Catch-Up

It seems like its been a while since my last post, but really its probably just been a week or so. Of course I could easily just click the "back" button right now and check, but I'm not going to.

The past week or so was pretty busy. Callie and I had our first camping experience together (and by camping I mean staying in a borderline luxury safari tent) and it went pretty smoothly. We of course had a heated, cozy tent to sleep in while many of our friends were freezing their tails off in what we Arizonians would consider freezing and unsuitable for living in. We dared not to complain too much about the subject of weather as we would have just been mocked by our company which was made up primarily of people adapted to such cold weather.

Nevertheless, we persevered...and by persevered, I mean we drank and ate until we were warm enough that we felt borderline Canadian (no offense). Aside from the drinking and eating we saw many great animals while on a self game drive (this is when you drive your own vehicle through the game park). This of course made the cold weather much more tolerable. When an elephant crosses your path or you see giraffe eating from trees right next to your vehicle it makes anything much more enjoyable. Another of the highlights is when some unfortunate campers got their food stolen by some wild baboons in the campground.

Last weekend was rounded off by a nice trip of quad biking. It was pretty fun, but not so exciting that it would make any thrill seekers out there get off. There weren't any animals on the trail (at least not that I saw), but there was plenty of dirt and dust being blown around. Seriously...dirt...in my teeth. It was all fun though.

Getting back to work was a little more than challenging, especially after such a great weekend. Between open house, writing sub plans, and all the regular teacher stuff that goes on during the week, time seemed to fly by. Tomorrow I have chemo, which means that afterward I only have three more to go. My excitement for this upcoming treatment is coupled with a slight remorse as I know that I'll be missing out on social opportunities. Luckily, I've got Callie by my side and a great new batch of friends and colleagues who might not mind repeating things once I'm back on my feet.

Now that I've rambled on (far too long again I'm afraid) I should probably go to bed before Callie sleepily walks out here to check on me before politely telling me that I'm not keeping her awake, which I know is a lie. Hopefully our internet will stay on for longer than two weeks and I can make posts more regularly. Pictures and stuff of our adventures to come soon.

WordPress...argh!

After spending what seems like an eternity trying to figure out WordPress, I'm abandoning ship. Why on earth we have to use that site, is beyond me. I'd like to take a moment to thank the good people at Google for making this Blog much easier to use.

....I have to say that there was much more to this post that I reconsidered and removed in an effort to try and remain positive and see the silver lining in every situation. The basics? I hate, and I do mean hate, Windows 8 and any other website that allows you to create a website that takes me longer than 30 minutes to learn. Come on people...this is the age of instant gratification! I don't want to spend hours doing something I want to finish it now!

Chemo, DSTV, and blogging.

So the other day I decided it would be a good idea to have DSTV come out and set us up with service for our TV. Since I'm pretty much just a bag of mush after chemo, I thought it might be a good idea to have them come out for installation today. Here's what happened:

The dude came out, ran some cable, plugged in the box, and then told me to call DSTV to get service set up. This would be great...except that new customers have to do it in person and not over the phone. So the solution? Call DSTV and ask them for a physical location. Sounds simple, right? When I called DSTV to ask them for locations in Pretoria, they didn't know. THESE ARE THE DSTV EMPLOYEES! They had no idea where I can actually get my service activated! Just one more thing to figure out I suppose.

Anyway, I think I fixed the video privacy issue, so if you want to see the videos you should be able to now. There will be more to come soon, but I think I might actually try and take a nap.

Almost 4 Weeks

Its about about four weeks since we arrived here in Pretoria. Comparatively, I wouldn't say that living here is any better or worse than Monterrey, but just different. Let me start with some of the most obvious differences:

First, the driving; since we're not driving on the wrong (wrong is how I used to say it before Callie corrected me) side of the car as well as the road. This however proved to me much easier than I anticipated. The difficult part about navigating the roads has been learning the street names and and placements of them on the sign. Generally speaking, you look at the top of a sign to see the street name, but here, the signs are in the middle highlighted in white. Now that I know where to look, getting around is much easier. Although I'll never be able to pronounce "Garsfontein" correctly.

The next thing I noticed is that the people here, much like in Mexico, have a very happy and positive disposition. My biggest frustration came from dealing with Telkom (the most stable internet service provider). Luckily, I was able to get them to come out and set us up; hence the creation of this blog. Customer service is slow, but friendly and thorough.

Overall our first few weeks here have been exciting. We've eaten at a number of local restaurants, been on several hikes, and gone to what I believe to be the largest mall I have ever set foot in. Adjusting to a new school is always interesting and has its challenges, but overall I'm pleased with the direction, mission, and values they have.

Callie and I both feel an incredible weight on our shoulders as we head into new territories, but are excited about the new challenge and being able to work in a smaller community. That being said, the school is smaller than we thought, but it provides a unique environment for us to both grow a lot professionally.

We're just about settled in and finding it pretty easy to adapt to the culture here in South Africa. Chemo treatments have been going well, visas are still being processed, and we've been set up with 401K's, which makes me feel really old. Alright...I know this is a bit long for a blog entry, but gimme a break! I'm just trying to catch up! I think thats enough for now.

Early Beginnings

I started writing this blog before I had it setup, so the first comments are actually the first entries, written by yours truly.