Tag Archives: expat

diy: guestbook (expat necessities)

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guestbook1 guestbook2 guestbook3

Like expats everywhere we are lucky to get many visitors- our house is like a hotel with friends and family coming and going constantly, complete with busy seasons and once in a while double (or triple!) bookings. Sometimes it makes us sad to be far away but the adventures had with visitors more than makes up for it. I’ve been meaning to make a guest book to keep track of it all for years and I finally got around to it last week.

To make up for all the friends who came pre-book and didn’t get to write a note, we went back through P’s Google calendar and wrote a list of all the people who have visited us through the years. Going through the calendar was the best part of this project, we got to re-live memories like when we went to India for the holidays, met friends in London the next weekend, Minneapolis the weekend after that for a wedding, and then two weeks later a girl’s trip to Turkey. Living in Berlin was a wannabe jet setter’s dream. Also, I am a new evangelist for Google Calendars because without P’s use of it there is no easy way we would have been able to recall all of our past guests.

Materials:

1 blank book (there are lots of blank scrapbooking type books but scrapbooking makes me barfy-faced, so I found this at my favorite stationer’s)
alphabet stamps, ink
wax seal, sealing wax, candle
guestbook pen (optional)

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got my safari on. again.

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madikwe-2332 madikwe-2373 madikwe-2377 madikwe-2391 madikwe-2493 madikwe-2562

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What kind of expat would I be if I lived in South Africa and didn’t safari as much as possible? A sad one. And what is Land of Nams without a good dose of wildlife photography? Being close to wild animals never gets old. (Okay, it got a little old- since P is now officially a birder. He has a book and everything. A thiiick book.)

We went to Madikwe Game Reserve with my sister and Brian & Kari, lovely friends who were visiting us from Boston. We saw a pack of wild dogs on their morning hunt. Wild dogs are endangered species. And a first! I saw my first wild cheetahs. I don’t have a lot of apex predator firsts anymore and so that was wonderful. Also terrifying wonderful- being in the middle of a pride of 15 lions while they roared away. At night. Observe:

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a weekend in the country.

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Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

We spent the weekend in the South African countryside with friends…these weekends usually consist of renting a giant house, eating lots of food, and drinking lots of wine. The scenery in South Africa is casually breathtaking wherever you go (except inside malls and all of Fourways in Johannesburg), and it’s a privilege to live here and enjoy it with friends. Our friends’ ‘puppy’ (a pony sized Rhodesian Ridgeback) has me jones-ing for a puppy of our own. I think P is right that life is too full of travel to be tied down with a dog at the moment. But if a cute one showed up on our doorstep I wouldn’t turn it away.

My Photoshop print series will be back tomorrow…

A weekend away in Kwa-Zulu Natal

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Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

Thanks to Freedom Day and Worker’s Day and Generous Bridge Day From Work we had a 5 day weekend, so we headed to the Midlands in KZN with friends. The weekend was full of boating, beering, eating (fresh, made-from-scratch pelmeni! aloo gobi! potjies! to name a few), and game playing. Seriously, there was a game of musical chairs after dinner one night and it’s hard to get more fun than that. It’s fall and in KZN it seemed exactly like a New England fall, with leaves changing brilliantly on the trees. Life is exceedingly difficult in South Africa.

