My last blogpost was about all the things that I am going to miss about Korea, and I realized while writing it that I was looking at South Africa in quite a negative way. I have always considered myself a proud South African, and I believe that every country has it’s problems. Korea certainly does – look at the situation between North and South if you have any doubt. Sure, I have never felt threatened by it, but it is an ongoing situation where war could break out at any time with little provocation. In any case, there are a whole bunch of things that I am looking forward to about going back home as well, so I thought that I would take the time to write those down as well.

1. Flying. Since this is the first thing that I am going to experience on returning to South Africa (as I will, of course, be returning by air), I thought that I would start here. I love flying, and I think I always have (though my dad might dispute this due to an experience when I was three years old – really, Dad? Are you going to blame me for something I had no control of?) I am going to enjoy being able to fly on a regular basis (and by regular, I mean at least two return trips a year, as there are always trips to Joburg or Cape Town to take into consideration.) Basically, I am going to enjoy being in a country that is big enough to fly, rather than drive, around.
   


2. Driving. That being said, I am really looking forward to driving. I can’t wait! I have got itchy fingers just thinking about it, wanting to take hold of a clutch and steering wheel. I may not be particularly good at it (look at my track record of silly incidents for proof of this), but I enjoy it. I like being out on the open road, getting up to speeds of 160km/h as I am listening to my own music and belting it out in the empty car for no one to hear. I like road trips. They are far more fun than being cooped up in a bus or taxi, trying to be quiet and polite and respectful. Driving = freedom in my books!
   
   


3. Sea. I can’t wait to be close to the sea! The ocean is about a half hour’s drive from where I stay in both Cape Town and Grahamstown, and I am looking forward to not having to sit still for a 3 hour bus ride and another half hour subway ride to get there! I also can’t wait to don a bikini without feeling a. like a great white whale and b. like a whale that is being stared at for showing so much skin. I am particularly looking forward to the beach because I will be able to go there when I arrive in South Africa. Because guess what? It’s SUMMER! Robyn – if you are reading this, prepare yourself for a trip to our special Boulder’s Beach.
   Picture: Boulder' Beach in Simonstown. Found on Google.
   


4. Golf courses. I am going to love seeing normal golf courses instead of these silly drive in ranges that they have here. I’m sorry, but hitting a golf ball into a giant green net is not the same as standing on a giant grass plain and hitting it as hard as you can until you cannot see it anymore. Not that I want to play golf. No, you misunderstand. I just want to look at the golf course. Korea isn’t fooling anyone with these drive in ranges, golf courses are a hundred and twenty times prettier! My longing to see a golf course also has to do with visualizing the SPACE that there is in South Africa. Everything in Korea is so cooped up and tightly wound that I just want a chance to see a space that has no purpose except to hit golf balls. It’s going to be great.
   Picture: Welgemoed Golf Course (the one that I live on in Cape Town). Found on Google.
   


5. Houses. I am dying to be in an actual house rather than a flat (Americans, read apartment). Once again, this has to do with the concept of having space. Everything in my apartment is so close together – the hallway doubles as a kitchen, the bathroom is right next to it, my room on the other side which doubles as a lounge and part of my kitchen (since the fridge has to live there), the washing room leading on from that. Everything is so close together and I’m looking forward to separating it again. I am looking forward to having an actual KITCHEN rather than a hallway that doubles as one. I am looking forward to having a lounge that is separate from my bedroom. I am looking forward to branching out.
   
   
6. Pets. I mentioned in the last blog how much I love Cat Cafés, and I do! But I am still really looking forward to being able to keep a pet. I can’t wait to come home and spend some time with each of my mother’s cats before returning to Grahamstown and getting in some quality time with Puddims. I want to be able to wake up in the morning to a cat sleeping on top of me. I want to have one to pick up whenever I feel like it or look at whenever I need some cheering up, and unfortunately that is where the Cat Cafés fall short. It is great to spend time with pets, but it’s even better to own them.
   


