maybe i should send a moneygram to the prince of nigeria, too

my life seems to be continuing in its ongoing saga of being stressful, hectic, and annoying. i woke up to find a nasty, anonymously written comment on my blog entry about stellenbosch (which i promptly deleted.... but don't think i don't know who did it), and during my urban politics tutorial, the tutor got pissed off because none of us had completed the assignment, so she dismissed us rather abruptly (to be fair, we've all been working on our group projects) at that point. given that i'm still trying to settle the bill with budget as well as get all of my electronics back in working shape, school stresses are totally bringing me down (not to mention the fact i'm way homesick). so, when shit like this happens, it doesn't bode well for my mood.

to add insult to injury, i've been surfing craigslist for housing in dc in november, and i thought i was on a lead with a very promising place at 1077 30th street when i came to the unfortunate realisation that the leaser i'd been conversing with is naught but a scam artist. quel dommage.

don't believe me? judge for yourself. (from our google chat conversation today)

me: hi
scam artist: hello
scam artist: i am hoping you could at least send me the signed copy of the lease and maybe a part payment of the rent
scam artist: as agreed
me: well, you need to send me the lease first
scam artist: i mean the informations i requested from you
scam artist: sorry it was a typing error
me: what information do you need from me?
scam artist: if you want me to send the lease agreement to you, i would need these details
scam artist: full name
scam artist: date of birth
scam artist: current address
scam artist: expected move-in date
scam artist: date of departure
scam artist: a scan of an id (if you have one)
me: could you e-mail that list of things to me? and i'll get them to you as soon as i can
scam artist: i will do that right away
scam artist: also can you tell me how you intend paying for the reservation?
me: partly my own income and partly financial aid
scam artist: i see
scam artist: as soon as i can get the lease to you and you are able to sign it, i would prefer if you can send the payment to my lawyer so that he can hold in a kind of escrow till you arrive
me: as in, a deposit?
scam artist: i think i already told you i am away in utah at the moment
me: yeah, you did.
scam artist: i just sent you an email
me: well, i'd prefer to send one of my friends over to the apartment to take a look at it on my behalf before i sign anything or send you any money. and that, i'd presume, would involve you being back from utah (unless your attorney can show my friend the place)
scam artist: yeah well i can fly in from utah
scam artist: but i have to see a kind of proof that you would be willinf to pay eventually
me: hmm how long had you planned on staying in utah for?
scam artist: well at least for the next couple of weeks
scam artist: but i am hoping i could wrap up housing issus soon
me: as am i. well, could your attorney show my friend the place?
scam artist: yeah he can but he stays in ca
scam artist: and i would have to see a proof from you before i can agree to him flying down to show your friend, because there are so much time wasters there
me: what do you mean by that
scam artist: don't be offended
scam artist: there are so many people out there that are just gonna waste time
scam artist: so i need a kinda proof
me: like what
scam artist: do you want your friend sign the lease on your behalf?
scam artist: like making a deposit of the rent payment in a monwygram account and retrieve when you arrive in dc at least that shows you are serious about it
me: no, i don't want my friend to sign the lease on my behalf. and i'm not comfortable with giving you any money before i'm sure i want the place. and the only way i'd know for sure is if my friends tell me it looks like a legit place i'd like to live at
scam artist: you can start looking when you reach dc
