Ok, so I’ve been bad. I haven’t written in a while. So I gotta update you on the last couple days. Let’s start with Tuesday. I had French toast for breakfast which was delicious and then went to class. Nothing too exciting. It’s class. But I did find out that apparently our readings would be available by the end of the week. I haven’t checked yet. Hopefully we’ll be good on that front. After class, I went swimming which of course was amazing. I love being in the water. It’s like being in a completely different world. Then I finally got started on my interviews for my sociology of health class. The paper is due this Monday and as of now, I’m half way done! The interviews were about organ donation and I had to interview 8 people. So I decided to call Will for my first interview. That went well. He was really helpful and then I called Debbie, the international student coordinator and she also agreed to an interview. I was thankful for her input because she is coloured from South Africa and her perspective is obviously different what a white American like Will. Also I was happy to have two interviews out of the way. I actually ended finished all my interviews in one day. After classes were finally done (their magic they once had over me is now broken…it’s official I’m sick of school), I went to Hillcrest and helped some girls with addition and subtraction. It’s was nice helping the kids with something other than reading though I’m not exactly sure if I helped them or not because they did addition and subtraction horizontally whereas I found it easier to show them how to do it vertically because that’s the way I learned it. Then I watched a bunch of grade ones play soccer. They were so good but I don’t know if that’s just because last time I tired soccer I tripped over the ball (Loren witnessed). They would move the trash bins (they call them dustbins) to make goals and once they ran outta people to have as goalies they moved the dustbins closer to make it harder. They were still good. After watching them for a while, I went back home and finished the rest of my interviews. Then dinner, homework and bed…not a very exciting day.
Wednesday was long. I got to sleep in but I also have class until about eight. I had a tut instead of my usual sociology of health which was pretty much pointless. Someone asked how to reference Google. I am ashamed to admit I almost laughed out loud. I just couldn’t believe. I guess, they’re just on a completely different level then I’m used to. After that I had no class, because the tut for sociology of health was held during regular class time. So I walked around and discovered a computer lab which was amazing because I have found computer access here extremely lacking so finding a computer lab was awesome. I was able to get some work done which was nice still after classes on Wednesday I never feel like doing anything. 3:10 came and myself and two others were sitting in the classroom wondering where everyone else was…apparently class was cancelled even though there was no email sent out saying so. We had Monday off so apparently that meant we didn’t have a tut. But I made a friend. I cannot say his name but he said to call him G. He was really nice and encouraged me not to be afraid to talk to people which is funny because that’s exactly what I’m afraid of. I just hate talking especially here because I know automatically people know I’m different. I sound American, and I’m sure with that all those preconceived notions come into play. I just wonder if I confirm or deny those notions. I hope I represent America well. I think I do but I really never know because I don’t really talk to people and most of the time that I do talk it’s during class and there’s big lecture halls so yeah, I don’t know. I just feel a little lost here especially with the big classes I’m not used to.
After “class” I wandered around some more, before going to where Ivan usually picks us up. He was late but eventually he arrived with Robbie from Stellenbosch. That day we went to the Bo Kapp Museum which wasn’t really a museum. Actually I don’t think we actually went to it. We just walked around Bo Kapp which means “above the cape” in Africaans. It used to be called the Cape Malay quarter which were a certain category the Afikaans made up. I believe they were coloureds and Indians. The area had some awesome coloured houses. All bright blues, and pinks, and greens very “tacking” but I loved it especially since all the houses were like that. It was an interesting tour and it ended at a restaurant that I have to go back to at some point because the food looked delicious (I had no money at the time).
Thursday was chill. It was nice because I only had one class. I went to the primary school after class and they didn’t have anything for me to do, which was really disappointing. I love helping the kids with their homework but for whatever reason they didn’t have a lot of work to do. So I read to the grade ones who were apparently being bad. I was looking through the books and when I came to Cinderalla they were quite adamant about me reading it. Reading to those kids was nearly impossible. I could not get through a single papers without one of the guys saying pick me pick me! And then summarizing the entire story or adding their own thoughts to it. It was cute at first but after a while it got annoying. I was just expecting to the read the story and for them to be listening attentively. But I guess I should be grateful for their enthusiasm. They were just a handful.
Friday I got up early to go to the primary school but the grade four teacher didn’t need me so I was sent to grade two where my favourite Liam was. He looked so surprised to see me. It cracked me up. The teacher directed me towards this French kid who she said spoke only French. Yeah, I don’t speak French. I know hello and that’s about it. So I was very apprehensive about helping him to read but it wasn’t bad at all. He was really good from what I was expecting. He only had trouble with a few words. After reading with him, I was sent to Tadala who had a bit more trouble but was tons of fun. I was only there for an hour but they didn’t have anything else for me to do so I went home. Adam and I finally booked our safari for spring break. It’s so soon. It’s ridiculous. We walked to 2way travel and booked it and I asked Heather questions about doing the Garden Route. The garden route is basically a road that drives along the coast of South Africa. It’s supposed to be beautiful so Adam and I decided we wanted to that during September because we have a long weekend at some point which would be the perfect time to do it. I had tons of fun researching it. I love planning trips. We were thinking about doing the Baz bus which takes you along the garden route and drops you off at different backpackers hostel but its very limiting since they don’t take you anywhere except the hostel so we would have to taxi to anywhere else we wanted to do. Heather suggested doing a car rental which actually turns out to be a lot cheaper. It’s just the whole driving on the other side of the road thing…scary. We have time so I’m sure we’ll figure something out.
After booking our trip, we booked our hostel for one night since we have to arrive in Joburg the night before the safari actually starts. Then I went with some of the girls down to city centre and walked around the company gardens which were beautiful. I was pissed I didn’t bring my camera. I have to go back at some point and then we stopped by the south African art museum which was very cool. It was just really neat to see African art in you know…Africa. I loved it and I got some great postcards to send back home. After that, we walked to Long Street and ate at Royale which was damn good. I got an Oreo milkshake and a fat burger. Heaven. I was so stuffed afterwards. I was pretty exhausted once I got home but Amanda and I walked over to Highstead since I’ve never been there to watch a movie with Chelsea. We picked a horrible chick flick but it was tons of fun to make fun.
Ok and now to the point of this post: the homestay. Amanda and I spent the night in a township called Guguletu. It was a great experience. Our hostess was Mama Noks and she has two children: a daughter and a son. We didn’t see to much of the daughter but her son pretty much took all the pictures for me this weekend which was nice. I didn’t have to worry about taking pictures. He took over 200 and I only took about 50. and he was pretty good at it too.
Mama Noks made us dinner which consisted of pap (ground up maize), cabbage and minced meat. We had to eat with our hands which was quite an experience, but rest assured I tore my plate up. It was delicious. We also had Rooisbos tea which I’m addicted to now (its caffeine free) and milk tart, which I have to learn how to make. I was surprised when I asked her about malva pudding that she hadn’t heard of it… After that we watched a local soccer game which unfornately her team the Kaizer Chiefs lost. But we had fun talking to her and learning her story like how she has five sisters and three brothers who all live in the Eastern Cape. She came to the Western Cape in the 1980s and had to live in a shack because there was little housing. The house that we were in was government housing and she had extended it since she first got it. She mostly hosts students, makes beads and caters. Her jewellery was beautiful and I was so upset that I only brought a little money but I did manage to get my mom this beautiful stone necklace with matching earnings. I hope she likes it. She wanted me to get something that was made by an African so I at least succeeded in that respect. Mama Noks also taught us Xhosa (pronounced with a click then ko-sa). I learned how to say my name is (igama lam ndingu…) and I’m from (ndisucka e…) which was great. She also told us that the next day at church she expected us to introduce ourselves in Xhosa…more on that later. She also tired to teach us some other things like the different clicks which was very hard but I enjoyed trying and laughing at myself.
The next morning Mama Noks made us oats (aka oatmeal) which was very good, following by toast and more tea. I could definitely get used to eating with her. The food was so good. After that we had some down time, which meant of course Supamanga (it sounds similar to superman) her son wanted to take more pictures which was fine with me because he knew a bunch of kids so I have some great pictures of cute little kids. So mostly we spent the time taking pictures and chasing the kids around. It was really fun.
