I'll be heading to South Africa probably 9/27...I'm not sure when I'll arrive...I would guess a day or two later. I'll be staying in a bed & breakfast in J-burg that's in a safe neighborhood, inside a gate and 5 mins from a shopping area. It has internet, a queen bed, desk, private bath, losts of closet space, and a pool. I guess I have to take my itty-bitty, teeny-weeny, yellow polka-dot bikini.... :-)
It looks like I won't have to drive at least initially...which is just fine with me. I was a little concerned about driving on the left and this removes one stressor for now. I'll be going to a DW class that has about 130 class members and about 15 leaders. The leaders will pick me up and take me home for leaders meeting and class time each week....at least until December or I feel like being adventurous and learning to drive. :-) Since they're heading into summer, it looks like it will be in the mid-70s when I arrive (lows in the 50s) and will warm up to mid-80s (lows in the 60s) at peak summer (Christmas time). Not too bad, eh? I'll need to bring a sweater or light jacket, but nothing more than that. I heard that the leaders are eagerly anticipating my coming and I am eagerly looking forward to meeting them and getting to know them!
I'm hoping to be back in the states by Dec 15 (San Antonio) and if I need to return, will head back to South Africa in early Jan. But don't worry, you are all still in my heart and I was thinking of my BSF class in Tempe today as they had leaders WS. I would have loved to have been there to give you all big hugs! Love to you all!!!
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
Interesting Events
My mom and I arrived on Thurs afternoon. On Sat evening, as we were getting ready for bed, my mom let out a little shriek and yelled out that there was a bug in the bathroom. For those of you who don't know my mom, she doesn't usually freak out, so to get a little shriek out of her was a little unusual. So I went to investigate. I said, "Mom, that's not a bug! It's a scorpion!!!!" We lived there for 3 days...where had the scorpion been that whole time? I don't want to think about it. Anyway, I got out one of my shoes w/ a nice, hard, thick heel and shwacked it. It was on the carpet so the first shot wasn't a kill shot. That's when that tail of his starting to strike out....fortunately, I have big feet (and therefore big shoes) and so was a safe distance away. The 2nd shoe strike did the trick and he got flushed as his honorary burial. I'm checking my bed every night and my shoes before I put them on...just in case!
I went and got my Texas car tags this week. Texas, like most states but unlike AZ, requires front and back license plates. You also have to have proof of insurance in Texas. It's weird...you can have insurance based in another state, but it doesn't count here. It has to show a Texas address as your insurance provider. Also, before you go, you have to get your car inspected. No problem. So I got my insurance updated, got my car inspected and headed down to the tax accessors office. I'm set with my insurance, inspection, and AZ car title. And they required a "local" check or cash for their fees...fortunately, my bank in AZ has a branch in Austin so I'm good. HA! Not quite. When they specify "local" they mean not local to TX, they mean local to San Antonio. What???? And they don't accept credit cards. "Fortunately", there was an ATM there that "only" charged $2 per transaction so you can withdraw a couple hundred dollars to pay their fees. Dorothy, you're not in AZ anymore...
I walked out to my car to put my plates on and discovered that I had no holes for the license plate on the front of my car (I have 2 "dimples" for where they screws go though). So I stop at an automotive store to buy screws....but forgot that I had nothing to punch thru the dimple to make a hole. My drill, my punch and any kind of "starter" screws are all back in my garage. So then I go to Lowe's and ask the guy standing in front of all the screws if they have self-threading screws for the license plate (so I can at least make a hole in the plexiglass to put the screws in). He's never heard of such a thing and they don't have anything for license plates. But the guy walks out to my car with me, doubts that the dimples that I'm looking at are far apart enough to be the license plates holders and worries that I'll crack the plexiglass if I try to put a screw threw it. Are you kidding me??? So I call my good friend Steve Brotherton who sold me my Camry to ask what to do. He agreed that the dimples are for the license plate and I just need self-threading screws. So I go back to Lowe's, look in the hardware section and buy what I now see labeled as "license plate screws". But I forgot again that my powered screwdriver is back in Phx. I try to screw thru the dimple by hand. No such luck! I give up...now I'm looking for a Toyota dealer and I stop in one on my way home from Boerne (pronounced like Bernie). I ask if they can install my front license plate. In a matter of 5 mins or less the deed was done. Not only that, he mentioned that if I wanted to bring my car there for service, they serve coffee and hot cinnamon buns in the morning, popcorn in the late morning and hot cookies in the afternoon. You betcha...I'm there for the next servicing of my car!!!!! I think I might stay all day just to eat all the food!!!!!! So that was the saga of the license plates...what should take 5 mins took 5 days. Where am I? Oh yeah, Texas. :-)
