37 days and counting...

It's hard to believe, but my time here is coming to an end. I have just three more weeks of classes - that's just 18 days before my courses will all come to a close. Then two weeks of exams, and the big Duma Botswana choir concert, three days of kicking it around Gabs, and then I'll be off!

Absolutely crazy.

It's so strange to think about leaving this place, but perhaps it's stranger to think about coming back home and living my normal American life again. Okay, so I'm pretty abnormal compared to many Americans, but the life I live with the amenities I have in the U.S. is very different from the life I lead here. Two examples: I certainly won't be waking up early to hand wash my clothes every Monday and Wednesday. And I certainly won't be speaking Setswana day-in and day-out and trying to figure out what everyone around me is saying.

Today on the way back from church I had a conversation with Zhinzhi and Kaone about how holidays in the U.S. are completely commercialized. It was actually Zhinzhi who started the conversation, saying that the Americans always go out and have to buy something for someone on every holiday, and that we have all these useless, pointless holidays in America that are just there so we can buy things. I agreed with her, although I tried to point out that we don't buy gifts for every holiday - Thanksgiving, for instance, is all about being together with family and eating good food. But Kaone pointed out that we buy turkeys. Touché.

I hope that I'm leaving this beautiful place full of beautiful people for something more than a bunch of over-commercialized, machine-washing, English-speaking, turkey-buying Americans.