Today is Memorial Day & thus a public holiday. It's a day to remember all those, especially military personal, that have died protecting the country. We have had a fairly leisurely day, sleeping in a little & then going to the shops again. It really is quite fun going to the supermarkets as long as you don't convert all the prices to rands. That can be a little scary. We're re battling to find cold drink for Shaun & Kelly. There are no cordials or Oros equivalents - nothing that you can buy & then add water to. All cold drinks are sold ready to drink. This makes them really pricey. Kelly usually drinks a lot of water but I must admit the water here tastes strange but I guess we'll get used to it. We did find some good old Kool Aid & Tang. Saw Ceres fruit juice for about R18 a litre. We needed some presstik - it's called poster putty! Due to different names, packaging & generally just not knowing the shops, shopping is fairly time consuming - fortunately it's still a novelty.
I spent most of the afternoon ironing - not exactly my favourite job. I enquired about where I could have some ironing done & received a very strange look. Haven't quite worked out why. Probably if you tumble dry things you don't need to iron them. Had our favourite stuffed crust pizza delivered from Pizza Hut tonight - really good. From tomorrow I start cooking meals. The kitchen is equipped with a fairly basic selection of utensils & dishes so this might be a challenge. Another challenge is washing dishes. There is a double sink but no draining board/area. Presumably everything goes in the dishwasher. I can't remember if the houses are the same.
Yesterday we attended the Hunter's Glen Baptist church. According to the website it was meant to have an attendance of 14000. They were probably only about 200 to 300 people there so the church was fairly empty. This could have been because it was the Memorial Day weekend & people went away. It was a beautiful church with the most amazing stain glass windows. I don't think we'll be going back there. It was extremely conservative. We sang mainly hymns, some of which I don't think I've sung since I was a child at Bulwer Road. The congregation consisted of old people & young couples with small children - no people our age or youth. They managed to fit 2 baptism, communion, worship & the sermon into 1 hour. There was a fair bit of patriotism in the service but that's probably understandable seeing it was memorial weekend. On the way home we were discussing the service & Shaun who is usually not critical by nature summed it up when he said, " It was just plain wishy washy!"
Our air freighted goods apparently only arrived in Dallas yesterday. They will still take 48 hours to get though customs, 24 hours to be delivered & probably nothing would happen today as its a public holiday, so we only expect them at the end of the week. It is still raining quite a bit but even though its overcast most of the time, it's still quite light after 8:00pm.
Cheers for now.
Heather
Monday, May 28, 2007
My mom's mail
My mom sent this as an e-mail to some friends and family yesterday. If you didn't get it or want to read it, check out below.
--Shaun
Hi Everyone
Sorry that I’ve taken sooo… long to let you know that we’re alive & well. When we’ve been at ‘home’ there’s been great competition for the use of Murray’s laptop. With
Murray trying to keep up with what’s happening at work, researching various things on the internet e.g. cars, cell phones etc, Shaun & Kelly contacting friends on Face Book & emailing,
I haven’t had a chance to use the laptop. We’re been told that our air freighted goods should arrive tomorrow, so we’ll have our other computers & the stuff we need to Skype.
I have to admit that the last few days in Johannesburg were very tiring & emotional with all the farewells. This was followed by a very emotional farewell at the airport. Even though I’d said it would be easier not to have to do more farewells at the airport, a number of Shaun & Kelly’s close friends came. In retrospect this was great, even though it was hard. Thanks too to all the McLeans for coming, despite what I said. Colin & Lleane thanks also for all the amazing help you gave us during the last few weeks – we really appreciate it. We will always treasure your friendship. Murray, Kelly & I fell asleep before supper was served & only woke just before landing – so much for enjoying the luxury of flying business class. However we did appreciate the flat beds.
