"Cheetah Girls, Cheetah Sistahs"

I glanced down at my hand--it smelled like a mix of Bubba and raw meat.  I'd just stroked two of the 10,000 living cheetahs left in the world.  I squinted my eyes into the searing South African sun as the cheetah trainer said with disbelief in his voice, "In about 15 to 20 years, cheetahs will be extinct.  The whole lot of them."    Within 30 feet from me were three cheetahs; one male, two female.  The trainer continued: "So on the right we have Mikka, the male, and on the left, two females, Savannah and Shadow.  Hopefully they'll mate and produce offspring but if Savannah and Shadow don't like Mikka or Mikka is sterile, nothing will happen."  Nothing will happen.  That meant, one less cheetah to carry on the genes.  One less cheetah in Africa.  In the world.  Eventually "one less" would add up and there would be none.  Did these animals, each with over 3,000 spots on their bodies, feel the pressure?  Did Mikka feel the pressure?  He's being tested this week to see if he can have offspring.  If he couldn't...it would be devastating.  One less cheetah makes a huge difference when there's only 10,000 left around the world.  That number might sound like a pretty good chunk until you hear that there are an estimated  690,000 elephants in Africa alone.  20 years from now when I tell my kids I pet a cheetah in the summer of 2011 they'll look at me and say:  What's a cheetah?  And I'll have to describe the graceful and lightning-fast animal to them because chances are they'll never see one.

South African Slang List

People in Michigan call it "pop" , my dad calls it "cola" and everyone else calls it "soda".  Slang is EVERYWHERE and it can certainly change the course of a conversation if someone has no idea what a word means.  Hence, I am starting a ZA slang list that is imperative for any foreigner that wishes to blend in.

South African Slang-->American Translation + example
bru---brother (Wassup, my bru?)
chuffed---happy (She was so chuffed when she saw all As on her report card!)
crusty---nasty (Her hair was so crusty after going three days without a shower)
hosing--laughing hysterically (When I told her the joke about the two muffins in the oven she was hosing herself!)
jam--jelly (It still works to say PB&J in South Africa since the J can stand for jam or jelly!)
jelly---jello (When I was sick all I wanted was that blue jelly)
jersey--shirt (She got syrup on my jersey!?!?! Noooooo)
jesus sandals--cheap leather sandals (I heard the party is going to be pretty casual--I'll just wear my jesus sandals!)
joll/rage/rave---party (It's a shame I can't remember last night, I heard it was a sick joll)
keen--- want to do something badly (I am so keen to go on exchange--I'd do anything!)
late for you--doesn't work in your favor (Dude, never wear that shirt again--it's late for you.)
rashing--annoying (Really, guys? Can you please stop making those noises--you are so rashing!)
sherbet--darn (Sherbet! I dropped my sherbet!)
shot--thanks (Bru, shot for dropping my stuff off last night)
skiff--- to judge, to eye up and down (Emma and Mary had always been enemies and it was obvious when they skiffed each other in the hallway)
smart---sharp (Stacy London and Clinton Kelly, hosts of What Not to Wear, always wear such smart shoes)
varsity--university/college (I'm trying to get as far away from my parents as possible...I'll go to varsity in England!)

Snow...in July?

It had been raining for three days.  But not that this-is-so-pleasant-rain, no, it was the-almost-snowing-but-not-quite-rain.  I thought Charlotte didn't get that much snow; I didn't count the three-inch sleet we get every year as snow.  But after many of the girls told me they'd never even seen snow I suddenly began wishing the 2 degrees Celsius would drop down to 0 degrees C.  Soon an exciting message reached ML and me: a St. Anne's family wanted to take us and two other exchange students towards the Drakensburg Mtns to see the snow!!!  Snow in July--UM, YES!  So we slid on our UGGs, pulled our beanies over our heads, and found a warm haven for our hands in a pair of gloves.  In South Africa, when it snows, nothing else matters besides seeing the snow.  People go onto random farmers' property and use the farm's hill for sledding and snowman construction.  Drivers pull over to the shoulder of the highway and all the passengers evacuate the van to roll around in the flurries.  Parents take their kids out of school and insist the snow is much more important than Maths class.  In July in America I'd usually be sporting a swimsuit and shorts but here I was sheltered from the cold, woven beanie to UGG boot. 

Bubba, we're not in North Carolina anymore...

Charlotte Douglas Airport--4 am in the morning...we look a tad bit tired, huh?

I felt like I had landed on Mars.  Jokes, not really, but South Africa felt foreign, all right.  My mom's idea of packing all my books into my carry-on backpack sounded like a superb plan at first (you know, to avoid losing all the school books in case my luggage got lost) but after 17 hours of lugging the 30lb bag on my back through security, baggage claim, and boarding three flights, all I wanted to do was chuck my backpack down the toilet in the airplane.  My back ached, my head pounded, my eyelids threatened to collapse shut, and I REALLY WANTED TO TAKE A SHOWER.  But when Mary Lauren, my American co-exchange student and travel companion, and I walked into the Durban Airport, nothing else mattered besides a greatly important fact: We were in South Africa.  We were thousands of miles, three flights, and many phone calls away from home.