What.A.Week.

I just cooked myself some dinner on my MiniKitchen, had two glasses of wine and watched 2 episodes of Entourage. Since I’m seriously considering having a third glass, I’m going to stop myself by writing. In any case, I think it’s time I updated this blog.

What a week. Seriously. If I could create a pie chart of how I’ve spent my time at work, 90% of it would be called, “Getting situated” and 10% would be “actual work I’m getting paid for.” This week, I accomplished the following:

1)buying a car

2) setting up a South African bank account

3) transferring American funds into said South African bank account

4) finding a new place to live.

If you think that sounds like a lot, then I’m grateful. Because it was. Imagine doing all of those things in the States. Now imagine doing them in a foreign country where you don’t where the heck you’re going half the time or understand what people are asking for most of the time. (For those few of you who may one day find themselves moving to South Africa, take note: Getting something “commissioned” means you need it notarized. And the notary publics are at the post offices, not the banks.)

But I’m not saying this so that people feel sorry for me. I’m saying this so that you all can understand that the single only reason I got all of this done in four days is because I work with the kindest, sweetest, most GIVING people I’ve ever met. I’ve quite literally already grown to love two of the women I work with. They have been priceless to me. At not one, not two, but countless points this week, both of them put aside their large workloads for literally hours at a time to help me accomplish the short yet weighty list above. There was one time, when Lee was combing through used car ads with me while Sajeeda was busy calling dealers from her cell phone so they’d hear her accent, not mine, and not rip me off. This is an even bigger deal than it seems because cell phone minutes here are expensive. Really expensive. You can go through 20 bucks (American bucks, mind you) in two days if you’re making tons of calls through your cell phone. And yet, these women were using both their cell phones and sometimes sneaking calls on the work phone.

And I haven’t even told you about their husbands. One of their husbands picked me up from my flat every morning because I didn’t yet have a car and took me to work. And the other one, came with me and Sajeeda to look at the car, hassled the guy with questions about the car and took it for a test drive, then being the lawyer that he was, drew up legal contracts for the sale of the car and checked with his detective friends to make sure it wasn’t a stolen car. Literally hours spent on me by these four incredibly generous people. There were times, like when Sajeeda was in line with me at the bank so that my bank account opening could be expedited (it’s easier if you say you live with someone South African who has some sort of bill to prove they live at a certain address) and her husband was out waiting at the car, that I almost dissolved into tears of awe at the kindness of these people.

Ok, I know I’m a sap and need to wrap up the emotional stuff, but seriously. I cannot even convey what these people have done for me. And every time I try to thank them, all they say is, “We wish someone had done this for us (or our parents) when they first arrived in a foreign land. It is only our pleasure.” I love that. We have almost that exact expression. We say, “It’s our pleasure.” But for some reason, “It is ONLY our pleasure” makes it seem that much more earnest, that much more sincere. And it's not semantics. My new friends are that earnest, that sincere.

Anyways, the point is I now am the owner of a ’97 green BMW. BMWs are considered super safe to own here because when they're used, they're pretty cheap (I still can't believe how little I paid), they're hard to steal and this one is an automatic so it's less appealing to those who favor manual cars. Or so my friends tell me. (Joke's on them because I looooove BMWs!) It is my first car purchase ever and it is exciting as all hell. I already love it and have decided to name her Lily. (I do this. I name inanimate objects. When I was sitting in Johannesburg during my 2-hour layover on my way here, feeling tinges of loneliness and downright terror, all I had were my two suitcases. I remember looking down at them and thinking to myself, “it’s just me and you, Simon...Lulu. Just me and you.” Don’t ask me why those names, they just came to me. I know, super weird. I’m almost embarrassed as I type this, but hey, you all still love me right? Right?) In any case, I’ll take a picture of Lily as soon as I can and post it.

Aaaand, I have a south African bank account! No more huge percent charges whenever I withdraw cash or use my American credit cards to buy things. I am just like any ol’ South African with a little debit card in her pocket. I will say however, that transferring money from an American bank into a south African bank gets…complicated….if you’re trying to transfer anything larger than a couple hundred. I found this out the hard way when I tried to do a transfer to the car dealers to buy Lily. If you’re curious, shoot me an email. I’d rather not discuss boring financial roadblocks on this blog.

But the single most exciting thing this week was finding a new apartment. Although I was encouraged and inspired by my boyfriend’s sister and her advice on how best to utilize the little MiniKitchen, there were other drawbacks to this place that I soon found were super grating in the span of a couple of days. My favorite was the fact that I completely did not notice the lack of showerhead or shower curtain until I went to go take my first shower. Yeah. It’s literally a bathtub. No showerhead. There was a short piece of plastic tubing attached to the bath spigots so that you could attempt to direct the flow of water at approximately…your navel. Well my navel. My roommate was probably only able to wash his knees.

That and on second look, the internet prices this landlord is charging us are crazy! So all in all, we decided if we were gonna pay semi-US prices, we may as well be living in total Durban luxury. And boy, have we found the place. Pictures to come, but it is perfect and has everything. Even… a washing machine! I didn’t even have that luxury in New York City! I get flushed just thinking about how happy our new flat makes me. Well its not yet fully ours. The lease signing is tomorrow and these landlords seem much more keen on knowing if I have enough money to pay for this place than my current landlords. We shall see if the Doris Duke award letter is enough to appease them….

Oh my, this blog is long. I think I’ll stop there for now. (I apologize for this and all future "oh my’s"….the South African accent and linguistic mannerisms are already rubbing off on me.)

So for today's pictures: The one on the left is the view of Durban from this flat. But my favorite one is the one on the right. It is of tonight’s candlelit dinner for one. It is directed specifically at those who worry that I’m not eating enough (read: my mother and my boyfriend) and those who think you can’t have romantic home-cooked dinners with yourself (read: myself prior to tonight).