I'm Too School for Cool

Today was the LAST day of school. I cannot believe the 3 months went by so fast! One of my grade 8 classes got me a card and each of them signed it, it was so cute! I will definitely miss my two eighth grade classes, they were so challenging and fun. At the end of the day it felt like I was in grade 12 and that was my last day. It was a surreal feeling. I will miss all the kids I met, not just the ones I taught, they were all so awesome and way more respectful than at our schools. I wish I could stay, thats how much I have loved being here! Hopefully I will be able to come back sometime soon (fingers crossed!)

Now I have until May 1st to hang out and go to the beach (and work on my tan!) I'm bummed I'm coming back, especially for graduation, but I guess I owe my parents for paying for college.

Adventures in......CAPE TOWN!

Last week we had our end of term 1 holiday! I cannot believe our time here is almost up....as I type this we only have FOUR DAYS left of school next week before we're done! & I am leaving South Africa in two weeks! CRAZY! Anyway for the holiday a few of us decided to go to Cape Town. The drive is about 5-9 hours, depending on who you ask. We stopped along the way, but I'd say it was closer to 9. We stopped in Oudtshoorn about 4-5 hours west of PE. Here we had lunch and went to an ostrich farm. A few of the girls rode the ostriches, but I passed since you only rode for like 10 seconds.

After the break we continued west to Cape Town. I got to drive at this point, and believe me it took a while to get used to. All of us hugged the shoulder of the road for a while until we got used to the drive. It wasn't that bad once we got going and were around other cars. I did however had to keep reminding myself to go LEFT LEFT LEFT around the round-abouts.

We drove into the Cape Town area after dark, but the city looked awesome with all the lights and mountains. We stayed in a suburb called Fish Hoek in these cottages on the beach.

On Monday (our first full day in CT), we went to the District 6 museum and learned about the forced removals of citizens. Back in the 50s and 60s, District 6 (which is now right next to the city centre) was home to coloured residents. The neighborhood was run-down, but not horrible. However since it was during apartheid, the white people wanted this valuable land for themselves, so they forced the coloured people to move to what are now the Cape Flats townships on the outside of the city. Nothing was actually done with much of the old District 6 during apartied, and today different groups are fighting over what should become of it. From the pictures we saw of the neighborhood, it just needed to be fixed up a bit, it wasn't a slum as the whites claimed. Our tour guide in the museum was an ex-resident of district 6, so he knew about this stuff first hand.

After the museum, we went to Green Market Square, an area where people sell paintings, jewellry, bowls, clothing....you name it, they probably sell it. I got a few cool gifts here, and its nice because the prices are usually negotiable. It was a unique atmospehere becuase everyone is eager to show off their items for sale. After wandering around the market for about an hour, we drove to the Malay District of the city. This part of town used to be inhabited by ex-slaves, but it is now mainly Muslims. Many of the houses are painted different and bright colours so it was cool to walk around and see. From the Malay District, we drove to Chapman's Peak to look out and take pictures of part of the city.

On Tuesday we went to Cape Point/ Cape of Good Hope. Cape Point is where the two oceans (indian and atlantic meet) and it was gorgeous. Cape of Good Hope is the southern most point in Africa. We hiked for about two hours here before setting off for Boulder Beach to see the penguins. The penguins were smaller than I thought they would be....they weren't tall like in Happy Feet but they were adorable anyway. After seeing the penguins we went to Robben Island. This is where Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners from the 1960s onward. Our tour guide here was an ex-prisoner who was on the island from 1981-1985 I think. He would talk about how cruel things were, but I think in keeping with the idea of Nelson Mandela's policy of reconciliation, he never complained too harshly if that makes sense. We learned about prison life: they were up everyday by 6:30 am, and worked many hours a day, before returning to their cells for dinner and were locked away by 4:30pm. Many of the prison cells housed thirty men in bunk beds in a large room with three showers, however the more important/ leaders of the ANC (like Mandela) were housed in small, one person rooms. We got to see the courtyard where Mandela wrote "A Long Walk to Freedom" and other resistance literature was written and passed around. We got to see Mandela's cell, it was crazy to think he spent 27 years in here. Once the tour of the prison was over, we got to see the rest of the island and learn about its history. It was originally an outpost for Portuguese ships rounding the Cape. Then it was used as a leprosy colony, then it housed common-law prisoners, before welcoming the political ones in 1961.

