Bikes rides are fun!

Hey dudes and dudettes! It is so good to hear from everyone how the concert went! I really wish I could have been there!
In other news, the break is over in Swakop so everyone is officially back to school today. Last week the government announced that they were going to give everyone an extra week of vacation. They were actually supposed to go back last Monday. Could you imagine if they did that at home?? That would be insane!
It’s funny though, Lex saw a bunch of her students over break and asked them how it was going...most of them said they were bored. I bet the government thinks they are doing the kids a favour by giving them an extra week of holiday but Lex and I were talking and we think that’s when most of the problems happen.

Anyhoo...since they are all off at school today I decided that this morning I was going to explore a little bit. Lex let me borrow her bike so I figured I would go down to the dunes again and ride around the dried riverbed (which I think I talked briefly about in another post)
The dunes are only a few blocks from Mrs.Venter’s house so my trip was going pretty fast. But my bike ride quickly turned into a walk as soon as I hit the soft sand of the riverbed. It is just impossible to ride in sand! So I decided I would just walk and push the bike...and ride whenever I could.
It was pretty neat...I wanted to try to walk to the ocean (the river used to meet up with the ocean) On my walk I saw many interesting (read: disgusting) bugs. There were a whole bunch of little hoof tracks which I’m assuming are sprinkbok tracks. (Mrs.Venter told me she sees them all the time when she goes golfing) I followed some tracks in hopes of spotting a few springbox but instead I would only stumble across little piles of springbok poo. Oh well...
As I got closer to the ocean the sand was slowly turning into grasses and the bushes were getting thicker. I was thinking my path might run out soon but all those 4x4 trails seem to get used pretty often.
Out of nowhere I suddenly saw a man walking towards me with a couple of horses. He came over and we had a nice little chat as I gave them both a little pat (the horses...not the man) I couldn’t really understand him because he had such a thick accent but I think he wanted to buy my bike. I said it was my friends and then went on my way.
I was getting excited because I could finally see the ocean in the distance after pushing my bike for about an hour.
The sand was starting to get pretty wet so I had to climb up the slope on the side of the riverbank. I could see a bunch of flamingos wading in the water (I think it was kind of an inlet or something.) Behind them was the ocean... I had made it!

Now, there was no way I was going to drag my bike back for another hour through all that sand and heat so I decided I would try to find a new way out.
I found a place to rent 4x4’s to explore the desert. That looks pretty excited! I’ll have to try that sometime! Then I went by a farm which I think those two horses may have come from. I also found the SPCA.
...and then I found my way home! YAY! (I'll put up some pictures later...the internet cafe is really slow right now and won't let me add any on here or on facebook!! lame)

oh...one more thing I learned today. If you’re gonna go walking through a bunch of sand...don’t put lotion on your legs in the morning.

This afternoon Linus came to get me from Mrs.Venter’s house. He’s conducting the Swakopmund Secondary High School choir (which I believe Engelhardt used to conduct). They are going to be at the expo in Windhoek at the same time Mascato is. He has me accompanying one of their songs, so I went today to play and also do some warm-ups with them. He’s done a really good job with them!!
Now I’m just chilling in the internet café. I think I might do some shopping after... Mr.Price has been calling my name!!

rehearsal rehearsal rehearsal!

This has been the weekend of rehearsals. Friday night we had a rehearsal and I ended up taking the entire thing! I totally didn't expect to but the time just flew by!! We worked a bit on Dubula and then I taught the rest of Baba Yetu...I can't wait to do that song with everyone! They are rocking it already and they just barely have the notes learned!!!
Yesterday we had a 6 hour long rehearsal (that's right SIX hours with only about a half hour break!!) intense! It was to get ready for the Expo this week. I think by the end my head was ready to explode from all the new words/languages!! I think Afrikaans is seriously the hardest to read out of all African languages! It's easier to just listen and make up my own spelling!!
I was pretty wiped after that rehearsal so I just went home to bed and did nothing exciting! haha...

