Job search.

View from Muizenberg beach.

The job search is hard, it seems like most job web sites post for internet and computer technology jobs, which I am not really qualified for. I did, however, apply for two jobs this week, near where we live. I'm unsure of how it will all work out because I am a foreigner. I may be putting the cart before the horse in terms of my visa. As far as I know, I can apply for a job, then when accepted, I apply for a work permit visa; but it could be the opposite. My concerns are that they just changed the requirements for obtaining work visas here and I'm not sure how I fit into to all, and how long it will take to be approved. Either job would be good, one is part-time, one full time. There are two more in the next two weeks that I will apply for as well. They only contact you if you are on the "short list" so I'll be waiting with my phone in hand. I'm either a hot commodity and have "critical skills" (a visa term) that they need, or I am too much trouble to hire (due to all the visa stuff)- I'm not sure which one I am. In reviewing my curriculum vitae, I surprised myself in how good I sound! I'd forgotten all the cool things I have done over the last ten years.

Lets hope I'm hot (as in commodity!)




Song of the days: Nice Work if You Can Get It  as sung by Frank Sinatra and Peggy Lee.



My favorite version is sung by Ella Fitzgerald. Listen Here. I also really liked how Cybil Shepard sung it for her show's theme song.

Monthaversary One: Are we still waiting for our real life to begin?

It has been just over a month of living in Cape Town. Life is continually evolving here. When we first arrived, we did not have a car and we live on a big hill. We had to walk to get food and household goods and carry it all home. We did this every day and so little by little we got what we needed to be comfortable. We took minibus taxis everywhere to save money; we only rode in regular taxis twice. Now that we have been able to borrow a car, we have been revolutionized.

Learning to drive here has been tough. In the western USA, we are used to large, wide streets with roomy lanes. Here, the lanes are so narrow and cars are constantly swerving into your lane to avoid a stopped taxi or a car stopping to turn. Pedestrians add to the mix by playing roulette with their lives, walking against the light, not using crosswalks, and standing between lanes to let cars pass. Driving, initially was stressful with all these distractions and to top it all, having to manually drive a car where everything is flipped, such as the seat belt and stick shift. Now, driving is like second nature, and the roads, perceptually, do not seem as narrow as they first did. Weird, huh? Still, navigation is hard, and we are constantly using Google maps on our iPhones and the map book we bought in our first week. We have done some exploring to Betty’s Bay and Hout Bay. We got to see African Penguins and saw some baboons eating by the side of the road. We are starting to get to know various neighborhoods by going to places and asking people for their opinion. We are starting our initial search for another place and have tried to equate neighborhoods here to ones in Tucson. Would we live in slightly sketchy neighborhood in Tucson, probably not, so why would we here? The hard part is weighing it against distance to UCT and price of rent.

P at Gordon's Bay

We have gotten to meet new people, from South Africa and from the United States. Through a friend we actually met people from Tucson who live here. They are very welcoming and have given us many tips and links to South African web sites. The people here seem nice, but there are variations in ‘warmth’. The lady bagging our food at Pick N’ Pay jokes with us about liking “sour” limes. The couple we had dinner with a few days ago were great conversationalists.

Other parts of our lives are coming together. We joined a gym and we have been going regularly. I’ve taken several different classes here and am getting used to the emphasis on physical fitness that I have observed. And after noticing that Reeses was looking different, we took her to the Veterinarian on Main Road. We learned she is experiencing a false pregnancy, stemming from her last bout of heat. Not much to do but wait it out. She is lactating (not too much) and wants to be with us more than normal. She has not displayed any herding of small objects or nesting, thank goodness! On the job front, P’s learning how to “not to be grad student.” He is learning the ropes at this new job and if you ask me, doing superbly. I know it can't be easy starting a new job in a new country, supporting your entire family.

Me at Betty's Bay. Do you see the Penguins?!

And me, I’m learning to be a housewife. I really do not mind it right now, but I know that as our lives get more complicated here, my experience might change. I have never been good at housework, so I am feeling satisfaction from getting things done regularly. One perk is that I have gotten to read books, and not just listen to them on tape! 

Song of the Month:  Waiting for my real life to begin by Colin Hay. Listen here.

New Soul

     It’s hard to believe that we have lived here for almost two weeks! We have pretty much gotten into a routine, which was nice since we don’t have much structure in our lives at the moment. Structure, as in regular work hours, hobbies, the gym, television shows, or family to build our time around. We have woken up anywhere between 6:30 and 8:00, made coffee, and eaten breakfast, which always includes a fried egg. It’s funny to watch P get so mad if his yolk breaks- he interprets it as a personal failure. Then we read or get on the internet for a while. Occasionally a workman comes over to tinker on the house; this appointment is what we plan our whole day around sometimes. Around lunchtime we usually cook something, or we eat out while we are doing errands. In the evenings, we have either sautéed, stir-fried, or grilled something on the braai (charcoal grill). Then, more reading or puzzling while listening to music on our lap tops.

