Surprises

Hey everyone, I am so sorry I haven’t updated in over a week. I’ve just been very busy and I’ve had some surprises…

Last Wednesday was Valentine’s Day. It’s quite a big deal here, as you can send roses to different schools as well as Herschel. I was surprised to get a rose myself. I really hadn’t expected it. It came from Ashleigh and Kyle. Too bad Kyle spelled my name wrong though (the rose came from Bishop’s, not Herschel, so he probably wrote the card)… I felt a bit bad about not sending either of them a rose…

We had Lifesaving again on Thursday. This time we learned CPR… It’s really odd to be performing CPR on air. Especially if you’re doing it on your own while the trainers are watching your every move… When this part of the lesson was finished, we had only twenty minutes left, so we didn’t do the full (exhausting) water-routine. We did swim under water a lot. The pool measures 25 by 31 metres. The shallow part of the pool (along the 31 metre side) is separated from the rest of the pool by a lane rope. There is quite a strong current there, and we were told to swim as far as possible under water against the current… I decided I’d go last. Everyone only made it halfway. I made it to the end! I was very proud of myself. J

After Lifesaving I had one of the greatest surprises ever; my mum came to pick me up. At first I just said “Hi mum,” before I realised something wasn’t quite right. The next moment I stood there gaping at her with my mouth wide open. I remember thinking something along the lines of: “Why is my mouth hanging open, and WHY can’t I frikking close it???” It is the weirdest thing. Before that moment I always thought I’d never actually stand gaping at something with my mouth wide open… Apparently my face was very funny.

Turns out that they’d arrived the night before and that practically everyone knew they’d been coming. Even quite a number of the girls at school knew! Cally had even asked me earlier that day if my parents weren’t coming. I just brushed it off as her confusing me with Kirsten…

Anyway, I skipped school the next day (Founders’ Day, apparently I didn’t really miss much) and went to the craft market at the waterfront with mum, Jan (my step dad) and oma Wien (Jan’s mum)(they were here as well). After that we went on a helicopter (!) flight along the cost of Cape Town. It was really cool! We had lunch at the Radisson (fancy hotel). The Radisson had this metal thing hanging on the wall with the names engraved in it of all famous people who had spent some time there. There were really famous stars between there, and also Ajax Amsterdam… (There’s an Ajax in Cape Town as well. It’s independent from the Dutch Ajax, but is wás founded by it. They also swap players, or something like that.)

That evening I had something special for dinner. We went to a restaurant, where I decided to try the “Bushman’s Kebab.” It was a combination of Springbok, Kudu, Ostrich and Crocodile (!) meat. Ostrich isn’t really special, you can get it practically anywhere (nice in combination with Kangaroo in a mango sauce), but Crocodile… Crocodile meat is really weird, it tastes a bit similar to chicken, but the texture (I wonder if that’s the right word) is so strange… I wouldn’t order it again, but it’s really cool to be able to say that I’ve eaten Crocodile J

Saturday we drove to Cape Point. Cape Point is the most southern point of the Cape Peninsula. Slightly to the west is the Cape of Good Hope. We didn’t actually go there, but from Cape Point you can easily see the Cape of Good Hope. Anyway, the view is absolutely fabulous there! Cape Point is generally regarded as the most southern tip of Africa, and the point where the Indian and the Atlantic Ocean meet, but it isn’t. That point is some kilometres to the east.

We went to Moyo on Sunday, together with Ash, Gail, Gavin, Kyle, Nicola (Kyle’s mum), Cyndi and Glenn (friends of the Comminses). Moyo is a restaurant next to the cheetah farm I went to earlier. There is a large buffet with African dishes, and there’s African music and people doing African dances and stuff like that. At one point this lady came to our table, to paint something on our faces. It was really nice there and the food was good.

After Moyo, mum, Jan and oma Wien were off to Hermanus (a holiday place a bit to the east). They stayed there until Wednesday. Wednesday they picked me up from school to go to the top of Table Mountain. The view as we went up with the cable car was absolutely fantastic, but as we got up we couldn’t see much anymore. The Tablecloth was hanging over the mountain, so all we could see was white. Everywhere. We had fun though.

Their plane left that evening. Or it was supposed to. There were some problems, so it didn’t leave. Then it also turns out there were no spare hotel rooms anywhere, so they slept at the airport… They probably could have spent the night here, but we only heard about it yesterday. Yesterday evening they did go home.

Yesterday Lifesaving was really nice. The trainers weren’t there, so we just spent an hour playing in the pool. Katherine got some of those weird floaty-thingies that look like body boards, but are actually smaller. I think they’re used to teach younger children how to swim.

