Back to the good ole' US of A

Let's be real.  The time I have spent here in South Africa has been overall a POSITIVE experience with great memories.  Now, does that mean I have ONLY had positive experiences? Absolutely not.  There were times when i have been challenged culturally, socially, academically, mentally, and the list could go on.  All of these experiences, however, needed to happen in order for me to get the most out of my time here.  I needed to go out of my comfort zone, and what better way to do that than go to a new country with such a unique culture.  Through this experience I have learned the following:

* People are people no matter where you are

* Not to give up on trusting people, but as a tourist - always play a little bit of defense

* If something bad happens - allow one day to be down about it, but then MOVE ON - it happened and you can't go back, keep moving forward

* Sometimes you just have to bite your tongue and listen

* Confidence is a strength if you have it and a growth area if you don't

* Just because it isn't the way I would do it, doesn't mean it's not as good or dare I say it - better

* Kids teach you as much as you teach them

* When you go into the unknown in order to step outside your comfort zone, it is surprising how quickly the unknown can become "comfortable"

* I am not sure I will ever truly understand the racial tension and the living situation here, but being here has given me a better understanding and an even more open mind

* Creativity gets you FAR

* Riding a bus 14 hours makes me go CRAZY and CRABBY

* Ostrich meat tastes like hamburger

* Convert rand to USD, meters to miles, and understand grams/kg/litres/mL

* The Post Office here is not my friend, and I don't think I am their's either

* How to wave down a cab

* ....... how to face my fears, the unknown, and a different world

Thank You everyone that followed my blog! I am heading to the airport tomorrow morning!

Cape Town

Cape Town is A LOT different than Grahamstown.  Grahamstown was a small town and Cape Town is a big city.  It has gorgeous beaches of the Atlantic Ocean.  There are endless shops and markets and there are a lot of things to do!  So far we have been going to the beaches a lot.  It is really easy to get around here on the taxis and the taxis are cheap - only 5 or 6 rand per person (which is less than $1) so that is pretty sweet!

The hostel we are staying at is AMAZING! It is brand new (opened in June) so it is really nice and there are a lot of really cool people here.  I have met people from England, Holland, Germany and I even met someone from the USA (Wisconsin - which was sweet and New York).  They are all so awesome and we all hang out as a group which is really neat.  It is interesting learning about where they are from as well as where they have traveled, one couple have been traveling for 8 months!

Besides the beach, we also went to Robben Island, which is the island where a lot of political figures were kept in jail during Apartheid.  The tour included an hour ferry ride across the Atlantic (30 min each way) and then a tour of the island.  Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and we learned a lot about the history of the island.  At one point it was a place where people who were contagious with leprosy went to be isolated.  After the leprosy period and before Apartheid people could actually live on the island.  We were also given a tour of the jail where Nelson Mandela stayed and we saw the cell where he was contained.  The tour guides of the actual jail were old cell mates that were contained in the jail (I should probably be referring to the jail as prison).

Tomorrow we are climbing Table Mountain and hopefully going to the Aquarium as well.  We are also looking into getting a tour of the Green Point Stadium where some of the World Cup soccer games were held.  That is what I am up to at the moment, when i come back I can be more in depth with the actual cultural experience, but it is hard putting it all into words.  It truly is a third world country and a first world country built into one.  Well one more week and then I will be heading home!  I am enjoying my experience, but I am excited to come home :)

Atlantic Ocean at Clifton Beach

LOVE THIS BEACH

Oh! Riding an ostrich :)

This is the only picture actually riding it, because I only lasted about 2 seconds before I fell off

Nelson Mandela's prison cell

The ferry we rode, it was CRAZY WINDY!

