Cape Town: Heavy Days with Dan the Bartender (feat. Stephan)

So work aside, we've met some pretty cool people over here in Cape Town. We've also met some pretty not cool people who follow us around and ask for money, but we don't spend much time with them, so whatever. Except for this one homeless guy that grabbed Abby's face with both hands when he was asking for money; luckily for her, there was a valiant backpacker on hand who shoved the guy while screaming, "NO!!!" Just part of living in Cape Town when you walk everywhere.

Dan is the bartender at Zach's favorite bar who we met last Wednesday on Zach's birthday. Abby picked him up after paying for drinks and he's sort of moved in with us since then. He's been sleeping on the couch in the other apartment (our little building is basically two apartments across the hall from each other, so all five of us essentially live together). Anyway, I walked in on Saturday morning after he'd stayed with us a few times, not expecting to see him, and there he was on the couch. I did one of these:

back to my side of the floor.

But yeah, he's pretty cool. After I ran away from him like a crazy person, Abby told him I was afraid of him and he said, "Heavy days." which I guess means "That sucks." He's also an underwear model, fun fact.

On a related note, people in South Africa definitely have different ways of saying things in English, and it's taken me a while to figure out what some expressions mean. First of all, to greet someone, you say, "How's it?" And the equivalent of "Oh really?" as a response to anything is, "Is it?" When you want to get someone's attention, you say, "sorry." And at the office, whenever anything goes wrong, people often say "Shitballs!" My personal favorite is the word for "pickup truck", which is "bucky". Some guy will just say, "My bucky got towed the other day" and I can't take it seriously. Say it. It sounds hilarious. 

Last but not least, Zach's dating this guy named Stephan, who took him cable surfing yesterday, which I guess is surfing  on a cable track? Anyway, Zach stays over with him a lot, and Stephan's supposed to take him to his game farm soon (like a game reserve, with rhinos and stuff). Stephan's a pretty together human being, so I approve of this relationship. 

Anyway, that's just a little slice of life from Cape Town. Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo, as I'm sure you guys know, and I ended up face down on our futon full of tequila and regret. Other than that, life's good.