Then we went to church which I absolutely loved. I don’t know what it is about church here but I enjoy it so much more than back home. I guess it’s because its in a different country and you can still feel the power, but something is definitely different. The service was in Xhosa and English so I got to sing in a different language which was interesting. It wasn’t too hard because they had a projection of the words so I could follow along and they had English subtitles. Hearing the sermon in English and in Xhosa definitely took some getting used to but I loved it. I really don’t know how to explain it. It was just powerful and very refreshing as Mary Kate put it. After church, more tea ( I love that) and we milled around a bit more before having to say goodbye to Mama Noks and Supamanga and heading off to Mzoli’s Meat.
First off, I didn’t know it was called Mzoli’s Meat. I thought it was simply Mzoli, so I’m thinking regular food. But no. It’s basically like going to the butcher and picking out your meat. They give you a receipt and you can literally watch them make it if you want. Outside there are tons of chairs and tables and great music playing, people dancing, all just having a great time. So the main thing here is meat. Almost everyone brings their own drinks, chips, etc. You can buy bread and/or pap if you want which I really liked. I don’t know what it was but I really enjoyed the pap. Our guide ended up getting a loaf of bread for the meat. But in the meantime, we start and enjoyed the atmosphere which was hopping. It was definitely a sharp contrast to church, but fun all the same. So the meat finally gets to our table and its in obscene the amount of meat that on the plate: chicken, lamb, pork…it was crazy. I don’t think I’ve eaten that much meat at one time in my entire life. That was definitely an experience but not one I care to repeat because once I got home I felt sick and decided that I would take a break from meat for a bit (meaning tonight will mark over a day since I’ve last had meat, which for me is unusal). I’ve pondered being a vegetarian but I love meat. It’s great. I love the taste so I’m not sure I will but I am planning to cut back. It’s just not good for you to eat a lot of meat (we talked about that today in my social change class).
The rest of trip was chill. We walked some more and I took some more pictures before we were sent off on our minibus towards home. The rest of the day is not really worth mentioning. I just worked on a paper. But that my friends is what I’ve been up to recently.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
lost.... and not found
Yesterday was Woman’s Day and not a very good day for me. It started out fine. I finished my crack granola and Joe called wanting to go to Cavendish but first Amanda and I had to go to the hardware store to get her room key. We tried the locksmith first but they were closed for the holiday. Luckily the hardware store was opened and had what we wanted. Once we got back to the house, we just chilled and then Joe called saying that he was going golfing. It should be noted that it was windy as hell yesterday and slightly stormy. But that’s Joe for you. He loves golf. He asked if we would join but I decided against it. The weather didn’t exactly have me wanted to go try golfing for four hours and I learned that golf has a halftime. Who knew? I know I didn’t. Apparently back home, there are 18 holes and at the end of the ninth, it’s “halftime” but here there are 20 so at the end of the tenth you get “halftime.”
I spent the day doing nothing really. Adam came over and we walked to Café Sophia and I got my beloved Chai tea. So good! Then we went to Pick n Pay and that’s where everything went downhill. Well ok not really, I got a bunch of groceries because I was low on a lot of things so I stocked up but when I got home a reached into my pocket I couldn’t find my debit card. I searched high and low. Looked through all my groceries, all my pockets, all over the floor and even walked outside to see if it was on the brick walkway….nothing. so I call Adam hoping that for some reason he hadn’t but he offered to walk all the way back to Pick n Pay to look for it (such a good friend, thanks Adam). My eyes were glued to ground searching for the debit card but nothing. We even went into the Pick n Pay and I talked to the manager to see if perhaps someone had found it there. No luck. So we walked back, me still searching the ground for that glint of blue that is my debit card….and still no luck.
So I went back to the house, tore up my room, took all my groceries out of the fridge, the freezer and the cabinets…and still no luck. At this point, I decide to call Sir William (it fits). He is not really a help. He asks if I’ve searched everywhere (no, Will I looked in my pocket saw it wasn’t there and called you….I mean, really). I’m sorry but when something like this happens it never puts me in a good mood. I mean, really it’s fine. The short story is no luck finding it today either which in fact wouldn’t have helped regardless because I called my dad yesterday and we cancelled. I’ll get another card….soon I hope. Loren sent me a letter about 2 and ½ weeks ago and it’s still not her so who knows? Luckily, I have my mom’s credit card in case of emergencies such as these so I’ll be fine until then. The only real problem is that I have about $5 worth in cash. It won’t get be far. It’s especially a problem for the taxis…they only take cash. Oh well, it’s replaceable. It’s just a hassle. Yeah this fact didn’t stop me from freaking out. Well, in fact it wasn’t losing the debit card that made me upset it was just the being unable to contact both my boyfriend and my dad when I really needed their support. It has nothing to do with them. It’s just the internet here is so moody. Sometimes it works fine and other times it’s impossible to do the simplest thing and on top of losing my debit card, I just lost it. I do that. I need to get better at it, but I haven’t figured that out yet. Though I have discovered things I do to help. I eat not crazy amounts but I hadn’t eaten since lunch and it was around dinner time when I discovered I was missing the debit card so I was searching for it, trying to take care of everything before eating…not a good idea. I’m especially cranking without food. So I made so banging ass tuna with a boiled egg like Nana used to make. That and watching Scrubs cheered me up. So yeah, that was yesterday. Today was better but I’ll write about that later. Peace!
I spent the day doing nothing really. Adam came over and we walked to Café Sophia and I got my beloved Chai tea. So good! Then we went to Pick n Pay and that’s where everything went downhill. Well ok not really, I got a bunch of groceries because I was low on a lot of things so I stocked up but when I got home a reached into my pocket I couldn’t find my debit card. I searched high and low. Looked through all my groceries, all my pockets, all over the floor and even walked outside to see if it was on the brick walkway….nothing. so I call Adam hoping that for some reason he hadn’t but he offered to walk all the way back to Pick n Pay to look for it (such a good friend, thanks Adam). My eyes were glued to ground searching for the debit card but nothing. We even went into the Pick n Pay and I talked to the manager to see if perhaps someone had found it there. No luck. So we walked back, me still searching the ground for that glint of blue that is my debit card….and still no luck.
So I went back to the house, tore up my room, took all my groceries out of the fridge, the freezer and the cabinets…and still no luck. At this point, I decide to call Sir William (it fits). He is not really a help. He asks if I’ve searched everywhere (no, Will I looked in my pocket saw it wasn’t there and called you….I mean, really). I’m sorry but when something like this happens it never puts me in a good mood. I mean, really it’s fine. The short story is no luck finding it today either which in fact wouldn’t have helped regardless because I called my dad yesterday and we cancelled. I’ll get another card….soon I hope. Loren sent me a letter about 2 and ½ weeks ago and it’s still not her so who knows? Luckily, I have my mom’s credit card in case of emergencies such as these so I’ll be fine until then. The only real problem is that I have about $5 worth in cash. It won’t get be far. It’s especially a problem for the taxis…they only take cash. Oh well, it’s replaceable. It’s just a hassle. Yeah this fact didn’t stop me from freaking out. Well, in fact it wasn’t losing the debit card that made me upset it was just the being unable to contact both my boyfriend and my dad when I really needed their support. It has nothing to do with them. It’s just the internet here is so moody. Sometimes it works fine and other times it’s impossible to do the simplest thing and on top of losing my debit card, I just lost it. I do that. I need to get better at it, but I haven’t figured that out yet. Though I have discovered things I do to help. I eat not crazy amounts but I hadn’t eaten since lunch and it was around dinner time when I discovered I was missing the debit card so I was searching for it, trying to take care of everything before eating…not a good idea. I’m especially cranking without food. So I made so banging ass tuna with a boiled egg like Nana used to make. That and watching Scrubs cheered me up. So yeah, that was yesterday. Today was better but I’ll write about that later. Peace!
Sunday, August 9, 2009
another interesting day in the cape
How the days seem to slip by without me noticing. It’s crazy. Anyways, today was interesting. It started with the roommates who were up until pass one waking up and making plenty of noise at 9:30am while I’m trying to catch up on the sleep I lost because of last night and Amanda running home because she got mugged. Yes, you read correctly she got mugged. Now I was in bed when she came in but I knew something awful happened because let’s face it, I can’t sleep if people are making noise. It sounded bad and despite me wanting so bad to go back sleep I roused myself up and got out of bed. Amanda was seating on the couch tearing eyed and it just made me feel awful. I’m never good in those situations. I mean, I’ve known her since she got her and we’re actually pretty close especially in comparison to the rest of the girls but I still never know what to do. It doesn’t matter if I’ve known you forever or rest a couple weeks I never know if I should go over and sit and comfort that way or just leave her some space. Despite that, I helped in anyway possible.
