it looks like i will be in the united states from june to september next year. i am not happy about this at all, but i suppose i just have to suck up and deal.

[there's a reason that few black people who attend high school in the city in which my mother lives that go on to university actually return to the city. once you get out into the real world, there are few reasons to come back, short of family issues.]

i'm really going to need to get a new driver's licence, as said city has no real mass transit system. [how are you a state capital in the northeast without transit? ugh.] my mother doesn't have a car, but few places in that rinky-dink town actually accept a passport as valid ID for things like buying booze or going into nightclubs. i shit you not.

after 16 years of not *needing* a car [i've had four cars, but i arguably did not need any of them], though, this is going to be a bit of culture shock. a friend of mine from high school is a cab driver in the town though. i might just say "plaz, here's $100, take me everywhere i need to go this weekend."

where i go after that? i don't know yet. i have a few idea, but i'm open to suggestions. south africa is not one of them as it's about to become just another expensive african country -- and if i am going to live in an expensive african country, i want to at least feel welcome *without* waving around an american accent.

i may end up in senegal again. on verra.