Saturday was Yom Kippur, a day of fasting and praying for forgiveness for the Jewish people. As I'm not Jewish myself I fasted for only part of the day (Friday night until around 11 on Saturday) but I did stay away from coffee and I didn't eat as much as I normally would during the day. My aunt and uncle went to the synagogue, I decided to have a little reading marathon myself. Books I've finished since last updating my booklist:
- The Book Thief (Markus Zusak)
- The Way of Shadows (Brent Weeks)
- Specials (Scott Westerfeld)
And a compilation of 3 short 'war stories for girls' (didn't have anything to read and my cousin had this book).
The Book Thief was amazing, and I can certainly recommend this to anyone. In fact, I'm hoping they'll make a movie out of it, because I'd love to see it.
I'm now reading the second book in the Night Angel trilogy (Brent Weeks) and "The Lightning Thief" (I have to confess I have this exciting affair with young adult novels - easy to read, lots of adventure... I love it!).
On Saturday night we visited my uncle's parents to break the fast. We had a wonderful meal of fried fish, different salads (pasta, rice, cabbage) and cakes, kichel (sweet crackers they usually eat with fish - I like them plain) and lemon meringue etc. etc. Very nice!
Oh and have some pictures of our Sukkah! The festival of Sukkot (plural of Sukkah) is coming up, it's a time when the Jewish people remember the time they spent in the desert before being allowed to enter the lands of Israel. You eat in the Sukkah (a hut with palm leafs - you have to be able to see the stars through the roof, but it also has to provide shade) and invite people over for meals... It lasts a week!
My aunt painted the scene
Completed:
On Thursday I had the best experience I've had so far. I went with my aunt to collect some money at a client and we chatted to this lady for about 5 minutes. After a short while my aunt decided to introduce me, saying "Oh, this is my niece from Holland!" and you know what the lady said?
"Oh really? Your English is amazing! I didn't hear any accent!" (I know that 'no accent' doesn't exist, but still!). I've heard all sorts of things "You're German aren't you?" (At Japari) and even "Are you Scottish?" (well... no!) but this is the first time that I've heard the 'no accent' comment so I'm insanely happy with that!
That said... I think that while I'm finally starting to get the hang of this bat/bet problem and my th's are starting to feel more natural to me... I still have a long way to go. The 'oo' in 'book' is still hard to get right...
When we're on language related things, could you explain "He had his daughter kidnapped." in two ways? I said this, meaning that 'He' had it happen to him (someone else kidnapped his daughter) my aunt keeps telling me I can't say it like that, because it would mean (and could ONLY mean) that he arranged to have his daughter kidnapped, himself. In my opinion this sentence isn't different from "He had his car stolen" (i.e. it happened to him) but... well, just double checking. I'd say in the kidnapping one it's pretty ambiguous who arranged what, if anything.
Back to South African life...
Summer is still a while away, but the weather has been improving. Yesterday I took a dive and did 21 lengths in our pool. The water is still a bit chilly, but once you're in it it's wonderful! I just need to swim more often, because after 21 lengths I had some trouble lifting myself out of the water at the deep end! Haha... Well, at least it's something that's nicer here than in the Netherlands. Maybe I'll swim again today, I think I should. The South African lifestyle is kind of lazy, because you have to drive everywhere... I need the swimming!
And finally... We managed to get our internet connection sorted out! I'm online using my own laptop (Sephiroth) at the moment and it's such a wonderful feeling to know that whenever I need it, or just want it, the internet is there for me. Even at a max of 376 kb/s. (But hey, we have a pool in our garden! Bet you you can't say that! Even with your super fast internet!) So while I'm waiting for my downloads to finish (at about 10-20 kb/s) I'll just have a cup of rooibos and take a swim.
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