So the other thing I've had to learn about Texas was a painful lesson last Thurs night. Mom and I were trying to find somewhere to eat since we just arrived in town and didn't have any groceries yet. We used her GPS to identify the location of the restaurant. Following its directions, we get to the spot and can't find the restaurant. The GPS is 3 years old and I guess the restaurant has changed hands since then. So we drive around and try to get back on the freeway. Every freeway has an access roads running parallel to allow you to exit and enter the freeway from the access road. So as we approached the freeway, I got in the far left lane to turn left. What was I thinking???? When you're on the access road and approaching an intersection that crosses over the freeway (on an overpass), the far left lane isn't the left turn lane. Why would I think that? It's the "turnaround" land. It's the lane you get in to avoid the light and make a U-turn to get to the freeway going the other direction. So, we head back the way we came, eventually coming full circle to the same spot. This time, I'm smarter, I don't get in the far left lane, I just get in the 2nd left lane. However, when I made the turn, I didn't take it wide enough and ended up in the left turn lane of the cross street. For those of you having trouble following...IT MEANS I MADE ANOTHER U TURN!!!! So we circle the block again. I'm not sure if I'm ready to laugh or cry at this point...and we're starving. So we just pull into the first restaurant we find before I pull all of my hair out of my head. Where am I? Oh yeah, I'm in Texas. :-)
Last story...I went up to Boerne today to get my Texas drivers license. I won't bore you with the details but after waiting for over an hour, I navigated the process successfully, had all the right documents and the right kind of $ to pay the fees. Then she hands me a black and white print out on 8.5 x 11 paper of my drivers license, says to fold it up and carry it in my wallet for 3 weeks until I get my license in the mail. What???? Where am I? Oh yeah, Texas. It's a whole new world over here... :-)
I went and got my Texas car tags this week. Texas, like most states but unlike AZ, requires front and back license plates. You also have to have proof of insurance in Texas. It's weird...you can have insurance based in another state, but it doesn't count here. It has to show a Texas address as your insurance provider. Also, before you go, you have to get your car inspected. No problem. So I got my insurance updated, got my car inspected and headed down to the tax accessors office. I'm set with my insurance, inspection, and AZ car title. And they required a "local" check or cash for their fees...fortunately, my bank in AZ has a branch in Austin so I'm good. HA! Not quite. When they specify "local" they mean not local to TX, they mean local to San Antonio. What???? And they don't accept credit cards. "Fortunately", there was an ATM there that "only" charged $2 per transaction so you can withdraw a couple hundred dollars to pay their fees. Dorothy, you're not in AZ anymore...
I walked out to my car to put my plates on and discovered that I had no holes for the license plate on the front of my car (I have 2 "dimples" for where they screws go though). So I stop at an automotive store to buy screws....but forgot that I had nothing to punch thru the dimple to make a hole. My drill, my punch and any kind of "starter" screws are all back in my garage. So then I go to Lowe's and ask the guy standing in front of all the screws if they have self-threading screws for the license plate (so I can at least make a hole in the plexiglass to put the screws in). He's never heard of such a thing and they don't have anything for license plates. But the guy walks out to my car with me, doubts that the dimples that I'm looking at are far apart enough to be the license plates holders and worries that I'll crack the plexiglass if I try to put a screw threw it. Are you kidding me??? So I call my good friend Steve Brotherton who sold me my Camry to ask what to do. He agreed that the dimples are for the license plate and I just need self-threading screws. So I go back to Lowe's, look in the hardware section and buy what I now see labeled as "license plate screws". But I forgot again that my powered screwdriver is back in Phx. I try to screw thru the dimple by hand. No such luck! I give up...now I'm looking for a Toyota dealer and I stop in one on my way home from Boerne (pronounced like Bernie). I ask if they can install my front license plate. In a matter of 5 mins or less the deed was done. Not only that, he mentioned that if I wanted to bring my car there for service, they serve coffee and hot cinnamon buns in the morning, popcorn in the late morning and hot cookies in the afternoon. You betcha...I'm there for the next servicing of my car!!!!! I think I might stay all day just to eat all the food!!!!!! So that was the saga of the license plates...what should take 5 mins took 5 days. Where am I? Oh yeah, Texas. :-)