HeCTiC

This week has been absolutely crazy.  Monday, we had the opportunity to visit a township school.  Due to the school being at end of term, most classes weren’t in session.  Students came to get a meal and have a place to be, but most teachers were just marking.  We were able to see one class; Grade R was in session.  Grade R is like our Kindergarten.  There were only 15 students in the class that day, but she has 40 students on her class list.  It was interesting to see the school.   Wednesday we had our class party at my cooperating teacher’s house.  Her house is absolutely gorgeous.  She has a pool, so the students swam and played games and ate snacks.  Wednesday evening we had the Grade 7 Leavers Dinner.   This is the goodbye dinner to the students of Grade 7 for high school starts at Grade 8.  Also at this Leavers Dinner, new students and teachers are “knighted” into Kingswood College, so the other student teachers and I were knighted.  It was awesome!  Thursday was the last day of school and we had an end of the school year staff meeting and then lunch at the Headmaster’s house.  It was nice spending that time with the other teachers and also it gave us the opportunity to say goodbye to everyone.  Thursday evening we had our traditional goodbye dinner for April, Nichole, and I with our supervisor and her family.  We made chicken fajitas and they were delicious!  It is unbelievable that our time here is coming to an end.

Friday morning we headed for our two week vacation!  We started off by stopping in PE for breakfast; we had “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”.  After PE we headed to Jeffrey’s Bay and laid out at the beach and then went to Storm’s River and went to Tsitsikama.  It has been one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to.  We had a gorgeous view of the ocean and mountains.  We stayed by Storm’s river at a very interesting backpacker’s place.  Saturday morning we went back to Storm’s River at Bloukrans Bridge.  This is Africa’s largest bridge and the World’s Highest Bungee Jump.  Nichole and I joined another girl from her school back home (a COST student placed in PE) and we Bungee Jumped! It was absolutely the craziest thing I have ever done.  It is the most surreal experience.  I was absolutely petrified, but I am so glad I did it!  I have a CD of pictures and a DVD of my jump!  After bungee jumping we went to Plettenberg Bay to the beach and then headed to Oudtshoorn.  This is where we spent Saturday night.  On Sunday we went to Cango Caves, and went on the adventure tour where we crawled through the cave, it was absolutely gorgeous.  After Cango caves we went to Cango Ostrich farm.  Oudtshoorn has the most ostrich I have ever seen.  At the Ostrich farm we learned a lot about Ostriches and Nichole and I rode an Ostrich!   After Oudtshoorn we headed to Paarl where our friend Maryke lives.  Maryke is the one who is driving us to Cape Town, she has been absolutely amazing!  We are having the best time!  I will try to blog again soon!

This is my supervisor, Jean!

Tsitsikamma National Park, absolutely GORGEOUS!

Plettenberg Bay

Road Trippin'

Cango Caves

Hanging out with the Ostrich - this isn't the one I rode - I don't have pics of that yet

The bridge I jumped off! CRAZY!

Right before I bungeed! He was so nice in making me relax!

Oh my, I still can't believe I did that!

There are SOOO many more pictures I would like to post, but I can't because there are too many!  Traveling is so great! We just arrived in Cape Town!

EXCITEMENT :D

This upcoming week is going to be so AMAZING; I am so excited!  Monday we are going to a township school to see a completely different school environment than what we have been placed in for student teaching.  I am really looking forward to the observation.  Tuesday is basically the last day that teaching takes place; Wednesday I have the Grade 4 class party and Thursday is our last day and it ends at 1030! Friday we leave for our trip at 7am.  It is going to be the most amazing thing ever, I can tell.  We are driving to Cape Town with a friend that we met here and taking our time to get there so we can see everything on the way.  We are taking "The Garden Route," which we have heard is the most beautiful views ever!  There are a lot of stops along the way for example Congo Caves, Ostrich Farm, Storms River and beautiful nature reserves!  We will be spending a week and a half in Cape Town and then taking a bus back to Grahamstown.  

This past weekend was a lot of fun.  On Friday one of the teachers brought us to Kenton so we could go to the beach.  Out of all the places I have seen so far, Kenton is by far my favorite.  It is such a beautiful town.  Saturday I went on an outing with the junior prep boarding boys.  We went to Bathurst and went swimming and had a braai.  I also watched them play cricket, I am starting to catch on!  Saturday evening I went to Miss Intermediate.  One of my students really wanted me to come, it was so much fun to watch!  Miss Intermediate was like a little pageant for the students in the Intermediate House.  The Intermediate House is where students in the intermediate grades live if they are a boarder.  Me and April ended up being judges for the pageant!  It was a lot of fun and the students were all dressed up!

