Biblical Baptism

Confession: up until this point, Dillon had never been baptized. Although he received a blessing at Christmas mass, we hadn't gone through the traditional baptismal ritual to welcome him into the fold. I started feeling a bit remiss about the whole thing as I viewed the seemly endless stream of friends celebrating their newborns in hilarious ancient baptismal costumes with their families.  At the same time, I wanted the event to be special, rather than an impersonal arrangement with strangers at a London church I would probably never attend. So nothing ever happened... until this past Easter weekend when we just happened to drive by the site on the river Jordan where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. 

Whatever your beliefs or current involvement in the church might be, the site has a way of making you feel connected to a major religious milestone that occurred on these same river banks over 2000 years ago. So it was in the river Jordan, witnessed by godparents-in-waiting Michelle and Joseph, that Dillon was properly welcomed to this world and the next.  So now the only challenge remaining is how we are possibly going to match this with kid #2....

Glorious Grey Gardens

Soon after moving to London, I was chatting with my brother online, telling him how beautiful Kensington Gardens were, despite the grey weather. Being a native Texan, he had trouble processing how grey = pretty. I did a quick google search for pictures to try to demonstrate how lovely and striking the grey sky looked against the green grass and trees but came up blank. I couldn't believe that I couldn't find any images that had manage to capture the park's beauty with its frequently grey skies. So here are a few of my amateur iphone shots attempting to do just that:

A selection of orinthological discoveries

Light at the end of the tunnel

A mud-hound's delight

Should you be interested in checking out the grey gorgeousness for yourself, you shouldn't have any trouble finding the Kensington Court Crew as we spend A LOT of time in the park, strolling around, taking up a disproportionate amount of sidewalk space and keeping an eye out for Dillon's future bestie, "Georgie."

Regal Readjustments

Now that we have begun to get settled in our new home and move past any major changes, little differences have begun to stick out.  For example, in England everything just feels a bit fancier.  A few examples:

Not regular mail, but royal mail is delivered by the postman

 

 

The toilet paper that was pre-stocked in our flat.  Not only is it lovely to look at, but a post-sneeze nose clearing reveled that it also appears to be scented.  Pina colada, maybe?

Our neighbors, who reside with us in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.  For those who might not immediately recognize this building, it is Kensington Palace.  We initially assumed it was just some historical palace not used since the 1700s, but we were wrong.  Residents include Wills, Kate, Harry and Prince George, who will obviously want to be friends with Dillon once he figures out we are right across the way.

Cultural Appropriation

As the Dos Texpatriates continue to zip code hop, we have picked up a few habits that linger along with us.   Here are a few things that haven't quite worn off:

1. Turning the tires toward the curb- despite finding ourselves once again in flat-as-a-board Texas, we still can't resist cranking the wheels inward toward the curb to prevent major catastrophe in the event of the car sliding away downhill.

2. Izzit? I am definitely more guilty of this one than my counterpart, but the South Africanism of replying with "izzit?" in place of "really?" when answering in semi-disbelief, simply hasn't worn off.   Example:

       TEXPATRIATE 1:  "So there is actually a huge South African wine section at the Specs downtown"

       TEXPATRIATE 2: "Izzit? That is exciting."

Note that when replying with "Izzit?" you are allowed to completely disregard normal grammar rules regulating tense and number.  Just give it a try, you will see.... its catchy.

3. Requiring that food be tear-inducing levels of spiciness in order to be considered tasty.  This one certainly hasn't worn off despite our exposure to less-enlightened food cultures.

 4. California Eco-mindedness  This one really came to fruition today as I pretended to take a casual stroll around the neighborhood while actually looking for a good place to bury the week's compost collection.  Aware that should my actions be discovered, it could result in some type of reprimand or citation, I prepared a spiel on the "urban fertilization program" I was spearheading in the neighborhood.  Luckily, I did not have to test the believe-ability of this plan...yet.

As time elapses, I am sure that we will discover additional cultural elements that continue along with us on our journey, but for now, I think this is a hella-good list. (kidding... the sufer-lingo never really took). 

Happy New Year!

Not to worry, faithful readers- we will have holiday and travel updates posted soon! Hope everyone had a great holiday season and is geared up for the most cuddly of all Chinese zodiac years- year of the Rabbit.

