Small Thoughts 25: South African Wanderings

Taxis: Crocodile, Small Boy, Money Spender, Big Daddy Cool, Leave Me Alone, Exclusive, Godfather, Inn Case, Mafia, Legacy, Slow Poison, Case Closed, Groovy Boy, Blood Brothers, Roots To Fruits, Soul Collector, Touched By An Angel, Shy Guy, Divine Bliss, Excuse Me!!, The Spear, Hold On, Shoot 2 Kill, Virus

I put my South African SIM card in my phone and had a surprise 300 megabyte bundle. Free data!

Today I rented the tiniest car (Chevy Spark) and taught myself how to drive manual in busy, hilly Durban and, eventually, was boss of the road. As Lea said, you learn fast when you have no choice. Stick it!

Overheard at the hostel 

Dutch guy: Cricket. Such a pointless game. No one knows what's going on. What a typical English sport. 

English guy: Oh, go make some clogs. 

I like to play this fun hostel game where if someone asks me where I'm from, I make them guess. I must be really tan because I've gotten Israel/Middle East, Mexico, and even mixed South African. And some smart people guess Germany because it seems like the vast majority of the travelers in SA are German. 

Watching the yellow super moon rise over the Indian Ocean = wow. 

Yogurt usage instructions: "USE WITHIN 7 DAYS OF OPENING. Keep closed. Do not eat directly from the container." Just because of this, I immediately abandoned my bowl and the spoon went straight into the container. Don't tell me what to do, yogurt.

"Wet yourself at the aquarium!" -sign outside the aquarium where you can swim with sharks

Please excuse me as I leave a pile of burnt, peeling skin wherever I go. Kthanks. 

My current hostel is awesome. The border collie is stealing pool balls off the table while people are trying to play while the resident parrot is off to the side squawking. 

Overheard in Cape Town

Parking attendant, to woman walking by: "Lady...hey lady, you're gonna get harassed looking like that." 

Oh, just like you're harassing her right now? Shut up. 

They'll let just anyone have a camera these days, won't they?

Overheard in Pretoria, at the hostel where the news is on TV in the lounge. A dad to his young son:

"Look, Martin. It's the news. We can see what's going on with America in its time of need."