Sunday we were invited to another braai by one of the student's parents.  They were very welcoming and made such good food! Also on Sunday when I was walking back from the grocery store I FINALLY got a picture of the wild cows that roam the streets!

Here are some pictures!!!

Kenton part two

Miss Intermediate Pageant

Wild Cows!!! I live at the top of this hill! It is not the greatest thing to run up!

UnPreDiCtaBLe

Wow the weather is CRAZY! This past weekend we had absolutely GORGEOUS weather!  It was at least 80degrees and sunny on Friday, Saturday AND Sunday!  On Friday one of the teachers at the school brought us to Port Alfred to go to the beach and when we returned on Friday we had a Braai at the Wyvern which is Kingswood's restaurant/country club.  A braai is like a cookout/barbecue.  We had chicken, potato bake, salad, and bread; it was delicious :)

On Saturday we walked/shopped around Grahamstown and then went to my teacher's house to swim; once we got to her house though it soon became cloudy.  Sunday we went to one of our students' parents house for another braai.  We had the most delicious food and they taught us so much about the political aspect of South Africa as well as key places we must go to on our vacation.  On Sunday we also planned our two week vacation.  We are traveling to Cape Town and taking our time to get there and planned all of our stops along the way; we are SOO EXCITED!

So far this week, Monday and Tuesday, the weather has been chilly (probably low 60s, high 50s and rainy), yeah I know that is not chilly but coming off 80 degree weather it is!  Today (Tuesday) I went on an outing (field trip) with my grade 5s.  It was so great! We went to some students in my class' farm.  The first farm was a game farm and we went on a game drive.  We saw giraffe, a RHINO!, and buffalo. The buffalo was awesome because the students were able to pet the buffalo because the person who owns the farm can call them and approach them! It was CRAZY!

After that farm we went to another students' farm and we took a hike down into a beautiful valley.  We hiked to a cave and saw Bushman paintings (paintings from the first settlers).  It was really neat and the paintings were approximately over 15,000 years old!  I have attached the pictures.

That is the basic update.  I am also teaching as much as I am able and I am really getting along with my new cooperating teacher, she is fantastic.  She has such an active class and I have really learned a lot of new teaching strategies.  I can't believe next week is their last week of school.  It is going by so fast, but I still have a lot to look forward to.  I have been volunteering still at the Lebone Center and LOVING it.  I volunteer tomorrow and Thursday and then as much as I can next week, but their last day at the center is the 30th which is too bad because I really like spending time there.

Thanks Everyone Following :D

Students petting the WILD BUFFALO!

Giraffes are AWESOME!

Our view from our hike

Hiking :D

Do you see the handprint?  This is the Bushman painting.

Learn the LINGO :D

Alright now that I have been here for a month (I know CRAZY) I am going to teach everyone about the lingo here!

"sorted" - Teachers ask students if they are "sorted" for math, english, etc.  It basically means ready and organized.

"hey" - this is used often at the end of sentences, it is kind of like our "right?" For example, You went to the beach this weekend hey.

"smart" - if you are dressed nicely they say that you "look smart"

"just now" - one would THINK this means something is going to happen right now, but no, "just now" means in about 5-15 minutes or more.  For example, we will talk just now (translation:  we will talk later)

"now now" - this means right now.

"nice" - If something tastes good, it tastes "nice"

"shame" - If something bad happens to someone you respond with "shame"or if something funny/unfortunate happens you also respond with "shame".

"pleasure" - instead of responding with "you're welcome" you respond with "pleasure" For example, "Thank you for the book"  "Pleasure"

"is it" - this kind of replaces "oh really" for example, "I am going to make pasta for dinner" and you respond with "is it" or when you explain something that happened, "is it"

"biscuits" - are cookies

"scones" - are biscuits or muffins

There are more short vowels than long vowels.

"holiday" - means vacation

"passageways" - are hallways

"rubbish" - means trash

"chips" - either potato chips or french fries

"tomato sauce" - ketchup

"overtake" - passing someone on the road

"que" - lines at post office

"petrol" - gasoline

"fetch" - get

"Cokies" - markers

One last thing to know about South Africa is that everyone takes their time.  If you are at a restaurant it will take at least an hour, nothing here is about quick, efficient, convenience like back home (no coffee travel mugs!).  Also they have portion control of their food (no supersize here!)  Now you know more about South Africa :)

CRAZY AWESOME!