This morning Mrs.Venter and I took a little stroll down by the ocean. They have a beautiful walkway that must go on for the span of the whole town! It's so pretty there. It's a little chillier this morning though, although that means good things apparently for when we go to Windhoek. (If it's cold here it's warm there and vice versa)
We went out for lunch to the Hotel Iropa (sp?) It was very yummy and it seems like probably one of the more expensive places to eat at. (Even though it still was only about $20 cnd for the both of us)

Lex is taking one of the kids from her class to a movie this afternoon. (The student won it doing some math contest or something...) Lex invited me to go but unfortuately I don't know how to find my way everywhere yet so I just gave up and came to the internet cafe instead. (Everyone I asked on the street had no idea where I was talking about!) oh well...next time...


This is from Mrs.Venter's garden! pretty!!

argh....

stupid internet! I've been trying for the past 47 minutes to download pictures but today it just doesn't want to work. But when it finally does...you will see Lex, Marcelino and me with our wonderful adventures in the dunes last night! It was much fun! I think I am still chewing on sand every once in a while!
Which reminds me...make sure everyone at home - when we go to the dunes - pack your fancy cameras in ziplock bags or something...Lex may or may not have wrecked hers last night! My cell phone has sand inside it now too...some of the buttons I can barely press! hahaha oops
Not too much has happened lately...the next rehearsal is tomorrow. We leave for Windhoek in a week for this expo thing. I have to have about 30 songs learned by then...eeeeeeeee...As long as I have all the dance moves down I think I can blend in the back!
YAY! The pictures downloaded with only 6 minutes left on my time! Yikes! Cuttin it close!! click here to check out the pics!

Gotta run! Love to you all!

Sunday night

Mascato had their first performance on Sunday night. It was spectacular....I only wished I could have sang along too. It was for their Spanish sponsor as well as a bunch of German press and other people. I didn’t really understand completely what was going on but it sounds like this Spanish dude has merged with another guy from Namibia. This apparently means very good things for Mascato. The German press was there because they are promoting a book that is being published in Germany all about Namibia. I guess they had a huge tour and this was their last stop.

I could only imagine being in their place.... You drive out to the middle of nowhere on the scariest one lane road ever. You definitely need a 4x4 to make that trek. There is complete darkness all around you with only the headlights and stars to light your way. Suddenly you round a corner and the entire mountain is lit up. It looked like the stars had fallen from the sky and stuck there, right in the ground. It was absolutely gorgeous. They must have had over a hundred candles in brown paper bags placed all over the rocks.
As you get out of your vehicle and walk down the path guided by a string of candles the marimbas are playing up by the tables for dinner. You slowly make your way up the hill just drinking up all the mesmerizing beauty. The marimbas finish a few songs and suddenly 30 people appear out of the shadows and walk down the slope towards a light and start singing. Mascato looked amazing and completely captivated the crowd with their songs and dance.

....I was just sitting on the side watching all of this happen. I loved watching the expression on the audience faces. They loved every second of it.

I can’t wait till we do our dinner in the dunes again!

rehearsals started!!!