On Wednesday we went to the Kirstenbosch Gardens (and climbed some trees), visited the Rhodes Memorial, and the University of Cape Town. The university sits at the bottom of Table Mountain and was absolutely the most beautiful campus I have ever seen. It kind of reminded me of UCLA but way better.

On Thursday we went to two wineries in nearby Stellenbosch. The wine tastings were only 20R or maybe $5. After tasting some wine, we drove to see these colourful houses on the beach in one of the suburbs.

On Friday we got on one of those hop on/ hop off buses. We first went to the South African Jewish Museum which was kind of boring (no offense) but then we went to the Holocaust Museum. It was phenomenal...I wouldn't have thought a country like South Africa could have a nice Holocaust museum, but it had so much information. From the museums, we got back onto the bus and went to Table Mountain. We took the cable car up and it was amazing once we got there. You could see all of the city since it was a clear day. After getting off the mountain, we went to the Waterfront for my favorite activity.....SHOPPING.

On the way back from CT we stopped in Knysna to play with elephants. They were so huge, I was always afraid they would step on me!

All in all it was a great trip!

"So Maybe this wasn't the best idea...."

Okay so I haven't updated in a while.....& a lot has happened. Mostly bad, as you can tell from the title, but hopefully thats over with.

Our neighbor Sarah (across the hall) fell off a horse three Saturdays ago and fractured her skull in two places. She hit the ground so hard on the front of her head that the back broke because of the force of the fall. The group was out on some ranch a few hours from Port Elizabeth (and legitimate medical care...especially for a brain injury), she ended up falling at 12pm and didn't get treated until about 10:30 that night. We finally experienced the medical system here, which is different from the U.S. Private hospitals are for people with money, and have way better medical care, while public hospitals are not even worth going to we are told. It took Sarah so long to be treated because she was first taken to a public hospital and then to a private hospital. Luckily she managed to survive and was cleared to stay this week by the doctor, which we are all so excited about!! This little experience has taught me though that having money and getting superior medical care is not reserved for countries like the U.S., you need $$ everywhere.

While Sarah was off getting injured, a few of us visited Kragga Kamma game park right outside of PE. It had giraffe, rhinos (which we didn't get to see at Addo), cheetahs, ostriches, and monkeys. I knew giraffes were tall, but seriously one was sitting as we drove by, and ended up standing right by the car and it was insane how tall it was. The rhino was also cool to see because it had a baby with it, and it was pretty close. You could see its horn, which was huge. It would have ripped a nice hole in the car if it had decided to charge us!

Last weekend my roommate Sam went to Coffee Bay with some other Americans, while most of us just stayed in PE & enjoyed the amazing weather. Btw i'm loving my tan, but compared to people from here we are still pretty pale :( But while Sam and their group were in & around Coffee Bay, they were robbed. She admitted that had the whole thing been a movie, she would have been yelling at the screen because they did every stupid thing possible before being robbed. They were walking towards a township/ rural village when these guys came out of nowhere carrying knives and a machete. I cannot imagine how scary that was, and you can tell that it really shook them.

Hopefully nothing bad happens to us next weekend because we are leaving for Cape Town next Saturday. I'm excited because we have a week off for school holiday and I can't wait to see another city! Plus I've heard there is 100000x more stuff to do in Cape Town! The only negative is that we are renting a car (an automatic car thankfully!) and each of us is going to take turns driving.....on the other side of the road. I hope I'm not the one to get into an accident first ;)

BUT SERIOUSLY.

ADDO

Okay so I know I haven't posted in like 2 weeks but nothings really been going on! We went to Addo Elephant Park last weekend with one of the teachers from school. It was awesome! We saw elephants of course, which are so cute! and zebras (i want one!) and ostriches and a few pumba's aka warthogs :) We had a blast, it was amazing! After Addo we had a braai and got to try ostrich meat, which was sooo good!