So I know I just posted yesterday, but that was because I thought that would be the most exciting thing that happened over the weekend, but I saw something pretty sweet today! We went to one of my supervisor's friends' house that she built completely out of mud! It was the coolest thing ever! She also has the most amazing view!  You must look at the pictures! ALSO I did NOT end up going on the helicopter ride, but that is alright because it was such a fun weekend anyways!  I cannot believe on Tuesday I will have been gone for a whole month! That is absolutely crazy, there are only two and a half weeks left of school here then time to travel! I am so pumped!

The view from her house! AMAZING!

The outside of the house - sweet

The inside of the house - that's Grandma!

Her view from inside the house!

Outside again

Kenton-On-Sea and Port Alfred

Today (Saturday) we went to Kenton and Port Alfred and saw the ocean, it was absolutely GORGEOUS! I had a hard time choosing which photos to post, so I am posting a lot!  My cooperating teacher took us, which was absolutely the nicest thing ever! We spent all day in the sun and relaxing by the ocean! It was FANTASTIC!  Here are the pictures!

My OH My....

This past weekend was very relaxing.  Saturday, we went downtown and bought some stuff from the markets and went to Aegean's basketball game.  Aegean is my supervisor's son.  He is a great basketball player and we had a lot of fun watching him play!  Sunday was absolutely a gorgeous day.  I went for an hour run, which I needed really badly, and spent time outside for awhile enjoying the sunshine and the 80 degree weather :)  It was Lauren's goodbye dinner Sunday night.  I am sooo sad to see her go, I really clicked with her and she has been my roommate for the past two weeks.  It is crazy how close us girls have become in such a short amount of time.  We took some pictures for her going away, the one on the railroad I thought would be so adorable, so I made everyone take it.  We ate chicken stir fry and potato bake (absolutely delicious) with brownie and ice cream for dessert.  It is crazy how good the chocolate is here.  We officially said goodbye to Lauren this morning before school, I miss her southern accent already :(

Besides Lauren leaving today, it was a GREAT day.  April, Nichole, and I met with the supervisor of a local volunteer opportunity today and we spend an hour and a half volunteering.  It is seriously the greatest thing I have experienced so far.  The program is for students from the townships who are recommended for the program by the government.  The students are very poor and most of the students' parents have died from AIDS.  It is such a sad situation, but the students are absolutely tremendous.  Today I played a couple board games with them, and then we went outside and played a game of hide n' seek.  They also taught us a song-hand game.  They are so much fun, I cannot wait to go back tomorrow or whenever i can go again.  I wish I could spend more time in this sort of aspect of the town.

I just thought I would give an update.  Here are some pictures:



This picture was taken a couple weekends ago, but I just got the picture from Lauren.  This is me and Lauren at the BEAUTIFUL Indian Ocean! <3 This!

Beautiful Grahamstown

Me and Lauren downtown shopping at the markets :)

Nichole, April, and I watching Aegean's Bball game!

Our cute railroad picture! haha

NO TIME!

Wow so I cannot believe a whole week has almost past and I haven't updated my blog, time just flies here. It has been almost three weeks since I have arrived in Grahamstown.  I was looking at the calendar when meeting with my teacher and there really seems to be like no time left here!

Teaching has been going so well.  I feel like I am really finally connecting with the students and I am starting to feel more and more comfortable in the school.  I introduced the concept of Flat Stanley to my class and came up with a way from my current class to keep in touch with my class back in Amery.    The plan is for the students to take an adventure with Stanley, journal about the experience, and then attach a picture to the journal entry.  Then we are going to send the whole journal to my class back in Amery!  My students are sooo excited about Stanley! They have already made him a girlfriend, a cat, some bowling balls, a fish tank, a couch, and they are working on his twin!  They have already take Stanley on some adventures and journaled about their experience.  The adventures have been really awesome so far!

