The Time I Learned A Useful New Word

The things people say here!  There’s the dodgy train ride you might reconsider taking, or a hectic night out that existed on the spectrum of quite interesting to decidely epic—and potentially verging on the disastrous.  There could and should and probably will be an entire post on South-African-isms (once I’m better able to tease apart the English, Africaans, and 9 other native languages).  For now, I’ll stick with just a single word to help explain my very first work day in Cape Town—the word is “admin.” 

Admin is what you take care of before you can do what you really want—things like paying bills, returning movies, checking email, maybe even grocery shopping.  I guess it might translate to “chores,” or perhaps “errands.”  There’s just a certain polished ring to “taking care of admin” that makes the tasks at hand sound more essential, more sophisticated.

So my first Monday here was what you might call an admin sort of day.  I got a tour of the neighborhood (called Newlands) from my friend and host Saranne (pronounced like the plastic wrap), and then was left to my very own devices.  I went for a run, then took a decent little walk to the commercial strip next door called Cavendish.  There I checked email, blogged, bought a plaid striped button down long-sleeve, had a fried fish and chips wrap, and then got back on a computer to Skype some loved ones for Valentine’s Day.  I walked quite a bit.  When Saranne got home from work, I walked a bit more in the Newlands forest, which is perched on the side of a mountain, with views overlooking the area south of city proper, and views underlooking a diverse canopy (of mostly introduced species).

Wednesday, incidentally, was another admin day—along with some further exploration of the area south of downtown Cape Town.  I visited the University of Cape Town campus and strolled the halls of both the science and the education departments.  The things posted in the ed school made me hypothesize that teachers (and teacher educators) were basically the same everywhere—or at least the techniques to motivate them.

So most admin I’ve attended to relates to my travel finances, itinerary, and maintaining contact with friends and family, though increasingly the tasks have taken a domestic turn.  Doing laundry and the dishes, cleaning “my room,” returning DVDs:  all signs of, if not an utter settling, a certain move away from being on the move.  It’s now undertaken on the basis not so much of when it’s needed but when it’s scheduled.  As of this writing, I’m still not so interested in having an admin schedule abroad.