Summing up Secunda
Trip Start
Jul 02, 2011
1
7
8
Trip End
Ongoing
Where I stayed
Secunda, Mpumalanga, South Africa
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Accommodations
We were staying at The Merchant for the first 38 days. I think I said a lot about it before, so I won't repeat myself. But I did fail to mention the shower in the room. It was a window between the bathroom and the bedroom in the shower. I have a feeling that they did this because there used to be a lot of problems with power outages, and this way you could still be in the bathroom using sunlight. But it would be awkward if you were sharing this room with a friend. We had to leave The Merchant on September 30th, so we moved to the Ballynoran Lodge in a nearby town, Trichardt. It was supposedly the only place with availability around, but as soon as we walked into our room we were worried. We got the last room, and it was by itself in the corner of their property, and obviously wasn't in the best upkeep. We said we COULD stay there, but we'd rather not. Then we realized the internet didn't reach us, and there was no air conditioner. We drove around the area looking for hotels that weren't called "guesthouses" but we didn't find any. So we went to the Graceland Casino and they luckily had availability starting the following night. We stayed in our room for the night, and while we were laying in the bed watching a movie, a cockroach crawled into our bed! I was so grossed out! But it was worth one bad night of sleep to move to Graceland. The only room they had available was a suite, so we have about twice as much space as we did at The Merchant. Plus there is faster internet, a way better gym, a balcony that oversees a lot of Secunda, and I can go downstairs and gamble anytime I want!
Food
We've been eating in restaurants and eating sandwiches/soup/salads in our room, about 50/50 each. The food here is pretty similar to what we'd have at home. It's a lot of beef, chicken, or fish, which they then cover with a sauce. I guess it's a good way to change the taste of the food, but I prefer my fillets plain. I was having issues with having my food cooked to my liking at first. Everyone seems to really like their food well done, but I started almost choking on some dry chicken and I had a piece of fish that I could barely cut through. It was frustrating because the food could have been really good but it just wasn't cooked well. Then I started ordering only beef, cooked medium rare, and it was much better. The only problem was that we weren't getting anything different! I felt like we were eating the same food every day. Somehow it took us 6 weeks to find the Chinese/Sushi place and a South African fast food place called Nando's. Once we found those, we had Asian food twice in two days. It's just nice to get some variety!
Weather
When we got here in late August, it was winter. We were told it had just snowed a couple days before we got here. But as soon as September came around, the weather really started warming up. The days tend to be warm, but nights are cold. There is a huge temperature differential when the sun goes down. It has also been thunderstorming a lot at night. (Which makes sense since it is spring now!) It's kind of crazy how much greener things are now. Before, everything was dead and yellow, now you can see the grass coming back to life, and some flowers blooming too.
Language
Everyone speaks English here, which makes things easy, but they speak to each other in Afrikaans. Most people will start talking to Alex and I in Afrikaans. We definitely look like we could live here (I actually see more natural blondes here than in America). But I haven't learned any Afrikaans. I guess it just didn't seem like I needed to. But when I was sitting at the blackjack table I started talking to two college kids and they asked me what I knew. I realized that learning nothing in 6 weeks is pretty bad! They tried to teach me "how are you?" but I just couldn't get it right! Also, at one point I ordered a gin and tonic, and the bartender made fun of the way I said tonic. It's the Chicago accent! I asked the college kids what they thought of my accent and they wouldn't say anything at first. I pushed and said, "it has to sound harsh, right?... bad even?" and they kind of nodded. I always wondered what other English speaking people think of American accents because I know we like the sound of their accents... Turns out we're probably just the least nice sounding English speakers. We were also talking about funny words for things between cultures. They thought it was hilarious that we say "peanut butter and jelly sandwich." But I love the fact that they call streetlights "robots." Alex and I use it all the time, "turn right at the robot." There are also "hyper" stores, which seems like a superstore. So we go grocery shopping at Pick and Play, and we've driven by a Pick and Play Hyper which was a lot bigger. They also say things very phonetically. Alex ordered a "Steak a la Jalapeno" and I had a fillet, and we shared a bottle of merlot. After the waitress read it back, we were laughing about getting a "Jall-a-pane-o fill-it with mer-lot."
Wow, that turned out a lot longer than I expected.
