Hi everyone-
Jon and I have been in the US for the last week so I haven't had too much exciting news to post. We have been in Florida visiting our moms and I got to see both my sisters. Jon has been working and tomorrow he and I will rendezvous in DC to pick up our cat Mobius for the long haul back to Jo'burg. We finally found a house to rent and we move in this Saturday. As soon as I get to DC I will post some pics of the new place. Hope everyone is well.
Love, Jon and Jody
title photo
collecting our moving crates from long-term storage
Monday, January 31, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
The Capital City of Pretoria
About 30 miles north of Johannesburg is the city of Pretoria. It is the administrative capital of South Africa. It is smaller than Jo'burg but it is much more beautiful. The Union Buildings (the government center) sits on a hill overlooking the city. The gardens are incredible. I am going to let the photos speak for themselves.
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| LOOKING DOWN ON THE CITY FROM THE CAPITOL GROUNDS |
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| THE GARDENS-MY PHOTOS DON'T DO THEM JUSTICE |
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| LOOKING UP AT PART OF THE UNION BUILDINGS |
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| MORE OF THE UNION BUILDINGS |
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| THE UNION BUILDINGS IN THE BACKGROUND |
CULLINAN DIAMOND MINE
THE ORIGINAL HOLE DUG FOR EARLY DIAMOND MINING
One of our first excursions as a family was to the Cullinan Diamond Mine about an hour outside of Jo'burg. Of course, mining of gold and diamonds is the major reason for the settling of this area more than 100 years ago. In fact, the province in which we live, Gauteng (pronounced with an "H" sound), means Place of Gold in the Sotho language. The Cullinan Diamond Mine has the bragging rights to being the source of the Elizabeth Taylor-Richard Burton Diamond. The tour we took was very enlightening. First, the ground which the diamonds are mined consists of kimberlite, a substance which has no use other than to be the potential source for diamonds. The mine digs 11,000 tons of kimberlite per day. Of that, only about a handful of diamonds will be discovered. Of that amount, only 20% will be gem quality. The rest will be industrial diamonds for use as drill bits, among other things. The mine is open 24/7, with 2 shifts being active digging and 1 shift being maintenance.
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| THIS REPRESENTS THE AMOUNT OF DIAMONDS FOUND IN 11,000 TONS OF KIMBERLITE |
If you would like to read more about the Cullinan Diamond Mine, please click here.http://www.cullinandiamonds.co.za/heritage.html
Monday, January 17, 2011
The SAB World of Beer
While Jonathan was here over his winter break, we tried to squeeze as many tourist activities in as possible. Jo'burg has several tourist spots within an hour's drive. The second largest tourist attraction in South Africa is the World of Beer. We set off in our intrepid Opal Corsa (a tin can death trap), with only our Garmin GPS to guide us. Our son, Jonathan, was so excited. After the 90 minute tour, we would all get 2 free glasses of beer and a souvenir beer glass. After the thrill of the hunt, so to speak, we found the entrance gates to the SAB World of Beer, only to find it closed for the holiday season. What a downer. But Beer and the intrepid tourist spirit (with or without the Opal Corsa) will prevail. We will return on an open date and post our exciting experience later. Stay tuned!
PS-Just how many days does this country get for the holidays?
PS-Just how many days does this country get for the holidays?
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Food and Drink in South Africa
Hi everyone-
It has been a few days since my last post and there has been a very good reason for that. I have had Zulu's Revenge (relative of Montezuma's Revenge) for the last 4 days. Actually Jon and I have both had it-fever, chills, night sweats, visiting the "porcelain god" many times over. Anyway, without too many more graphic details, we are both better and have joined the living.
So let's start with the important stuff! Diet Coke......No such thing here in South Africa. It is called Coke Light. The first night here I ordered it and it came in a can with a glass. It didn't taste like Diet Coke. I didn't have my reading glasses so I asked Jonathan (our son) to check the label. Sure enough, no sugar. But it still didn't taste right. When I got home I went on the Coca Cola website and did some research. Market studies determined that, in this market, the product needed to be sweeter. Thus, Coke Light was born.
