at that. I wouldn't have wanted it otherwise.
The first Friday night is easy to sum up: farewell drink for a MISE colleague leaving to Dubai and watching a rugby game in a bar. I'll leave it up to you to estimate how many beers that took. Saturday was dedicated to house hunting, Sunday was the day of the Big Walk. The Big Walk is an annual event where thousands of people walk 10-20-40 or 80 kms on one day to raise funds for charity. It all ends with a festival like happening. It was a lot of fun even though it rained quite a lot.
The second week was filled with visiting apartments, work and looking for a car. I would have liked to be able to say that concludes the search, but alas.
Last weekend I joined a couple of colleagues at their house to have a braai and watch the Bokke play France. The braai was a result of 8 men going grocery shopping: too much meat, a few rolls and a small bag of lettuce that was left unopened till the end. It must have been the thought that counted. The same goes for the national anthem sung by a rastafari at the beginning of the game. It was a complete embarassment. The guy sounded like he had sworn never to sing one note right, and was very enthousiastic about it. He squeeled for the entire stadium and thousands of viewers on television, inducing the rage of the Bokke fans (look on youtube). Fortunately for the organising country, he was assigned by the SA embassy. I think he better stays in France for a while.
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