New York in Harare

While moving some items into my new apartment yesterday I came to the realization that two of my neighbors are Americans! One is a USAID contractor and the other is a grizzled, ancient, New York ex-pat who has been here since the days when Zimbabwe was known as Rhodesia. The joy for me being around my fellow Americans, even if it's only for a few minutes a day, is that I can drop back into my quick American English. While I'm on this continent, I have to slow down my speech (note: this only relates to when I'm speaking English), limit my colloquial expressions, and switch my way of relating (body language, distance between speakers, handshake etc.) but the joy of being around my "peeps" is that I can switch into automatic instead of manual; a mental pint of beer (ice cold) with a slice of New York pie, so to speak.