She had to call the police who of course didn’t answer (this is South Africa after all). Whatever number we got didn’t work and the new number was disconnected (go figure). So I offer to walk down to the police station with her since it’s literally a stone’s throw away from the house.
The police station seemed small inside in comparison to the big brick building you see from the outside and of course, there was chaos. Nothing seemed organized. There were people sitting waiting for something and a bunch of officers talking and doing whatever. We walk in and start talking to an officer and it’s difficult because there are so many people in there and it’s loud. But we fill a police report because our program director, Will told us to. We found out that they needed the serial number and a passport number so that they can search second hand shops for the camera that was stolen. Luckily Amanda’s parents had that information, we just needed to give them a call. We leave after what seems like ages to wait for Uncle Will to come to rescue. Really I feel like he doesn’t know what he’s doing, which I mean is in good reason because he is brand new to this country. I just feel a little less safe with him than I felt with Andrea. But Andrea and Kevin are on vacation right now so even if they wanted to help they really couldn’t.
Will shows up and I’m surprised to see him without his usual suit and vest combo. He’s dressed up as always yet dressed down because he’s only wearing a sweater and a nice pair of slacks and oddly has a New York jacket over it. Anyways, the phone that was stolen was easily replacable because Will has tons of extra so that was easy. The problem came with the keys. Amanda’s room is locked so she can’t get in so Will brought over all the keys that he had in his possession from Andrea.
This was an ordeal because we had to sort through all the keys because they weren’t labelled so we had no idea which key went were and there are six bedrooms, a gate and the house doors that all have keys. Needless to say, that took a while. Entirely too long actually. Will did call a locksmith but since it’s Sunday they really couldn’t do anything so Will tries calling our landlord, Terry whose a really nice guy. He was very concerned about Amanda which was very sweet. He suggested that we go the Pick n Pay because they usually have spare keys and our room keys are standard keys (I’m not sure if I feel safe knowing that…). Will decides he wants to sort out the rest of keys first before trying to the Pick n Pay which leaves Amanda and I sitting there wondering when we can go do something because we feel just leaving Will in the house and everyone else is going off somewhere else. Emily and Sam went to Stellenbosch and Jamie went to Muizenberg. So we’re stuck in the house with Will who seems to be taking his sweet time with the keys taking several smoke breaks.
To pass the time, I introduce Amanda to one of my favourite card games: Spit. Mary and I used to play it all the time. It’s a really fun game. It’s similar to Speed if any of you readers know how to play it, but it’s a two person game and it’s a lot of fun. We ended up playing twice (she won one and I won one) before we decided we’d had enough of waiting around and asked Will if we could just go to the Pick n Pay ourselves and try to get a spare key. Of course, this is when Will decides he’s done sorting the keys and comes with us. So we walk down to Rondesbosch to the Pick n Pay but unfortunately they didn’t have any keys. But we were told that there was a locksmith nearby so we of course check that out only to find that that too couldn’t help us because it was closed.
By this time all of us are starving but Will couldn’t really do anything else to help so we went our separate ways. Us back to the house and Will somewhere in Rondesbosch for lunch. My lunch was basic. I really didn’t want to spend any money today since lately it seems like I’m spending it like crazy. So I just had PB and J, a carrot, an orange and a granola bar. I love the peanut butter here. I just buy the store brand but they have crunchy peanut butter (my favourite) and it is so sweet. It’s really like having dessert. I’m sure it’s really bad for me but I love it.
After lunch, we just chill because while we wanted to climb Table Mountain that takes several hours and by the time we finished lunch there wasn’t enough time to get up the mountain and down before dark. So we were pretty much stuck in the house again, at least this time without Will. I realize I sound like I’m not a fan of Will which is semi-true. But it’s just he seems too much like a parent and I’ve gotten used to not being around mine. Plus he really is not organized and today we found out that he’s leaving for a couple weeks. Are you kidding me? We lose our first director and our second one is leaving. He’s coming back but he said that he had some family things to take care of. So a woman from New Zealand is coming up. It’s just a bit annoying to have three different director in the span of about two months which is about half the time that I’ll be here. Chaos!
The rest of day was chill. We pretty much just hung out at the house. Amanda called her parents and told them and they didn’t seem to freak out too much which was good. Then Joe came over and tried to pick Amanda’s lock which was amusing. It would have been amazing if it would’ve worked but it didn’t. So we were still stuck at the house. We resolved to watch a movie: Almost Famous. It’s really entertaining. It’s about this baby-faced kid who loves rock n rock and wants to be a journalist so he goes on tour with this band Stillwater and writes about them. I just love it because the kid is so awkward and cute.
After the movie was over, I finally had dinner: pasta and string beans again which was fine. It’s simple and quick. Joe left and Amanda and I decided to make another batch of brownies since the last ones were so good. Last night I used one of the ovens that we used before to make my birthday cake but for some reason it cooks unevenly. So we decided to use the other oven. Mistake. The brownies took much longer than last time and they ended up being a bit overcooked. They were still good but a little too crunchy. While we were devouring almost the entire pan of brownies, we watched Death at a Funeral, which if you haven’t seen is hilarious. I highly recommend it. So that was pretty much my day, just chilling in the house with Amanda since all the girls are spending the night in their respective cities. It was nice though having the entire house to ourselves. Plus I know I can go to sleep tonight without having to worry about them coming home late tonight making noise. I realize I sound like an old lady when I says things like this but I just really like my sleep and if I could sleep with people making noise it would be fine but I can never seem to. Trust me, I’ve tried. Ok, that’s it. I’m done complaining. I’m glad to be in a beautiful city, living in a beautiful house and enjoying the many things South Africa has to offer. It’s bedtime. Night y’all
She had to call the police who of course didn’t answer (this is South Africa after all). Whatever number we got didn’t work and the new number was disconnected (go figure). So I offer to walk down to the police station with her since it’s literally a stone’s throw away from the house.
The police station seemed small inside in comparison to the big brick building you see from the outside and of course, there was chaos. Nothing seemed organized. There were people sitting waiting for something and a bunch of officers talking and doing whatever. We walk in and start talking to an officer and it’s difficult because there are so many people in there and it’s loud. But we fill a police report because our program director, Will told us to. We found out that they needed the serial number and a passport number so that they can search second hand shops for the camera that was stolen. Luckily Amanda’s parents had that information, we just needed to give them a call. We leave after what seems like ages to wait for Uncle Will to come to rescue. Really I feel like he doesn’t know what he’s doing, which I mean is in good reason because he is brand new to this country. I just feel a little less safe with him than I felt with Andrea. But Andrea and Kevin are on vacation right now so even if they wanted to help they really couldn’t.
Will shows up and I’m surprised to see him without his usual suit and vest combo. He’s dressed up as always yet dressed down because he’s only wearing a sweater and a nice pair of slacks and oddly has a New York jacket over it. Anyways, the phone that was stolen was easily replacable because Will has tons of extra so that was easy. The problem came with the keys. Amanda’s room is locked so she can’t get in so Will brought over all the keys that he had in his possession from Andrea.
This was an ordeal because we had to sort through all the keys because they weren’t labelled so we had no idea which key went were and there are six bedrooms, a gate and the house doors that all have keys. Needless to say, that took a while. Entirely too long actually. Will did call a locksmith but since it’s Sunday they really couldn’t do anything so Will tries calling our landlord, Terry whose a really nice guy. He was very concerned about Amanda which was very sweet. He suggested that we go the Pick n Pay because they usually have spare keys and our room keys are standard keys (I’m not sure if I feel safe knowing that…). Will decides he wants to sort out the rest of keys first before trying to the Pick n Pay which leaves Amanda and I sitting there wondering when we can go do something because we feel just leaving Will in the house and everyone else is going off somewhere else. Emily and Sam went to Stellenbosch and Jamie went to Muizenberg. So we’re stuck in the house with Will who seems to be taking his sweet time with the keys taking several smoke breaks.
To pass the time, I introduce Amanda to one of my favourite card games: Spit. Mary and I used to play it all the time. It’s a really fun game. It’s similar to Speed if any of you readers know how to play it, but it’s a two person game and it’s a lot of fun. We ended up playing twice (she won one and I won one) before we decided we’d had enough of waiting around and asked Will if we could just go to the Pick n Pay ourselves and try to get a spare key. Of course, this is when Will decides he’s done sorting the keys and comes with us. So we walk down to Rondesbosch to the Pick n Pay but unfortunately they didn’t have any keys. But we were told that there was a locksmith nearby so we of course check that out only to find that that too couldn’t help us because it was closed.