I have my observed lesson next week, which I am very nervous about but I am teaching the lesson to the other 4th grade first so I can tweak it and improve it for my observed lesson.  Next week is my last week in the 4th grade and then I am actually moving to the 5th grade classroom.  While in the 5th grade classroom I am going to try and teach more math to both 5th grades and some 6th and 7th grade classes as well.  The teachers have mentioned me being able to teach a lesson in their class, so I am going to be proactive and try to teach math across the grades.  I just feel that if my minor is in mathematics I should have more experience teaching it, especially if I get certified up to 8th grade.

Last Friday, we went to a concert, Piano Man, it was AMAZING! I was surprised how much I enjoyed the concert, for I have never been one to willingly go to a strictly instrument music concert, but it was so good.  I was really impressed.  It was also a fundraiser for three schools in the area (including my school), so that was really neat.

On Saturday we went to the swimming gala in Port Elizabeth.  What they call a gala we would call a meet.  It was for 4th through 7th grade and we had some swimmers compete.  It was a neat experience to spend time with the teachers and the students outside of the school day.

ALSO I met one of my students' mothers and she invited me to the game reserve they own! She also said that they would take me and the other student teachers on a helicopter ride to view the game reserve! I am sooo pumped! I hope it really works out, for I think it will be the most amazing thing ever!

Tonight we went out to Geno's restaurant and ate pizza, it was delicious.  That's pretty much it for updates.  I don't really have any pictures worth putting up here except these two of the school.  Hopefully next weekend if everything works out I will be able to put up pictures of the game reserve and helicopter ride!  I will try to update before then, but who knows? I try not to make promises I might not keep :)

I miss EVERYONE! Give me updates as well!

Kingswood College, Cottage, Etc.

Well I 'skyped' Jenna and Mother today, and Mother told me I need to do this more often, so I will try.  The picture above is the view of Grahamstown, I wish cameras captured how beautiful the landscape is here, but I have yet to take a picture that even comes close.

Lauren received a box of Halloween stuff since she was teaching a lesson on Halloween, we used the stuff to decorate the flat! Happy Halloween :)  You're welcome Lauren for not putting up the picture of you in your sweet clown costume! haha

These are some pictures of the school building, the classroom doors lead to outside.  The building is two levels in the shape of a "T" The stem of the T is where the staff room, offices and work rooms are and the top of the T is where all of the classrooms are.  It is a beautiful school, this is only the Junior Prep school, the Senior school (high school) is across the road.  

This is what my classroom looks like! The classroom has no technology (no computer, no projector, no overhead) and the desks are wooden and from the looks of it, it probably looks like a low-income school compared to some of the schools back home, but this is a very nice school and well-off school, for it is a private boarding school.  

My week went by extremely fast.  On Thursday I taught a food tech class where I taught them how to make fruit pizza, the kids loved it, and no one had heard of it before! So that was neat.  On Friday I taught a lesson on comparative adjectives, I noticed that my teaching strategies the students are not use to and students are not sure what to do.  When working in AMERY (HELLO MRS. HANSEN, CODY, SHANIA, MASON, GRACE, GRETA, MARTIN, HAILEY, MARIAH, RYLEE, TANNER, NATASHA, DYLAN, ESSIE, CAMERON, GABBI, ANTON, MADDISEN, BRETT, CASSEY, CELIA, AND TYLER! I Miss all of you!!!!!) anyways, when working in Amery, Mrs. Hansen had the students call on each other (which I loved as a strategy as well as having students say a new vocabulary word five times) well I used this strategy with the students, and they had never been asked to call on their classmates before, so there was definitely confusion.  The more I do it, the better it will go though!  Other than that the lesson went really well and I teach a lot next week, so I have a lot of lesson plans to write! Hope all is well back home, comment on this with updates from home so I am not out of the loop!

