buy this car to drive to work, drive to work to pay for this car*

i thought that i'd come here and immerse myself in south africa, but with all the turmoil currently going on in the US -- the election, the wall street collapse, a $700 billion bailout, potential new HHS regulations (deadline for comment is today midnight!!), a downtown in the nyc real estate market -- i've been reading and thinking and talking about home a lot. by 'thinking' of course i mean panicking. but anyway!

there's a bit of turmoil here too, though. mbeki got deposed for corruption and motlanthe will probably replace him. then elections next year, where people are saying that zuma will probably replace motlanthe. south africa's about to elect a man who thinks that you can prevent contracting HIV after unprotected sex with a HIV+ partner by taking a shower...woops, i mean after unprotected rape with an HIV+ lesbian, in zuma's case.

there's good stuff too though -- yesterday for heritage day i went to a friend of a friend's house for a braai and ate a lot of things i would never buy or eat at home (steak) and drank a lot of g&t's. it was a nice afternoon. tonight i might go see dj krush at carfax as part of arts alive, a thing that has been going on all month. a japanese hipster with a beard? i'm there. and then lockdown this weekend and then next weekend pride on the fourth and then after that maybe a trip back up to kruger park. the only way to prevent tunnel vision of boredom here is to have something lined up each weekend, a thing to look forward to, and that keeps you from just sleeping away your time off. or going nuts. johannesburg is such a car city...i am nearly itching with anticipation to come home and get back to taking trains.






*you dirty hipster, you know what song this is from!