On arriving at Heathrow, we went to the Virgin Lounge which is wonderful. We showered & had a great breakfast. I even had my hair blow dried in their salon at no extra charge. We then had a day time flight to Washington. We had to go through immigration there – even though everything went well, it still took a fair length of time as it was our first entrance into the country as temporary residents. They really are very thorough. We arrived in Dallas at about 7.00p.m. on Tuesday evening – we’re 7 hours behind SA at the moment. Some of you know that Shaun took our 6 hard drives in his cabin bag as he was worried about them being damaged. No one even queried them at any of the security checks.
We’re staying in a really nice furnished apartment. It has 3 bedrooms, a study, 3 bathrooms, a large lounge / dining room, kitchen, laundry & verandah. It’s part of a huge complex of over 400 apartments. There’s a communal area with a games room, mini theatre, fully equipped gym, business centre, numerous pools, hot tubs, miniature golf, golf course etc. Everything is air conditioned. & people don’t seem to ever open windows. I have to open our door onto the verandah to get fresh air. I don’t like this closed in feeling. It hasn’t been very hot but it has been quite humid. This apparently is due to the rain we’ve been having. May is Dallas’ rainy month and then they don’t get much for the rest on the year.
We’ve seem to have spent the last four days traveling around in the car. We only have 1 hire car a present and Murray is the only one signed up to drive it. Hopefully we’ll get another car early next week. We’ve spent a lot of time getting lost, especially when Shaun’s not with us. He has an amazing sense of direction & seems to understand the useless navigation system in the car. Yesterday Murray bought 2 Garmins, which even I must say are far superior navigation systems. Dallas isn’t an easy city to drive around – it seems to consist of a mass of freeways. We’ve been out to SMU (Southern Methodist University) 3 times for various reasons. Shaun had to prove he was in the country by the 24th, he‘s had meetings with various staff members & lecturers on subject selection etc and Kelly needed to find out about courses. Shaun will only do 2 subjects this summer as it is shorter than a normal semester. He starts next week Wed & his lectures will all be on Wed & Thurs evenings. We bought this big fat book for Kelly to study from for her SAT exams. It also has advice on the exams & some trial exams at the back which she says don’t look too difficult. This should keep her busy for a while. She’s the most unsettled at the moment. She’s really missing her friends & especially Bruce. Both Shaun & Kelly were chuffed when they found out that the last day of exams for the fall semester is the 15th Dec and the first day of the spring semester is the 15th Jan. At this stage they want to go back to SA for the whole month however this could change as they settle down.
We’ve been to look at cars for all of us at various dealerships. This has been quite a time consuming & frustrating exercise. The sales people aren’t exactly the most enthusiastic bunch. Murray gets a hire car for 45 days so we’ll probably sort out Shaun & Kelly first. Kelly & I will share her car until she starts varsity on the 27th Aug. Most of the cars here are very old fashioned looking. We’ve also looked at cell phones & need to make some final decisions about them. Probably the most fascinating thing for me has been going to the various supermarkets. Target is probably the most similar to our Pick n Pay but you seem to have to buy most things in huge packs or sizes. The variety of brands (for most things) is amazing. Today we did some shopping at Tom Thumb. What a lovely supermarket. I’d love to always shop there but it is more pricy, probably equivalent to Woolworths or Buxton’s Spar but bigger & with more variety. Trying to find equivalents of what I would normally buy takes quite a while. I’ve had the whole family searching the aisles for things. I got really frustrated when I couldn’t buy an Omo equivalent. I do a fair bit of hand washing but obviously nobody here does. Murray was really pleased when he found some chutney ay Tom Thumb – they even had Nando’s sauces Another frustration, which I knew about, is the fact that everything is tumble dried. Nobody hangs washing out to dry. We eventually managed to buy some rather mini clothes horses.
Dallas is looking so much nicer than in December. Everything is green & it even looks pretty. Well that’s our news for now. Tomorrow we’re going to go to Hunter’s Glen Baptist church which is fairly close by. Will keep you posted on how it goes. Missing you all.