Besides that I don't think anything really cool has been going on....except for me trying to figure out my life. My history lesson on monday was horrible. I was so nervous once I got in front of the class even though I've taught like 20 lessons before....I knew the information but it is so different here because I'm used to having some form of technology like at least a projector, and not just a white board. It was hard to explain some of these concepts without pictures and I was so happy when the class period was over. It kind of sucked though because I had a better lesson for geography last week than I did for history on monday (fyi I love history and despise geography).

Also I told my parents that I wanted to stay here for a while longer & not come home until june when my visa expires.....as you can imagine, that didn't go over well (as i've said before...graduation is lame. you still get a diploma if you go or not). I want to teach abroad, but I think it will be easier with a degree in something other than history....I feel like the curriculum is too different in other countries for history & I think English as a Second Language would help me get a job easier. Ideally I would want to stay here, but I would also want to teach somewhere like Greece, India, or somewhere in Southeast Asia like Bangladesh or Thailand.

Anyway hopefully something more exciting happens this weekend. But in 2 weekends a bunch of us are going to do a 6kilometer run...(however you can convert that to miles) which should be a horrible time but were pushing ourselves to do it as a whole Boot Camp group!

Baby There's a Shark in the Water

Another week of crazy is done! Although I don't have as much to say as usual...I need to get out more ;)

Last weekend my roommate Sam & I went bungee jumping at Bloukrans Bridge (look it up in the world record book!). It was about a two hour drive and it was so gorgeous. We drove past Jeffries Bay and all these mountains it was awesome. I actually wasn't that nervous about jumping until we actually got onto the bridge. For some reason I kind of thought that I wasn't living my real life until the jump instructor told me I'd be going first. Sam was so pissed, she had been telling me the whole ride there how she wanted to go first, and now I was going first. Anyway they brought me to the edge and I decided that I wouldn't look over until I was already going because I knew I might chicken out. They gave me the okay to go and I just threw myself over the edge. It was so scary because as soon as your feet leave that platform you realize that theres no going back! I screamed a little bit but it was actually really cool (and peaceful!) to be flying threw the air with no one around. I loved it, I want to do it again before we leave!

After we finished bungee jumping we were dead tired. I'm not sure why but we were. Nothing super interesting happened during the week except that Sam & I volunteered to help out with the swim team! Its been fun, Sam is teaching them some cheers to do at meets while I teach them boring things like technique (it makes me really miss swimming...WEIRD I KNOW).

Also yesterday morning a few of the girls from across the hall (also student teaching & from UA) & I went to a township school and painted one of the classrooms. The kids kept coming in to see what we were up to & they were adorable (facebook pictures!). None of them spoke English and obviously none of us spoke Xhosa but they all wanted to help paint and just be around us. I seriously fell in love with all of them & it makes me want to adopt one when I'm older since I don't want to pop out any children of my own. Anyway there was this one little boy who wanted to wear my sunglasses and take pictures of everything. He actually cried when we left which broke my heart :( I definitely want to go back to see the school again and visit those children!

Nothing much else going on, we tried to go shopping yesterday, but we always forget that the malls here close at 6 :( but hopefully soon we can get some new clothes. I already know that i'll need to ship stuff home (haha already? i know its only been about a month!)

Also wish five of us luck because on monday we are starting a month-long five day a week workout boot camp that I know will kick my ass!

Go Big or Go Home

So we just finished the second week of school, which is so crazy to think about! But enough about school, there's more important stuff to write about....

Okay so on Friday night a few of the younger teachers (all under 30, minus one), other interns, and "the americans" as we are called all attended a braai. Actually let me explain who "the americans" are to prevent confusion. Theres Lara (from Kentucky) whose bedroom doubles as our living room, Sam (from Eastern Illinois) who is just as bummed as me that the Packers are going to the Super Bowl over the Bears! but she & I share the bedroom of the apartment & she's also my new best friend, and Scott (from UA) who lives across the street. Now that you all know the absolute minimum about the people I see on a daily basis, lets continue. So the braai was really fun and chill. Everyone brings their own meat to cook, and the hosts make several side dishes. Luckily the guys cooked the food because get real I can't cook to save my life! So everyone sat around eating and drinking for a few hours and it was nice to see everyone outside of school (like some people are WAY too uptight at school but getting to know them they are actually normal).