YAY! I can finally say now that I've seen Mascato! Only over a week after arriving...that almost killed me! haha
Our first rehearsal was great on friday...Mrs.Venter had me take about the first half of the rehearsal. I figured I would just watch the first one just to see how they work and learn...but nope, I got thrown right into it! But it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be! I had planned on teaching them Baba Yetu the first day but Linus forgot to photocopy that one so I taught them Sanctuary instead. I thought they wouldn't be as into that one because it's so high...but they really enjoyed it! Maybe of them actually knew some of it already because they sing that song in a church in Narraville! It was fun and it seems like I might have some challenges getting them to really open up. The men seem a little better at doing that...but Mrs.Venter has trained them so well now to be very sensitive and not sing loud. She'd much rather have them sing quietly!
I'm also teaching them our version of Dubula. I guess they had brought that song up from South Africa a few years ago and another choir stole it from them and performed it a million times. Mascato dropped it from their repetiore then...but when Mrs.Venter heard we were doing a different version she wanted to learn that one instead. So I just started off the beginning of it...
Mrs.Venter then took over the rest of the rehearsal. I still don't have music for anything yet so it's pretty challenging because I normally rely so much on music! Learning music by ear is tough!!! hhahaha...Especially when we did the click song! hahaha...yeah...I sure can't do all those yet!
We had another rehearsal last night. I went over Sanctuary again and played the piano along with it. They really like that song! It's going to be SO fun with Koko too!!
We went over Dubula again...I taught the rest of it at this rehearsal. Mrs.Venter left to go back to her house to get music for Baba Yetu so I was all on my own. The pretty much got the music down so I figured I would show them the movement we're doing in Dubula. I can't remember the very beginning though!! I just showed them from the "Hai, Hai" part. The almost died laughing when I got to the 'gumboot' type section. I must say though - they picked it up WAY faster than we did!! hahahaha It was really fun teaching that!
When Mrs.Venter got back I started just the first bit of Baba Yetu. I showed them the video of us singing it...they are so excited for everyone to come!!

alrighty...after rehearsal last night Lex hosted a welcoming braai for me at her house. Maybe 20 people or so from choir came along too. It was so much fun! I figured a braai would be just basically like a BBQ at home...I was pretty wrong! You make a fire until it almost burns down to just the coals, then you have this fancy little metal contraption that basically sandwiches all the meat in so it doesn't fall out. You rest it over the fire and flip it every once in a while. It was SO good! Casey (Lex's roomate) made a bunch of salads and Pop (pap? I don't know the spelling) which is basically like porridge made out of corn. Everyone eats that here!
We all had a great time eating, singing, dancing, and watching videos/pictures from the tour last year on my computer!
If you want to check out some pictures click here! Enjoy!

Mascato has a concert tonight in the desert for their spanish sponsor. I'm not singing though because I don't know any of the music yet! But I am going to watch and I'm very excited!!

Have a great sunday everyone! Love to you all!

pictures!

this is for people who don't have facebook http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2293&l=7866b&id=505442150
These are mostly the pictures I was talking about in my last post!

A new store opened today right by Shoprite. It's BEAVER CANOE!!! hahahaha.. Lex and I almost died! The grand opening is today so we're going to go a little later and take some pictures and stuff. It's so funny how I'm randoming hearing about Canada here. The other day we were watching (i think) the National Geographic channel and they were doing a story near Banff and Jasper. They showed maps of Alberta and Edmonton and stuff!! so weird.. this is seriously the last place I ever expected to hear about Canada... especially Alberta!!
hahaha...so random!

Tonight is the first Mascato rehearsal! I'm SO excited!! It sounds like I might have my work cut out for me getting all the music ready for the tour though. Linus was telling me they haven't touched any of the tour music since Scott was here! yikes! I think Mrs.Venter wants me to already start teaching them new stuff as well tonight...that's a little scary though! I'd kind of like to just sit in at least one rehearsal just to see how they run music and learn it. Linus and Marcelino have kind of been talking me through it though which is nice.

I should be off though...I only have a couple of minutes left on my internet time!
Miss you all! *mwah*

more adventures...

Just in case I forget to say it elsewhere: HAPPY BIRTHDAY LINDSEY AND AMANDA!!! Hope you’re having a great day!!!

