When you’re from the Show-Me State and in Southern Africa and come across a local beer called St. Louis, you can hardly pass it up. And I didn’t.
Yeah…it kind of tasted like Busch. Or what I remember Busch tasting like the one time I had it five years ago.
Can you tell what animals are with me in the following pics?
One (me) can go through almost a whole year of international travel and not meet the stereo-typical American. But just when you think you’ve made it off Yank-free, there he is…sitting right beside you on the tour company bus.
Before I even met him, I had an inkling of what I might be in store for. The night before he boarded the bus the guide and I had played “guess their nationality” for the three new clients joining the tour. As soon as I saw the name “Larry” I claimed him for my country. Seriously…have you met any Larrys from China? I think not. But Larry from the US? Yep. (but no, the other two clients weren’t his brother Darryl and his other brother Darryl)
Sure enough, the next day, two super-sized middle-aged Americans — Larry and his wife — huffed and puffed their way onto the bus. Barely seated, they began excitedly talking about their hunting safari they’d been on the last few days. When our guide asked where they were from, Larry happily answered “California” and then with a newly placed disgusted look quickly began adding, “but they might as well call it Mexi-fornia the way all the…”
“What part of California?” I cut in, trying to avoid 1) my getting into an angry argument with him and 2) his embarrassment when he realizes that two seats behind him is an American named Ricardo.
Later someone on the tour said they made them think of the people in Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine.
Animals we don’t have in America* that I got to see on my visit to RSA’s Kruger Park:
1. elephant
2. giraffe
3. lion
4. buffalo (I think we killed them all off…)
5. zebra (dazzles of them, in fact…yes, I also learned that a group of zebra is a dazzle)
6. spotted hyenas (my favorite of all the spottings)
*zoos, circuses, and NYC apartments of crazy people who keep them captive in tiny spaces excluded
Here’s a short video of the ones that I was close enough to get with my little point-and-shoot. Just think of it as Jayna’s version of The Lion King…but without Elton John’s song at the end…or a storyline.
