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!