me: i beg your pardon? i can start looking for what?
scam artist: when you reach dc you look for your flat
me: no, i want to secure a place before i arrive back in dc... that's the point of you and i conversing. lol
me: and that's funny you should say "flat", i hear it called that all the time here in sa but not back in the us
scam artist: well i just used that because i know you are in sa
scam artist: lol
scam artist: what do you think we should do now?
scam artist: okay i have a suggestion
me: okay, shoot.
scam artist: please this might sound crazy but that is what i want you to do.
scam artist: do you know moneygram service? www.moneygram.com
me: yes.
scam artist: i would want you to send the first rent and deposit through the transfer to your own name as a receiver in dc using the moneygram method, then you can scan and send the receipt to me for confirmation.as soon as i have confirmed it,i would schedule a flight down to dc and meet with your friend
scam artist: then when you get to dc and meet with me, you can retrieve at the nearest outlet
scam artist: and pay cash
scam artist: what do you think?
me: i think there might be a better way of doing this. like, i could just show you a copy of my bank statement.
scam artist: but that only tells me you have the fund but not that you would be willing to pay
scam artist: i think what i suggest might be the best way
scam artist: someone suggested it to me last year
scam artist: she was actually in this type of situation also and was not comfortable paying without seeing or meeting me in person, but that works quite fine
scam artist: she later arrived in dc and we went to connecuite av. to retrieve the payment in exchange for the keys
me: well, when do you anticipate being back in dc?
me: we can just hold off on doing this until you get back from utah. then, my bud can come by, whenever you are free
scam artist: than i might have to sublet to another person
scam artist: am sorry
me: i'm sorry too, but i have got to tell ya, the way you're suggesting makes it sound like a scam money wiring is fishy, anyway. besides, if i wire money to myself, why is that more of a guarantee that i'd pay than if i just showed you a bank statement?
scam artist: that seems to be an insult
me: it's not, and i'm sorry if you take things that way. i'm just going by craigslist guidelines, which speak against money wiring
scam artist: i undestand that is why i suggest to send it to your name
scam artist: not me
me: i still don't understand what good that would do. again, that shows that i only have the money, not that i'd be willing to pay.
me: don't you have a friend or someone, local to dc who could show my bud the apt.?
scam artist: at least that way you can be sure you would retrieve only with your govt. issued id
me: like a dl?
scam artist: yeah
me: i still don't understand what good that would do.
scam artist: i don't
me: why would i wire money to myself?
me: you don't what?
me: also, in regard to your e-mail, i believe i already told you my expected move-in date and "date of departure"
me: and why wouldn't i have an id? you know i'm abroad, i obviously have a passport
scam artist: okay
me: okay what?
me: i don't even know your surname. i don't feel comfortable doing all of these tasks for a stranger.
me: are you still there? i've begun to become rather suspicious of this entire deal.
scam artist: lol
scam artist: i am here
scam artist: just don't know what else i can tell you
scam artist: if you want a scan of my dl or passport i can send to you
scam artist: i am serious about this as you are
me: no, what good would that do me?
scam artist: but honestly i have dealt with so many time wasters in the past
scam artist: well i don't know
scam artist: maybe just some security
me: what is on the same block as the apartment building?
me: hello?
scam artist: am here
me: what is on the same block as the apartment building?
me: well?
me: i'm just becoming highly worried that this entire thing is a scam. in which case, i'd have to report this incident to craigslist.