....wow.. I’m bad. It’s been a while since I’ve written on here. But honestly, not a lot has happened the past few days. I’ve been doing a lot of walking and reading. I went for some of my first adventures all along too! I found the internet café by myself and went grocery shopping a bit. I’m starting to know the town pretty good now. I think I can probably find my way to everywhere where I would need to go now! I also went for a walk on Monday with Linus to the dunes. They are still really hard to climb…I am so out of shape..meh – I just need to climb a dune every day then! haha
Every night this week except one I’ve been going over to Lex’s house in the evenings to watch movies. There’s a cute little video store here called “Mr.Video” and on weeknights you can rent one and get one free. It’s $20 (less than $5Cnd) …but the weird thing is, is that it’s due the next morning at 11am. No week-long rentals here!
On Tuesday night we went out to Lex’s favourite and least favourite bars. It was Beau’s last night here for 10 days (he is going on a little trip up to Vic Falls and northern Namibia) so we took him out for some drinks. It was lots of fun…and I even drank a beer!! A whole one to myself! I’ve never liked beer so this is a pretty big step….and also it’s way cheaper than my fancy girly drinks that I usually get so it’s so all around! I’ll post pictures! Hahaha…
Last night I made Mrs.Venter my chicken parmagiana. She really enjoyed it which was great. She seems to think some of the things I eat are just crazy (like cucumbers on my sandwiches… she couldn’t believe I did that!...I actually made her try today…she really enjoyed it!)
Today I also had a little adventure. Since Beau is out of town for the next 10 days he’s letting me use his bike. Lex had some work to do at MYO so I decided I would bike there. I was so proud I made it directly there without getting lost or anything! Yay!! And holy cow…that’s another thing just showing me how out of shape I am! My legs are always like jello after I get of the bike! Yuck…
Tomorrow is the first rehearsal for Mascato!!! I CAN’T WAIT!! I’m so excited to see everyone! It’s going to get busy fast too! We have rehearsals Friday, Saturday and Sunday with little concerts in there too! I love it!


I’ll leave you with things I’ve learned thus far:

-I should have listened to Lex when she said to wear sunscreen.
-Nothing stays clean (especially your feet!!)
-Taxi drivers are crazy. You’d better make damn sure you’re not in a hurry when you get in one.
-Namibia has it’s own beat. You can hear it everywhere….taxi’s, walking by stores, clubs, people driving by in their cars…everywhere!
-I don’t think it matters how long I’ll be here…I’ll still look the wrong way when crossing the street.
-Cars don’t stop for pedestrians.
-If you’re new in town, especially white and female, everyone notices.

...more to come........

YAY good weather!

It's finally cooled down today! It feels like a nice brisk summer day from home now! It's great!
So Sundays in Swakop are not the most interesting of days. I was not aware that all the shops and stores close at 1pm. Mrs.Venter and I went grocery shopping in the morning and then I hit the internet cafe. By the time I had walked home I just had enough time to run into the Shoprite and grab some sunscreen...
...and then I went home and slept. hahaha... I think my jetlag finally had caught up to me! In the evening I went over to Lex's house and we watched a bunch of choir videos with her roommates. We also rented Stick It. hahaha.. nice gymnastics movie.
Dave - let me know whenever you stick up more choir videos please! I'll download them right away!!
Today has been pretty uneventful too... Linus and Marcelino came over to do some filing for Mrs.Venter so I hung out with them a bit. We watched the thousands of pictures off of Marcelino's computer (literally thousands!! like 2380 or something like that!)
I talked to Macdonald on the phone as well. He was in a car accident this morning! But he's doing okay...his chest is just in quite a bit of pain. It's all those crazy taxi drivers! Seriously...be very careful of them when you come here!

wow...short and sweet!

...to be continued...

late night ponderings

I posted pictures! YAY http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2243&l=95dd9&id=505442150

