A White-American Christmas...?

You would think the words of the popular Christmas tune, ’I’m dreaming of a white Christmas….’would run through my head at this time…but alas it was no ‘dream’ as it came closer, became more of a guarantee than a dream and a lot sooner than Christmas. As a South African, however, born, bred and rooted…this Christmas tune and those words were not running through my head… but rather the words of fellow, more musically gifted, South Africans…ONS SOEK PILLE VIR KERSFEES!!!!!!!! Or more to the point…dis hemel op die platteland..spending Christmas alone and working the night… pille vir KErsfees (die heuwels fantasties)!!! High up in the mountain in -21’C…dis HEMEL op die platteland (fokofpolisikar)!




Home is where the heart is…or is? The HEART is actually where the home is…

so three days after Christmas I’m sitting here, thinking about home, not about how ‘easy’ we got it there- how comfortable it because you know the ropes, you got the street cred you know all the 3 brand names of water and have tasted them all… or the 2 brands of tuna, as opposed to the 5 water brands and the 25 tuna brands…(which by the way, we still call FISH and not chicken of the sea or BUMBLEBEE tuna..?!) but because of the culture…the multi-culture, in a sense of the word you cannot find in another continent…never mind another country…a country with 11 official languages, 2 or three capital city’s, 9 provinces, each having its own climate, vegetation and biodiversity. A country so diverse and not only its people, colours and races, but it’s the humour, the wit, the charm, the laughs, the relationships, common decency, behaviour, manners, etiquette, the way we hold a knife and fork (note..Americans do not know how to hold knives and forks and therefore how to utilize them to there best ability)it’s the small things you miss that make you, YOU.

Reading this blog most of you know me, you know how I am and who I am…so understand how my spirit is dampened when with my sharp wit and loud mouth, I have to end every comment with ‘ha ha you see in South Africa we say…’ or saying aibo….or eish or ‘u mus nEva!! Or SEE—REE-YAS??? And then having people look at u like u retard…thank goodness there is always a few SA’s that hear you and we all feel at home. Ok, I have to share this one…so this chef is walking through the kitchen, and when you walk behind, next to or close to someone in a kitchen…WHILE CARRYING something…you say ‘behind’ or Corner (if you coming round a corner) or right in front of you…haven’t completely figured out WHY one would use this one, but often times if they carry something hot they throw the word ‘hot’ into the mix as well…and therefore sounding something like, ‘HOT behind….’ …why thank you, you making me blush..



So today this chef is walking past the servers with a trolley that is STACKED with 3 containers FILLED with ‘slap chips…raw obviously’ everyone is in his way (South Africans) and he says BEHIND…I say….CHIPS!!! and they all move… :D ha ha ha (you probably had to be there).

The problem with the difference in Afrikaans and English to American English, is that South African English understands Afrikaans and makes some relations to some words, Americans have NO IDEA. We are also learning here to though, today I said that something stank, the server asked me if someone is ‘BUSTING ASS…??’ or if its only BO (body odour)….? I mean BUSTING ass???how funny is that…yesterday I taught a very American guest to say thank you in Afrikaans ‘o o ok so kind of like ‘donkey’…??’ Yes sir very much;)

Another server learnt how to say ‘is jy lief vir my’ which sounded more like….’isjliefvrma’. I had NO IDEA what he was saying!

Having 9 black languages on our record is not a bad thing either, and yes, I do (as I’ve told many guests) speak some or a bit of these languages… WA HA HA HA…

During the first week I was asked if I was speaking SPANISH…while I was speaking Afrikaans..that said may I just comment that these people learn Spanish at school…so I’m sorry ma’am, if I WAS speaking Spanish you would not understand that either….



That said, I survived Christmas, and am surviving through Christmas season ‘sonder “pille vir Kersfees”’, en my hemel IS vir nou op die Platteland, while a white Christmas REALLY is a beautiful thing!



Merry Christmas to all and HAPPY HAPPY new year, 2010 is finally here.