December hol's

It's been quite a while since I've updated my blog because we have been so busy taking vacation and lounging about that I have clean forgotten to update those who are not as loungy us! My apologies.

Since James is my boss at our Schoolhouse branch, I took the liberty of asking him for an extra week of vacation in December. He agreed and that meant that I could leave on December 10th! Unfortunately, he couldn't also take a week off, but he arrived in Johannesburg on December 17th. Upon arrival he asked me where my r's had gone since he last saw me, because without him around I reverted back to my Jo'buhg accent ;-) Apparently it weirded him out a bit that his wife was now sounding a lot different than usual. Later on when we discussed it while hiking down the mountain in Kleinmond, he called me a 'daffy dame', a 'wacky chick', and a 'cuckoo broad' all in one sentence.

My first week was mostly spent catching up in Afrikaans with my family and sentimentally driving around the city, visiting the old familiar sights of my high school, my favorite lake, streets where friends used to live and, not least, to Rosebank shopping mall. Jo'burg is strangely quiet to me after living in the craziness of Kaohsiung. Not only were people staying off the streets due to the usual crime, but also, many were away on holiday. Most sleepy seaside towns triple in size over Christmas and New Year as thousands of people living in the interior haul their caravans and "Venter" trailers behind their SUVs to a holiday home or a caravan park; leaving Jo'burg rather empty.

It was interesting to see again just how many different cultures and races walk the streets of my hometown. No child in Jo'burg will ever point a finger at a person and say," Look! Look! A foreigner!." The Taiwanese kids do it so often and so enthusiastically that they remind me of the game we played in the car when we went to the Kruger National park as kids. My mom would say that the first kid to spot an animal, once we were through the gates of the park, could have the first piece of biltong. The warthog had no idea what a victory shout it merited.

After James arrived on Sunday morning the 17th, we went for lunch at Doppio Zero's, a lovely street cafe in Rosebank. The food was gorgeous to look at and an explosion of flavour! YUM! I'll post pics so you can see for yourself. This was a continuing trend throughout the trip and we feasted royally. My dad took me out for dinner at "The Grillhouse" knowing that since I was big enough to chew, I adored a good steak. Thanks Pap! It was also very interesting to hear what he had to tell about Paul's teacher in grade school, since my little brother is about the same age as the kiddies that we teach. When asked what he thought about his teacher, (whom he really loves deep down) he replied," She's bossy." I hope my kids say the same of me :-) Kids will never admit that a teacher is loving or fair. I'll take bossy any day. Elene, my little four-year-old sister is also learning how to write now, and she is a truly adorable little girl.

Angelique, my best friend, got married on the 20th of December and it was wonderful to see her and Ignatuis tie the knot. She looked STUNNING and true to form posed like a professional model during the photo shoot after the ceremony. Ignatuis looked equally sharp and the pics came out beautifully. I must mention that one James Vander Woude was the photographer and I can highly recommend him! We drank Oranje River wines and bubbly in celebration of the newly weds for about two days before and after the wedding! Angie also gave us a huge tub of Fererro Rocher chocolates that helped the average waistline along very effectively! My darling friend is now back in London and as soon as I have some of those wedding pictures I'll load them up. Send me some Angelina!!

On Christmas day we went to a Lutheran church at the Zoo Lake and afterwards had a massive gifts opening session at home. The pastor of the church sounded South African, but his wife had a very strong German accent. I later heard them speak German to one another in a personal exchange during the service. It was my first exposure to a liturgical church service. It was very interesting to participate in the service that much. How it worked was that the choir, invisible to the congregation since they were standing on the gallery behind us, would chant a line or two that we could read on the power point presentation in front, and the congregation would chant an answering "Amen" or a "Glory to God in the highest." The few hymns that we sang were all from a very old hymnal with beautifully written biblical lyrics. So unlike many contemporary worship songs that sound like God is your boyfriend.
Also what struck me was the pastor's back to the congregation. He would often walk to the front of the church, with his face close to the wall and pray there, audibly thanks to his microphone, but facing away from us. It seemed a very humbling thing for a man to do, and it really reminded me that he is in as much need of God's forgiveness, mercy and grace as I am. That front wall of a church has never been interesting except to count the amount of light fixtures or indeed, bricks, when the sermon felt especially long. This Lutheran church, like most churches I've been in, had the cross hanging on that wall, but no pastor has ever turned around and actually faced it. He seemed very small to me when he did that.

We were showered with gifts again this Christmas and had such fun chatting away with family. James was outnumbered 20 to 1 amongst the Afrikaans speaking crowd, but paid enough attention to point out some ridiculous little habits we have when expressing ourselves. Sometimes it's so funny if you have to explain something you've never noticed about yourself. "Nee, man!" is a favorite. When James says it, however, he really draws out that long E with a shrill voice to great effect.

After our time in Johannesburg we went to my grandfather's home in Kleinmond. James was pretty sick in Kleinmond, so we had to take things easy. He found the energy to hike up the mountain with me though and it was truly spectacular up there. The weather forced us off the mountain earlier than we wanted to leave, but rather safe than sorry! The other hightlight was seeing a colony of African penguins (formerly called Jack-ass penguins) in their natural habitat! Apart from a boardwalk lining the rocks where they've settled, nothing seperated us from the little cuties. My favorite ones were those who were almost done with puberty, but not quite yet. They had sleek black and white lower bodies, with brown fluffy, molting upper bodies. I felt for them, how can you expect a lady penguin to look your way if you're that obviously stuck between two worlds!

Speaking of two worlds, when we arrived back in Taiwan on the 1st it didn't take long to get back into the swing of things. I had a pretty spectacular accident this past Thursday, but to my amazement, I could get up and walk on as if it had just been a little nudge. A scooter carrying two young guys hit me from behind on the left side of my scooter. My wheels gave out under me and I timbered onto my left side. I only really understood what was going on when I was skidding on the road through the intersection along with my bike. My huge star spangled banner helmet really did its job very well. I was also wearing two jackets, boots and leather gloves which served well in breaking my fall and taking the chaffing my skin would have taken in the summer time. I was astounded when I got up and nothing hurt especially. The boys were wide eyed and very worried that I might want money, but when I realized that I was fine, I told them to stop worrying and go. A police officer helped me push my bike to the side of the road and started it again. The left mirror had broken, but if you see my scooter, you'll understand that even if the whole left side of it was missing it would not have mattered. Scooters here are not like cars back home where even a little scratch might upset you. They are built to take a beating and are cheap to replace. I drove to MacDonalds, basically on auto pilot because I suddenly craved a chocolate milkshake. After that I felt better and went to class. The next morning I was very stiff, but still NO reason to complain. That night James and I celebrated, in his words, my "continuing existence here." Thank you Lord for taking good care of me.

I'll put up some pics of the holiday. You'll get the idea of how much fun we had.
Liezl