With lots of love
Heather.
--Shaun
Hi Everyone
Sorry that I’ve taken sooo… long to let you know that we’re alive & well. When we’ve been at ‘home’ there’s been great competition for the use of Murray’s laptop. With
Murray trying to keep up with what’s happening at work, researching various things on the internet e.g. cars, cell phones etc, Shaun & Kelly contacting friends on Face Book & emailing,
I haven’t had a chance to use the laptop. We’re been told that our air freighted goods should arrive tomorrow, so we’ll have our other computers & the stuff we need to Skype.
I have to admit that the last few days in Johannesburg were very tiring & emotional with all the farewells. This was followed by a very emotional farewell at the airport. Even though I’d said it would be easier not to have to do more farewells at the airport, a number of Shaun & Kelly’s close friends came. In retrospect this was great, even though it was hard. Thanks too to all the McLeans for coming, despite what I said. Colin & Lleane thanks also for all the amazing help you gave us during the last few weeks – we really appreciate it. We will always treasure your friendship. Murray, Kelly & I fell asleep before supper was served & only woke just before landing – so much for enjoying the luxury of flying business class. However we did appreciate the flat beds.
On arriving at Heathrow, we went to the Virgin Lounge which is wonderful. We showered & had a great breakfast. I even had my hair blow dried in their salon at no extra charge. We then had a day time flight to Washington. We had to go through immigration there – even though everything went well, it still took a fair length of time as it was our first entrance into the country as temporary residents. They really are very thorough. We arrived in Dallas at about 7.00p.m. on Tuesday evening – we’re 7 hours behind SA at the moment. Some of you know that Shaun took our 6 hard drives in his cabin bag as he was worried about them being damaged. No one even queried them at any of the security checks.
We’re staying in a really nice furnished apartment. It has 3 bedrooms, a study, 3 bathrooms, a large lounge / dining room, kitchen, laundry & verandah. It’s part of a huge complex of over 400 apartments. There’s a communal area with a games room, mini theatre, fully equipped gym, business centre, numerous pools, hot tubs, miniature golf, golf course etc. Everything is air conditioned. & people don’t seem to ever open windows. I have to open our door onto the verandah to get fresh air. I don’t like this closed in feeling. It hasn’t been very hot but it has been quite humid. This apparently is due to the rain we’ve been having. May is Dallas’ rainy month and then they don’t get much for the rest on the year.
We’ve seem to have spent the last four days traveling around in the car. We only have 1 hire car a present and Murray is the only one signed up to drive it. Hopefully we’ll get another car early next week. We’ve spent a lot of time getting lost, especially when Shaun’s not with us. He has an amazing sense of direction & seems to understand the useless navigation system in the car. Yesterday Murray bought 2 Garmins, which even I must say are far superior navigation systems. Dallas isn’t an easy city to drive around – it seems to consist of a mass of freeways. We’ve been out to SMU (Southern Methodist University) 3 times for various reasons. Shaun had to prove he was in the country by the 24th, he‘s had meetings with various staff members & lecturers on subject selection etc and Kelly needed to find out about courses. Shaun will only do 2 subjects this summer as it is shorter than a normal semester. He starts next week Wed & his lectures will all be on Wed & Thurs evenings. We bought this big fat book for Kelly to study from for her SAT exams. It also has advice on the exams & some trial exams at the back which she says don’t look too difficult. This should keep her busy for a while. She’s the most unsettled at the moment. She’s really missing her friends & especially Bruce. Both Shaun & Kelly were chuffed when they found out that the last day of exams for the fall semester is the 15th Dec and the first day of the spring semester is the 15th Jan. At this stage they want to go back to SA for the whole month however this could change as they settle down.