By this time all of us are starving but Will couldn’t really do anything else to help so we went our separate ways. Us back to the house and Will somewhere in Rondesbosch for lunch. My lunch was basic. I really didn’t want to spend any money today since lately it seems like I’m spending it like crazy. So I just had PB and J, a carrot, an orange and a granola bar. I love the peanut butter here. I just buy the store brand but they have crunchy peanut butter (my favourite) and it is so sweet. It’s really like having dessert. I’m sure it’s really bad for me but I love it.
After lunch, we just chill because while we wanted to climb Table Mountain that takes several hours and by the time we finished lunch there wasn’t enough time to get up the mountain and down before dark. So we were pretty much stuck in the house again, at least this time without Will. I realize I sound like I’m not a fan of Will which is semi-true. But it’s just he seems too much like a parent and I’ve gotten used to not being around mine. Plus he really is not organized and today we found out that he’s leaving for a couple weeks. Are you kidding me? We lose our first director and our second one is leaving. He’s coming back but he said that he had some family things to take care of. So a woman from New Zealand is coming up. It’s just a bit annoying to have three different director in the span of about two months which is about half the time that I’ll be here. Chaos!
The rest of day was chill. We pretty much just hung out at the house. Amanda called her parents and told them and they didn’t seem to freak out too much which was good. Then Joe came over and tried to pick Amanda’s lock which was amusing. It would have been amazing if it would’ve worked but it didn’t. So we were still stuck at the house. We resolved to watch a movie: Almost Famous. It’s really entertaining. It’s about this baby-faced kid who loves rock n rock and wants to be a journalist so he goes on tour with this band Stillwater and writes about them. I just love it because the kid is so awkward and cute.
After the movie was over, I finally had dinner: pasta and string beans again which was fine. It’s simple and quick. Joe left and Amanda and I decided to make another batch of brownies since the last ones were so good. Last night I used one of the ovens that we used before to make my birthday cake but for some reason it cooks unevenly. So we decided to use the other oven. Mistake. The brownies took much longer than last time and they ended up being a bit overcooked. They were still good but a little too crunchy. While we were devouring almost the entire pan of brownies, we watched Death at a Funeral, which if you haven’t seen is hilarious. I highly recommend it. So that was pretty much my day, just chilling in the house with Amanda since all the girls are spending the night in their respective cities. It was nice though having the entire house to ourselves. Plus I know I can go to sleep tonight without having to worry about them coming home late tonight making noise. I realize I sound like an old lady when I says things like this but I just really like my sleep and if I could sleep with people making noise it would be fine but I can never seem to. Trust me, I’ve tried. Ok, that’s it. I’m done complaining. I’m glad to be in a beautiful city, living in a beautiful house and enjoying the many things South Africa has to offer. It’s bedtime. Night y’all
2 Oceans Aquarium
Yesterday I went to the Two Oceans Aquarium and it was amazing. I felt like a little kid again. They had the usual stuff: jellyfish, starfish, sharks, sting rays, all sorts of fish and frogs. It was pretty cool. Adam and I took a taxi down to the waterfront where the aquarium was. I really don’t know how to describe besides the fact that it was gorgeous. They had this cool tank filled with clown fish and there was an area where you could go “inside” the tank and see all the fishes around you. Adam and I took some pictures of course. It was really cool. They also had this huge tank that arched over you and it was really cool to see a huge sea turtle swim right above you head, not to mention the sting rays and sharks. I took about 250 pictures total yesterday. I especially liked the jellyfish. They were pretty tiny in size but had really long tentacles. They were so graceful. I probably could have stared at them for hours.
We spent about an hour there and then wandered around the waterfront for a bit. I took some more pictures because you could see all of Table Mountain from the waterfront and the harbour was really pretty. We also saw some seals just chilling on a wooden platform. It was funny because I was just singing the song “Fly like an eagle” by Seal and then we saw some seals. They were hilarious. I took some video of them because one of them was just sleeping in the sun and then another one would come up and start making these crazy noises bothering the sleeping one and they’d just start talking to each other making lots of racket. It cracked me up. After that we wandered around some more and found this official South African flag shop, they had some really cool things but I was out of money, so I just looked and now I know exactly what I want to get.
We came home around dinner time and I made some pasta and green beans, which were tasty. Then I made brownies which were so good that they are currently gone and it hasn’t even been 24 hours since I made them. I really didn’t do much last night. Adam and Joe came over and we pretty much just chilled until we got tired. Not an exciting night but a good day nonetheless.
We spent about an hour there and then wandered around the waterfront for a bit. I took some more pictures because you could see all of Table Mountain from the waterfront and the harbour was really pretty. We also saw some seals just chilling on a wooden platform. It was funny because I was just singing the song “Fly like an eagle” by Seal and then we saw some seals. They were hilarious. I took some video of them because one of them was just sleeping in the sun and then another one would come up and start making these crazy noises bothering the sleeping one and they’d just start talking to each other making lots of racket. It cracked me up. After that we wandered around some more and found this official South African flag shop, they had some really cool things but I was out of money, so I just looked and now I know exactly what I want to get.
We came home around dinner time and I made some pasta and green beans, which were tasty. Then I made brownies which were so good that they are currently gone and it hasn’t even been 24 hours since I made them. I really didn’t do much last night. Adam and Joe came over and we pretty much just chilled until we got tired. Not an exciting night but a good day nonetheless.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
mama afrika!
Yesterday marked my one month mark in this country for those of you interested. It’s been interesting to say the least. Tonight was great so I’m going to talk about that.
So Amanda and I wanted to go out tonight. We weren’t sure what. We just knew that going to club all night long wasn’t exactly what we were looking for. So we did some searching. I found this amazing jazz club that in Camps Bay but that’s quite a distance from us and we decided against us. We also looked at going to see a play but nothing really jumped out as being interesting enough for us to rush out and see it (we were searching around 7 and plays usually start around 8). So we finally settled on this place that we’d pasted way back when we had an orientation dinner with Arcadia. The place: Mama Africa. It’s a restaurant and bar and has live African music so we decided it was perfect because it wasn’t far and didn’t require us to be dancing all night long if we didn’t want to. So we go. I call a cab and it’s Henry Africa! I don’t think I mentioned him before but he was our cab driver on our way back from Cavendish last weekend. He played the same two Cecil Dione songs so yeah he was ridiculous. But we randomly got him last night which just made this world seem a lot smaller. Anyway, I’m pretty sure he took us a long way because though I’m not an expert on this city, I know the general direction and he definitely turned when he could have continued going straight.
But we got there in one piece. Some of the drivers can be crazy but Henry was relatively slow actually. Mama Africa was packed. We thought we were going to have to stand which sucked because the music hadn’t even started when we got there, but luckily a bartender grabbed an extra seat and brought it to the bar so at least one of us got a seat. We ordered drinks and the best South African dessert I know of: malva pudding. It is so good. But of course the drinks came first and were way too strong for us. Both of us aren’t drinkers so that was difficult. I didn’t end up finishing my drink because after I went to bathroom I wasn’t sure if anything happened to it….better to be safe than sorry.
But back to the actual happenings in the bar, it was great fun. First off the music was amazing. Really chill at times and then suddenly it was speed up and make you wanna dance. Plus the singer was amazing. He literally seemed like two different singers because he was able to sing really high and then suddenly switch way down low. It was so strange hearing at first and to be honest, we never did get used to it. But it was very entertaining. The band even had a saxophone and trumpet which you know I loved. I am very sorry to say that the trumpet was much better at improv then the sax but it was still enjoyable. Highlights of the night included “Somewhere over the rainbow,” “Papa was a Rolling Stone” and “Is this Love” all with their own unique African twist. I loved it.
Not as far as the atmosphere went, it was really chill. Lots of people just having a good time. But as with most bars there were the creepers. Like the guy who was staring at me most of the night and even had the nerve to take out his phone and take a picture, more than once. That was awful but I tired my best to ignore him but it was hard just noticing out of the corner of your eye noticing this guy not taking your eyes off you. Very creepy. At one point he disappeared because there were finally people blocking his view but then he pops up out of nowhere and starts talking to Amanda asking why I hadn’t come over. I’m sorry but that’s not my job. I don’t know maybe that’s how it works over here. I really wanted to go over there and tell him to stop but I don’t know if that would have just started trouble. Anyway, nothing happened there. He never actually started talking to me it was just really awkward.