that was pretty much it, i told her to shove off at that point, she got defensive, blah blah blah. i can't even deal. how disappointing, especially considering the price was right and it'd have been walking distance to gwu. :(

well, it looks like i'm back at square one. maybe i should take a personal day.

my spacebar is going through menopause right now, so i'm writing this post from the computer lab

list of electronics are mine that are currently broken:

• camera. status: in johannesburg. i sent it in for repair, but i don't know when i'm getting it back.
• blackberry. status: incapacitated until the replacement parts i ordered online arrive. then, i get to play a little frankenstein on my phone.
• laptop. status: sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. when it does, i use it; when it doesn't, it's off to the lab for me.
• ipod. status: waiting to miraculously get enough money to buy a replacement ipod, which currently has a battery life of about 15 minutes.
• ipod headphones. status: why should i bother replacing these when my ipod is in such bad shape?
• lamp. status: it fell off my desk, it no longer switches on, i don't know what to do about it. (yes, i realise that a lamp isn't an electronic, but it still counts!)

obviously, the aggregate of all these damages i find very aggravating, especially considering i'm also trying to resolve the namibia car rental bill situation. oh, and i have to go to school somewhere in there, too.

in the mean time, brigid, april, and i have opted to go to bloemfontein over the weekend of october 10 for the macufe cultural festival. bloemfontein is hardly a noteable tourists' destination, but it's a chance to see another part of the country, and since i'm here for an entire semester, why not? besides, macufe should be fun... t-pain is for some reason performing there. hurrah!!

bloemfontein is not too far from the lesothoan border, so we're hoping to pop on in to lesotho while we're there. for those of you who don't know, lesotho is a country. it has its own flag and laws and everything! :) good for lesotho.

anyway, hopefully camera will be back and alive again come time for bloemfontein. as for right now, i'm exhausted, but i'm dragging myself to class anyway. fml.

having had such an intensely fun weekend makes tonight seem terribly low-key

if i kiss you where it's sore...
if i kiss you where it's sore...
will you feel better... better... better?
will you feel anything at all?

will you feel better... better... better?
will you feel anything at all?

born like sisters to this world
in a town where blood ties are only blood,
if you never say your name out loud to anyone
they can never ever call you by it

if i kiss you where it's sore...
if i kiss you where it's sore...
will you feel better... better... better?
will you feel anything at all?

will you feel better... better... better?
will you feel anything at all?

you're getting sadder...
getting sadder... getting sadder... getting sadder...
and i don't understand... and i don't understand

but if i kiss you where it's sore...
if i kiss you where it's sore...
will you feel better... better... better?
will you feel anything at all?
will you feel better... better... better?
will you feel anything at all?
anything at all... anything at all?

will you feel anything at all... anything at all?
will you feel anything at all... anything at all...?

i've never been to johannesburg (but that certainly isn't stopping my camera from going without me)

i'm back from my trip to namibia. and man oh man, what an adventure. i could never lie and say that this was the most enjoyable trip i've ever taken, much less the most relaxing. but it was certainly the most interesting. you be the judge...

in typical african fashion, the trip was hectic and chaotic from its commencement. we left cape town on the 5th in our rental car (a bmw... it was by the luck of the draw, but it wasn't too shabby for me!) after liz arose to discover that her camera had been stolen. so, already, we were down one camera. we drove to a small highway town called citrusdal, which unexpectedly had swarms of people in the streets. we eventually chocked it up to the typical south african ideology of camaraderie, but that didn't explain the unusually long line ("queue") at the absa atm. on the block with the visitors' centre (which we instantly dubbed the "white oasis), we discovered a café named die sitrus, in which we enjoyed some delicious margherita pizzas.

after that, we pressed on, eventually having to stop for gas ("petrol") in the town of bitterfontein. we couldn't find a petrol station immediately, so we got out of the car at the visitors' centre. the building was closed for the weekend, but that certainly didn't curtail a swarm of bees from attacking us! we hurriedly ran back into the car, but it was too late: they'd gotten into the car with us! we opened the windows and drove off, hoping they'd fly out as we drove. sara and i retreated to under my jacket for safety. we drove a few blocks to a liquor store, on whose porch several men (one of whom seemed more than comfortable with the fact that his asscrack was hanging out for the world to see) were hanging out and shooting the breeze. i guess they were immediately interested in us, because they started shouting and pointing in every which way when liz asked, "where is there a restroom?" it was chaos. eventually, we gathered that they were directing us down the street to a petrol station. this was a much more preferable part of town: the petrol station was bee-free, had reasonably clean restrooms, and best of all had its own cat! we quickly dubbed this neighbourhood "bitterfontein heights". :) (i hope william appreciates that one.)

from there, we drove on to fonteinjie, a suburb of springbok with a noteable wildflower reserve. i felt rather nonplussed about that excursion given my debilitating allergies to pollen, but we went nonetheless and i turned out to be fine. for me, however, the flowers weren't the best part of the reserve: it was the animals! we saw several springboks and onyxes (both of which are cousins to the antelope), amongst other critters. how appropriate it was that we were listening to the lion king soundtrack at the time! ;)

after that, we drove on to port nolloth, a coastal town which served as our rest point for the first night. we were very lucky to have entered town just as the sun was setting (since the atlantic ocean sits to the west of the town, we got to watch the sun set over the sea). the beach house we'd rented to stay out was charming and comfortable, but certainly not without its secrets. for instance, there were several doors throughout the house that were locked, and they didn't seem to go anywhere logical. there was also a little girl's dress hanging in the utility closet. we immediately concluded that this was all the work of a GHOST!!! and that the house was haunted. that didn't keep us from staying at the house, though.

