Snow...

I swear this is like a Midwest winter - late spring snows! As I walked from one happy hour to another, it started sleeting. I was only wearing my leather jacket and cloggs -trucking up a hill (on my to school both ways.) And I couldn't help think of my poor veggies in the cold snow! If I get some time tomorrow, I'm going to go to my P-Patch and build little tents for them or something. I'm not sure my lettuce can handle the cold.

My first happy hour was to talk about my recent friend's trip to South Africa. She went with some other students from the University of Washington to work in a women's legal center center in Cape Town. And she had a horrible experience. The more we talked about it, the more it was about dealing with the other students, living in a house with 17 other American who thought they knew what they were talking about. She was frustrated, angry and didn't want to go to law school anymore even volunteer. I sympathized with trying to deal with Americans who thought they knew everything (though young, she's already had one career and spent 6 years as a stylist). Though the more we talked, we started laughing about public transportation, riding in the combi, fearing for her life, laughing about the drivers. We talked about how great her experiences were when she was just hanging out with other South Africans (away from the Americans), the Zimbabweans she met and how she wants to travel some more.

Americans can be a tough group to deal with sometimes. It's great to get out there, experiencing the world and different cultures... and we all have to start somewhere, but it's tough when you're hanging out with so many of them who are having that first experience together.