It’s 4am and I can’t sleep after waking up and having my sheets and pillows sticking to my body. Mrs.Venter said it was up to +40C yesterday! (and I don’t think the night has barely cooled!) blech…..how I miss my air conditioning now!
In my tired/heat delirious state I’ve just been thinking about some things though… namely Mondesa, Narraville, Kuisebmond and the other little suburbs of Swakop and Walvis Bay. I don’t know too much about these areas yet but I have now visited a few. It seems like almost everyone from Mascato lives in one of these areas.
When we first drove by them on the way home from the airport they kind of reminded me of that township we drove through in South Africa (I think the one that Thulani lived in….if you don’t know what I’m talking about check out the pictures on the kokopelli page) Now that I’ve been to these places though, they aren’t nearly as bad as that. Some of the houses are actually quite cute.
The thing that I can’t wrap my head around though is that people I actually know live there. This is just something we just never see in Canada…. Dirt floors and just basic stuff you need. There’s no clutter anywhere or anything up on the walls. At Rodney’s house I had to use the bathroom and in my naïve little mind I just assumed it would be inside the house. But it was in the backyard, almost like an outhouse but with an actual toilet. There’s no light though, I couldn’t tell if there was a lock on the door, and no flusher on the toilet. I had a little stage fright before I could actually relax enough to go.
Night time is very different here as well. It seems like Swakop just shuts down when it gets dark out. Lex and I were walking back from the internet café last night at about 8pm and the streets were literally deserted. But the night before when we arrived in Mondesa just after 10pm the streets were crawling with people. (and stray dogs!!)
It’s such a different world; Canada to Namibia and even Swakop to Mondesa which is under a 5 minutes drive away! I hope all the people coming this time who are staying with people in Mascato are really mentally prepared. Honestly, my first time there - just days ago - I don’t think I was. And at this point, and don’t even think I would be able to stay there…. I just had no idea how spoiled we are at home and how we take everything so much for granted.
I always just seem to assume that everyone has the same quality of life that I do.
I’ve been in music lessons since I was 4 years old and have had so many interesting and rare opportunities to see/hear/play/sing and at so many amazing venues. In the past 2 days I have met some of the most talented people I have probably ever heard and it’s all completely raw talent. I don’t even think any of them read music! I just finished 2 years of school learning how to play jazz music and any of the guys that played for me the past 2 days could play circles around me….and here I thought people in Africa didn’t even know much about jazz music!

I have so much learn.

Day One (and a bit of two)

alrighty... so I used Lex's idea and wrote this entry on my computer and just put it on my memory stick so as to not waste money paying for the internet... so I wrote about Day one last night before I went to bed... This is it:

My first full day was great…and surprisingly long! I can’t believe I stayed awake this long…I really don’t feel jetlagged at all. I woke up bright and early at like 7 in the morning and unpacked all my stuff. I was actually able to eat breakfast without feeling sick anymore (and yay for cereal!!! Maybe that’s all I needed! Haha)
I took Balka (sp?), Mrs.Venter’s dog, for a walk down to Lex’s house after breakfast and nearly died! I could not believe how hot it is here!! I literally had sweat pouring down my face by the time I got there and it’s probably not much more than a 5 minute walk!!
When I got back to Mrs.Venter’s place she wanted me to go over this musical that Mascato is putting on. I don’t know if I understand completely yet what it’s all about but apparently someone is actually paying for Mascato to put this play on. They get to act, sing and dance in it. (as well as pick all the music) They are even flying this amazing choreographer from Scotland in to help with it.
Mrs.Venter picked only Karl Jenkins music for it (mostly all the ones we’ve done!!) Oh, and Scott, she asked me to remind you to bring your book of Jenkins music (it has a piano reduction right? None of hers do…)
So yeah.. it seems pretty cool… I’ll update more on that when I learn more (they’re performing it in Windhoek in September)
Lex came over while we were looking at the play. Mrs.Venter then drove us into town where the three of us had lunch in this cute little café. She left us after that to do meetings and phone calls (I have seriously never met a more busy lady in my life!! The phone rang off the hook this morning!!)
Lex and I wandered around town a bit more. I bought a cell phone!!! So… as far as I know only Roger phones at home seem to work but if you want to try texting me my number is +264813471435. (and you need the plus sign!) if you want to phone it’s 011264813471435. And if you’re phoning in Namibia it’s 0813471435. (isn’t that crazy??)
We also went to this clothing store that looks like it’s going to be very dangerous for me. Lex said she’s bought so much there already and everything it so cool and SO cheap!! The most expensive thing I saw today was like $70 ($14 CND) so yeah…I’ll be showing you all THAT store when you come!!
We took a taxi into Mondesa to check out her school. They are on vacation right now (that’s how Lex has so much time to show me around…it’s great) Her school is so cute…it seems like an amazing program there! She should be so incredible proud of the work she’s doing there!
After that we walked down to Marcelino’s house to see how he was doing. He seems pretty jetlagged and hates the heat! Hahaha…I think he wants more snow (but seriously, after the heat today…I wanted snow too! Bleh)
Um…what else….We went back to Lex’s house to hang out a bit and then took her bikes (well, Lex’s and her roommate, Beau’s (I spelt his name wrong before)) down to the ocean and saw an amazing Namibian sunset!! I think Lex might post some pictures later…I can’t believe I haven’t taken any pictures yet! I need to get on that!!
So after an amazing supper at Mrs.Venter’s house tonight (John you would be proud of me…I ate new things like vegetables and everything! And it was good!!) we heard from Beau that there was karaoke in town. Now apparently Africa does not do karaoke so this is a huge thing! Most people don’t even know what it is!!!
Unfortunately, people still don’t know what it is. There was no tv with lyrics, no book of songs to choose from, and they basically just played Afrikaan music videos and people sang along. ….weird.
So Lex and I went to Rodney’s house instead…and that was an adventure all in itself. (but I think I’ll spare the details here…I don’t want to worry anyone…namely my parents! Hahaha just kidding…I’m fine Mom!)
So yeah…we saw Golda and Rodney back in Mondesa which was awesome. I had my first African tassi’s and coke (sp?) and we just hung out and gossiped about choir. Much fun!