Fashion Friday: traveling

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Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love
When we lived in Berlin I used to dread the 10 hour flight to the States. That was child’s play compared to the schlep from South Africa. Today’s Fashion Friday is all about how to get through your excessively long flight. BTW I’m not wearing that green dress on a plane, it’s just one of the options I bought for a fancy wedding we are attending back in NY. What do you think…keep or return?
The key to surviving a long flight is a) bringing moisturizer and b) not wearing a sweatsuit or worse, a velour track suit. If you must bring pajamas, change into them on the plane. You’re traveling across the world and we have to look at you. I’m not asking you to wear god damn heels, but leggings are just as comfortable as sweats and not as ugly. What are you, 14? This is an airplane, not your living room. Don’t be that person.
First things first, leggings. They’re comfortable like pajamas, but acceptable for public consumption. Also my black riding boots, because they’re a half size too big and your feet are going to swell after 24 hours and no one wants to stuff them into something tight. I wear a comfortable shirt like a Jcrew tank or grey t shirt and throw my blazer on top. Party while you’re sitting, business while you’re walking through the airport. Then a beautiful, roomy bag that can fit all of your traveling plane stuff. And put some extra undies in there in case your flight gets delayed overnight in Paris. Though now that my camera is the love of my life, I might be stuffing my extra undies into my camera bag instead.
The other important things that will make your flight bearable: 1. Facial moisturizer. I use Clinique Comfort on Call, and reapply a lot. Great for those living in the tundra of northern Europe, the American Midwest or down in dry, hot, Africa. 2. Noise canceling head phones. P bought some fancy Bose ones for me back when we were in a trans-atlantic relationship and they are a life saver. 3. Your iPad. More lightweight than your laptop. Be sure to charge it and load it up with a bunch of New Yorkers and perhaps a book if you’re a non-book book person. 4. A book. As soon as I get to the States I’m buying Katherine Boo’s new book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, about a slum in Mumbai. Till then I’m reading some Naipaul. 5. A sleeping mask. Because some idiot always keeps his window shade up after dinner, no matter how many times the flight attendants asks him to shut it. AFTER DINNER ON AN INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT IS DARK TIME, THOSE ARE THE RULES GET IT THROUGH YOUR HEAD. 6. A good neck pillow. 7. Also, I rarely check a bag. Even for a trip for 3 weeks. The only time I usually check a bag is when I’m moving to a new country. Your stuff will never get lost.

Black boyfriend blazer, $130
Black leggings, £14
Gucci black leather boots, £810
Alexander Wang leather shoulder bag, £660
Bose Ae2i Audio Headphones, $180
Clinique Comfort On Call Intensive Cream, $50
Contrarian Babs Bibb Dress, $425

Lastly, I’m taking a blog vacation next week so I can enjoy time with family and friends for the first week of my trip! I’ll be back online Monday February 27th! And I’ll update my project 365 sometime this weekend, I have a two week backlog.

So wrong, it has to be right: Jozi’s answer to Berlin’s Doener Kebap?

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Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

While I like to consider myself somebody who eats right and cooks nutritious meals, there are times when you’re hungover we all must eat delicious bites of heaven that are really bad for you. I’m sorry to let you know about this but you’ll thank me in the end. There is a magical place called Akahlwaya’s which has the best Food for Hungover People, namely a Polony and Chip Roll. Polony is some sort of sausage (it doesn’t have pork here since Akahl’s caters to a lot of Muslim Indians) and the reason I liken it to a doener- both meats that are made in a way that we would rather not know about. On a  toasted roll, they put slices of polony, french fries, masala, chili sauce, ketchup and mayo and then toast the whole thing. I estimate it to be probably upwards of 1000 calories, but that’s neither here nor there- head to Akahlwaya’s next time you are having a bad day (Or your period. Which I guess is the same thing. TMI. Sorry.).

Akahlwaya’s

100 Church Street in Mayfair (there are several, but my colleague recommends this one over the others)

Call ahead with your order, because there is ALWAYS a line 011 839 4003 YOU’RE WELCOME

Scenes from a drive to Durban

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Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love
Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

We’re in Durban gorging on Indian food, lying on the beach (well I’m lying on the beach), Hubbly Bubbly-ing, and battling my giant humidity induced hair a la Monica on that Friends episode. We’re also testing our manual driving prowess as this is one hilly city. I only made us pull over on the side of the freeway once for pictures on the trip here. It gets very beautiful as soon as you are off the highveld.

Career advice please?

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Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

Teaching math was my previous career. I graduated from college and joined a 2 year inner city teaching program thinking I was going to save the world by helping give underprivileged kids a quality education, the great American equalizer, and after 2 years I’d head to law school and then work in public interest for the rest of my happy and noble little life. Well 5 years of teaching, reality, a bit of cynicism and a bit of maturing has made me realize that I do not want to teach (btw go and give some appreciation to a {smart, engaged, and focused} teacher you know). I also do not want to be a lawyer. I do miss being able to say that I’m a math teacher though (try it, it sounds so smart and noble, especially fun if you don’t dress like a math teacher). What do I want to do then? It’s difficult to get around my Indian mentality, that I am nothing if I’m not a doctor, engineer, or an investment banker. At least I’ve put the brakes on teaching.

Here’s a list, in no particular order, of jobs I would love to have. It’s not lost on me that reality and what goes on my crazy little mind often do not overlap. I just know that it is possible to get out of bed and love what you do like P does (asshole). Also if one of these is your career I’m not trying to insult you in assuming that I could do it too. I just want to publicly state that I would like to be a:

-Jewelry store owner, curator of badass jewelry made by people like Satomi Kawakita, Belle Costes, Marisa A. Lomanco, and Caitlin Mociun. I would like to make it as good as catbird. Badass women with style would shop there. Like eastsidebride and Patti Smith.