Concentrate on the clouds....

... and the pretty morning sky.... not on the fact that we have been bad bloggers.... pretty clouds, yes, pretty clouds....

Primero Aniversario

That's right, one year ago, your favorite traveling Texan team officially tied the knot. And what a year it has been... we have lived in 3 cities, crossed the equator 6 times, visited one of the 7 natural wonders of the world, eaten about a hundred tacos (including one with cow brains yesterday on our actual anniversary.... don't ask.) and shared memories with new and old friends alike.  Thanks for helping make it such a great year and here's to many, many more!

Mix Master Mzoli

Pretty soon after moving to Cape Town, Jared and I began to think more about the fact that not everyone in the city lived in a high rise apartment paid for by their company.  Some people didn't even live by the beach. (gasp!) Or have lovely views of the mountains. Or friendly guards to ensure their safety at home.  Now I don't want to present us as totally ignorant, blissful Americans completely unaware of the substandard conditions in which many South Africans lived, but there is still something different about seeing it for yourself.  As you leave the airport, the highway is lined with shacks piled together and stretching back for miles and miles.  The largest of which, Khayelitsha, is home to over two million people by some counts.  I am not going to go into the full history of how these townships were formed or why they still exist, but the fact of the matter is that many people that you will encounter while in SA either currently live in a township or have in the past. 

To me, it was weird living in Cape Town, trying to get to know the city and completely avoiding a huge sector that represented the daily realities for the majority of the population.  In general, people who don't live in the townships don't like to go there (reasons include: terrible crime rates, unlabeled streets, and general uneasiness).  A popular way for tourists and visitors to see first hand what the inside of a township looks like is to join a township tour. Jared had been on one such tour when visiting SA last year and said that while it was informative, it was kind of awkward, viewing these people and their lives as if they were a tourist attraction.  So that was out.  Through the organization that I volunteer with (the Kay Mason Foundation), I had the opportunity to go to Khayelitsha twice to visit a boarding house that we were setting up there, and that was great.  It was cool just to drive in and see how the city was laid out and drive around through the neighborhoods. 

Although this was a good start, we still had an itch to get inside and spend some time with the locals.  Not only that, we had heard about some great restaurants. Drinking beer and eating random food seemed like a good way to start.  

Last Saturday, we finally got around to visiting the most famous restaurant, Mzoli's, located in the township of Gugulethu, with our friends John and Liz.  And... it was awesome! Probably one of my favorite things that we have done in SA thus far.  Jared wanted to go back the very next day and deemed the meat the best he has had in Cape Town, which is quite a prestigious honor.

Mzoli's isn't just a regular restaurant, it is a full day event. Everyone dresses up, there are bands, DJs, a dancing contest, and even a magician!  Add this on to one of the most impressive grilling setups I have ever seen, good beers, friendly folks, and some excellent people watching and it is a pretty killer combination for a Saturday afternoon.

 

Although I don't think that we can now claim that we know what living in a township is "really like," it was just nice to spend some time in a part of the city that is usually overlooked.  Leaving that day after having made some new friends, tried some awesome food, and been fully entertained for hours, we understood that township life is not all about the overcrowded shacks or the stories of rampant crime, but is more about making the best of your situation and living life to the fullest. That and being able to whip up some mean bbq chicken with top-secret seasonings.

Where billionaires are starving

In the early stages of planning the trip to Victoria Falls, we discovered that to visit the falls you can either stay on the Zambia side or the Zimbabwe side.  Traditionally, the Zimbabwe side has been more popular as it offers better views of the falls.  As the Zimbabwe state has crumbled over the last few years, tourism has dropped dramatically on their side and most everyone now heads for Zambia.  After doing a good deal of research and talking to past visitors, we determined that the Zim side did not hold any major safety concerns and would be the better place to visit.

