Culture Shock!

First of all, the internet connection here at the hostel is fast enough that Michael was able to upload some photos last night. We apologize for the blurriness, we're still working on getting our camera repaired.

We had a lovely flight from Nairobi to Jo'burg--we even got to sip champagne in first class! (we thought we'd try the honeymoon thing again since on our first flight from Boston to Paris our request was completely ignored and all we got was rude, crappy service).

Arriving in South Africa was a bit of a shock though--just very different from the places we'd been for the last months--smooth roads, speed limits, being more anonymous (just another white couple, not THE white couple), big malls and stores instead of people selling things from the side of the road.

We ended up coming straight to Pretoria from the airport, with the idea that we would look into getting visas for China. We found another great hostel. There seems to be a trend, at least in Africa, towards all-inclusive, "luxury" hostels. This place has a pool table, kitchen, swimming pool, TV lounge, big airy rooms, and they arrange all kinds of tours and shuttle services--a lot different from the hostels I remember staying in in Europe.

We went to the Chinese embassy yesterday and got the info we needed. We should be able to get the visas in a few days when we come back here at the end of our S.A. time. After the embassy, we ended up in a mall and the familiar smell of popcorn (which would normally make me feel a bit nauseated) lured us into a movie theater where we saw the Incredibles. It was a nice treat.

We've got a long train ride ahead of us today--26 hours in 3rd class (that's all they had left, we'll see how it goes!) We're headed to Worcester, near Cape Town, where Kyle and Victor will be expecting us.

We've been seeing some images of the Tsunami on TV, it's really horrifying. I can't believe the devastation reached the way to Kenya and Somalia.