Then the most hilarious thing happened to Amanda. This older woman comes up to her and asks her if she could bring her friend over. Amanda thinks: why not? So this guy comes over and is definitely at least 40 which cracked me up. Yeah older guys are fine but that old? No thank you. He tried to convince her to go back and sit with the rest of his older friends and we’re just like: no thank you. So the guy leaves after the repeated no’s and this woman sitting next to us tells us that the woman who brought over the guy hires prostitutes at which point I die laughing. What a crazy night! Now I’m not sure if she was just joking or if she even actually knew but either way it cracked me up.
I also had another admirer but he wasn’t nearly as creepy as the first guy. Well, I’m not sure. He did blow me a kiss which made me question what exactly was going on in this bar. But he didn’t stare as much or maybe I just didn’t notice and at least he actually came up and talked to us. He sent his friend over first, whose name I can’t remember but he chatted us up. Made us feel bad for turning him and his friend but it was all in good fun and we actually had a decent conversation about politics. He just talked about how America is rich enough to start trouble somewhere else and then leave, while other countries are struggling to deal with the trouble inside their borders. He wanted us to give him our numbers to hang out again and wasn’t too thrilled when we were reluctant. We ended up leaving after agreeing that if we can back today (yesterday it was tomorrow) then we’d hang. Yeah, I don’t think that’ll be happening. But he did intrigued me by talking about this new South African film that had just came out though I’m not sure if he was making it up.
So that was last night. The morning was also good. I woke up surprisingly early like around 9:30am and had some granola. It’s like my crack. I’m so addicted. Then I walked to 2way travel, a travel agency on UCT’s campus and booked an overnight homestay for next weekend. I’m excited it should be good. Then I walked back and saw a baboon. It was crazy. I had heard the other students talking about seeing baboons on their campus but to see one for yourself was a trip. This cyclist came up to me and started saying something in other language and when I said: what. He just asked if I was scared and said no, I just wasn’t going to bother it. it probably couldn’t have anyway because it was fenced in. I was perfectly safe walking on the road passing it by.
Once I got back I went straight to Hillcrest to the fourth grade teacher. I helped a few students with reading. The first girl was named Valentina and she was really sweet. She’s from Anglo and struggles a lot with reading. It wasn’t too bad at first but it got bad when we got to the word “unlimited.” I tried the whole breaking up the word into different parts and using rhyming words but she still didn’t get it. We finally made some head way by going one letter at a time and it was awesome that by the end I could point to the word and she would know it. I also think she liked me because she wanted me to walk with her back to the classroom.
I helped another boy who really only struggled with a few words and then another boy who was fine expect for one word, I can’t recall which. I felt bad because I had wasted so much time in the morning that I didn’t get there until around 11:30 and class let out at noon because it was a Friday. So I was disappointed that I couldn’t help more but was glad to at least make even a small difference.
After the bell rang, I saw some of the kids from aftercare. I said hi and told them had a nice weekend, to which they replied: you’re leaving?!?!? I said yes and then asked if they wanted me to stay; they shouted: yeah! So I suckered into playing with them for an hour. Running around with them was exhausting. But I counted it as my exercise because I definitely sweated while running around playing tag with them. When it got to be about one, I decided it was time to go, said goodbye to Mama Esta and made my getaway.
Back home, I had lunch another tuna melt. Delicious. And then decided to check out the Mowbray library. It was so small. Just one level and very few books. There were four computers but you had to have a library card to use them and getting one required proof of residency which I of course didn’t have. The guy at the front desk said that I could get it from my landlord. I’m not sure if it’s worth the hassle because you can only use the computer for 45 minutes/day. But it is free internet and close by so we’ll see.
I didn’t stay long because I discovered that there were no books of interest for the papers I was going to write and my computer battery was low and there was no place to plug it in. Unfortunately they didn’t have free wireless at the library so I just started doing some work to my computer before I decided that it wasn’t really worth it and left. It is very quiet so I might use it as a quiet reading place.
Next I went to the pharmacy to see if they had malaria pills. After searching around the store, I finally asked and told to ask the pharmacist. So I waited in line asked the woman at the front desk who told me to sit and wait so more. Almost as soon as I sit down, exhaustion hits me like a bus. Those kids killed me. I was completely wiped out and had to struggle to keep my eyes open. Eventually the pharmacist joined me and told me I get some pills for about $10 with little side affect or pay seven times that for basically the same thing. Needless the say, I got the cheap kind. Hopefully that doesn’t come back to haunt me.
I love cooking. Can I just say that? I love it. It makes me think of my grandmother. She was a great cook. Maybe one day I can be just as good. I just like it because when I cook I think of her. I actually do that with a lot of things like one of the main reasons I drink tea is because my granddad drank it. No coffee, but tea, you can a little sugar and it’s just fine. Plus I don’t like being dependent on caffeine and you can get decaf tea. The roobios tea here is decaf and delicious. Another thing I do to remember those now gone is watch Monk. It was Aunt Winona’s favourite show and I just started watching it because her and I’m definitely addicted. That show is hilarious.
But back to now, I guess I really have not much more to say besides the fact that I made rice again. This time I think it turned out better and I made green beans. I basically just mixed up rice, green beans and some chicken I’d cooked a couple days before. ‘twas tasty. Ok that’s all about yesterday. It wasn’t really in order but you get the idea.
So Amanda and I wanted to go out tonight. We weren’t sure what. We just knew that going to club all night long wasn’t exactly what we were looking for. So we did some searching. I found this amazing jazz club that in Camps Bay but that’s quite a distance from us and we decided against us. We also looked at going to see a play but nothing really jumped out as being interesting enough for us to rush out and see it (we were searching around 7 and plays usually start around 8). So we finally settled on this place that we’d pasted way back when we had an orientation dinner with Arcadia. The place: Mama Africa. It’s a restaurant and bar and has live African music so we decided it was perfect because it wasn’t far and didn’t require us to be dancing all night long if we didn’t want to. So we go. I call a cab and it’s Henry Africa! I don’t think I mentioned him before but he was our cab driver on our way back from Cavendish last weekend. He played the same two Cecil Dione songs so yeah he was ridiculous. But we randomly got him last night which just made this world seem a lot smaller. Anyway, I’m pretty sure he took us a long way because though I’m not an expert on this city, I know the general direction and he definitely turned when he could have continued going straight.
But we got there in one piece. Some of the drivers can be crazy but Henry was relatively slow actually. Mama Africa was packed. We thought we were going to have to stand which sucked because the music hadn’t even started when we got there, but luckily a bartender grabbed an extra seat and brought it to the bar so at least one of us got a seat. We ordered drinks and the best South African dessert I know of: malva pudding. It is so good. But of course the drinks came first and were way too strong for us. Both of us aren’t drinkers so that was difficult. I didn’t end up finishing my drink because after I went to bathroom I wasn’t sure if anything happened to it….better to be safe than sorry.
But back to the actual happenings in the bar, it was great fun. First off the music was amazing. Really chill at times and then suddenly it was speed up and make you wanna dance. Plus the singer was amazing. He literally seemed like two different singers because he was able to sing really high and then suddenly switch way down low. It was so strange hearing at first and to be honest, we never did get used to it. But it was very entertaining. The band even had a saxophone and trumpet which you know I loved. I am very sorry to say that the trumpet was much better at improv then the sax but it was still enjoyable. Highlights of the night included “Somewhere over the rainbow,” “Papa was a Rolling Stone” and “Is this Love” all with their own unique African twist. I loved it.
Not as far as the atmosphere went, it was really chill. Lots of people just having a good time. But as with most bars there were the creepers. Like the guy who was staring at me most of the night and even had the nerve to take out his phone and take a picture, more than once. That was awful but I tired my best to ignore him but it was hard just noticing out of the corner of your eye noticing this guy not taking your eyes off you. Very creepy. At one point he disappeared because there were finally people blocking his view but then he pops up out of nowhere and starts talking to Amanda asking why I hadn’t come over. I’m sorry but that’s not my job. I don’t know maybe that’s how it works over here. I really wanted to go over there and tell him to stop but I don’t know if that would have just started trouble. Anyway, nothing happened there. He never actually started talking to me it was just really awkward.
Then the most hilarious thing happened to Amanda. This older woman comes up to her and asks her if she could bring her friend over. Amanda thinks: why not? So this guy comes over and is definitely at least 40 which cracked me up. Yeah older guys are fine but that old? No thank you. He tried to convince her to go back and sit with the rest of his older friends and we’re just like: no thank you. So the guy leaves after the repeated no’s and this woman sitting next to us tells us that the woman who brought over the guy hires prostitutes at which point I die laughing. What a crazy night! Now I’m not sure if she was just joking or if she even actually knew but either way it cracked me up.
