Saturday, March 24, 2007

Expatly tagged

After months of mysterious absence, darling Dawn has returned... and what is the first thing she's done? Tagged me. Yup, in keeping with the ol' homesickness theme I've had going here, this seems the perfect time to share with you this Expat meme.

Name 5 things you love in your new country:
- Great shopping, and enough money to do it with.
- A sense of feeling safe - no burglar bars required.
- The oddness of first-world-meets-third-world and ancient-meets-modern in daily life.
- The Irish. Everybody loves the Irish, right?
- Central heating.

Name 4 things that you miss from your native country:
- My mother and good friends.
- Being able to use words like "jislaaik", "bliksem", "dof" and "vrot" without having to translate.
- Just being, with my people.
- The weather... being able to braai (BBQ) on pretty much any given day for most of the year.

Name 3 things that annoy you a bit (or much) in your new country:
- The long, cold, damp, dreary winters.
- Being an outsider.
- Potholes. It rains so much there are always potholes in all the roads.

Name 2 things that surprise you (or surprised you in the beginning) in your new country:
- How friendly people are to foreigners (at least on the surface and in the beginning).
- How many people know absolutely nothing about South Africa. Some don't even know it is a country ("North Africa doesn't have a team in the soccer world cup so why would South Africa?") and some don't believe we're South African because we're white. Yes, really.

Name 1 thing that you would miss terribly in your new country, if you had to leave it:
- Superquinn's pork sausages. (You've no idea, until you've tasted them!)

And now is the moment you've all been waiting for... {{drum roll}} ... I hereby tag.... my cousin over the Irish Sea, Delboy and another transplant to the Emerald Isle, -ann. Go on, spread the love ;-)

11 comments:

Linda said...

I will take an order of the Superquinn's pork sausages!! I am hunnnngggrrryyy!! :)

L said...

I would miss BBQing on any given day.

LiVEwiRe said...

Isn't it interesting that in this day and age that people could still mistakenly think that you can't be white and from Africa? I mean, I know the pic of you on the bike with the blonde hair and all was just a wig and a trick of the lighting, right? Right? ;)

anne said...

When I lived in Cameroon, people back in France would swallow anything. 20 years ago (holy shit. 20 years ago.), people believed that there were no cars and we went to school swinging from vine to vine, and no telephone and we communicated with drums and smoke rings (and no one picked up on the mixed references...)

Anonymous said...

Superquinn's pork sausages

Mmmmm, now that sounds good!!

Great meme, Terri. :)

Unknown said...

Thanks for doing the meme, youyou. I think the winter brings folk like us down further than most. Good to have connected again, sister. Hope we both keep it up. Love to you. xox

DelBoy said...

Thanks Cuz. I will get around to this as soon as possible.

Terri said...

Beads - You poor thing! I'll have to see about packing some in a cooler like they do with organs for transplants and send 'em over to you ;-)

Lori - Yep; over here if you see the sun is shining and it's warm you have to quickly rush out and buy meat and have the BBQ before the weather changes...not quite the same as what we're used to in sunnier climates.

LiVEwIRe - ahem... Photoshop ;-)

Anne - Haha 20 years ago :-D I just can't get rid of that image of you swinging from vine to vine...

Jason - Glad u liked it :) Seriously, if you're ever over here you have to taste 'em sausages. They're really good!

Dawn - Thanks for the tag :) Yes it's definitely time to think about moving to warmer climes again.

Del - Looking forward to reading your answers :)

AngelConradie said...

hey no fair- a meme i can’t do!!! very cool, and surprisingly fitting… dawn’s a smart one eh?

Kelly said...

What a great meme. I enjoyed reading it.

Terri said...

Angel - Yes she is. And you... watch this space ;)

Myutopia - Welcome and thanks! I aim to please :)