Anyway, we used those thingies to sit/crouch/stand on and hold matches who could sit/crouch/stand on them the longest. They’re were no winners, because it’s just so easy. There were losers, though… But after one or two fell off, the rest wouldn’t anymore…

Today I’m missing school again. We’re going to Hermanus. We means Gail, Gavin, Kirsten and me. Ashleigh left this morning on water polo tour to - I think - Singapore. Somewhere east at least. Katherine and her parents are coming later, after school. Today we’re just going to relax, but tomorrow we’re going waterskiing. And then I come back with the Thompsons that evening to go to a house party. My last weekend here sounds good, hey?

So that’s it. I hope you enjoyed reading it.


Love,

Nienke

Halfway

This week has been busy. As in, we did something (other than school) every day.
Saturday/Sunday: Fruit farm in Ceres
Monday: Kirstenbosch
Tuesday: Dinner at Lily’s
Wednesday: Robben Island
Thursday: Dinner at Adele’s
Friday: Penguins and Kristina’s birthday
Saturday: House party and Cupid Evening After party

We spent last weekend at Kath’s aunt’s farm in Ceres. Ceres is about one and a half hour driving from Cape Town. We went there on Saturday morning. We took quite a long time to get there, because we stopped for lunch halfway through and we hung around the restaurant we went to for a while.

The farm is absolutely fantastic! It is huge, so of course we explored everything using the four-wheeler/quad. The house is also beautiful. There is the main house, but we didn’t spend much time there. Then there’s a small round building which is basically just a bedroom, but it’s absolutely stunning. The place where we spent the night was a bit bigger. It apparently was a study first, but it had been converted to a guesthouse. When you step inside you’re in a huge room, with six beds in the back, a sofa, some huge chairs, and of course a flat screen with many DVD’s. Next to that is another room with the biggest pool table I’ve ever seen and one other improvised bed (we couldn’t let Kyle sleep in the same room as the girls, of course). We stayed in that building with seven people: Ashleigh, Kyle, Katherine, Kirsten, Alexandra (Kath’s cousin), Jamie (a friend of Aly’s), and me of course.

After riding around on the quad we just relaxed in the Jacuzzi for a bit. Aly had the wonderful idea to put bubbles in. She emptied practically the whole bottle. There weren’t much bubbles when we got out for dinner (a braai of course), but when someone turned around there was a layer of bubbles of about half a meter high! Apparently Kath went back to the Jacuzzi in the middle of the night together with Aly, and they say that the bubbles were about two metres high then. I find that a bit hard to believe…

Monday we went to Kirstenbosch (“the most beautiful garden in South-Africa”). It’s at the foot of Table Mountain, but high enough to have a beautiful view over Cape Town. It’s also right next to Bishopscourt, so I could see “my” house from there.

Debbie (Lily’s mother) had invited us (Kirsten and me) over for dinner on Tuesday. Lily’s house is a bit smaller than those of Ash and Kath, but if you ask me it’s the most beautiful one of the three.

Wednesday: Robben Island. We got to miss school for it. We went with the same group as the one we went to Kayelitsha with. We first went to the Waterfront, from where we took a boat to Robben Island. There we were given a tour around the island and after that we got one through the prison. The tour guide in the prison was an ex-prisoner himself. He spoke English, but because of his accent I could barely understand him…

In one hall there was a long row of cells, but only one cell had original furniture in it (the others were empty), so I took two photos of that cell. In another hall there was a photo in each cell of the prisoner who it had belonged to. There were stories of specific events in the prisoners’ time in the prison hanging on the walls. You could also push a button in each cell to here a recorded story, told by the prisoners themselves.

In the end we thought we hadn’t seen Nelson Mandela’s cell! I was confused about that. I mean, how can you go on a tour through the prison on Robben Island and not get to see Mandela’s cell? Later it turned out that his cell was the one with furniture in it. We just didn’t hear the tour guide when he told us, or we couldn’t understand him because of his accent…

The tour was over around 12.00, so Kirsten, Sandra, Megan, Caroline and I went looking for a restaurant to have lunch, while all the others went home. Eventually we decided to go to Nino’s. They have the most wonderful paninis there, but there smoothies… They barely taste like fruit! It’s all artificial…

After that Caroline, Kirsten and I went to the shopping mall. Caroline needed chocolate and Kirsten and I went to YDE. YDE has become my favourite clothing shop here. South African clothes are already cheap for us Europeans, but YDE is having a sale. Everything 50% off!

Then we went to the craft market, because that’s where Megan and Sandra were, and we would get picked up there. I need to get back to the craft market before I leave, because they really have every handmade African item you could think of!