7. Living with other people. Also in the last blog, I wrote about how much I am going to miss living on my own. But what I didn’t write about was how much I am going to enjoy living with other people again. I can’t wait to wake up in the morning and walk into a kitchen full of people. Even more than that, I can’t wait to wake up next to someone again. I am really looking forward to being around other people. Sure, I can appreciate alone time every now and then, but I can also appreciate time spent with the people that you love, people that make you happy. So yay for living with other people!
   Picture: Me with Richard and Michael - two of my housemates from 2008-2009. Taken by Genny.
   


8. Maids. This is one of the things that I have missed most of all while being in Korea. I am a slob. There. I said it. I tend to be very messy when living on my own – clothes strewn everywhere, dishes uncleaned, laundry piling up until I have no choice but to do it. I am really looking forward to having someone to help me clean up. The mere fact that someone else is responsible for my mess tends to make me a bit better about cleaning up after myself. I don’t want this woman to think I am disgusting, nor do I want her to have to do my dirty work or go beyond the call of duty to clean up after me. I just want someone to help out when it is difficult to keep things in order, and I am really looking forward to that!
   


9. Cooking. I don’t get around to doing it much here, but I do rather enjoy cooking. The trouble in Korea is that I find it far too difficult and far too expensive cooking for one. I never know the right amounts, and though I can cook something and have leftovers for lunch later, I tend to not want the left overs the next day or the next or the next until they are too old to actually be eaten. Cooking back home is a different case entirely. Cooking for my family or cooking for Grant and Jono involves cooking for at least three people and leftovers are never a problem, since someone is always around to eat them. I am also really looking forward to getting my hands on an oven and baking something, though this is not something that I have been particularly good at before. Wish me luck!
   


10. Grocery shopping. I hate grocery shopping in Korea. There is so much food and so many choices, and yet they are all the same and it is difficult to find something that I actually want. Take lettuce for example – ten different kinds of lettuce, but no plain iceberg which is the only kind that I like to eat. *Sigh* I can’t wait to get to a Pick n Pay and grab just about everything in the shop simply because I know what they are!!! I also can’t wait to make a proper bolognaise – I am not particularly fond of pork mince, and that is that only kind that they have in Korea. Also, frozen veggies. Who would have thought that I would miss frozen veggies? Well I do!!!
    


11. Western food. I am looking forward to being in a country where Western food is the standard. Where I don’t feel guilty about going out for some Italian, and where not all Western food comes smothered in grease and oil and far. I have struggled to find good, healthy Western food here. I miss grilled chicken instead of having it fried to death! Sure, I am going to miss a lot of Korean foods, but I am going to love being able to order something without wondering if I am going to choke from the spiciness. I have managed fairly well in Korea, and my spice resistance has increased, but I still prefer things to be mild, and I am looking forward to knowing that most things will be.
    Picture: Kauai take-aways in Cape Town. Found on Google.
    


12. Tea. I am very Very VERY much looking forward to a good cup of tea. I am a tea-lover. Some people drink coffee, I always choose tea. I like all different kinds of tea and have embraced a number of them, including green tea, while I’ve been in Korea. But, while I am certainly a tea-lover, I am nothing compared to my mother who has about six cups a day, if not more! And nothing that I have tried in Korea has compared to the tea that my mommy makes. I don’t know why. Perhaps it’s the particular brand that she uses. Whatever it is, her tea is so much better than anywhere else and I cannot wait to have a cup of it. Or six as the case may be.
    
    


13. Braaing. I don’t want to be the one doing it, but I definitely want to be the one benefiting from it! I want to have a braai! With boerewors!!! And chicken and lamb chops and steaks and all the other yummy delicious things that come with braais. When I’m with my parents, this includes sadza (mielie pap/corn meal) and when I’m with Grant it includes potato salad (the real kind). Whatever the sidedishes are, I don’t really mind! I just want to have one! I want to sit around the braai with the boys cooking and the girls chatting and just bask in the afternoon sunlight. The thought of this is making my mouth water, so I am just going to stop right there.
    
