Some interesting/different things I’ve observed/experience so far during my time South Africa…

Black people refer to a 10 rand as a “tiger”

People here use the term “bucks” like we do when referring to money, but they say it because there is actually a buck (the animal) on their 1 rand piece.

Afrikaner jocks wear very short shorts.

Older Afrikaner men match their (extra) short shorts with what seem to be something similar to hiking boots and an outdoorsmany, collared khaki shirt, giving them a striking resemblance to the late Steve Irwin.

Almost bi weekly the power on campus and/or in the dorms, shuts off for at least half an hour.

If you just listened to the music on the radio and nothing else, you would not realize you had left the US

My fan is without question the most valuable thing I own

Classes don’t have air conditioning and it hasn’t been that uncommon to have class in a 85-90 degree classroom

Two of my classes have at least a fifth of the students sitting on the floor because there are not enough seats

Every single white person here has approached me speaking in Afrikaans

My good friend Zola constantly refers to me (and quite loudly) as “my nigga Jack”.  Apparently that word has no real offensive meaning here, but the word kaffer is seen as equally, or even more so offensive as is the n word in America

Food and common household items are relatively inexpensive, but electronics such as digital cameras or gaming systems, are literally twice the price of what they would be back home

What we call french fries they call chips, what we call chicken sandwiches they call chicken burgers, and Coke products dominate everywhere.

90% of the cars I’ve seen here have been small manual sedans/mini pick up trucks…exactly the opposite of the US

They refer to gas as petrol, and the phrase “getting pulled over” is foreign to them… I have yet to see a cop on the road

Apparently the province of the Free State is one of the most racist in SA

I feel as though it is impossible to find two more different groups of people living with one another

People here sing A LOT

Just a few cool things I’ve come across so far…