that evening, we hit up a restaurant in port nolloth called anita's taven. i could not have been reminded more of the krusty krab, with the exception of the food served. in fact, hardly any food was served at all: we were warned when we entered that service is deliberately slow due to the fact that all of the food is made fresh, but we all came to think that waiting 2 hours at a restaurant for your entrée was ridiculous. especially when the food, when eventually served, is mediocre at best and the portions are small. i suppose that this last point was due to confusion on our server's part: i asked for a full portion of the pasta alfredo, whereas liz and sara asked to split one between us; for some reason, for some reason, this resulted in two-thirds of a portion for each of us. we wolfed down the food and left to go back to the house for some shuteye.

we awoke early on the 6th and decided to cross the border into namibia so as to visit the renowned ai-ais hot springs. most of us had never faced an overland border crossing before (when i entered sweden from denmark, we didn't have to show our passports), so it was a unique experience for us. of course, the entire process seemed absolutely haphazard: south africa stamped our passports and told us to go through, so we drove for 1km to the namibian office, where they had us fill out a customs declaration form and let us come in. no checking of our bags, no checking of our car. as the south africans would say, it was all very "hectic." the only redeeming factor was an adorable cat (who we named "customs cat") who seemed to enjoy the attention she got by the passing travellers.

we pulled off the main highway (which had notoriously barren, with ample open spaces) and drove along an untarred road (there was no other route) for some 60km before getting to ai-ais. the compound was definitely not like the rest of namibia; in fact, it looked like a resort plucked out of palm springs. there were spa facilities, a hotel, a restaurant (which we had lunch at), a gas station, even a small supermarket. the one thing it lacked, however, were the actual hot springs themselves. we made a few laps around the compound and, not locating the springs, settled to go into a very pleasing and soothing swimming pool (i don't think we were actually supposed to go in, but it felt so good!). we swam for a little bit before getting out again to look for the hot springs.

we eventually happened on what turned out to be little more than a puddle surrounded by a chainlink fence. however, we decided that it, unlike anything else we'd seen, must have been the springs, so brigid, liz, and i looped our legs through the fence and dipped our feet in. yikes!!! 65° celsius (about 150° fahrenheit) is a lot hotter than we'd presumed. we took an agonising photo of ourselves with our feet dipped in, then ran out so as to let our feet detox from the scorching heat.

after that, we drove back to port nolloth (reentry into south africa went without a hitch) to spend the late afternoon/early evening on the beach. the sunset was beautiful (though not as much as the night before), but unfortunately high tide left brigid and i stranded on a rock out at sea for a few minutes. once brigid and i made it back to the beach, we went back to the house for a delicious pasta dinner, courtesy of sean.

on the 7th, we woke up and packed our belongings back in the car for the long drive up to swakopmund, namibia. the landlady of our lodging in port nolloth called to tell me to leave the R700 in rent in the microwave, but as we were on the road to the border she called back to explain that she'd meant to say R800 and that we were R100. annoyed at this, i told her that we were already en route to namibia and that i'd wire her the R100. our expenses climbed higher as we got to the border: no customs cat this time, but for some reason the namibian border guard told us that we'd have to pay an entry fee of 180 namibian dollars (henceforth represented as "N"). we weren't sure why, as we hadn't had to pay the day before, but the border guards didn't seem to care and so we shelled out the N180.