I also had another admirer but he wasn’t nearly as creepy as the first guy. Well, I’m not sure. He did blow me a kiss which made me question what exactly was going on in this bar. But he didn’t stare as much or maybe I just didn’t notice and at least he actually came up and talked to us. He sent his friend over first, whose name I can’t remember but he chatted us up. Made us feel bad for turning him and his friend but it was all in good fun and we actually had a decent conversation about politics. He just talked about how America is rich enough to start trouble somewhere else and then leave, while other countries are struggling to deal with the trouble inside their borders. He wanted us to give him our numbers to hang out again and wasn’t too thrilled when we were reluctant. We ended up leaving after agreeing that if we can back today (yesterday it was tomorrow) then we’d hang. Yeah, I don’t think that’ll be happening. But he did intrigued me by talking about this new South African film that had just came out though I’m not sure if he was making it up.
So that was last night. The morning was also good. I woke up surprisingly early like around 9:30am and had some granola. It’s like my crack. I’m so addicted. Then I walked to 2way travel, a travel agency on UCT’s campus and booked an overnight homestay for next weekend. I’m excited it should be good. Then I walked back and saw a baboon. It was crazy. I had heard the other students talking about seeing baboons on their campus but to see one for yourself was a trip. This cyclist came up to me and started saying something in other language and when I said: what. He just asked if I was scared and said no, I just wasn’t going to bother it. it probably couldn’t have anyway because it was fenced in. I was perfectly safe walking on the road passing it by.
Once I got back I went straight to Hillcrest to the fourth grade teacher. I helped a few students with reading. The first girl was named Valentina and she was really sweet. She’s from Anglo and struggles a lot with reading. It wasn’t too bad at first but it got bad when we got to the word “unlimited.” I tried the whole breaking up the word into different parts and using rhyming words but she still didn’t get it. We finally made some head way by going one letter at a time and it was awesome that by the end I could point to the word and she would know it. I also think she liked me because she wanted me to walk with her back to the classroom.
I helped another boy who really only struggled with a few words and then another boy who was fine expect for one word, I can’t recall which. I felt bad because I had wasted so much time in the morning that I didn’t get there until around 11:30 and class let out at noon because it was a Friday. So I was disappointed that I couldn’t help more but was glad to at least make even a small difference.
After the bell rang, I saw some of the kids from aftercare. I said hi and told them had a nice weekend, to which they replied: you’re leaving?!?!? I said yes and then asked if they wanted me to stay; they shouted: yeah! So I suckered into playing with them for an hour. Running around with them was exhausting. But I counted it as my exercise because I definitely sweated while running around playing tag with them. When it got to be about one, I decided it was time to go, said goodbye to Mama Esta and made my getaway.
Back home, I had lunch another tuna melt. Delicious. And then decided to check out the Mowbray library. It was so small. Just one level and very few books. There were four computers but you had to have a library card to use them and getting one required proof of residency which I of course didn’t have. The guy at the front desk said that I could get it from my landlord. I’m not sure if it’s worth the hassle because you can only use the computer for 45 minutes/day. But it is free internet and close by so we’ll see.
I didn’t stay long because I discovered that there were no books of interest for the papers I was going to write and my computer battery was low and there was no place to plug it in. Unfortunately they didn’t have free wireless at the library so I just started doing some work to my computer before I decided that it wasn’t really worth it and left. It is very quiet so I might use it as a quiet reading place.
Next I went to the pharmacy to see if they had malaria pills. After searching around the store, I finally asked and told to ask the pharmacist. So I waited in line asked the woman at the front desk who told me to sit and wait so more. Almost as soon as I sit down, exhaustion hits me like a bus. Those kids killed me. I was completely wiped out and had to struggle to keep my eyes open. Eventually the pharmacist joined me and told me I get some pills for about $10 with little side affect or pay seven times that for basically the same thing. Needless the say, I got the cheap kind. Hopefully that doesn’t come back to haunt me.
I love cooking. Can I just say that? I love it. It makes me think of my grandmother. She was a great cook. Maybe one day I can be just as good. I just like it because when I cook I think of her. I actually do that with a lot of things like one of the main reasons I drink tea is because my granddad drank it. No coffee, but tea, you can a little sugar and it’s just fine. Plus I don’t like being dependent on caffeine and you can get decaf tea. The roobios tea here is decaf and delicious. Another thing I do to remember those now gone is watch Monk. It was Aunt Winona’s favourite show and I just started watching it because her and I’m definitely addicted. That show is hilarious.
But back to now, I guess I really have not much more to say besides the fact that I made rice again. This time I think it turned out better and I made green beans. I basically just mixed up rice, green beans and some chicken I’d cooked a couple days before. ‘twas tasty. Ok that’s all about yesterday. It wasn’t really in order but you get the idea.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
My little angel
The last few days have been stressful. Monday I was getting a bit paranoid because someone at Stellenbosch University died of swine flu. His is the first death in South Africa due to swine flu, and although Stellenbosch isn’t close, it is like an hour away and Robbie goes there and he came to UWC yesterday for our core class. Yeah, I realize I haven’t talked about him much, it’s just he’s the only here for the core class and then goes back to Stellenbosch. It was interesting though the first time I met him. He has a weird accent that made me doubt that he was American but who am I judge? Yesterday I had little kids laughing hysterically at me because of my accent (I don’t consider myself as having one)
Tuesday was my first time volunteering at Hillcrest Primary School. I decided to volunteer there three times a week just because 1) I love kids with cute accents and 2) its literally two houses down from our house so it’s super convenient. I met the principal and she took me to a fourth grade teacher. I will be helping some of her students out on Friday because school ends at two here and on Tuesdays and Thursdays I can’t get there until around 2:30.
So after being introduced to the fourth grade teacher (her name escapes me), I was taken to the aftercare room and meet the cutest little kids. The primary school ranges from grade 1 to grade 7. 8th graders go to high school, which is different from back home. Like I mentioned before I got laughed at a lot because of my accent and of course asked all sorts of question: like how old are you? Are you popular? (why I do not know) and then of course I was bombarded with questions in regards to my ring.
Loren gave me a ring way back when I visited him in Nashville. I can tell you that I was completely shocked because I’ve never gotten a ring before. It’s a promise ring and no, it’s not a promise ring like we’re going to get married after we graduate or something. It’s more like he promises to wait for me while I’m on this crazy journey so yeah, it’s cool. I love it because I always wear it so I’m constantly reminded of him.
But I digress, they asked if I was married and when I said no, they asked if I was engaged and they couldn’t understand why I would have a ring and be neither. It was quite amusing and Loren enjoyed hearing about that thouroughly.
I really didn’t do much that day. I got read to which was fun. I absolutely love their accents. Their sort of British but not quite like my favourite little one (his name is Liam…pronounced Lee-am) is Indian and I love listening to him talk. Today I helped him with his spelling. They all have to do homework before they can go play and he was last one working on it. He gets distracted pretty easily, which is understandable since there are kids running around all over the place, shouting and stuff. I’m pretty sure he’s like me and needs peace and quiet to get his work done. Anyways, I helped him and some of the other kids with spelling because each day they have to write “news” basically what they did that day or yesterday. It was amusing. Like Chloe (whose a boy…) was trying to spell yesterday and for some reason wanted to spell it with an “s” and he argued with me about it.
Today I mostly helped Liam because they were learning words that start with “dr” and had to memorize 20 and then write them out. Watching him do it, I realized that I probably couldn’t even do it on my own. I mean, once I got into it. It wasn’t too hard but still. So Liam ran into a bunch of trouble when he got about half way through so I helped him by giving him hints about the words. Like one of the words was “drink” so I picked up a bottle and was like “what am I doing if I do this?” It was fun and he was super cute because sometimes he would explain to me what a word meant like “drift” and start going on and on about cars drifting and racing. So cute. I was able to help with most of the list but for the life of me I couldn’t get him to guess the word “drank.” He said my hints were too hard but I even told him the word was similar to “drink” and “drunk” and that it had an “a” in it and he still didn’t get it which was weird because I got him to guess “draft” when I told him it was similar to “drift.” I forgot what grade he’s in but I mentioned vowels a lot and he didn’t seem to know what I meant.
