Adventures of an Expat in South Africa
One of my favorite small expat joys I acquired a taste for in South Africa is Malva Pudding. I can always conjure up a tiny bit of the magic of of a fiery African sunset, the awe of watching a dazzle of zebras approach a waterhole, or the heart-stopping shock of hearing the hadeda's first cry in the morning by making this consummate South African dessert.
Even though most Brits (and also Australians) I know are VERY loyal to their Marmite, even a single ONE of those jars would be one too many in our household. But it's hard to imagine that our family would ever complain about having too many Nutella jars. Here is a list of must-have things for your expat suitcase.
A brief explanation about the demographics of South Africa:
Based on the latest census in 2011, roughly 9% of South Africa’s population is white. Within that group, about 61% are Afrikaans speakers, 36% are English speakers, and the remaining 3% speak other languages such as Portuguese.
A good ...
Once again, when October rolled around this year, we found ourselves in new surroundings, meaning we’d have to create yet another guest list for our annual Oktoberfest.
I don’t know exactly when we started this tradition, but I remember where. It was when we lived in Raleigh, North Carolina, and ...
Don’t worry, I’ll get to the apple cake eventually, and trust me, you’ll want to get there too.
But before we count cups of flour and sugar, I’ll first douse you with a big pinch of my typical philosophical expat life ramblings.
One of the more beautiful aspects of expat life, ...
Everything is perfect. It’s a Saturday night. The gin tonics are poured. The afternoon thunderstorm has passed and delicious smells are wafting from the grill.
“Honey, can you bring the buns?”
KABOOOOM! (That was me, crashing back down onto the floor of reality). Because what have ...
I really love going out to eat in South Africa, and the options are endless. With one exception: Mexican food. If you come from America, this leaves you with a big hole in your life. We have kids who can never agree on anything, let alone which restaurant to pick when we go out (which isn’t ...
Sorry, but this post can only be written in German (a first on this blog!), as it is about sausages, sweet mustard, and Southern German culture, so my English readers will have to take a (well-deserved) break.
Da wir gerade wieder einmal unser jährliches Oktoberfest hinter uns haben, ist das eine ...
A few days ago, I ate the very first mango of the season.
Come to think of it, it was actually still very much out of season, as I haven’t seen another one for sale since then, and I seem to recall from last year that the South African mango season doesn’t start until closer to December. ...
One of the first questions Zax asked when we knew we were moving to South Africa was if there was a Subway there. And no, he didn’t mean for transportation. He meant the kind where you can eat – in his opinion, the world’s best – subs. I’m kind of partial to Jersey Mike’s ...