The other obvious difference with sodas is that in every restaurant drinks are brought out by the can. There is no such thing here as free refills. In fact, Jonathan and I went to the pool at our hotel and he ordered a Castle Light (the local beer) and I ordered a Coke Light. The bill came and they were exactly the same price- R18.00. That is the equivalent of US $3.00 per drink. Jonathan was thrilled. I was mortified. I don't know if this has to do with the access to clean water that can be aerated or what. Later, Big Jon told us both to order tap water from now on......which might have resulted in the Zulu's Revenge we have been suffering from!
So far, food here is very similar to food in the US. Chips (french fries) are served with just about everything. You can get hamburgers and chicken fingers, pizza, pasta, and steaks. Prawns are more prevalent than shrimp and are served whole, with heads, tails, and legs. Little Jon saw a Hooter's restaurant as we were driving around and the banner ad was for Ribs, Prawns, and Wings. He wanted a picture of that sign to show his buds back home. The beef has a bit of a different flavor but not gamey. You can order baby chickens, lamb, pork belly, rump steak.....maybe not the cuts you are used to.
Test your translation skills here:
Vergeet Ham, eet lam!
That is Afrikaans for Forget Ham, Eat Lamb. Both are very popular here. A "rasher" of bacon is a slice of bacon. Breakfast is usually several rashers of bacon with some eggs and grilled tomato slices and maybe some mushrooms. Pancakes are often sold pre-cooked and available in the pastry aisle at the grocery store.
I bought some corn on the cob from a street vendor yesterday. No exaggeration-each ear was 12-14 inches long. I bought five ears for R20.00, which is about $3.00 US. It was beautiful in color, like white corn, but locals advised us to boil it a long time ( about 30 minutes) to soften it enough to eat. It was also not as sweet as US white corn. However, it is a very important staple for the people here. They grind it and use it for corn meal.
The big thing here is to cook on the Braai. That is the equivalent of grilling. A lot of homes here have built-in braais for cooking. Some are gas-started, others are pure charcoal. The weather here in Jo'burg is very conducive to eating outdoors so everyone grills. We hope to find a permanent home (for the next two years) that has a braai for Jon to work on his grilling skills!
We are adjusting to other differences as well. In the US, cookies are cookies. In SA, cookies are biscuits. A grilled ham and cheese in the US is a ham and cheese toastie in SA. If you want something "to go" in the US, it is a "take-away" in SA.
Cheers to you (which is "have a good one"),
Jody and Jon
It has been a few days since my last post and there has been a very good reason for that. I have had Zulu's Revenge (relative of Montezuma's Revenge) for the last 4 days. Actually Jon and I have both had it-fever, chills, night sweats, visiting the "porcelain god" many times over. Anyway, without too many more graphic details, we are both better and have joined the living.
So let's start with the important stuff! Diet Coke......No such thing here in South Africa. It is called Coke Light. The first night here I ordered it and it came in a can with a glass. It didn't taste like Diet Coke. I didn't have my reading glasses so I asked Jonathan (our son) to check the label. Sure enough, no sugar. But it still didn't taste right. When I got home I went on the Coca Cola website and did some research. Market studies determined that, in this market, the product needed to be sweeter. Thus, Coke Light was born.
The other obvious difference with sodas is that in every restaurant drinks are brought out by the can. There is no such thing here as free refills. In fact, Jonathan and I went to the pool at our hotel and he ordered a Castle Light (the local beer) and I ordered a Coke Light. The bill came and they were exactly the same price- R18.00. That is the equivalent of US $3.00 per drink. Jonathan was thrilled. I was mortified. I don't know if this has to do with the access to clean water that can be aerated or what. Later, Big Jon told us both to order tap water from now on......which might have resulted in the Zulu's Revenge we have been suffering from!
So far, food here is very similar to food in the US. Chips (french fries) are served with just about everything. You can get hamburgers and chicken fingers, pizza, pasta, and steaks. Prawns are more prevalent than shrimp and are served whole, with heads, tails, and legs. Little Jon saw a Hooter's restaurant as we were driving around and the banner ad was for Ribs, Prawns, and Wings. He wanted a picture of that sign to show his buds back home. The beef has a bit of a different flavor but not gamey. You can order baby chickens, lamb, pork belly, rump steak.....maybe not the cuts you are used to.