we drove to keetmanshoop, where we stopped for both petrol and lunch, which we enjoyed at a café named the ell-na coffeeshop. we stopped a couple more times for petrol and such on our way up to swakopmund, and fortunately we were able to bypass the traffic of windhoek by taking a beltway-esque road. unfortunately, however, the road entering swakopmund was laden with construction (not to mention misleading road signs), so we didn't arrive in the town until relatively late. despite both this and the fact that brigid's camera had given up on her somewhere along the way, we were all in high spirits, singing abba all the way to swakopmund. furthermore, luckily for us, however, the landlord of our beach house in swakopmund met us at the entrance to the town and led us to a steakhouse named spur for dinner. like the rest of the town, spur had an entirely american feel to it; it's no wonder that brangelina chose swakopmund as the town in which to have their baby. the streets were well-paved, the shops had familiar names, and all of the patrons we saw at spur were white. frankly, i don't think they saw an accurate depiction of the country. ;)

anyway, the food at spur was tasty, but even more amusing to us was the fact that our server was clearly gay. for those of you who don't know, homosexuality is illegal in namibia, and needless to say this regulation captivated both my interest and my concern. i was tempted to question our server about his experiences, but i eventually decided that being too forward would only land me in water hotter than ai-ais's. ;) after that, we retreated to the beach house (located in a suburb of swakopmund named vogelstrand), which may have been smaller than port nolloth's, but was also more contemporary, more comfortable, and most importantly not haunted. i opted for the futon, whereas liz and sean took one bedroom, and brigid and sara took the other.

the 8th proved to be probably my favourite day of the trip, and i probably owe this to the fact that we did the least amount of travelling on this day. we awoke and went to the visitors' centre for pricing options on skydiving, but we determined that N1900 was more than we could afford. then, we asked about parasailing: the price was N900, so we agreed that that was much more reasonable and so the associate tried calling the parasailing instructor. no answer. she left him a voicemail with my phone number but gave his to me so that i could try again myself later. after that, we walked around downtown swakopmund for a little while longer, doing some shopping and splurging before reconvening at the village café for lunch. this proved to be everyone's favourite restaurant of the trip: the patio was sunny, the decorations were funny, the food was delicious, and the existence of tip jars and our server's offering us separate cheques were both extremely agreeable to us.

after lunch, we drove 30km south to walvis bay, which proved itself to be a rather disappointing town. it was mostly industrial in its zoning, meaning that its enjoyability was rather low. i looked for a pay phone at which i could try calling the parasailing instructor again: i first went into a yacht club, at which the receptionist's surly attitude toward me made it abundantly clear that i was not welcome whatsoever, and then i tried at a public hospital, in which i freaked out over the seemingly abysmal level of healthcare that i observed. i became full of concern, both for that hospital's patients as well as for my fellow americans, grappling with an increasingly socialising healthcare system. (more ranting on that one later, though.)

in any case, since walvis bay turned out to be a disappointment as far as cities run, we drove out to the gigantic sand dunes outside of town for some observation and exploration. the dunes were definitely something to write home about: they're MASSIVE!!! the fine sand is abundant and comprises the breathtaking and impressive landscape. we explored for a short while, but unfortunately, there was a rather debilitating sandstorm in process, causing the wind to blow virtually sideways... into our eyes and, even worse, into our hair. i tried taking a time-lapse photo with my camera of us on a dune by placing it on another dune, but unfortunately, the sandstorm blew too much sand into the lens, and it became unoperable instantaneously. so much for taking photos! :( for those of you who are counting, that makes 3 cameras that we were at that point collectively down by.

we cut our losses and drove back toward swakopmund. upon arriving back in vogelstrand, we opted to spend dinner at a restaurant called the wreck. the building was situated on a cliff over the atlantic, and since we were there at sunset, we were able to observe the dusk from our table. honestly, however, in comparison to port nolloth's sunsets, we felt rather nonplussed, and we had mixed reactions toward our meal (i felt that it was relatively poor overall and rated it a 3, whereas brigid was impressed by the cheese in her pasta alfredo and rated it a 10). after that, we returned to our beach house and, after brigid and i watched the pilot episode of an absolutely intriguing bbc programme entitled miss naked beauty, i went to sleep.

