December 13th - January 10th

South Africa

Hello lovely people! I’m back!

I spent a month in South Africa over Christmas to relax and catch up with my studies. I was feeling pretty tired after my first three months in Rwanda so I took the opportunity to rest. It turns out that blogging is actually fairly strenuous so I took a break from that too, hence the radio silence over the past five weeks. But I will give you a brief overview of what I got up too.

I stayed with Sonja in Pretoria for the whole time. I wanted to visit friends further afield but the cost of travel was just too high due to it being the festive season. And while it was a real strain to spend an entire month in Sonja's company, I somehow survived with my sanity in tact.

I spent most of my time writing reports for university and revising Persian. I was very behind on my studies and it was great having the time just to blast it and catch up. That said, we did find some time for fun.

We braaied a fair bit and I took advantage of Pretoria's many shopping centres and supermarkets. I got three pairs of shoes, three pairs of trousers and three tops. I love Truworths.

I also had a driving lesson. Sonja and her friend took me out in a Bakkie on some dirt roads, in the rain. Now to all you sceptics who thought I’d be a menace on the roads, you were wrong. I rock at driving. Granted, I can't change gears, reverse or park and hill starts are probably a no-no, but if you need someone to drive in a straight line on wet, muddy roads then I’m your girl. Driving is fun.

Christie organised a LOTR movie marathon, which was long. I spent a couple of days with Christie over the course of the holiday and it was really nice to see her again, especially as she kept me plied with chocolates the whole time! We also met up with Helene a couple of times for dinner which was really nice.

One night we visited Pretoria's version of Courtney Road at Christmas. The whole street is decked out with lights, but it's really upmarket, like millionaire upmarket.

Christmas Day itself was a bit strange for me. For starters, it was thirty degrees and sunny. And instead of a turkey roast by the fire, we had a braai by the pool. And on New Years Day we went to a game park. It poured with rain but I got some great Zebra photos.

It was really nice to see my friends again and have some time to relax. Thank you to everyone that made it so special, especially Sonja and her family who put up with me so graciously.