    
14. Afrikaans. I have never been particularly good at speaking Afrikaans. Writing it, sure. Reading it, sure. Speaking it? Not so much. I apparently have a terrible Afrikaans accent and I avoid using it where I can. But since Claudell’s visit, I have been eating, breathing and sleeping Afrikaans – quite literally, I wake up and my thoughts are all in Afrikaans. I am looking forward to being around Afrikaans speakers even if I am not speaking it myself. I am looking forward to hearing it being spoken around me and actually knowing that this is a different language that I CAN speak (unlike Korean). I look forward to being able to understand people in another language, and being able to communicate no matter where I go.
    
    
15. South African phrases. “I will see you just now.” It always slips out without my thinking about it and the responses range from amusement to confusion to utter rage. You’d think that my friends would have gotten used to it by now, but some still haven’t and find it very frustrating when I use it. I am looking forward to being able to use phrases like “just now”, “hectic” and adding “hey” onto the ends of sentences without being judged for doing so. I am looking forward to people understanding that when I say “I will see you just now”, I do not mean right now. I mean in a little bit. I am looking forward to not having to explain that to people everytime I use it, because South Africans don’t need it explained to them – it is as engrained in their consciousness as it is in mine.
    
    
16. Blending in. I am looking forward to not being the odd one out, the stranger, the waygook. I can’t wait to just blend into the crowd and have no one notice what I am wearing or what my hair looks like on any particular day. I am looking forward to just being a part of the crowd and not having people double take or point or whisper. I am sure that I will miss it after a couple of weeks, that I will want a bit of attention, but I have had too much of it in Korea, and, for the moment at least, I can’t wait to just disappear.
    
    
17. Normal. More than just blending in, I can’t wait to be seen as normal. This goes beyond just blending into a crowd and will relate to my next topic as well. I want to be seen as being of a normal weight. I don’t want to be told when I walk into a shop that nothing will fit me because I am too big. Koreans are tiny, I know this, but there are still some Koreans who are my size. I have seen them! They exist! I know it! And I very much doubt that they are treated in the same way as foreigners when they wander into a Korean store. I have given up shopping at boutiques (at least for clothes), because of the number of times that I have been kicked out moments after stepping through the door. I can’t wait to walk into a shop and reach for the medium sizes rather than the biggest size that they have. I just want to be seen as normal rather than huge.
    
    
18. Shopping malls. I can’t wait to waltz into a shopping mall and be able to try on something at almost all of the clothing stores. Sure, I may not be able to BUY it because it might be outside of my price range, but the fact that I can fit into it will be great. I can’t wait to visit shoe stores where a size 6 is the average size rather than the largest they’ve got. I can’t wait to wander through a shopping centre (one that is covered rather than just a street of shops) and actually be able to walk into places without being TOLD to leave. I wasn’t a shopaholic before I came here, but I have developed this shopping habit while I’ve been here, and I think that it can be furthered in a far more positive fashion (while spending far less) in South Africa.
    Picture: Canal Walk Shopping Centre. Found on Google.
    
    
19. Familiarity. In Grahamstown, I am recognized. It isn’t the same as being recognized here, where when a student sees me, they will fall over themselves trying to make sure that this really is Lala teacher. Grahamstown is a small town, and if the people there don’t know me, they often know Grant and will refer to me as Grant’s girlfriend and walk up and say hi. We’ll chat about random little things and then we’ll go our separate ways, happy to have made the brief exchange. In Grahamstown, everyone is familiar. It is like a giant extended family and I love that and can’t wait to be a part of it again.
    
    
20. Catching up. I can’t wait to have a catch up with my good friends. A year is a long time, and even those friends that I have stayed in good contact with have only told me the here and now of what is happening in their lives. I want to see the bigger picture. I want to learn of their experiences over the last year and I want to be able to share mine with them. I can’t wait for the coffees, lunches and dinners to start where I just get to spend time with my friends chatting about the last year and getting up to date on each other’s lives.