in contrast to the 8th, the 9th proved to be an entirely stressful and exhausting day. i woke up around 5:30am to watch the sunrise over the sand dunes with brigid and sara... a task better accomplished had we had a functional camera! (sara had a rather obsolete film camera, but it wasn't quite the same.) then, since we hadn't ever heard back from the parasailing instructor, we stopped by the visitors' centre yet again to see if he'd called them, but to no avail... parasailing just wasn't in the cards for us. getting my camera back up and running again was not an option, either: i talked to an associate at swakopmund's camera shop, and he informed me that the damage would require the camera to be sent in for repairs at nikon's regional office in johannesburg. definitely an fml moment!!! :(

i cut my losses and, after stopping by the supermarket, we went back to the beach house, where i prepared a breakfast of scrambled eggs for the 5 of us.

we then checked out of our beach house and set out on the road to keetmanshoop, where we were planning on spending the night before returning to cape town. (this is where the story truly gets interesting) however, due to our liberal time frame as well as our curiosity to see more scenery, we decided upon a longer and more adventurous route to keetmanshoop via namib national park. BIG mistake. the roads were much rougher and more dicey than we'd anticipated, and the journey proved to be much more unnerving than we'd expected. nevertheless, sean, as our fearless driver, continued on, and we were only 1km away from reaching the B1 (the paved and preferable highway) when

BANG.

...and, before we knew it, although we were so close to the B1, our relentless car had descended down an impossibly steep hill and met an unfortunate fate with an ill-placed stone in the car's path. it hit the undercarriage of our car, damaging our gas tank, water pipe, and power steering mechanism. the car couldn't be driven after that, but fortunately for us (especially given how rural namibia is), we were able to wave down help relatively easy, and we got the car towed into the nearby town of rehoboth.

hmm, let me back up for a bit and say this: this is certainly not the first car accident i've been in, and perhaps if this had happened in the united states or south africa, it wouldn't have been as hectic of a situation. but we weren't, and it was. we felt fearful that being stranded with our broken vehicle made us susceptible to robbery, making the stopping traffic truly unnerving to us. fortunately, however, this wasn't the case: a few locals stopped and told us that he'd go into rehoboth to fetch a towtruck, a fact to which we were entirely grateful.

while we were waiting for the the towtruck, however, 2 of rehoboth's cops stopped at us in a patrol car, and they instantaneously proved themselves to be utterly unhelpful and aloof. in fact, they were far more concerned with getting our car off the road so as to prevent a traffic jam (which, on a road in rural namibia, is a laughable concept) than with our personal safety or interests. we asked if they'd call to see about the towtruck, but they instead made some displeasing comment like "well, hopefully someone will come by and help you" and drove off. in sum, they were truly infuriating.

then, a local farmer stopped by to offer not only his help, but to put us up for the night in his farmhouse, 30km out of town. this concerned all of us, not excluding me (since i strongly wanted to be as close to the car, given it was under my name, as possible), but he did assist us by giving a lift to brigid, liz, and sara into rehoboth. sean and i, on the other hand, attempted to drive the car, but the rapidly rising car temperatures freaked us out, and so we opted not to drive it. by that point, however, we had turned on to the B1, and a towtruck came by and brought it to deonam auto repairs, a mechanics' garage in rehoboth.

i think we were all feeling rather upset over the situation at that moment, but i straightened up and began to deal with the issue in my typical organised fashion. i called budget auto rental to report the situation, and they told me that not only would i have to acquire a police report (to which i groaned), but i could not have deonam's mechanics work on the bmw. budget's representative, leanne, who was suprisingly helpful and sympathetic, said that she would send a towtruck with a replacement vehicle. the towtruck driver would then give me paperwork to fill out and haul away the bmw.

