back to real life

It seems like a long time since I have posted here. Life is getting back to "normal" here. I have started working at Zehrs. So far the people are fun, especially the other girls who were hired with me, and the job is not horrible. It is however a lot more exhausting than it has any right to be! I came home after my first training shift and promptly fell asleep on our living room couch for three hours!! I have too many codes to learn, but aside from that the job isn't really very hard. It is just tiring.

I am not working at Starbucks yet, because they have not called me. I planned on calling them today to see what was up with that, but other things got in the way so I will do it tomorrow or monday. My parents are painting the living room, rather my sister and I are going to do it, but I helped my mom move furniture and wash walls. I also got the slide show for sunday all worked out. I am speaking at my parents church on sunday about my time in Africa. I have put together a nifty slideshow of some pictures and it is set to fun music by Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Their music makes me happy. So, now the slideshow is finished - it is about 7 minutes long. Now I have figure out what I am saying for the remaining 23 minutes....

This week Brian Dyck was in town. He and his family were living in Mthatha South Africa when I arrived there last fall. They moved back to Winnipeg in November so it was nice to see him and catch up a little bit. While we were talking I started to notice some things that I do differently now that I am home. First of all, the way I go grocery shopping is a lot different. I used to go with a list but if I saw something else on the shelves that seemed useful, interesting or appetizing I may have put that in my cart too. Now when I go I have a list, I look at the floor on my way from aisle to aisle and leave as fast as I possibly can. Sort of ironic that now I work in a grocery store. Anyway, I have realized that the choices and variety available here are just a little overwhelming. I didn't have many choices when I went shopping in Mthatha and now I am not entirely sure what to so with eight different varieties of pickles or tuna. This making choices problem has also extended to my cooking. I used to day dream about cooking and baking when I was in South Africa in my tiny kitchenette with no oven and a poor excuse for a stove. But now I hardly ever cook or bake anything fun because it means I have to decide what to eat! I didn't have any power over what I ate for eight months! Now I do and it isn't as easy as it used to be.

So while some things are getting back to normal, I am realizing that some things aren't as normal as I thought they were. Sigh. But I have been reading Terry Prachett and Orson Scott Card so that makes me happy.

The End.