     This week, P will start to spend more time in his office (once he has internet up and running), leaving me at home more. I’m not sure how this is going to go for me without television and having to monitor how much time I spend on the internet. I also know NO ONE here and can’t make a lunch date, etc. In the states, I could probably figure out how to meet people, but here, I don’t know where those places are. I have never been very good at making friends; I can make good friends, but I can be shy and over think interactions with new people. I don’t feel instantly comfortable with people, like some people I know, so I don’t typically start conversations with total strangers. At school or through my job is how I have met people in the past, and right now, neither of those things are in my life. I hope they are soon. Any thoughts on how I can make friends in a strange, beautiful new land?

     Saying all this, I have not necessarily felt lonely but I don’t have much to occupy myself with, now that P is working. If I have felt lonely, it’s because I’m missing all of you back home and wish I could talk to you. Skype has a telephone feature that lets us call people from our computer to any cell or land line in the States for only 2.3 cents a minute. You might be getting some call from a weird “520” number, and it might just be us calling you (so save it in your phones when we call)! We tried it out this morning with my sister-in-law and niece and it worked well, better than using Skype (even when just using vocals and no video) because the other person does not have to be at a computer. This was the first time we have gotten to talk to anyone from back home. We are 9, nine, NINE!  hours ahead here, so it can be quite difficult to figure out the telephone thing; think about a time that works for you (and us) and let us know so that we can dial you up!

 

These are the elegant flowers from a tree right outside our front door. 

They smell delicious too! Does anybody recognize them?

 I will be trying to post pictures of our house soon, the images seem to take forever to upload.

Love, M.

Song of the days: New Soul by Yael Naim. Listen and watch here.

My new life without a job

   So, I just finished living my first two workdays as a free woman. The weekend felt like a normal one; the only difference was that I did not have to keep track of two phones! I keep hearing the ringer for my old work phone and I briefly get panicked looking for it. Then I remember… it is no longer my reality! I lived my job at ICHD so intensely; it is weird not to have other people to focus on. I think that the house/guest house situation is where my/our focus will be for now. 

   We already went to Lowes and bought $300 in home improvement stuff; I’ll return $50 of it soon because we had the do we need it or want it talk. Practicality and frugality won! In the last two days, my husband has installed a door handle for the guest bathroom (I’m thinking that 3 years with a gaping hole is long enough!), a new outdoor security light, new dead bolt lock for the front door, added weather stripping to our front door, and then fixed the problem that the weather stripping caused by existing where it never had before.  He then decided to work on our two bathroom windows and in the last few steps of nailing some decorative trim in place, broke the glass. I think that we will choose new, more modern glass for it…and maybe for the other bathroom window, even though it is perfectly intact. Again, the do we need it or want it question!  Our other plans are to install a proper light fixture in the front bedroom; we will cover exposed electrical outlets; and finally, install new carpet. These are things we have needed but lived without. Now that someone else will be living in our old space, we feel as though we need to make some improvements. This list is just for the inside…the outside requires moving large amounts of dirt back to where it came from. Our dogs love to redecorate our yard: a hole here, dirt there, pieces of torn up tennis balls decorate the landscape.  They were a little thrown off today because we got the Jeep running and it went to a new home; they looked at me like “Great, now we have more decorating to do!”

   So what have I done? Well… um… got dishes into the washer and did several loads of laundry.  Well…someone’s gotta supervise the husband and his tasks too! I manage the “to do list” and also and most importantly, the “honey do list.” Ha ha!

   Also, I finally sorted out all the family pictures that I have collected from both of our families and bundled them by size and not really by content.  I will be sending them off to get scanned in the next day or two; we should have them back, along with a DVD by the weekend. Once we have the DVD, we will upload pictures onto Picasa and also make copies for various families members with only pictures relevant to them.  Unfortunately, I have to do some of the scanning at home because some pictures are not "scanner friendly." This may mean that they are too small (smaller than 3x3), are hard Polaroids, are professionally taken and therefore copyrighted, or have gunk on them that make them too sticky to be processed. I may have to take pictures of pictures to get some of them into digital format, such as my husband’s 20x24 family portrait – I really don’t want to pay $34 to scan one image! Just for your information, scanning is a long and tedious process. Thankfully, I will have a TV mere feet away from me to stave off the boredom!