Since the Zim side used to be the top choice for tourists, the hotels are all very nice, if a bit run down.  Our hotel was within walking distance to the falls and had 4 restaurants and a casino within the complex.  Unfortunately, we were 3 of about 15 guests staying there. It was weird and sad how deserted everything was.  Over and again, we had read and heard about how poor the people in Zimbabwe were and how the residents around the Vic Falls area were actually much better off than most due to the tourist dollars still coming in.  Zimbabwe has gone from being called the "bread basket of Africa" to boasting the highest inflation in the world, peaking at 500 billion percent in December 2008, which is almost impossible to comprehend.  The state has completely thrown out their currency and is now operating on US dollars.  For this reason, the old Zimbabwe dollars are no longer worth anything to the locals and are being sold to tourists.  Jared got a full set for $10 US, which are sure to become collectors' items as they include gems such as this one hundred trillion dollar bill:      

Looking online for the image of the bill, I came across some pretty crazy pictures of people carrying their Zim dollars around in huge bags just to pay for basic things like bread.  Wild.

Such a terrible state of the economy has led to more than a little bit of desperation and this was evident in the relentlessness of the sales pitches by the local craftsmen.  Luckily, we were happy to do a bit of shopping and walked away with some cool souvenirs.  After a bit of time in the market, we soon realized that the best deals to be had were through barterning.  Unfortunately, we didn't come properly prepared for this possibility.  In our dealings, we exchanged sunglasses, hats, extra layers, pens, and anything else we could think of.  We drew the line on shirts and shoes (no service?).  I also couldn't in good concience take anything in exchange for my mismatched, dirty socks that I was wearing so I just gave those away. 

Jared got a pretty nice deal for his sunglasses (bought on the streets of Cape Town for about $5) in exchange for a mask and Kirsten walked away with some cool carved warthog tusks. Overall, the shopping expereince lent more insight into the state of affairs in Zim than we could have expected. 

The Family Cometh

“Yes, hello, I have a booking. Name? Galvin, party of 10.”

After months of waiting, hoping, and making bookings until I thought that my head might explode, the day had finally arrived: Mom, Dad, Kelly, Michael, Tara, Kirsten, Michelle, and Joseph were in South Africa and the whirlwind tour had begun!   The two weeks or so that everyone was here passed very quickly, but we were still able to pack in quite a bit of fun, so I think that I am going to try to break this up into a few different postings.

First, lets just start with some favorite pictures that seem to sum things up...

Christmas in Cape Town

For Christmas, our fellow ex-pats invited us to join them for a lovely Christmas lunch at Backsberg wine estate in Paarl. Although it wasn't exactly what I would normally think of as a Christmas lunch (traditionally for me this means mimosas and bourbon balls at Aunt Linda's), it couldn't have been a better way to spend our first Christmas away from home.

Happy Festive Season!

As my ole friend Dorothy once said, "there is no place like home."  Despite this, Jared and I are doing our best to have ourselves a Merry little Christmas here in sunny Cape Town.  Christmas lights, overdone malls, and contemporary carols everywhere you go haven't quite caught on here so we are attempting to remind ourselves that it is indeed Christmas time (or Festive Season as it is known here) with our very first Christmas Tree.

If the tree looks very small, well, that's because it is.  Although the color-coordinated decorations were a nice addition to our x-mas-tree-in-a-box, you and I both know that no tree would be complete without some personal touches.  This being our first Christmas tree, and definitely our first African Christmas, we don't exactly have a buch of extra ornaments lying around, so we had to improvise a bit.  Our improvisation also makes a nice game for our blog readers.  See if you can find the following in the picture to the left: 1 belt, 1 necklace, and 2 earrings.... maybe that is a bit tricky.  It is a pretty small picture. 

Either way, we would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.  Please know that although the sunshine is nice, we would prefer to be in the chilly weather with friends and family any day.  As a departing note, we will let our one ornament that we do own (belts don't count) speak for us:

Love, Lindsay & Jared

New Zealand Flashback (Part 1)

So since this is our blog we get to make our own rules here.  We have decided that to take a quick trip back in time and update our faithful blog reader(s) about how our quest through New Zealand went down.  In honor of the original inspiration behind this trip, we’ll make this a mythical three-part epic with a new chapter dropping every time we feel like typing up a new section.  Without further ado…part 1:

So after the ruckusness (yes it’s a word) of our wedding , we needed to get out of town for a little bit of R&R.   New Zealand was the choice and wow that flight took forever.  We left Austin around 6:00 p.m. on a Monday and then landed in Auckland 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday.  We may have skipped a day in there somewhere, but that’s neither here nor there.  Anyways, pictures are better than words so lets kick off a montage:

So this is the Auckland skyline.  Amongst this lineup the Sky City Tower is the obvious standout, with the whole needle-thing going on.  The last night of the trip we actually stayed at the hotel there and gambled away our last New Zealand dollars betting on when bungee jumpers would leap off of the sky deck.