We’ve been to look at cars for all of us at various dealerships. This has been quite a time consuming & frustrating exercise. The sales people aren’t exactly the most enthusiastic bunch. Murray gets a hire car for 45 days so we’ll probably sort out Shaun & Kelly first. Kelly & I will share her car until she starts varsity on the 27th Aug. Most of the cars here are very old fashioned looking. We’ve also looked at cell phones & need to make some final decisions about them. Probably the most fascinating thing for me has been going to the various supermarkets. Target is probably the most similar to our Pick n Pay but you seem to have to buy most things in huge packs or sizes. The variety of brands (for most things) is amazing. Today we did some shopping at Tom Thumb. What a lovely supermarket. I’d love to always shop there but it is more pricy, probably equivalent to Woolworths or Buxton’s Spar but bigger & with more variety. Trying to find equivalents of what I would normally buy takes quite a while. I’ve had the whole family searching the aisles for things. I got really frustrated when I couldn’t buy an Omo equivalent. I do a fair bit of hand washing but obviously nobody here does. Murray was really pleased when he found some chutney ay Tom Thumb – they even had Nando’s sauces Another frustration, which I knew about, is the fact that everything is tumble dried. Nobody hangs washing out to dry. We eventually managed to buy some rather mini clothes horses.
Dallas is looking so much nicer than in December. Everything is green & it even looks pretty. Well that’s our news for now. Tomorrow we’re going to go to Hunter’s Glen Baptist church which is fairly close by. Will keep you posted on how it goes. Missing you all.
With lots of love
Heather.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Arrivals
Well hi to everyone back home (and anyone else who decides to read this blog). It's been a long haul to get to Dallas, but we are finally here. Well, we have actually been here since Tuesday evening (Central time: GMT - 6). Excuse my overuse of brackets, it's a bad habit of mine.
We are all feeling the effects of jet lag at the moment, which isn't helping much. None the less, we have had to push on. Yesterday, we spent the bulk of the day visiting SMU (Southern Methodist University) so that I could check in and complete my registration, and shopping for groceries and other essentials. Then today, my dad and I visited the SMU international office to sort out a few additional issues with my status as an international student (in quite a mission, and I won't go into all the details). Kelly will also start studying for SATs soon, so that she can apply for undergraduate studies and possibly a partial scholarship.
My parents also went on a bit of a wild goose chase today in search of a Super Target and a large Walmart they had visited in December. But they eventually found it and got quite a bit shopping down.
For those of you who I haven't told, suburban roads in Dallas are three lanes wide. The complex which we are staying in opens onto a three lane road. However, it is not really a major thoroughfare, that just how big roads are here.
We have also been spoilt for choice with regards to TV here. Even basic cable puts DSTV to shame. However, most of the programming is American and there is no external news to speak of. :-(
Other than that there is not much to report yet (although once I convince my mom to post here, I am sure she will provide a fuller report). Hope to post again soon.
Cheers for now...
Shaun
We are all feeling the effects of jet lag at the moment, which isn't helping much. None the less, we have had to push on. Yesterday, we spent the bulk of the day visiting SMU (Southern Methodist University) so that I could check in and complete my registration, and shopping for groceries and other essentials. Then today, my dad and I visited the SMU international office to sort out a few additional issues with my status as an international student (in quite a mission, and I won't go into all the details). Kelly will also start studying for SATs soon, so that she can apply for undergraduate studies and possibly a partial scholarship.
My parents also went on a bit of a wild goose chase today in search of a Super Target and a large Walmart they had visited in December. But they eventually found it and got quite a bit shopping down.
For those of you who I haven't told, suburban roads in Dallas are three lanes wide. The complex which we are staying in opens onto a three lane road. However, it is not really a major thoroughfare, that just how big roads are here.
We have also been spoilt for choice with regards to TV here. Even basic cable puts DSTV to shame. However, most of the programming is American and there is no external news to speak of. :-(
Other than that there is not much to report yet (although once I convince my mom to post here, I am sure she will provide a fuller report). Hope to post again soon.
Cheers for now...
Shaun
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