Hey everyone! I am still living it up here and can't believe I have been here for over a month. In a sense it seems like I have only been here a week, but on the other hand, I feel fully adapted to South African culture! As of right now, I have no intentions of coming home- shhh!

So my car has turned on me! Just like Kate Hudson in "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days!"I call her Cruella Devil because sometimes she is just such a b****. So much so that she no longer thinks it is necessary to have a gas pedal. It fell off and now I drive with a 3 inch long skinny metal shaft coming out of the ground floor of my car. I basically drive with a lollypop stick! Trying to be as resourceful as possible, I got the most intense super glue concoction around…it is two different tubes and when the two mix together the chemical reaction basically forms cement paste. So right before I went to the gym one day, I glued that puppy right back on…seemed secure enough! NOT THE CASE. About two miles down the road, I lifted my foot off the gas pedal to find that it stuck to my shoe! I was now driving down the road with my gas pedal stuck to my Nike, which was completely detached from my car! DAMN YOU CRUELLA! When I got to the gym, I dismantled my shoe from the gas pedal but a little glue residue was still on my shoe and every time I stepped down on the treadmill it stuck to the track- which if you can imagine made for the most annoying work out experience of my life. Enough about Cruella…moving on!

I had the most amazing birthday weekend- thanks in part to all your birthday messages! On Friday night my boss Sean threw a party for all the new international students arriving to Cape Town. It was at Scrumpy Jacks, and about 30 minutes after the party started the power went out in all of Cape Town! It was very eerie...the entire city went black. I felt like I was in a movie...oh no...just in Africa! We drank and partied at the bar by candle light and nobody seemed to be phased by the fact that there was no power anywhere within 50 miles of us- South African's have their priorities straight! I actually thought the no power situation gave me an advantage at the bar on Friday night because it was a good time to try to pick up on guys because they had no idea what I looked like!! But there was also a down side to that as well because I couldn't see them either, so I put my pick up skills on the back burner and focused more on my beer! On Saturday a big group of us went to the beach at Camps Bay and then came back and went to dinner at Babo's in Obz. And then came Sunday...a day of rest for most...but no time for that...I ONLY HAVE 2 MONTHS LEFT! Sunday became the death of me on Monday, and Monday the death of me on Tuesday. Let's just say the hangovers get worse with age. Now that I am a whopping 22 I fully comprehend the word "hangover."

So…on Sunday there was a "Concert for the Cure" in an outdoor venue in Tokai. There were 3 really popular bands there- Bed on Bricks, The Rudimentals, and Freshly Ground- they all play a slight version of Reggae. Jen, Valerie, and I drove there on a whim with nothing but a map book. But a map book doesn't help you much when you don't know the surrounding areas. As we finally approached a critical roundabout with four different turn offs we were officially lost. Take one…straight…nope! Take two…left…negative! Take three…the only other possible option seeing as we had tried EVERY OTHER route…finally-success! We arrived to find the perfect grassy patch close to the front. We should have known it was too good to be true…a 44 year old woman named Sandy was "saving" it for her friends. Excuse me Sandy, we are not8 years old anymore andwe can't "save seats" for our friends, this is not elementaryschool lunch hour! So we posted up in another itsy bitsy teeny weeny grassy patch right next to Sandy. As I glared at the large empty green fertilized patch in front of me, Sandy kept turning and grabbing my large left arm to massage it and apologize. She kept telling me that she promised someone was coming and blah blah blah. Sandy I am NOT a fan right now could you please stop being so nice because now I feel guilty for cursing you for the last 20 minutes! But by the end of the night we were dancing and sharing wine and snacks with Sandy!Sundays are generally a day of rest here in Africa and thus it is illegal to sell alcohol. But somehow my "good looks" and "f***ing American accent" gives me more power than I assumed and was able to buy alcohol as long as I hid it in a bag on my way out! I seriously underestimated our drinking abilities and after consuming the 2 bottles I scammed BEFORE the concert started we were forced (well by our alcoholic nature) to buy two more bottles! They sell full bottles of wine at the concert- it is so great! So after the concert, Jen and I drove to Camps Bay to meet our friends Joma and Phillip. We went to a club called Ignite on the Beach and it was wild! Hundreds of people partying on a Sunday night. At midnight I thought it would be nice for everyone to take a shot, so I ordered a paddle (see picture in new album) of Jager for the 5 of us-YIKES- needless to say I was escorted home J

