You sure sound as if you are having a ball (been reading the posts in reverse chronological order ;-)) And yes, isn’t the food over there crazy? It’s just so… available and the bad stuff is so easy to get. And it’s also true what you say – we always mock the Americans for being so overtly patriotic but maybe as a country we could learn something from that.

Interesting what you say about the “support the war” etc stickers. When we were in El Paso last year, there were lots of stickers saying “support our troops” and a friend travelling with us was disgusted that they were such a militaristic society and that they were “obviously” pro-war. But you forget that places like El Paso have huge military bases and many people living in the city have husbands, wives, sons, daughters etc etc in Iraq and elsewhere, facing the possibility of beign killed in action every day. There is a huge difference between supporting the was and supporting the troops, not all of whom may agree with the war, but who have no choice but to go and fight for their country or lose their livelihood. It’s always easy to judge when you ignore the context…

Keep the posts coming – great to share your experiences!

I went to the Kenilworth centre yesterday and your post came to mind… I mean, it is quite a big shopping centre for us, it’s like the whole southern suburbs shop here, right? And its size must seem like an around-the-corner café to the civilised world.

With regards to the flag outside the houses – hmmm… I have found statements of patriotism like that are usually related to some form of minority movement, right? What are they saying – “I support the war/go Bush”? But, I don’t know, ye know, just wondering. I mean, you won’t hang out the new SA flag, it’s kind of stating the obvious (the royal we all love the new South Africa), but you may see an old Transvaal flag or Oranje/Blanje/Blou still popping up every now and again, making a statement…Just trying to prod some debate here ;o) !!!

That Internet connection, phew… I guess this trip might become just a little bit of a prod in the side of how much we are still in the dark ages over here. Stupid Telkom.

Have tons of fun, remember to keep your FlickR account busy, hey?