It is getting very late though so I should head off to bed! My big adventures to come tomorrow!!


DAY TWO
this is going to have to be short and sweet because Lex and I got to the internet cafe late and it closes in like 5 minutes!
Anyhoo... turns out Lex may have gotten what I got (sickness) cuz she was all flu-y last night and puked a bunch! LAME! But she's doing better now!
We went swimming in the ocean this morning! it's SO cold but the air is so incredibly hot that you dry off in like 2 minutes after getting out! crazy!! That was super fun!
We went to Walvis Bay in the afternoon to do a practice for this G3 thing. It's these two guys, George and Gustov (the other G is God). They are a big hit in Namibia and have their music played on the radio all the time. Anyhoo... they contacted Mrs.Venter to put together some people to sing backup for them in 3 concerts coming up. So me, Lex, Rozaine, Avril, Romancia, Dollar, Romano and Garth were all practicing today. I MISSED THEM ALL SO MUCH!!!!! oh my goodness...we sang some of AfroShines music too (namely Ti Mama) I almost cried. Seriously, this was the first time I've had chills in this heat. Michelle - Garth misses you so much and you are going to die when you hea him sing! oh and Romancia says hi to Fahim! hahaha
I had my first chip roll in Narraville (holy crap I could gain 30 lbs just by eating those!!)
We also went to a mini braai area where they sell meat and different things...I'll post pictures tomorrow when I get more time... We had fatkoeks (fat cakes) hahaha..so good!! And the meat was amazing!! You can get like a full meal there for probably $2 cnd! it was awesome!
I should go though...they've already closed the doors! eeeeee
love to you all! *mwah*

We've arrived...

Marcelino and I have made it... and with no more barfing too! yay! I still feel pretty gross though, but I had a shower and that already made a world of difference!
So Marcelino and I arrived in Walvis Bay at 12:45 to be greeted by Lex and Mrs. Venter! We went back to Mrs.Venter's place (with me having little panic attacks every time we turned right in the car! I'm gonna need a lot of practice with people in a car before I try driving!)
Mrs.Venter's house is so cute! Linus was there when we arrived as well. They all had some lunch while I had a shower. (I haven't been able to eat a full meal yet since tuesday...my stomach is still very bleh)
We watched a few videos on my computer from Stories and the jazz choir concerts...Lex had a little teary moment...We all can't wait for everyone to come!
Lex has now just been taking me on a little tour of the town. We stopped by the Purple Palace (where Lex lives with two other teachers from MYO, Bo and Casey). I also met AstroBoy! haha..
We went to see Avril at her job for a second. This little internet cafe is the only other place we've stopped so far. I don't really remember anything from the first time we were here...I thought I would...(maybe it's cuz I'm still so loopy...meh)
and holy crap...when Marcelino and I stepped off the plane we both almost fainted! It was like walking into a sauna! SO HOT!! Mrs.Venter said it's because the east wind is blowing through right now but it won't last long...it'll be winter before long. (Lex said last week it was only about 10C)
well...I think that's about all I have for now...I'm very tired but I'm going to try to stay awake until a normal hour before I go to bed!
*mwah*