Test your translation skills here:
Vergeet Ham, eet lam!
That is Afrikaans for Forget Ham, Eat Lamb. Both are very popular here. A "rasher" of bacon is a slice of bacon. Breakfast is usually several rashers of bacon with some eggs and grilled tomato slices and maybe some mushrooms. Pancakes are often sold pre-cooked and available in the pastry aisle at the grocery store.
I bought some corn on the cob from a street vendor yesterday. No exaggeration-each ear was 12-14 inches long. I bought five ears for R20.00, which is about $3.00 US. It was beautiful in color, like white corn, but locals advised us to boil it a long time ( about 30 minutes) to soften it enough to eat. It was also not as sweet as US white corn. However, it is a very important staple for the people here. They grind it and use it for corn meal.
The big thing here is to cook on the Braai. That is the equivalent of grilling. A lot of homes here have built-in braais for cooking. Some are gas-started, others are pure charcoal. The weather here in Jo'burg is very conducive to eating outdoors so everyone grills. We hope to find a permanent home (for the next two years) that has a braai for Jon to work on his grilling skills!
We are adjusting to other differences as well. In the US, cookies are cookies. In SA, cookies are biscuits. A grilled ham and cheese in the US is a ham and cheese toastie in SA. If you want something "to go" in the US, it is a "take-away" in SA.
Cheers to you (which is "have a good one"),
Jody and Jon
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
We are finally here!
What a week it has been! We left last Wednesday from DC and flew to ATL where we caught our flight to Johannesburg. The flight is 15 hours non-stop and I was dreading it. However, Intelsat flew us Business Class, which made the flight go amazingly fast. The seats recline fully, which made sleeping more comfortable. Jonathan had a coach ticket and we gave him a really hard time about flying in back. But Delta put him in Business with us since Jon is a Diamond Medallion flyer. We told him not to get too used to it, since he will fly home coach!
We arrived with 9 bags plus carry-ons! I have never travelled with so much luggage before. We checked into our hotel, unpacked a few things and crashed. We slept until 2:00 Friday afternoon. I don't think we realized how exhausted we were from packing up our rental house in Arlington and from making the trip over. We are staying in Sandton, a suburb of Jo'burg, where Jon's office is located, in a new hotel/apartment building called the DaVinci. It is incredibly modern, everything is black and white. It is attached to the Sandton City mall and Nelson Mandela Square.
Friday and Saturday we did very little except a little shopping and walking. We checked out Jon's new office, which is lovely. On Sunday, we rented a car and drove to Parys, a small town south of Jo'burg on the Vaal River. We went white-water rafting for a 1/2 day with an experienced guide and it was incredible! The guide is sending us a DVD of some of the photos so I will upload them when I get them. This area of South Africa looks exactly like I thought it would. Sweeping savannas with scrubby trees. Jo'burg and the surrounding area is about 5,000 feet above sea level, so even though it is summer, it is almost cool with low humidity. It rains almost every day, which makes the surroundings green but the humidity passes along with the rain. In fact, very few homes have air conditioning here because the temps are so delightful.
Monday and today (Tuesday) have been all about house-hunting. We have been traveling with our relocation agent, Desiree, and have covered suburbs from 12 km (7 1/2 miles) from Jon's office to within walking distance. Homes here in the northern suburbs are probably the most exclusive in Jo'burg. I suppose now would be a good time to address the issue of the racial divide here. Apartheid ended legally in 1994, and while a new black middle class is rising and growing every day, there is still huge chasm between the two races. By far the majority of service positions are filled by blacks. Drivers, maids, security, retail, laborers....all black. Most whites live in the northern suburbs of Jo'burg (where we are looking for a home) while the majority of blacks still live in townships like Soweto and Alexandra, where they are bused into the wealthier neighborhoods to work each day.