LIVING IN GRAHAMSTOWN

So already I have done a very poor job on keeping up with my blog, so I will try and be better, but this past week has been CRAZY busy!  Monday and Tuesday I just slept all day because I was so tired and didn't start school yet.  Everyone has been so welcoming here and I am really enjoying it.  I lived in the house with my supervisor (Her family includes her mom who we call Grandma and her 17 year old son, we have all become very close already which is neat) for awhile since there were still two girls that arrived in early August.  One of the girls, Misty (who is from Ohio), is leaving tomorrow so I have moved into the cottage which is connected to the house (basically) so I feel really safe here.  I have known Misty for only a week, but it is really sad to see her go since she really  has helped me out a lot by answering all of my questions and welcoming me into Grahamstown.  Now that I have moved into the cottage, I am living with Lauren for two weeks (then she leaves), so it is nice to be settled into the cottage.  Lauren is from Georgia and has a sweet southern accent. She is really nice as well as adventurous so we went on a fun trip this past weekend.  Which I will talk about later.  April and Nichole (who are both from Michigan) arrived really late on Thursday night.  They are really fun and nice as well.  All of the girls are really friendly and outgoing, so that helps to feel comfortable.

ANYWAYS I started school on Wednesday and it is very different than back home.  I am placed in a 4th grade classroom again, which is actually a really good thing since it is the end of the school year over here and it was the beginning of the school year back home (so I get like a condensed version of a 4th grade year, also I get to compare US vs. SA at the 4th grade level).  I am just observing at the moment, but the school is very beautiful and the staff is very friendly.  The students are very respectful as well.  A lot of manners (I get called ma'am) and they stop at a doorway entrance for me to walk through first, it is quite different than back home and will take some getting use to.  I will update more about the school once I get more familiar.  It is a boarding school and a prep school, they wear uniforms and go to chapel twice a week.

THIS PAST WEEKEND: probably one of the greatest weekends of my life, well probably not, but close.  On Saturday Me, Lauren, April, and Nichole rented a car.  Lauren drove (for she has been here for three months and feels comfortable on the road, since they drive on the left side and the steering wheel is on the right side!) But we all took turns driving! Thats right I drove on the wrong side of the road! Well only for a little bit.  Anyways, Saturday we went to Addo National Park, where you drive through the park and see animals (kind of like a safari but not really).  On the way to the park we saw 7 giraffes, a lot of zebras, and a monkey crossed the road! It was so cool.  Once we were in the park, we drove around for like 3 hours not seeing a lot of animals (it is a huge park) but once we saw elephants we were so excited! At first we saw three elephants (HUGE!) and then when we stopped at the picnic area, we asked one of the other guys if they saw any lions (Lauren really wanted to see them since she hadn't yet) and he said he just came from where lions were sighted! He gave us directions and we hurried there.  We saw 5 lions! Three male and two female.  One of the males was around 10 feet from our car! Then when we were trying to leave the park we saw sooo many elephants! I was driving at this time, and had to stop because there were elephants in the road! Our car was like two feet from the elephant! It was AMAZING!

On Sunday, me, Lauren and Nichole went to Port Elizabeth (about an hour and a half drive) and we saw the ocean! It was so beautiful! We walked around the beach and went shopping at the market.  I got a beautiful picture that someone painted and I took a picture with the artist! The painting is off the township.  A township is the area in the town where all of the black people were forced to live, it is the most awful living conditions I have ever seen.  There is garbage sprawled everywhere and the doors hanging off the frames, and it is the size of our garage or smaller and families live in there.  One of Lauren's friends that she met while she was here gave us a tour.  It was so sad and really hard to see, but a very eye opening experience.  Blacks are no longer forced to live there (since 1994), but that is the lifestyle they know as well as they do not have the funds to buy anywhere else.  The government is building houses in the townships area to provide the homeless with shelter, however this is not totally helping because it is still keeping people in that area and adding to the problem.  It is very difficult to understand and I am going to keep becoming informed about the situation to become more knowledgeable.  It is really hard to see so many people begging for money.  I have learned that people do everything for you in this area to supply people with more jobs.  All gas stations are service stations (no self serve), people bag your groceries, watch your cars on the street and in parking lots and help direct you in parking lots to get tips and income.  It is a whole new world over here and I anticipate to learn a lot, I have already learned so much and it has been only a week.

To end on a more positive note, South Africa is THE MOST BEAUTIFUL place I have ever seen.

I will try to update my blog more frequently so it is not so much content at one time, sorry!

Hope all is well back home!

I love you all <3