One overlooked benefit of being here and working so much is being blissfully unaware about what the US “president” has been up to.
I always forget how somehow freer you feel when you leave the country.

Only when talking to my German friend do I realize how we get so used to living in a constant state of low level anxiety, and don’t even notice it!

Oh, they all did ask me about it. And yes, as I expected, mentioning Zuma makes conversation immediately turn away from the faraway Orange One to the very real anxieties they have here. This country, despite its beauty, is even more f.cked up than ours, and what’s worse is that no one seems hopeful (except maybe getting rid of their own corrupt egomaniac in 2019).