December/January

Sorry that it has been a while since I updated. I didn’t think it was a big deal until a friend of mine FB me and told me that I was keeping her awake during college lectures. I will try my best to keep it more up to date for you girl. Haha. Work has kept me quite busy with the xmas season and it has been exciting, tiring, and fun at the same time. Since my last blog, I have gotten to go Hillsong Church a couple more times and I am enjoying it. The night service is mainly young kids and college kids who just liven up the worship service. There is this one song about running, and the group run from one side of the room to the other, it is hilarious and so fun! Sometimes you have to put actions to your words…so why not go to the front and join them. I have requested for information to get involved with their community projects and children program and will update you as it unfolds. I cannot wait to hug those little ones, oh my they are so precious! Social life has been put on hold due to work and the summer, so any small groups or possibility to meet new people at church (since it is so large) is a little challenging. They should start up at the end of the month and I look forward to getting to know people around my hood. I have gone out several times with co-workers and enjoyed the dinners with them along with the many bottles of wine that comes with it  My furniture finally arrived and I can say that my flat is completed furnished. It seriously was such a long process to get 4 pieces, but it is done! A couple of days before xmas, I got my shipment of altoids which was incredible! For those of you who do not know, I am addicted to peppermint altoids. No…it is not a small addiction, I can go through literally a box or 2 a day…it is bad. I thought maybe after getting to Africa I would have to wing myself off…but as my friends knew…that was not going to happen. If anyone placed a bet I would cave in, you probably won a lot of money! I also ordered the last 3 seasons of Greys Anatomy for my xmas present, and it arrived just in time for xmas. Thank you Amazon for even making the deadlines in Cape Town. One of my best friends, Jen, shipped me a xmas package unexpectedly, it was such a blessing. She had no clue that her gift would be only one that I would receive from anyone back at home. Living in a new country is fabulous, but when you don’t have any close friends yet, it is depressing when you realize that your xmas is all alone and as people talk about things they got, you just smile. Now it isn’t about the materials, but it is just that someone remembered you and took the time and even the cost to send something….it meant a whole lot! As I opened the gift on xmas morning, I wrote a commentary of the gifts that I was pulling from the box. I thought you would it enjoy it as much as Jen did when she got the email.


Lets see
Opening Fedex box
green box isn't coming out, now shaking it out.
It is taped! Have to go get scissors now
It isn't even open yet and I can smell ALTOIDS!! woohoo!! ahhhh I am so excited
First thing out of box....Christmas lights! or is it.....It is! yeeahhh!
Second thing...Candy Canes! I haven't seen any candy canes in South Africa, my co-workers are going to love them.
Third thing is wrapped in snow flake wrapping. Chocolate? Opening...Not just chocolate, Stumptown CHOCOLATE!
Fourth thing- Peppermin Bark! Maybe that is what I was smelling and no altoids? Yummy Ghirardelli.
Fifth thing...tissue paper gift and no doubt.....it rattles like altoids, it is the size of an altoid box.... IT IS IT IS A BOX OF ALTOIDS!
Sixth thing...wrapped in white tissue...I have no clue what it is....DID YOU MAKE THIS???!! I LOVE THIS!!! I love my lion!!! He shall be called Leo :) He definitely looks like a Leo.
I am losing count...seventh gift...white tissue feels like a candle....nope...it is from Santa's workshop! A penguin! I haven't had a push pop in like.....15 years...nice
Eighth gift...They feel like the last gift...and it wasn't candles...More push pops! Of course we have to have a tree and santa. I have a tree now!

OH MY GOSH JEN! Way more than I could have every wanted or asked for. I love it!!! I love all of it!! Pause...gotta open the altoid box...It is a new box oh I am so excited....they have fun facts on the tissue sheet. The old ones just had sayings, these have facts. The "Curiously Strong Fact: Altoids were first produced in 1780, 189 years before man walked on the moon. Coincidence?" HAHAHAHA....I think not...lol. 2 altoids into my mouth......oooohhh sooo good! Yes, Yes, for sure a fresh box...you can taste the minty freshness...aaaahhhhhh. Okay where were we....Oh yes, Jen thank you so much!

Xmas day, I had to work half a day since we are a 365 day site. We tried to make it as fun as possible by providing raffle prizes and a candy trolley that every kind of candy you can get in South Africa. What is funny is that the associates love M&Ms, Twix and Kit Kats…I guess cause it is more foreign? In the afternoon I was invited to a luncheon with Christy’s family. Christy is a friend of a friend I know from Seattle and she has assisted me quite a bit in transitioning here. I have gotten to have tea with her, gone to her church several times, and she saved me from having my 1st xmas in Cape Town alone. The house we went to was gorgeous and had a salt water pool. I can say this was the first time that I have gotten to swim in one and on xmas. The lunch was fabulous and her family is hilarious. Her mom came up with this game where she wanted to tie balloons to your ankles and use a newspaper to try to pop the balloons by swatting it. Unless there is a needle in the newspaper I do not know how she expected it to pop…so we all resorted to stomping the balloons with our feet. So much more effective!