Haight Street-Anberlin

Are things settling down? Haha... not really. I had a lazy weekend before my Rhodes University orientation started, but despite doing little-to-nothing, I still manage to do new things every other minute, which is totally fine. Sunday morning, I went to church with Jill to the Baptist church that she attends, and although I think the phrase "we have a visitor this morning" easily translates to "we have an outsider this morning," I didn't feel like a total foreigner during the service. Actually, I do legitimately qualify as a foreigner, a thought which is kind of funny, and is well-supported by the fact that I was distracted every other minute by the fantastic accent of the man who gave the sermon.

Have I mentioned the South African accents that I have encountered here? Delightful. I have experienced a nice variety so far, although I have decided that it is too complicated to give a full description before I observe for a longer period of time. To give you a taste, most of the white South Africans I have met so far tend to have accents that fall somewhere along a continuum between British and Australian. Some of the black South Africans I have met have a similar touch of Brit/Aussie, while others sound more like the Africans I know at home. Wherever of the South African continuum they fall, the people here are bound to pronounce some words in a way I am not familiar with yet, and it was a good thing that I recognized the passage in Isaiah that he read this morning, or I would have been baffled about which book in the bible he was directing us to. It was a good talk; he focused a lot scripturally to talk about hope in God (hence the Isaiah 40 reference, which I loved). At one point, he said that the Hebrew term qavah ("to wait/to hope in the Lord") used in Isaiah 40:31 also means to "bind together" or "gather together" and is used in Genesis when God is gathering the oceans. (I double checked this on BlueLetterBible.org, which is such a cool thing, but since I am not a Hebrew scholar, someone will have to correct me if its wrong... and I am way off on a tangent now, sorry)  The point was that he connected this concept of being bound together with God with the hope that we find in being close to Him. I enjoyed it a lot, and I think if he had included a C.S. Lewis quote somewhere, I would have felt like I was home in Gettysburg :)

Speaking of home in Gettysburg, the typically chilly interior of Hanover Valley has only partially prepared me for the lack of central air in the buildings here. They are definitely built for hot weather, which is good since it will eventually get hot. In the meantime, the cutest Grandma ever-mine notwithstanding-was singing praise songs with her hands in the air, the purple knit gloves on her hands (the stretchy kind that kids wear... or Elle and I when we are ice-skating) providing a fantastic accessory to her pink outfit and pink and purple zig-zaged crocheted hat. Do I sound jealous? Only sad that I didn't pack any knitting, and that by the time I make friends and need farewell gifts, it will be incredibly hot-not a good time to dispose of various knitted attire. Oh well, at least then I can stop drinking tea just to stay warm. I realized on my second of three cups in a day that what I am missing in caffeine, I am probably making up for with copious amount of sugar...

Last night, I went to Jill's house for dinner-she is really nice about making plans to include me-with Britta, one of the other international students (from Germany). Jill had her friends Pearl, Mary, and Breanne over, and she showed Britta and I how to make Bobotie, which is a South African dish that is related to shepard's pie... in a tangential sort of way. With Jill's direction, we were able to get everything together and make a pretty decent dinner, and while it was in the oven, Pearl arrived and Jill insisted that as the resident South African, she give Britta her tea/coffee lesson. Mary and Breanne got there "just now," which is less immediate than it sounds, and we had a lovely dinner. Actually, my favorite part was the company; Mary is Kenyan, Breanne Zimbabwean, Pearl is South African, Britta is German, and Jill and I are... American :) We had good times, and it was nice to be with a group of loud, raucous friends (like some I have been known to spend time with?) after spending a week with people that don't really know each other yet. I enjoyed listening to Jill's friends chat and disagree on everything from tv shows to how they felt about single guys who have children. Also, I can't help but mention that Mary (who is a journalist) got to interview Matt Daemon when he was in SA (turns out that people here love Invictus as much as I do, probably more, since they actually understand rugby) and that whether you are Masai like Mary or Caucasian like me, everyone can be in love with Matt Daemon.