Frankfurt

a very tired Marcelino and I just arrived in Frankfurt.
If you haven't heard yet we had quite the adventure at the airport. Apparently when Scott ordered my tickets they sent out paper ones. Unfortunately no one ever got them. They weren't going to let m board without them and they said the next flights to Jo-burg was in two days....hahaha I almost thought I could have showed up for choir again tonight!
but anyhoo...when I was leaving Edmonton my stomach was doing somersaults and I thought it was just because I was nervous. Apparently I was very wrong about that....I guess I had a little flu bug... I threw up in the Calgary airport and then figured I would be fine... unfortunately I was very wrong. I spent probably the first 4 or 5 hours throwing up on the plane to Frankfurt going from crazy chills to sweat pouring off of me. At least all the aircanada people were very nice and kept making sure I was okay. I'm sure Marcelino didn't really want to be sitting by me...meh.. I finally feel a little better though...
we're just trying to find Katelyn now....we supposed to be meeting at the good old Mickey D's in the airport (which is HUGE and so nice)
Hopefully she arrives soon cuz I feel like I'm gonna fall asleep just sitting here!
Love to ya all - I'm gonna chill for a bit!

I've packed!

yay... it's 1:48pm...I gotta run to the airport! but I FINISHED PACKING! It only took all morning.. bleh...
I get to Walvis Bay on thursday at lunchtime so hopefully I'll have an update sometime around then! (unless there's wireless internet in the Frankfurt airport or something)
Goodbye all my lovelies!! I'll miss you Canada! *mwah*

Packing - Day Two

so... I kind of didn't think about packing again for the last few days...but in my defence I did have a couple of concerts, recording sessions and parties to attend! haha...
BUT...the packing is going well. I've filled one suitcase with all my clothes...I totally think I've packed too much but that's cool...I can always give it away if I want! The other suitcase I've put the fancy little speaker thing for my iPod that John got me. I was a little worried about bringing it (just because I do not want it to break) but I've packed it in bubble wrap and then surrounded it with all the sweaters I'm bringing.
We just checked the forecast and winter is definitely hitting Africa right now...everyone - make sure you pack warm clothes! (it's supposed to only be 5 degrees tonight! yikes)
and the countdown continues...1 day and 40 minutes!! I can't believe how quickly that snuck up! It seems like just yesterday I still had a couple of months! CRAZY!!

well...I should go finish packing...and later get off to Koko's last recording session...

Packing - Day One

alrighty... so, there's only 5 days left till I leave (and 4 1/2 hours) so I figured I should probably start thinking about packing...
Step One: cut a hole in..errr.. I mean, I've opened my two suitcases. Now to just figure out what to fill them with. This is actually harder then I thought it would be...I'm usually such a good packer (and I usually pack so light too).
I think I need about two weeks worth of clothes. But, say I was to go on a two week long trip...I would actually only bring maybe a weeks worth of clothes. So this is very difficult. I guess I need to think - if I was to wear a completely new outfit everyday for two weeks...that's how much I gotta bring. yikes that seems like so much. Maybe I will be able to fill up my suitcases after all.
Lex has been telling me there's tons of cute shops that are really cheap so I shouldn't actually bring that many clothes... meh...I can always give them away!
alrighty...so I guess in order to get onto Step two - filling the suitcases - I should stop procrastinating and actually do it... :P

hhhmmm.... maybe something interesting has happened on facebook....

Countdown to Africa

so here's my first of (hopefully) many posts to come on my trip of a lifetime...

5 days, 16 hours, 24 minutes... (according to my widget anyways...)

done.