Gnarly Factoid: Only 4 Million people live in New Zealand and 1.2 Million of those live in Auckland

Yeah so this is me big timing some other tourists aboard our Whale & Dolphin Safari.  So if you are starting to ask “what is the deal with these two and whale watching?” well I don’t have an answer for you.  Maybe the big fellas are subconsciously drawing Lindsay to them in order to thank her for her non-mammalian diet.  Anyways, this righteous pic is of the legendary Blue Whale….turns out this was only the 2^nd one the safari guide had seen in 17 years so, needless to say, we felt pretty awesome afterwards.

So this was embarrassing:  I paid a bouncer $100 to get Lindsay and I into Auckland’s exclusive 5 Below Bar and to get upgraded into pimptastic Russian parkas with Isotoner ski mitts, but after going to the bar and getting us drinks, I returned to find Lindsay copping a feel of this naked ice dude. Turns out he was a pretty cool guy though so no big deal.

It may not look it, but this was probably the most intense moment of our time in the land of extreme sports.  We are in the Hertz parking garage about to hit the New Zealand highway in our brand new bizarro-world Ford Focus.  Unfortunately for Lindsay, she lost the pre-drive paper-rock-scissors match and got 1^st shift.  Overall, our time in Auckland was a good time, but New Zealand isn't about city life.  In order to get this trip started, we needed to step it up a bit.

Okay, so first stop on our North Island road trip was Rotorua, the land of hot springs and weird Kiwi thrill rides.  Luckily, these hot spring all reek of sulfuric gas (a la rotten eggs) and this big boy was right outside of our hotel room. Nice romantic choice of hotel room, huh?

Alright, bizarre adrenaline rush #1… street luge racing.  That dude in the blue helmet was about to get run off the road by my nasty Mario Kart skills.  As for Lindsay, she is actually about to slap some kid that started mouthing off about being a more radical racer than her.   She refrained from the physical beat down, but made sure he ate asphalt before it was all over.  Bottom line, Texas owned the mountain that day my friends.

Bizarre adrenaline rush #2 = Zorbing!  Pretty simple process.  They drive you up the hill, put you in a huge plastic ball and then fill it with warm water (good cause it was like 50 degrees outside).  A quick nudge and you are spinning around inside while the ball is bouncing and rolling down the hill.  Tops out at less than a minute, but it was totally worth it.

So after issuing beatdowns on the street luge and getting all twisted in the Zorb, we were feeling a lot more confident about getting back on the road in our Focus.  How could you not with such a fly ride.

So its no Africa, but New Zealand has its fair share of wildlife.  On our way from Rotorua to Waitomo we were lucky enough to witness these rare black & white hill-grazing bovines and then later caught a glimpse of the world famous shepherd and mega-sheep dog combo.  That sure was a groovy little drive.

Aww yeah.  Welcome to Waitomo my friends.  Population 215 and home to the world famous glowworm caves (actually world famous this time, unlike the shepherd & mega sheep dog thing from earlier).  So seeing as the whole reason we were here was to get extreme with an underground cave adventure, we had to stay in equally wild accomodations.    The Waitanic and the Hobbit Motel definitely fit the bill.

So yes we look really tough with this sweet gear on, but man was it clutch.  Our outfits consist of a wool base-layer fleece, an arctic-rated thermal wetsuit with a an additional over-layer jacket, thermal booties, gnarly red helmets, and some killer boots.  For two hours we abseiled, ziplined, tubed, swam, trekked, and climbed through this massive underground cave system all under the luminescence of the glow worms.  It was by far the most physically grueling and ridiculously freezing cold thing we did on the trip.  It was awesome.

So other than the caves, there wasn’t much to do in Waitomo, so we shortly set off on the road again towards Wellington.  When you are making good time, the last thing you need is a delay, but its kind of tough to get mad when its caused by a hundred or so sheep that happened to sneak out onto the highway.  Plus we got to help the dogs get them off the road with some skilled driving and horn honking.  We eventually made up the lost time and completed our relaxing and scenic journey through New Zealand’s North Island.

Stay tuned for Part 2....