leanne told us that she would be sending us an suv with manual transmission, a fact that concerned all of us. none of us are particularly effective stickshift drivers, and the fact that the vehicle was an suv only aggrandised our fears. roberto, the son-in-law of one of the mechanics (not to mention an amazing individual who was instrumental in helping us out throughout the ordeal) volunteered to drive us to windhoek (the site of leanne's office) the next day, but luckily it didn't come to that: leanne telephoned back to inform me that she'd tracked down a toyota yaris with automatic transmission at budget's office at nearby hosea kutako international airport, and she agreed to send us it. during this time, i also got into contact with quinton, our study abroad programme director, and he provided me with instrumental assistance as well.

meanwhile, back at the garage, things had escalated to a full-on braai! the mechanics served us a scrumptious barbeque dinner, much to the delight of all of us. we talked into the late hours about cultural differences, societal change, political climes, our uprbringings, and even more. a truly interesting and fascinating discussion was unfolding, which i was enjoying very much. meanwhile, at the recommendations of roberto, leanne, and quinton we decided to spend the night in the local bed and breakfast, so eventually, brigid, liz, and sara, feeling exhausted (and understandably so!) from the experience, went to the b & b to check our party in.

as for sean and i, we stayed at the garage, since the towtruck was supposed to arrive with the replacement vehicle at 11:00pm. 11:45 came around, and the towtruck still hadn't arrived, so deon (the head mechanic) said that he'd lock up, but we could call him during the night if the towtruck telephoned to say it had arrived in rehoboth. deon then dropped us off at b & b, and although i tried to stay awake waiting for the towtruck, this was to no avail, and eventually i went to bed. not too long after that (at 1:30am to be precise), the proprietor woke me up to tell me that the towtruck had arrived. the towtruck driver was furious that we hadn't been waiting at the garage for him, which we felt was rather ridiculous considering he arrived 2 ½ hours late after a 90km journey. besides, leanne had already sent him an sms to tell him that we'd be waiting for him at the b & b. ergo, sean and i felt no remorse for him (i still gave him a tip of N10, but i think that was more than generous). i called deon to ask him to meet me at the garage, and he sleepily agreed. meanwhile, the driver unloaded the replacement vehicle from his towtruck, and sean and i followed the towtruck in the new car back to the garage... well, almost. the towtruck driver led us to where he thought the garage was (and where he'd been allegedly waiting for us), but it was actually a petrol station that had closed for the evening (this isn't uncommon for namibia, and at any rate, i don't know why he'd think that this was the garage). somehow, i miraculously remembered where the garage was located, so i directed both sean and the towtruck driver to it. there, deon unlocked the garage, the driver loaded the bmw onto his truck, and i got to have some good ol' ballpoint fun filling out form after form after form for budget. i think we finally finished with this charade at 3:00am, at which point i promptly went to bed.

i'd meant to wake up the next morning (the 10th) at 6:00am in order to shower and such (given the b & b only had one men's restroom), but 6 quickly turned into 7 and eventually i dragged myself out of bed. deon was supposed to meet me at the b & b at 7:30 to drop off a copy of the bill (even though we'd already paid him in cash, i wanted a legitimate bill to give to budget), but by 8:15 he hadn't arrived (yet another prime example of africa time), so i made sean come with me to the garage. sure enough, deon was there, and he'd informed me that he'd just arrived but that he overslept. understandable, but i still needed the bill. luckily, he had it for me, and he took me over to rehoboth's police station so i could fill out an accident report. this experience dealing with the local authorities wasn't as bad as the last, although our cop's desire to achieve an award for perfect penmanship severely decelerated the rate at which he filled out our police report. the other cops (most of whom, interestingly enough, were females) were extremely friendly and talkative; sean swears they wanted to marry us, but i'm not sure about that one. finally, we finished at the police station and went back to the b & b, where we enjoyed a delicious homecooked breakfast by the establishment's proprietor.

