Tonight I’ll start with the end. As I sit here composing this, Mother Nature is pouring down buckets of rain. The sky lights up with flashes of lighting and I count…one Mississippi…two Mississippi, CRASH! The storm’s moving closer and closer and I can’t get enough of it. When the heavens bring forth thunderstorms I am overjoyed, as there is nothing I like better. While some people feel their hearts grow light at the sight of a clear blue sky, mine favors the silvery grey of a rainy day. Perhaps this is the reason why I feel that I should make my permanent home somewhere in the UK, where the overabundance of stormy weather cultivates lush green fields.
My window once again open wide, I sit on my bed and stare outside at the gift that I’ve been granted. The city lights cast a golden hue on the clouds passing overhead and people beneath multi-colored umbrellas pass by on their way home. I breathe in deeply and the clean smell of the earth fills my lungs bringing a smile to my face. Tiny rivers of water sluice their way down the pavement of the street below. Thunderstorms always bring to my mind the scenes in Fantasia where Zeus tosses down bolts of lightening hand forged in the clouds above, wrecking havoc on the peaceful scene below. His joy echoes mine own.
To go back to the beginning, today was just another Tuesday. It began as the others have at 7:30a, but this time my trip out the door wasn’t just off down the street to UP. Nope, today was laundry day. But not like any other laundry day that I’ve ever experienced. Having been here a week and a half now, it was time to have things come clean, so our group had been looking for a Laundromat in the Hatfield area. The one that Rebecca H. knew of from her last visit is no longer there as a new housing complex is being constructed on its old premises. Yesterday we stumbled across a great idea. A dry-cleaner that will wash and fold your laundry for you! It’s a concept that still seems a bit strange to me since I’ve been doing my own laundry since about the age of 10. Mom made sure that we all knew how to do that early on. But for R 15 per kilogram we’re able to pick up our laundry all fresh and new less than 24 hours later.
Alissa wasn’t feeling well due to a sore throat so she stayed in bed today. I wasn’t quite ready when the Rebecca’s were off so I told them I catch up. On my way out I slung my blue laundry bag over my shoulder, feeling a bit like Santa Claus, and set off into Hatfield. When I reached the corridor for the cleaners, I saw Rebecca H. waving to me from La Patt café down the way. Apparently we had misread the sign and the cleaners didn’t open until 8:30a so we had a little time to kill; a cup of hot cocoa for me and some time to enjoy the fresh air.
After dropping off my laundry, I stopped across the way to mail off the last set of my postcards. Final count I believe was 53. Messages might seem a bit similar on some but after about 20 or 30 it’s hard to be original and clever. I’m interested to see how long it will take them to travel home. I’ve been on two week abroad trips before and though I’ve sent things within the first few days, they’ve still arrived after I have. I’ve friends all across the US, in Lima, Peru, and Scotland as well, but I think the card that must travel the longest distance will be to Honolulu. Although that may depend upon which way the plane leaves from here.
Work brought more research. After locating information for countries that weren’t on the original list, we’re now working on verifying information for countries we do have but haven’t gotten any response from. You’d be very surprised at the difficulty or ease of some places. For instance, Canada gave me a hard time, locating the correct name, but Estonia was done in two seconds flat. I also found that translating Portuguese isn’t so simple when your French is fairly rusty.
Lunch found us back at our usual spot Café at Burgundy’s. We’ve enjoyed our times there and at all of the places we’ve gone to for lunch and dinner, but our American sensibilities are showing a bit as we’ve grown a tad weary of the leisurely manner in which meal times are conducted. We’re not used to having to take 2 hours per meal, as it seems to me that it’s cutting into our work time. It’s not a bad thing but when one’s hungry it can be a bit of a bother.
We finished up work and then were off to the travel office once again to pick up the final Durban details. With flights, cars, and accommodations confirmed we are officially a go for Friday. I’m very excited. I believe we’re flying on an intra-country airline called Mango so that should be different as well as the fact that it’s supposed to be a prop airplane. That I’m really looking forward to – flying is another thing I’m crazy about. I’d eventually like to have my pilot’s license for planes and choppers but I’m not sure when I’ll be able to take up that dream. I took a one-hour test flight a few years back and it only added fuel to the fire of that passion, so any time I can leave the ground I’m all for it.
Dinner was spent on our own back at the apartments and that’s about where you’re finding me now with the rain in the background. Lunch was later in the day so I’m not tremendously hungry at the moment. So I’ve popped open a bottle of Coke and settled in to write this. The last thing I’ll leave you with for this entry is my endorsement of Coke in glass bottles. Another of my loves (This missive seems to be filled with a lot of love, huh? Maybe I’m channeling more of Eros than Zeus after all.), I feel that Coke can taste no better unless it comes out of a glass bottle. I think my adoration of this particular style stems from my childhood. I remember my dad taking me down to the local gas station where there was a glass bottle pop machine, and my summer camp had all of their canteen beverages in glass bottles as well. Nothing seems to taste better. Fortunately for me, here they have pallets full six-packs of Coke in 250 ml bottles. So between the chocolate milkshakes and the Coke in bottles I’m well set to spend my remaining time here existing off of those. Until next time…
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