Settling In Allowances

Some of you have asked me what I'm doing to settle in to my new fabulous, exotic African life. I've decided to oblige and have created this list for you. It is not conclusive, but it is representative.

1) I've signed up for satellite TV so I can get some of the exciting TV the South African cable conglomerate DSTV has to offer. Let's see... on Sunday I watched Will & Grace followed by Seinfeld. Last night, I caught a move, The Birdcage!


2) I've been shopping at one of the various overpriced supermarkets. Let's see... I bought Cheerios for the kids, and light mayo and Quaker Oats rice crackers for me to go with my whole wheat bread and slices of hickory smoked ham for lunch.

3) Tonight the kids, Secunda and I went to have dinner at Spur, a Tex-Mex themed restaurant that is the main place people here take their kids when they go out. The kids and I had quesadillas.

4) Over the weekend I was invited to the home of a lovely lesbian couple who have DI (donor insemination) kids. Turns out they are also Jewish and we talked about how to spend the holidays.

5) I've been surfing the internet for fun things I'd like to buy and reading my favorite sites... cnn.com, nytimes.com, washingtonpost.com, and people.com. (Not in that order.)

6) On Saturday I took the kids to the birthday celebration of a colleague's son. They had hired clowns, a bouncy castle and people dressed as Winnie-the-Pooh and Tigger, too.

So mes amigos, you can see that my life here in Tanzania is totally different than the one I led back in DC. I'm so missing my liberal/NY-oriented TV shows, Whole Foods, Cactus Cantina, gay Jews, easy access to the Web, and fun social events for the kids.

I don't know how I'll ever get used to it here!