-Interior Designer. I despise that label, is there something else we could call them? I would like to create modern interiors. Eventually I would like to buy a loft apartment with P with grey concrete walls, huge industrial fittings and put subtle pops of color all over the place. I don’t want to go back to school though. I’ve discussed with a friend and I think I instead of school I would need to build a portfolio. Does anyone want to let me design a room in their house? For free? Come on, don’t let my paper-mache rhinoceros scare you.

-Photographer. HA. I JUST got a camera and my pics aren’t good yet. But the interest is there and I’m taking classes. And I’m fairly certain I should be in a creative field. It’s difficult to make money though. Unless you are a badass. Like Chris Saunders. I could be a badass ?.

-Is there a place where I can be creative and work for a non profit or NGO? Like empowering girls to become fashion designers. Does somebody know of that non-profit?

-An education non profit. I know a lot about education and am more interested in policy than in teaching. In this scenario I could do creative stuff on the side.

My time to center and find myself  is coming to a close people as I am starting to get a little bored and want to buy myself every Alexander Wang bag I see and also leather leggings and also CAMERA LENSES feel that I should start pulling my weight financially around these parts (that is my own opinion, as P is being an angel and wants me to do what I want to do and make the right decision because as I mentioned he is a god damned saint).

Do you have any ideas? Job openings? Know of any investors that want to sink their money into my amazing jewelry store? Seriously, what should I be when I grow up? I don’t know how to be in a career that’s not a 9-5. HELP ME.

Buying a car in South Africa Part 1: Manual Transmission Newbies -You can do it!

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Land of Nams: living in Johannesburg, exploring the world, documenting the things I love

I’m not quite sure how many parts there are going to be to this series, as buying a car in RSA is an exercise in insanity and perseverance. All I can say is that after approximately three months of living here, we are off the company rental and into our own Renault Clio (above). Actually, I’m not even sure there will be a part 2 as I can hardly even bear to think about the whole process, let alone record it (and I wasn’t even the one who had to deal with the Randburg Licensing department)

What I want to talk about right now  is driving a manual having had no experience. Hardly anyone in the States knows how to drive a manual, including us, and we fully expected to buy an automatic. Well it is on average about 20-40,000 Rand (almost 5,000 USD) cheaper to buy a manual (fyi cars are double sometimes triple the price of the same car in the US here). Since we were already irate about having to spend ANY money on a car the decision was made for us. After not even a week into it here are some tips for manual newbies like us.

1. If you are switching the side of the road, (it is not difficult, you can do it!) give yourself a few weeks in an automatic to just focus on driving on the left side, the new road rules, and driving habits in this country. Trying to learn manual and getting used to the new side might be a bit overwhelming.

2. If you have no idea how to drive a manual, book at least one professional lesson. We did that and those 2 hours were invaluable. I can give a hearty recommendation to Johannesburg residents for Patricia’s Driving School. She is patient and nice and has been doing it for 15 years. I mean we didn’t need to go back after only 2 hours with her!

3. Practice just moving off up hill. Yours or a friend’s driveway should do the trick. I spent at least 2 sweaty hours out there (I was so frustrated I took off my pants) and it helped me get to know the car tremendously. Plus a driveway is the most low pressure situation you can be in.

4. PRACTICE. You are going to stall and it is going to be ok. I spent 10 minutes stuck at a steep uphill intersection sweating it out with the hazard lights on my first solo drive. The cars didn’t even honk at me, just drove around. It made me realize I hate using the hand brake to start and avoid it as much as possible. It is also a bad but easy habit to have, if you have a partner to depend on him or her to do the majority of the driving. Don’t fall into that trap! Be independent! The only way you will be good at driving a manual is if you practice, Make yourself go through the discomfort so you can come out the other side.

5. Enjoy! Driving a manual is so much more fun than an automatic and if it continues to go well we are converts for life. You also have to be a lot more engaged in your driving (at least in the beginning) and that can ultimately mean being a better driver. You are learning a great life skill besides!

PS. Drivers everywhere…don’t ride the back of the car in front of you at a stoplight! It’s probably me sweating it out in my manual wishing you’d back the f*ck away so I don’t hit you when the car rolls back 3 feet slightly during moving off uphill.