Speaking of ridiculous, the electricity in our house just ran out. That's right - electricity actually runs out here. There's a meter in every house that shows you how many watts you have left, and if it hits 0, your electricity just cuts off. No warning, no obnoxious beeping noises telling you there's 5 minutes of electricity left, just light one moment and then....darkness. It's like the beginning of the apocalypse.
The sad part is that I didn't even realize that our electricity had run out. I thought that I was finally experiencing load-shedding, which is a planned brown-out that lasts for a couple of hours in certain regions of the country at assigned times of the day to prevent country-wide black-outs that could take days to fix. Thankfully, it doesn't happen too often - at least, it hasn't in the 8 days I've been here... **knock on wood**
Anyways, when I realized that our power ran out, I had to run to the store to buy electricity. If I had to run to the store every so often back home to recharge my electricity, I would definitely be more conscious of the amount of power I use. I understand why the lights in my room here are so dim now! Living in the US has definitely spoiled me, and it's little things like this that make me realize that.
Anyways, when I realized that our power ran out, I had to run to the store to buy electricity. If I had to run to the store every so often back home to recharge my electricity, I would definitely be more conscious of the amount of power I use. I understand why the lights in my room here are so dim now! Living in the US has definitely spoiled me, and it's little things like this that make me realize that.
On the other hand, one of the things that I will miss when I leave Cape Town is the extremely favorable exchange rate. 1 US Dollar is equal to about 12 South African Rands here, so everything seems so cheap. A dinner out might cost R60, which is less than $5. Although I can do the math in my head quickly now, I still haven't gotten fully used to seeing the big numbers. Going to the grocery store and seeing R300 on the screen gives me a mini heart attack before I realize that it's only about $25. Hopefully I won't go back to the States used to the South African way, though. That would be much, much worse.
There are a couple of other things that I wanted to talk about, but it's 10:30 and I'm already tired. Normally, I'd be crazy to go to bed at this time, but the sun sets so early here (sometime between 6 and 7) since we're in the southern hemisphere and it's the middle of winter. Also, like I mentioned before, the lights in my room are really dim. It's like it always wants me to be tired - perfect for when I have to wake up before sunrise for my internship!
Hopefully I'll get around to writing more tomorrow. As always, thanks for reading. Love you and miss you all!
- Juyeon
