Zef

A few weeks ago, I saw that my younger sister and her friends were using the word "zef" on Facebook. My sister and her friends live in southern New Hampshire, and at first it didn't even occur to me that they were using an Afrikaans word. I thought that they were just using a funny-sounding, nonsense word that happened to be the same as a word in Afrikaans.

When I saw her in person a few weeks later, I asked my sister, "Hey, do you know what 'zef' means in Afrikaans?"

To my surprise, she replied, "Yeah, it means 'cool.' "

And my sister's friend elaborated, "Yeah, it's like 'awesome' or 'badass', maybe."

My sister added, "Or 'hard core' maybe."

I started laughing, then said, "But that's not what zef means in Afrikaans! How do you know an Afrikaans word anyway?"

Flask

I'm currently back on Cape Cod for a few months to defend my PhD. Jackie is coming over in late May for a few weeks, and I'm torturing him by making him attend my 10-year high school reunion, my PhD graduation ceremonies (yes, ceremonies-- there's two, and I am wearing Harry Potter robes to both!), and a second wedding celebration hosted by my mom and dad in New Hampshire (our first wedding was in South Africa last October).

Jackie gave me a call today, and we had a conversation that went something like this:

Jackie: Oh! I meant to tell you. I bought a flask today.

Me: That's good. We'll probably need that for the wedding.

Jackie: Do you think we'll need it for the wedding?