So the other thing I've had to learn about Texas was a painful lesson last Thurs night. Mom and I were trying to find somewhere to eat since we just arrived in town and didn't have any groceries yet. We used her GPS to identify the location of the restaurant. Following its directions, we get to the spot and can't find the restaurant. The GPS is 3 years old and I guess the restaurant has changed hands since then. So we drive around and try to get back on the freeway. Every freeway has an access roads running parallel to allow you to exit and enter the freeway from the access road. So as we approached the freeway, I got in the far left lane to turn left. What was I thinking???? When you're on the access road and approaching an intersection that crosses over the freeway (on an overpass), the far left lane isn't the left turn lane. Why would I think that? It's the "turnaround" land. It's the lane you get in to avoid the light and make a U-turn to get to the freeway going the other direction. So, we head back the way we came, eventually coming full circle to the same spot. This time, I'm smarter, I don't get in the far left lane, I just get in the 2nd left lane. However, when I made the turn, I didn't take it wide enough and ended up in the left turn lane of the cross street. For those of you having trouble following...IT MEANS I MADE ANOTHER U TURN!!!! So we circle the block again. I'm not sure if I'm ready to laugh or cry at this point...and we're starving. So we just pull into the first restaurant we find before I pull all of my hair out of my head. Where am I? Oh yeah, I'm in Texas. :-)
Last story...I went up to Boerne today to get my Texas drivers license. I won't bore you with the details but after waiting for over an hour, I navigated the process successfully, had all the right documents and the right kind of $ to pay the fees. Then she hands me a black and white print out on 8.5 x 11 paper of my drivers license, says to fold it up and carry it in my wallet for 3 weeks until I get my license in the mail. What???? Where am I? Oh yeah, Texas. It's a whole new world over here... :-)
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Arrived!
We had an uneventful but interesting trip to San Antonio. We didn't get away until about 1pm (instead of 8am like I had hoped). But the good part of that was that we were driving thru AZ and NM in the late afternoon and evening. During the drive, we saw 10 RAINBOWS. We would see them off to the right, left and in front of us. Behind us was the most gorgeous sunset! Each rainbow would appear for about 5 mins before disappearing. They kept popping up....the grand finale was a double rainbow. The inner rainbow was so bright it looked like a neon sign and was a complete half-circle...running all the way to the ground. It felt like a special blessing from the Lord.
We got to our hotel about 2am (midnight Phx time) after about 10 hours of driving. We slept in until 8am, had breakfast and finished our last 5 hours to arrive in San Ant around 3pm. We got most of the boxes unpacked the first afternoon, I went into work to "meet and greet" on Fri, we took a tour of BSF HQ that afternoon and I attended an area workshop on Sat. By the end of the weekend, my mom had done a yoeman's job of ironing most of my clothes and we got most of my stuff put away.
Work has been a little slow this week getting familiar with a new job, new coworkers, learning names and what people do. I'm sure once I get up to speed, I'll be running 50 mph with my hair on fire...at least until I leave for South Africa.
The greatest blessing has been that Julie, a lady who was in my TL orientation 3 years ago and at Institute last year is my next door neighbor. She also just started here (a month ago) and is living on campus until she finds a house to purchase. It's been great to know someone, who's a little familiar with the area and has recently gone thru what I am encountering. We've been hanging out some.
I'll write more later...but it's time to get ready for bed. Miss you all...."talk" to you soon!
We got to our hotel about 2am (midnight Phx time) after about 10 hours of driving. We slept in until 8am, had breakfast and finished our last 5 hours to arrive in San Ant around 3pm. We got most of the boxes unpacked the first afternoon, I went into work to "meet and greet" on Fri, we took a tour of BSF HQ that afternoon and I attended an area workshop on Sat. By the end of the weekend, my mom had done a yoeman's job of ironing most of my clothes and we got most of my stuff put away.
Work has been a little slow this week getting familiar with a new job, new coworkers, learning names and what people do. I'm sure once I get up to speed, I'll be running 50 mph with my hair on fire...at least until I leave for South Africa.
The greatest blessing has been that Julie, a lady who was in my TL orientation 3 years ago and at Institute last year is my next door neighbor. She also just started here (a month ago) and is living on campus until she finds a house to purchase. It's been great to know someone, who's a little familiar with the area and has recently gone thru what I am encountering. We've been hanging out some.
I'll write more later...but it's time to get ready for bed. Miss you all...."talk" to you soon!
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