When will I ever get work done around here?

First a fun announcement - I heard that my new office in Oregon has been painted with the colors I picked out when I was there in June :) It is nice knowing that a place waits for me! My office has a sunset-facing window, and carpeting, so it is rather nice.

Today my host picked me up to take me around town after lunch. It was raining on and off, so we went to lots of sights, but didn't hike at any of them. I got some good pics though - I'll download them soon. I didn't get a pic of it, but a small rainbow (I did capture) later turned into a full double rainbow that spanned the city "bowl". The city sits nestled between the sea and a curve of mountains - and houses rise up the sides somewhat so the city takes on the shape of a bowl. Besides going up the various peaks to get the view of the city, we went to Camps bay which is an amazing "upscale" seaside town (apparently compared to the french riviera) just outside Cape Town, and another seaside town where we stopped and had some killer-rich chocolate cake and very smooth cappuccino.

It was an interesting evening - we spent some time at his house talking about research and teaching methods, but also about novels. I ended up borrowing 3 books - I don't know when I'll get time to read them, do this project, or any of the other things I had planned! Then we got carry out food and took it to his cousin's house. That family has 3 grown kids, and they were all very nice. After we ate, we played scrabble. I didn't want to play at all! Anyone who has ever asked to play with me knows I hate that game - I haven't played since I was a kid. They let me use a dictionary toward the end, and somehow I pulled all the big letters early on: Q, X, Z and J. Top that with the fact my host opened up a triple word score (was he trying to help me??) and I ended up winning. They gave me quite a hard time for lying about not being good at the game :)

But now I've stayed out until after midnight and still not managed to get any work done...

This is the 2nd time my host has taken me over to someone's house - it is kind of nice, because I get to see how some locals live. We stopped in to see someone on Thursday, too. She gave me a bottle of some lovely fizzy grape juice from a local vineyard. I hope to go to some vineyards while here. There is too much to do... I could probably spend the whole time being a tourist...

His cousin's wife said they were trying to show me a good time so I'd like it enough to come back someday. My host has mentioned the difficulty of attracting foreigners to work there - I wonder if there is a scheme going on? My mom would NOT approve of me living in South Africa! And she thought Oregon was far away :)

What all I have to do next week? Give a seminar, attend classes, probably teach Wed's class, work on the project, go to dinner with the dean, take the grad students out to lunch.... Plus now read these books and try to see some local sites!! It's a good thing I'm well rested from the summer!