Other adorable thing was if I was helping him spell things like the word “could.” I would sound it out and he’d copy me and “ooo” “ooo.” It’s weird but even when I’m trying to spell the simplest words like “could” I second guess myself because “could” doesn’t sound like it has an “l” in it. what’s up with that?
Today like Tuesday I also talked to Teacher Esta who I will be referring to as “Mama Esta.” She’s wonderful. She made me rooibos tea. It’s a South African tea and its delicious. Plus she gives me biscuits (aka our cookies) to eat them with. Yum!! She even offered me food and said that next Tuesday she’d make some authetic South African food for me. I’m excited.
Today I only had one class which was nice and after it, I had a continuation of our orientation with UWC. It was basically a small get-together with some students talking about adjusting to the culture. I mentioned not feeling included in the community and also having trouble finding a computer in the library and I learned that they are supposivley 80 computer labs on campus. Where they are hiding them is the question. But it was nice to at least talk a little bit about our frustrations with the campus and have people listening openly about it.
Yesterday was long. I had class from 1-4 and then class from 5 until 8ish. The first three classes were the normal tuts and sociology of health class. But the class at 5 was the core class. We listened to a political science teacher lecture us on issues in South Africa. It was interesting but way too much to take in on an empty stomach. It lasted way longer than I was expecting which was not cool. I got home and by the time I had dinner, it was already nine. So I really didn’t do much after that. The night was gone before I knew.
Monday seems like so long ago. I’m done with my school week already. Basically it was just class and I believe I went swimming. I went swimming both on Monday and Wednesday. Good times. I used my goggles and swim cap and I believed I’ve improved. I should have ran or something today but after helping the kids out, I’m exhausted and don’t feel like doing it. I should probably do it anyway. Ok that’s all for now. Peace
Tuesday was my first time volunteering at Hillcrest Primary School. I decided to volunteer there three times a week just because 1) I love kids with cute accents and 2) its literally two houses down from our house so it’s super convenient. I met the principal and she took me to a fourth grade teacher. I will be helping some of her students out on Friday because school ends at two here and on Tuesdays and Thursdays I can’t get there until around 2:30.
So after being introduced to the fourth grade teacher (her name escapes me), I was taken to the aftercare room and meet the cutest little kids. The primary school ranges from grade 1 to grade 7. 8th graders go to high school, which is different from back home. Like I mentioned before I got laughed at a lot because of my accent and of course asked all sorts of question: like how old are you? Are you popular? (why I do not know) and then of course I was bombarded with questions in regards to my ring.
Loren gave me a ring way back when I visited him in Nashville. I can tell you that I was completely shocked because I’ve never gotten a ring before. It’s a promise ring and no, it’s not a promise ring like we’re going to get married after we graduate or something. It’s more like he promises to wait for me while I’m on this crazy journey so yeah, it’s cool. I love it because I always wear it so I’m constantly reminded of him.
But I digress, they asked if I was married and when I said no, they asked if I was engaged and they couldn’t understand why I would have a ring and be neither. It was quite amusing and Loren enjoyed hearing about that thouroughly.
I really didn’t do much that day. I got read to which was fun. I absolutely love their accents. Their sort of British but not quite like my favourite little one (his name is Liam…pronounced Lee-am) is Indian and I love listening to him talk. Today I helped him with his spelling. They all have to do homework before they can go play and he was last one working on it. He gets distracted pretty easily, which is understandable since there are kids running around all over the place, shouting and stuff. I’m pretty sure he’s like me and needs peace and quiet to get his work done. Anyways, I helped him and some of the other kids with spelling because each day they have to write “news” basically what they did that day or yesterday. It was amusing. Like Chloe (whose a boy…) was trying to spell yesterday and for some reason wanted to spell it with an “s” and he argued with me about it.
Today I mostly helped Liam because they were learning words that start with “dr” and had to memorize 20 and then write them out. Watching him do it, I realized that I probably couldn’t even do it on my own. I mean, once I got into it. It wasn’t too hard but still. So Liam ran into a bunch of trouble when he got about half way through so I helped him by giving him hints about the words. Like one of the words was “drink” so I picked up a bottle and was like “what am I doing if I do this?” It was fun and he was super cute because sometimes he would explain to me what a word meant like “drift” and start going on and on about cars drifting and racing. So cute. I was able to help with most of the list but for the life of me I couldn’t get him to guess the word “drank.” He said my hints were too hard but I even told him the word was similar to “drink” and “drunk” and that it had an “a” in it and he still didn’t get it which was weird because I got him to guess “draft” when I told him it was similar to “drift.” I forgot what grade he’s in but I mentioned vowels a lot and he didn’t seem to know what I meant.
Other adorable thing was if I was helping him spell things like the word “could.” I would sound it out and he’d copy me and “ooo” “ooo.” It’s weird but even when I’m trying to spell the simplest words like “could” I second guess myself because “could” doesn’t sound like it has an “l” in it. what’s up with that?
Today like Tuesday I also talked to Teacher Esta who I will be referring to as “Mama Esta.” She’s wonderful. She made me rooibos tea. It’s a South African tea and its delicious. Plus she gives me biscuits (aka our cookies) to eat them with. Yum!! She even offered me food and said that next Tuesday she’d make some authetic South African food for me. I’m excited.
Today I only had one class which was nice and after it, I had a continuation of our orientation with UWC. It was basically a small get-together with some students talking about adjusting to the culture. I mentioned not feeling included in the community and also having trouble finding a computer in the library and I learned that they are supposivley 80 computer labs on campus. Where they are hiding them is the question. But it was nice to at least talk a little bit about our frustrations with the campus and have people listening openly about it.
Yesterday was long. I had class from 1-4 and then class from 5 until 8ish. The first three classes were the normal tuts and sociology of health class. But the class at 5 was the core class. We listened to a political science teacher lecture us on issues in South Africa. It was interesting but way too much to take in on an empty stomach. It lasted way longer than I was expecting which was not cool. I got home and by the time I had dinner, it was already nine. So I really didn’t do much after that. The night was gone before I knew.
Monday seems like so long ago. I’m done with my school week already. Basically it was just class and I believe I went swimming. I went swimming both on Monday and Wednesday. Good times. I used my goggles and swim cap and I believed I’ve improved. I should have ran or something today but after helping the kids out, I’m exhausted and don’t feel like doing it. I should probably do it anyway. Ok that’s all for now. Peace
Monday, August 3, 2009
just what i needed
This post will be reflecting on yesterday. It was a good day as days goes, not too exciting but not obnoxiously boring either. I had granola and a banana for breakfast and then went on another run. It was good. I just ran to the track, did four loops, which hopefully is a mile and ran back. It was slow but it was 30 minutes which is longer than I’ve been running lately.
Last night Loren said he’d train with me for the half marathon in April. We’ll see if that happens. I would love that because he would probably get me into great shape if he doesn’t kill me first. The first time we ran together was three days after my first half marathon (next year’s will be the second). He almost killed me! We ran 2 miles in 16 minutes which was exhausted after 1) running the half and 2) not running in 3 days. Regardless it was great to run with him so training with him will be both amusing and painful. Amusing because he claims that he’s never run more than three miles. Painful because regardless of the pervious statement, he’s faster thus probably going to kill me. It’ll be interesting to say the least
After my run, I took the usual shower and had lunch. Yesterday’s consisted of grilled cheese, a carrot stick, an orange and eggs. The eggs because Jamie offered the rest of her eggs and I’m not one to turn down free food. Plus they were really good with cheese, tomatoes, and pepper. Delicious!
Once lunch was done, I needed something to do. So I convinced Amanda to walk with me to Rondebosch to go to an internet café. We ended up choosing Café Sofia. Yeah, free internet! You value that a lot more when you have to pay for it. But of course, you still have to buy something in order to get the internet. I ordered chai tea and cheesecake. The tea was great. Holly got me hooked on chai tea. I tried it with her once and loved it. I’m not even sure what’s in it. I just know it’s good. Sadly, they were out of cheesecake, so instead I got chocolate cake which I of course didn’t need, but I ran plus walked to café. Its not far but it’s not a hop, skip and a jump either. So we spent a couple hours there. I uploaded some pics to facebook from the first day at Kirstenbosch botanical gardens. Good times back when Andrea was program director. Not to slam Uncle Will as we’ve so fondly nicknamed him but Andrea felt like my mom. I could call her anytime and get help. But moving on, I mostly talked to Loren and didn’t exactly get work done. It was fun regardless.