Real estate shopping has allowed us to see what life in South Africa has been like for many years. Every home here is walled with electric fences, razor wire, and gated drives. Some homes are "clustered" into compounds with gates and guards as well. Every home has gates to lock bedroom wings from the rest of the house. Newer homes have shatter-proof glass and closed circuit cameras and TV screens. Each home has had a maid's quarters (with a separate entrance). Maids and gardeners are considered a must-have and come very cheaply-about 150 Rand per day (the equivalent of about $22.00 a day). We looked at one particular home in the largest American compound in Jo'burg. It has about 1200 homes and roughly 30% American expats. The American School is very close to this particular neighborhood (called Deinfern) so many Americans choose to live there for the proximity to the school. The realtor showed us a house that backed up to the outside wall of the compound. She informed us that the wall was concrete with electric fence and razor wire, had a road on the other side that was patrolled by security in trucks 24 hours, and had another exterior electric fence that was buried a meter deep in concrete. She then informed us quite proudly that there hadn't been a border breach in 7 years!
I haven't really felt afraid at all and everyone has been very nice-both white and black. Certainly there is a giant economic disparity between blacks and whites, even now. The Oslers have a lot to learn about our new country and its people.
We arrived with 9 bags plus carry-ons! I have never travelled with so much luggage before. We checked into our hotel, unpacked a few things and crashed. We slept until 2:00 Friday afternoon. I don't think we realized how exhausted we were from packing up our rental house in Arlington and from making the trip over. We are staying in Sandton, a suburb of Jo'burg, where Jon's office is located, in a new hotel/apartment building called the DaVinci. It is incredibly modern, everything is black and white. It is attached to the Sandton City mall and Nelson Mandela Square.
Friday and Saturday we did very little except a little shopping and walking. We checked out Jon's new office, which is lovely. On Sunday, we rented a car and drove to Parys, a small town south of Jo'burg on the Vaal River. We went white-water rafting for a 1/2 day with an experienced guide and it was incredible! The guide is sending us a DVD of some of the photos so I will upload them when I get them. This area of South Africa looks exactly like I thought it would. Sweeping savannas with scrubby trees. Jo'burg and the surrounding area is about 5,000 feet above sea level, so even though it is summer, it is almost cool with low humidity. It rains almost every day, which makes the surroundings green but the humidity passes along with the rain. In fact, very few homes have air conditioning here because the temps are so delightful.
Monday and today (Tuesday) have been all about house-hunting. We have been traveling with our relocation agent, Desiree, and have covered suburbs from 12 km (7 1/2 miles) from Jon's office to within walking distance. Homes here in the northern suburbs are probably the most exclusive in Jo'burg. I suppose now would be a good time to address the issue of the racial divide here. Apartheid ended legally in 1994, and while a new black middle class is rising and growing every day, there is still huge chasm between the two races. By far the majority of service positions are filled by blacks. Drivers, maids, security, retail, laborers....all black. Most whites live in the northern suburbs of Jo'burg (where we are looking for a home) while the majority of blacks still live in townships like Soweto and Alexandra, where they are bused into the wealthier neighborhoods to work each day.
Real estate shopping has allowed us to see what life in South Africa has been like for many years. Every home here is walled with electric fences, razor wire, and gated drives. Some homes are "clustered" into compounds with gates and guards as well. Every home has gates to lock bedroom wings from the rest of the house. Newer homes have shatter-proof glass and closed circuit cameras and TV screens. Each home has had a maid's quarters (with a separate entrance). Maids and gardeners are considered a must-have and come very cheaply-about 150 Rand per day (the equivalent of about $22.00 a day). We looked at one particular home in the largest American compound in Jo'burg. It has about 1200 homes and roughly 30% American expats. The American School is very close to this particular neighborhood (called Deinfern) so many Americans choose to live there for the proximity to the school. The realtor showed us a house that backed up to the outside wall of the compound. She informed us that the wall was concrete with electric fence and razor wire, had a road on the other side that was patrolled by security in trucks 24 hours, and had another exterior electric fence that was buried a meter deep in concrete. She then informed us quite proudly that there hadn't been a border breach in 7 years!
I haven't really felt afraid at all and everyone has been very nice-both white and black. Certainly there is a giant economic disparity between blacks and whites, even now. The Oslers have a lot to learn about our new country and its people.
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