Universiteit Van Pretoria

I'm writing from the library of the University of Pretoria, one of South Africa's finest universities (or "varsities," as South Africans often call tertiary institutions) and the host of the Historical Association of South Africa's (HASA) Jubilee Meeting. This afternoon I'll be presenting a paper on my project on comparative bus boycotts in the US and South Africa. I've presented aspects of this work before, but this will be my first fleshing out of the comparative framework before an audience of South Africans, so hopefully I will get some fruitful leads and feedback.

It is cold in South Africa. Damned cold. Especially when there are gaps between the door and the doorjam that allow in breezes into the room of your guesthouse, when the heating unit sputters but emits little heat, and when the floor is solely made of tile. Pretoria being 60 km or so north of Joburg, I thought that maybe it would actually be a bit warmer here than there, but a cold front is kicking through the entire country. I suppose this is payback for skipping the brunt of winter in Texas when I came here for six weeks in December and January.

Access to computers may be intermittent in these next few days, but I'll touch base as I can.