On Saturday Scott, Sam, and I went to a rugby game in the soccer stadium (the one from the world cup....i know you're so jealous adrienne!). Anyway as an american, I don't even know what rugby is. I think Mr. Card attempted to teach us it in gym class but realized that as girls we were not about to tackle each other and follow the rules about no forward passes, etc. I think by the end of the game Scott and Sam kind of knew what was going on, but I didn't care, it was just fun being there. The best part though was definitely "the mexican wave". Apparently everywhere else in the world (or maybe just South Africa?) people call the wave that we do at football games, "the mexican wave". I have no idea why.....but it was entertaining.

Monday was that weird no school day where the students had an intramural track meet. It wasn't as horrible as I thought it might be! (That year of track I did in middle school with Mr. U really paid off!) Anyway the students each did a special entrance/ dance type thing to get their house excited to participate. It was crazy and they all used american music like willow smith (which btw i hate that song now since everyone is always singing it!). The white house called something in afrikaans starting with an F won the event so they all went crazy at the end. Like I said it was actually pretty fun.

Nothing too exciting happened during the week, except that we found out we would be helping in the next few weeks with their PT (or gym class as we would call it). Yeah seriously I get to be a PE teacher for a couple classes a week....there is definitely something wrong with the world!

Tomorrow Sam & I are going bungee jumping at the Bloukrans Bridge. Its the highest in the world (about 2 football fields high!) Neither of us have been bungee jumping before, but we figured we'd go big or go home! Hopefully I'll have pictures up later this weekend & we're planning to buy the video of us jumping so thats something we can watch during finals week in may!

One Week Down...13 to go

Haha I'm kidding with the title of the post, the first week wasn't that bad! It was a little confusing at first, but now were all catching on. Since some of the social studies teachers have classes in Afrikaans, we follow three different teachers and some days we have four classes a day and some we have fewer (they only have six a day). Their schedule has been the most confusing part because it is so different from american schools. The schedule runs for two weeks and after two weeks they start back with day one. Thats not too confusing, but the classes don't meet at the same time every day. For example one of the 8th grade geography classes we follow meets during 4th lesson on monday (day one), 1st lesson on tuesday (day two), they may not meet on wednesday (day three), and then they meet 5th lesson on thursday (day four). They switch up when the classes meet, which I think is a good idea because then the same class isn't meeting everyday at 8am when the learners (students) are still half asleep.

The school has a staff meeting every morning at 7:45 and the teachers use english and afrikaans like they are the same language. All of us just sit there completely at a loss because we don't understand whats going on. It almost feels like being in the nail salon and the korean women are talking, looking at you, and laughing and you know they just said something about you like "what a biotch" but they smile at you like "girlfriennnnd you awesome". We decided to just make up stories about what we think people are saying. Most of the kids speak both languages, or at least understand both but some know english as a second language so they learn in afrikaans.

The classes are so different from the u.s. because the teachers basically lecture lecture lecture, the kids never do any activities which is so weird because thats all we've learned to do. The school is also really big on sports, like on monday school is cancelled for a field day/ intramural sports day. I get to help run the long jump, which I am not looking forward to. Also the kids are required to play a winter and summer sport, even if they are not very good...CRAZY! Another thing different about the school is that a lot of the kids say "good morning ma'm" when they pass us in the hall....it makes me feel so old, I don't like it! Our 8th graders got one period on thursday to ask us anything they wanted about america and basically they think all american girls are supermodels, that we all run in to celebrities on a daily basis, and that we can use our american dollars here instead of rand.

One final thing, the school reminds me of Hogwarts....they have three "schools" which the learners are divided into. The houses compete in intramural sports and other stuff. There is a valentines dance coming up in like two weeks that I think we're going to volunteer to help with. Something else interesting here is that shoes are not required in stores, i've seen so many people in the grocery store without shoes!

Oh seriously last thing, there is a hot teacher all of us girls have a major crush on (haha that didn't take long). And tonight we're going to a south african braai (BBQ) which should be interesting!