By the time we got back, it was time to think about dinner. I wanted to go to church since I had yet to go since I’ve been here. I just can’t get myself up on the weekends. Yeah, there are 11am service yet I almost always seem to sleep later than that. But there are a lot of evening service. Originally I was going to go to 7pm service at the Rosebank Methodist church but then realized that it probably wasn’t a good idea to walk in the dark alone. So instead I called Adam because I there was a 6:30pm service he went to last Sunday. He was going so I joined him
But not before making dinner, I made Loren’s favourite: rice for the first time. It went pretty well. I must say though I was a bit rushed for time. I also made chicken and green beans. I made a legit meal that wasn’t just pasta and it was pretty good if I do say so myself.
I dressed up. Why I didn’t ask Adam about attire I do not know because walking in heels was not fun. It was especially awful on the way back. Never again. I should have known better honestly. But on the way there we ran into a few American students who were studying at UCT (university of cape town) for a semester. They wanted to find a service so they also joined us. It was cool listening to the things they’re doing and how their program is going compared to ours.
The service was as the title of this post suggested just what I needed. It just lifted my spirits and it was weird because usually I don’t like the contemporary style service. I’m used to Episcopal service. I know it so well. I know exactly what to expect. Contemporary services are always interesting because I never know exactly what to expect. But this one I really enjoyed. The singing was great and really enjoyed the sermon though really it was more of lecture. I enjoyed it nonetheless.
Now it actually lasted until 9 but there was a 15 minute break in between so I decided to make my getaway then because you never know, they could say 9 and then you’re sitting there until 10 wondering when it would end. So I decided to leave. Now Adam wanted to stay which was fine. The theatre were the service was held is pretty close to our house though in heels it seemed like forever. He told me something like I’ve catch up with you which of course would be easy while I stubbornly limb along in my heels.
But something interesting happened on the walk home. Adam never did show up by the way. But this guy walking in the same direction as me asked me if there was something wrong with my shoes. I said no, my feet just hurt. And then he just started talking to me, which was fine. I felt better walking with someone even though the street was fully lit.
He noticed my Bible and asked if I was Christian. I said yes and then he goes into this rant about the secret society that Obama and Bush are in, that don’t believe in God and all this stuff and then asks me my opinion about it. Now at this point I’m dumbfounded, thinking ok God must be testing me or something because wow, it was a complete surprise. I just told him the truth that I knew that some people don’t believe in God but I do, simply as that. Then he goes on to talk about Christianity as a institution has oppressed millions of people through slavery, etc. as if I wasn’t already aware. So what do I think about that? I’m never good at using my words especially if I’m put on the spot like that. So I say something like I’m aware of those things but I believe those in the past and that things are different now. As Mr. Holland would say way back in freshman year civics class: weak sauce. Oh, I don’t know I could’ve said something about how those people weren’t Christians and that I don’t support such things, etc. But no, as I said I was just at a loss of words.
Then he goes around and is like well I am a Christian and I just like to ask people questions. Now I’m really thinking ok this must be test. So he finally introduces himself as Espior. I don’t remember how to say it but he gave me his number so I know how to spell it. It’s French if you didn’t notice. And he’s apparently a graduate student at UCT. So yeah, I made a new friend. He wanted to get together and get coffee. I don’t know if that’ll happen but he seemed nice enough. If I do, I’ll definitely bring Adam along with him. Can’t be too careful. So yeah, that’s my story. It was interesting day.
Last night Loren said he’d train with me for the half marathon in April. We’ll see if that happens. I would love that because he would probably get me into great shape if he doesn’t kill me first. The first time we ran together was three days after my first half marathon (next year’s will be the second). He almost killed me! We ran 2 miles in 16 minutes which was exhausted after 1) running the half and 2) not running in 3 days. Regardless it was great to run with him so training with him will be both amusing and painful. Amusing because he claims that he’s never run more than three miles. Painful because regardless of the pervious statement, he’s faster thus probably going to kill me. It’ll be interesting to say the least
After my run, I took the usual shower and had lunch. Yesterday’s consisted of grilled cheese, a carrot stick, an orange and eggs. The eggs because Jamie offered the rest of her eggs and I’m not one to turn down free food. Plus they were really good with cheese, tomatoes, and pepper. Delicious!
Once lunch was done, I needed something to do. So I convinced Amanda to walk with me to Rondebosch to go to an internet café. We ended up choosing Café Sofia. Yeah, free internet! You value that a lot more when you have to pay for it. But of course, you still have to buy something in order to get the internet. I ordered chai tea and cheesecake. The tea was great. Holly got me hooked on chai tea. I tried it with her once and loved it. I’m not even sure what’s in it. I just know it’s good. Sadly, they were out of cheesecake, so instead I got chocolate cake which I of course didn’t need, but I ran plus walked to café. Its not far but it’s not a hop, skip and a jump either. So we spent a couple hours there. I uploaded some pics to facebook from the first day at Kirstenbosch botanical gardens. Good times back when Andrea was program director. Not to slam Uncle Will as we’ve so fondly nicknamed him but Andrea felt like my mom. I could call her anytime and get help. But moving on, I mostly talked to Loren and didn’t exactly get work done. It was fun regardless.
By the time we got back, it was time to think about dinner. I wanted to go to church since I had yet to go since I’ve been here. I just can’t get myself up on the weekends. Yeah, there are 11am service yet I almost always seem to sleep later than that. But there are a lot of evening service. Originally I was going to go to 7pm service at the Rosebank Methodist church but then realized that it probably wasn’t a good idea to walk in the dark alone. So instead I called Adam because I there was a 6:30pm service he went to last Sunday. He was going so I joined him
But not before making dinner, I made Loren’s favourite: rice for the first time. It went pretty well. I must say though I was a bit rushed for time. I also made chicken and green beans. I made a legit meal that wasn’t just pasta and it was pretty good if I do say so myself.
I dressed up. Why I didn’t ask Adam about attire I do not know because walking in heels was not fun. It was especially awful on the way back. Never again. I should have known better honestly. But on the way there we ran into a few American students who were studying at UCT (university of cape town) for a semester. They wanted to find a service so they also joined us. It was cool listening to the things they’re doing and how their program is going compared to ours.
The service was as the title of this post suggested just what I needed. It just lifted my spirits and it was weird because usually I don’t like the contemporary style service. I’m used to Episcopal service. I know it so well. I know exactly what to expect. Contemporary services are always interesting because I never know exactly what to expect. But this one I really enjoyed. The singing was great and really enjoyed the sermon though really it was more of lecture. I enjoyed it nonetheless.
Now it actually lasted until 9 but there was a 15 minute break in between so I decided to make my getaway then because you never know, they could say 9 and then you’re sitting there until 10 wondering when it would end. So I decided to leave. Now Adam wanted to stay which was fine. The theatre were the service was held is pretty close to our house though in heels it seemed like forever. He told me something like I’ve catch up with you which of course would be easy while I stubbornly limb along in my heels.
But something interesting happened on the walk home. Adam never did show up by the way. But this guy walking in the same direction as me asked me if there was something wrong with my shoes. I said no, my feet just hurt. And then he just started talking to me, which was fine. I felt better walking with someone even though the street was fully lit.
He noticed my Bible and asked if I was Christian. I said yes and then he goes into this rant about the secret society that Obama and Bush are in, that don’t believe in God and all this stuff and then asks me my opinion about it. Now at this point I’m dumbfounded, thinking ok God must be testing me or something because wow, it was a complete surprise. I just told him the truth that I knew that some people don’t believe in God but I do, simply as that. Then he goes on to talk about Christianity as a institution has oppressed millions of people through slavery, etc. as if I wasn’t already aware. So what do I think about that? I’m never good at using my words especially if I’m put on the spot like that. So I say something like I’m aware of those things but I believe those in the past and that things are different now. As Mr. Holland would say way back in freshman year civics class: weak sauce. Oh, I don’t know I could’ve said something about how those people weren’t Christians and that I don’t support such things, etc. But no, as I said I was just at a loss of words.
Then he goes around and is like well I am a Christian and I just like to ask people questions. Now I’m really thinking ok this must be test. So he finally introduces himself as Espior. I don’t remember how to say it but he gave me his number so I know how to spell it. It’s French if you didn’t notice. And he’s apparently a graduate student at UCT. So yeah, I made a new friend. He wanted to get together and get coffee. I don’t know if that’ll happen but he seemed nice enough. If I do, I’ll definitely bring Adam along with him. Can’t be too careful. So yeah, that’s my story. It was interesting day.
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