Monday Morning

Talk about an interesting morning! So as some of you might have guessed, people in South Africa drive on the left side of the road (being a former British Colony and all). This was hard enough when I was in Cambridge, and I only had to look the opposite direction when crossing a street. Now I actually have to drive on the ‘wrong’ side of the road! :-) So I keep thinking to myself: left, left, left, on right turns stay left. When I come to my first turn, which happens to be a right turn, I naturally look to my left to make sure there are no cars coming. I make sure to pinpoint exactly where I am going to go—left of the median—and start to approach when (can anyone guess what I forgot to do?) a car on the right of me drives by. So I hit the brakes, swear profusely at myself for trying to set a world record in “Least Amount of Time an American Has Taken to Get Into an Accident Driving on the Left-hand Side of the Road” (I literally had been in the car 2 seconds), and continue on my way.

Cyest (the startup I am working for) is located a couple miles away from where I am staying, and is literally only 3 turns from my apartment, so of course I somehow manage to get lost. Which normally wouldn’t be a problem, because I would just: a) stop the car, and b) use google maps to figure out how to get to where I’m going. I don’t have google maps here in South Africa (I don’t even have a phone number yet), but I do have a map, so it should be simple, right? Well, not exactly. Crime prevention hasn’t been a real priority here in Johannesburg (or if it has it hasn’t been very effective), and the first thing I was given to read when I arrived was a manual on how NOT to have your car hijacked. Number one way to prevent being hijacked: you guessed it—don’t stop your car on the side of the road and pull out a map to figure out where you are going (you might as well trade someone directions for your car keys). So is this suburban white boy being a little paranoid? Maybe, but if you read this manual, and then heard that only 1 out of the last 3 GSB people to stay in Johannesburg has had their car broken into while they were in it, then you might feel the same way. So I drive around, and luckily find the main road that I am looking for, and manage to get to Cyest.

And I haven’t even started work yet :-)