after breakfast, we checked out of the b & b and set off for windhoek, not only so i could communicate with leanne and give her the police report in person, but also so the 5 of us could establish a game plan of how to get home (since we were due to arrive in cape town that very day). we arrived in windhoek and immediately became amused by the fact that its 2 major streets are named after robert mugabe and fidel castro. as a city, windhoek feels like an awkward mix of new york and los angeles; the pedestrian-friendly structure and tall buildings of the central business district reminded me of lower manhattan, whereas the houses in the surrounding foothills look something like out of a south of ventura neighbourhood. it was certainly not designed to be a tourists' destination, but it nonetheless held a distinct beauty to it.

i digress. we got to the budget office, and while sean and i sat down to chat with leanne, brigid, liz, and sara ducked down garten street to do some transportation research at an internet café. the girls returned soon after to announce that they'd discovered a flight on air namibia at 6:40pm that evening for only N2003 per person. it was definitely a bargain for such an endeavour, but sean and i decided to salvage the opportunity for adventure (as well as our monies) and drive back to cape town from windhoek, starting that afternoon. as a result, we had to extend our reservation with budget by a day, but that plus petrol still amounted to less than the airfare.

before we all left windhoek, however, we partook in one final outing together: to the mall!! as far as malls go, it was pretty unimpressive, but it served as a much-needed bastion of familiarity at that very moment. after that, sean and i dropped the girls off at hosea kutako airport (42km east of the city) and set off on our journey toward cape town. the drive was fairly painless and, as liz put it, good for "male bonding time" (i should qualify for those of you reading this who don't know this cast of characters that sean is, in fact, not gay, but rather liz's boyfriend).

we arrived on the 11th after having spent the night in keetmanshoop. upon re-entering south africa, we came upon customs cat again, much to my delight. :) and upon returning the vehicle to budget's office in newlands, we were delighted to discover that, since i'd maximised our insurance plan before leaving cape town, our liability was only about R5500 (ergo, R1100 each). that's a lot less than it could have been! according to felicity, countless ciee students in the past have failed to heed to her advice on this and have subsequently gotten slammed with well over R15000 in liability fees upon getting into an accident. and it was only after that that i could finally bring myself to relax.

well, that's the bulk of the trip right there. i think i left out a few tidbits here and there about all the animals we saw... including springboks, onyxes, baboons, warthogs, and several varieties of birds, one of whom met an unfortunate fate with our car on the first day of the trip and became lodged behind the car's grill. sean had wanted to extract it using tongs, but hopefully, the mechanics in windhoek will take care of that for us. ;)

at any rate, i can actually say that, in retrospect, i enjoyed the trip. i won't discount the fact that dealing with the accident was (and still is) entirely stressful, and the long car rides were not my preference, either. nevertheless, i saw a lot of the beautiful country that is namibia (as well as the province of northern cape), and i think that i learned a lot about different peoples, different cultures, different landscapes, and most significantly, different experiences. sure, having your car break down on you in rural namibia isn't on anybody's to-do list, but we got extremely lucky in that we turned out to be completely okay, and being able to chat with and shoot the breeze with the mechanics in rehoboth was a truly enlightening experience. :)

i'll try to post photos soon... like i said, my camera is off to jo'burg pretty soon, but i'll find someone else to lend me their camera for uploading purposes (since i've still got the memory card). now, the second half of my semester in cape town is about to commence, and with this past quarter having been so eventful, i can't help but wonder what lies in store for me...

big love

while leafing through out of my magazines in an effort to find pictures to cut out and post up on my corkboard, i came across an advert for a contest to win a dinner with the first lady. i felt like it should have included a disclaimer along the lines of, "many will enter, four will win."

this week went by quite amenably. i got my grade for my globalisation essay, and i was pleased to find that i'd scored a 78! this constitutes a high A on the south african grading scale. i'm so jazzed so have received such a high mark! :D

i also went out to fat cactus for dinner the night before last with brigid, sara, liz, and sean, and last night, i went to greek with brigid for the first time. both were delicious.

i've just turned in my paper on how south africa's education programmes bolster skills development nationwide (even though they don't), so now i'm officially on spring break. namibia, here we come! :)