Anyway, in the evening we just had a small braai at home. Gail had bought steak, but I don’t really like steak, so I just kept to the sausages (chicken) and chicken saté. Gavin’s reaction: “Are you a vegetarian then?” And he has seen me eat meat! Chicken all the time, though. Gail loves chicken. Apparently people here have the strange notion that if you eat no meat, but you do eat chicken, you’re still a vegetarian, and that a vegetarian who doesn’t eat chicken immediately doesn’t eat fish either… If you ask me, you’re no vegetarian if you eat chicken. I mean chicken is still meat…

I had Lifesaving again on Thursday. We learned how to save someone who is unconscious. Apparently I did extremely well, because the trainer said that if we’d get grades for this, I would have gotten a 100%! So then I had to demonstrate in front of everyone…

That evening I went along with the Thompsons for dinner at Adele’s (Kath’s grandmother). Adele apparently really liked us that Sunday at Smitswinkel.

Friday we didn’t go to school either. Gail and Debbie took us to Boulders to see the penguins. It rained though… Originally we were supposed to go to Cape of Good Hope as well, but because of the weather and the opening of parliament that day we didn’t. We did have lunch in Simon’s town and we went to Chapman’s peak afterwards, which was nice.

We then met up with Ashleigh and Nicole in Cavendish. I originally wanted to buy the newest Fall Out Boy CD, but as they didn’t have it anywhere I ended up buying three other CD’s…

In the evening we went out for dinner for Kristina’s seventeenth birthday. We went to an Italian restaurant, and they actually had Italian names for some of the pizzas! The pizza delivery service here knows only one real Italian pizza here: The Marguerita… I decided to order a pizza Calzone. It was funny to see the surprised faces of some of the girls when they saw a pizza that was folded dubbel.

Saturday I stroked a cheetah! I have pictures as proof! It was fun to do. I’ve been to Stellenbosch for lunch and in the evening we went to a house party at Vicky’s. I have no idea who Vicky is though. There must have been some 200 people there. Also, when I didn’t think houses could come any bigger than Katherine’s… Vicky’s is about twice the size. If you got lost in there you probably wouldn’t be able to find your way out again.

We decided to go to the Cupid Evening after party. Biiiiiiiig mistake. It was at a hired venue, somewhere downtown. We had tickets, but we had trouble getting in, because it was full. Apparently the place had been triple booked! There were two eighteen parties besides the after party… So we were standing outside, in the freezing rain, waiting to get in. We were quite happy when we eventually managed to get inside. Only, inside it was even worse. There was absolutely no space to move at all, because it was so packed. We left after five minutes. That meant waiting in the rain again for Ashleigh’s parents.

Today we went to another braai. It was a family reunion (don’t ask for their last name, I know how to pronounce it, but I’d probably get the spelling completely wrong). Only the Commins’s aren’t related to them… They are really close friends though. They have two sons: Ryan and Tim. Ryan is apparently extremely good at tennis and Tim’s quite good as well, and so are Ash, Stuart and Kyle (he came along with us)… So the five of them were playing tennis and I was sitting next to the tennis court (in the garden, of course) watching them playing a very good game of tennis… I didn’t mind being the only one who’s bad at tennis. I just talked to either Ash or Ryan, when one of them wasn’t playing (they played doubles).

So that’s what I’ve been doing this week.


Love,

Nienke

Kayelitsha And Other Stuff

Remember I said that the water at Smitswinkel Bay is freezing? Well, compared to the water at Clifton, Smitswinkel water has a tropical temperature.

Tonight I'll have been here for exactly two weeks, with four more weeks to go. Time really does fly when you're having fun.

By the way, I'm sorry for not uploading any pictures, but I seem to be unable to...

Not much happened on Monday. On Tuesday I had my first JUMP HI (Junior Undiscovered Maths Prodigies - Herschel Initiative) lesson. We got this book with instructions and exercises for the children to make, and the teacher leading JUMP explained what we would do during the first lesson (we're starting with fractions...). Not much happened. We won't meet the children until next Tuesday. I do wonder what it's going to be like. The children speak Xhosa (not Afrikaans, as I thought earlier) and maybe a few words of English.

Wednesday was a lot more interesting: We went to Kayelitsha with a group of some twenty exchange students. Five from Herschel (Kirsten, Sandra, Megan, Caroline and I), two from Bishop's (Brian and Marty) and a whole lot of girls from St. Cyprian's (I don't know if I spelled that right, though). It was quite a big group.

