I'm finally done house sitting, so I'm back in my crappy little apartment. Luckily, I won't be there much in the next few months because I'm going to be traveling a bunch! Some of these plans are still tentative, but if everything works out as I hope, my schedule looks something like this:
I've learned recently that it is just about impossible to accomplish anything here around Christmas, so I'm planning on renting a car and going on a little trip from about the 23rd to the 26th. Right now, the leading candidate is Pilanesberg, a nature reserve close by, but that is definitely not set in stone.
I'll then be back in Pretoria for a couple of weeks before heading to Poland to do a couple of research projects with a colleague I've known for several years. That will be my first European trip, and I am definitely excited about it.
Finally, a few days after I get back to South Africa from Poland in late February, Andrew, Ben and I are taking off for a trip to Botswana and some of the really wild parts of the Kalahari. That trip is centered around picking Ben up from his field site, and is otherwise just for fun.
When I finish all of this off, I will be in Pretoria for a while and will unfortunately have to do some actual work. I know, it's rough, isn't it?