So the morning of my birthday (or shall we say night!) I was awakened by my mother, and my cousin, and my other cousin, and my OTHER cousin to a painfully mangled tune of the Happy Birthday song! I was in a clam, deep, alcohol induced sleep when the world came crashing down on me at 6 in the morning on Feb 4, 2008. Tranquil and peaceful I lay with my eye mask on, dreaming lovely dreams, and then there it was- the call that felt like the entire universe was coming down on me. It was at the pivotal part of the night where drunk transforms into a hangover- and there I was ….death by knives, nails and the Nokia ringtone! I heard the phone and seriously considered if god hated me or if I was just having a bad dream. It MUST be a dream, oh please be a dream! And then it kept going…oh it is the alarm! Thank Jesus Christ, and Mary, and all the lambs, and all his saviors for the snooze button. BUT NO- as I turned over, gently peered through my eye mask, I realized it was a phone call! Hello? It couldn't be a phone call, why would someone do such an awful thing to one on her birthday??? There went the crucial hours of sleep I needed to function the next day. Gone! Gone! Gone! Now I am hungover on my BIRTHDAY you devils!

Needless to say I struggled through the work day on Monday! Sean let me leave early as he saw I was either going to pass out at my desk and break his computer or just start crying from exhaustion. I came home, napped, and then went at it again! We made sunset reservations at Wakame, a super fancy sushi restaurant in Greenpoint right on the ocean. It was glorious. There was a group of 12 of us and most were Germans. As they filed through the door I felt like screaming "The Germans are coming! The Germans are coming!" but then I realized I would sound like a giant loser, and thus, decided to shut up! When we got home from Sushi my roommate Maya had made homemade French brownies from scratch- they were a godsend!After I consumed 3000 calories in deep chocolaty bliss, I went down to the Bar at Babo's to partake in James' and my joint party. He left for the Army yesterday so it was a goodbye party for him which just happened to be on my birthday- I just like to think it was a joint party, even though it was absolutely for him and probably nobody even took my birthday into consideration J

My liver is now in detox mode from my week of drowning the poor thing in liquor AND I have been working out heavily everyday to help speed up the process of detoxification- so hopefully by tomorrow I will be ready to go again (just kidding)! I know I sound like I have a serious drinking problem, but I swear it is just because I like to celebrate my birthday in style (I guess if coming home at night with no shoes, raggy hair, and beer spilled all over my dress is style-I have some reevaluating to do)!

HOWEVER, despite my busy social life I am actually working really hard. I am in charge of putting together the student dive trip to Mozambique and have had to coordinate accommodations in 3 cities, flights for 30 people, a tour bus, and activities! I have finally received all the prices (after a week of persistent e-mailing and calling)! The work ethic here is SA is a little bit slower than I am used to- there is a joke here: Why is Cape Town called the mother city? Because it takes 9 months to get anything done! In addition to the trip I have designed a shirt and a flyer (both of which are under my Obzside Work album) and designed and implemented a newsletter for the diving community for on-line marketing. Sean is also running a trip to the Red Sea after I leave so I put together an informational marketing pack for him to send to prospective travelers. I have also written a column and submitted it to Submerge Magazine and DiveStyle Magazine about our new mobile dive center concept to hopefully be printed in next months issues! So don't fret Mom and Dad, I actually DO have a purpose here :)

Thank you again for all the birthday wishes and to my secret admirer who sent the most beautiful bouquet in the world!

Until next time…Kate (I promise I am not an alcoholic) Fleming