We first went to the centre of Cape Town, to a large Cathedral. The teacher from St. Cyprian's told us some of the history of Apartheid. It was quite interesting. After that we were off. Originally we were going in two small buses, but because we couldn't all fit in, Sandra, Kirsten and I got to come along in the car with Amy's mum (Amy is Caroline's exchange student). I'm fairly certain we had the better airconditioning...

We first went to District Six. District Six is quite interesting, because that was like the only neighbourhood where people of all colours lived together during the Apartheid. Therefore the government decided to bulldoze the whole area. When later houses were starting to get built there again, there was a massive outcry against it, so right now there's a small part of District Six that has houses on it. The rest is just empty, except for some grass and some bush.

After District Six, we drove on to Kayelitsha, where we went to Mama Amelia's house. Mama Amelia takes in practically every orphan and abandoned child around. Wednesday she took care of 95 children, while the government only grants her subsidies for seven! While we were there most of the children were at school, the younger ones were at home. They were so cute! As soon as we stepped into the house, they all immediately came over to us, stretching up their arms or hugging our legs. Everyone was holding at least one child's hand as we got a tour of the house (which looked actually quite nice compared to most of the shacks we drove past) and when the children discovered our cameras... My god! They were posing for pictures all the time and were delighted when they could see them back on the screen of the camera. Jane (Amy's mum) reckons they get visitors with cameras a lot and that they know exactly know what it is.

At one point while I was sitting at the ground, this one little boy came sit on my one knee and put his arm around my neck. A few moments later a little girl came sit on my other knee. They stayed there for the whole time until we left. My legs did get a bit sore though. I wasn't exactly in a comfortable position...

Anyway, I also made a movie with my camera, and at first the children were confused - there was no flash - but as soon as I showed them the movie... They became even more obsessed with my camera.

It was odd, though. There was no way for us to communicate with the children, as they only speak Xhosa. All we could do was try to talk with them through are hands. That was pretty awkward, but all in all it was great fun.

After that we went to this other place in Kayelitsha to have lunch. On the way there we came past this one shabby looking house that had a big sign saying "surgery." That did surprise me...

Lunch was nice. Next to the building where we had lunch there was also a little shop with all sorts of handmade African stuff. I bought quite a lot of souvenirs and presents there.

Thursday I had lifesaving againr. This time we only had to swim sixteen laps, instead of twenty. I came in second! Then it turned out two girls had actually done twenty laps... This lesson wasn't as exhausting as last week's. We weren't just doing exhausting exercises, we actually learnt one (simple) way of saving a person. However, this method is only to be used in calm water, to save someone who is conscious and calm, who just hasn't got enough energy to swim back to the shore.

Yesterday morning during assembly, three speeches were held. The first by Ash, Kath and Lily, about Holland, the second by Amy and Pascale about America and the last one by Fiona about England (she spent eleven (!) weeks there!!!). It was all quite interesting, as all six of them had made a powerpoint presentation. There were some very nice pictures of Holland between there. There were also some pictures there, which should make a few people back home glad that no one here knows them... Nah, just kidding. Everyone looks fairly normal on the pictures. At the end of the schoolday we got last year's yearbook (The Herschelian) from Ms. Bodenstein (my English teacher) who had a couple left. It's quite interesting to read. There are two pages about last year's exchanges as well.

In the evening we went to Clifton beach, for a picnic. We were there with all five exchange students plus our host families (only Ash and Gavin came later, because Ashleigh's waterpolo match had been postponed until 7.00, of course Kyle came along with Ash as well). Bronwyn also came along, and Carla, Kristina and Georgie came a bit later as well.

Bronwyn decided to go swimming. I decided to go along, and then Kath went as well. I think I went head under about five times. Kath and Bron didn't even let the water get above their hips. The water at Clifton is extremely cold, because it's part of the Atlantic, and there's a current coming from the Arctic there, whereas the beaches a bit more to the east (like Smitswinkel) are part of the Indian Ocean, so there's a warmer current there. Cape of Good Hope is the point where the two oceans meet.

At one point I was talking to Megan and Caroline (well, talking... they did all the talking, I just listened), a bit away from the rest of the group. They told me a lot about their school (Norfolk Academy, Virginia) and as Megan said: I'll know every person at that school before ever meeting them. I do think I should go visit them in Virginia some time.

When we went to sit with the group again, we started talking about cars. Of course, Megan and Caroline both have not only a driver's licence, but they each have their own car...

All in all, the week dragged on (except for Wednesday, which went to quick) and the weekend will probably go to fast. By now I completely understand why Ashleigh said that they live for the weekend here. In an hour or so we're leaving to go to Kath's aunt's farm. I don't know exactly what is there that so special about it, but as both Kath and Ash are very excited, I think I'll have a great time. We're going to stay there for the night.


Love,

Nienke