saying goodbye

Beginning this last week has been tough. I realized that this exchange was almost over and that I would soon be forced to say goodbye to everyone. It was very difficult to leave everyone behind on Thursday. Goodbyes have never been this hard for me, I’ve become so close to especially the exchange girls and my host family means so much to me. They have made this exchange as amazing as it is now.  The thought of leaving was making me sad but I had to try to enjoy my last week, make it as good as possible, unforgettable. We started our week by spending the Monday at Bishops. We had to attend to all the classes to experience what it is like to go to Bishops.We had to be there at 7:30 to meet with Mr Court and go to chapel. For the people who read my blog, you already know this was not our first chapel at Bishops. After assembly we were paired up with a boy from grade 11 who we had to follow around all day. This meant that all the exchange girls were separated and couldn’t go the classes together seeing that we then would be too much of a distraction. I was paired up with a boy called Joe who took me to tutor. Tutor at Bishops is quite different than tutor at Herschel because at Herschel you are in a class with only your grade but at Bishops, your tutor class consists of boys from different grades.  After that I had Afrikaans where the boys had to give an oral about animal testing. Pipa was in the same class as me now so we went to the next class together, science. During the first break, I saw my neighbour Shaun, and he showed me around his house (Grey House) and the rest of the school. I really like the fact that Bishops has actual physical houses whereas Herschel only has imaginary houses. I had lost my partner so I ended up following two other guys. We went to maths and economics and had a lunch break after that where I went to School House (one of the boarding houses) to have lunch. It was quite an experience. All the guys had to line up and wait for the head of the house to give them permission to go in. In the lunch room there are 3 long tables to sit at. Before the boys can go and fetch their food, they have to pray; only then they can eat. After lunch we had English lesson and Lotte, Loic and I had to make our biology test from Holland. School ended at 3 ‘o clock and afterwards we went to Cavendish with all the exchange students to have our last dinner together and celebrate loic’s birthday seeing that he was turning 16 on Tuesday.

The next day we had to go back to our own school, Herschel. It was basically a normal day and we didn’t do anything special in particular. After school, Lauren had to stay at school for English Olympiads so I ended up being picked up alone.  My neighbor came over again to help me bake a cake. At night, Lauren and I were invited to go to Loic’s birthday party. On Wednesday morning, I took the rest of the cake to bring to school. When I arrived at school, everyone was either staring at my cake or just asking for a piece so no wonder that we finished all of it before first break. Instead of prefect assembly, we had a formal assembly. There was a special guest, Andre Devillias, who sang for us. Throughout his performance he told us his life story which was truly touching. We didn’t have any classes so we spend most of our time outside on the grass and in the library. We let everyone write their goodbyes on our flags.

On Thursday, our last day, I woke up feeling a bit depressed. It was hard thinking about leaving at night. I could see my bag lying at the other side of the room, half packed and I knew I had to finish packing soon. At school everyone was surprised at the fact that we were leaving so soon. We didn’t go to any classes to spend as much time with each other as possible. The entire day, people came to us to write on our flags and say goodbye. It was quite a dull and sad day but at least we had some cake because Lotte and Loren had baked this amazing oreo cake to bring to school. At the end of the day, it was time to say goodbye to everyone. Not only the girls at Herschel but also the exchange girls who I’ve become such good friends with. Lauren took me to Jump Hi which is basically teaching less-privileged children maths.  It was a really good experience and really nice to interact with them. At 4 ‘o clock, we were picked up by Lauren’s mom. My neighbor visited me for the last time but he had to leave quite early unfortunately because my host family wanted to take out for dinner. We went to a pizza restaurant we hadn’t been to before. The food was really nice and we went home satisfied. I still had one hour left to pack my bags and surprisingly I managed to be on time to leave at half past 9. When we arrived at the airport, the others were there already, we dropped off our bags and said our last goodbyes. It was really hard to say goodbye and I realized this was a definite end to  an amazing exchange. Even though I can keep the memories forever, the exchange was ‘physically’ over. I’ve had an unforgettable two months in South Africa and I now realize how fortunate and privileged I was to be chosen for this exchange. I am looking forward to making the third graders enthusiastic because I don’t want anyone to regret not signing in.

Cederberg Camp

Day One: Monday the 27^th of February

Last week we went on our last trip, the mini epic, or better known as Cederberg camp. There is no way people can say this trip was last and least, it was one of the best trips of this exchange. We had to meet at bishops again on Monday. From there we left with the post matrics in two separate vans. We drove for about two hours and when we arrived, we had to get on our mountain bikes and prepare ourselves for almost 30 km of cycling. It was a very hot day and the bike ride was really tiring but I after about one and a half hours of cycling I arrived as the first girl at the camping place. When almost everyone had arrived we went straight to the river to swim in our clothes. We went back to the camp, soaking wet, and set up our tents while drying in the sun. After everyone had arrived, we went to Maalgat which is a place 5 minutes away from the camp site. Maalgat is well known for its high cliffs. The highest cliff is almost 20 m high. I decided to jump from the big cliff and when I was standing on top, I looked down and relived the moment of the bungee jump. Even though it wasn’t as high, it felt almost the same, the same feeling of falling and liberation, a pure addiction.

At night the teachers had planned out for us to do Dutch Oven Cooking. Everyone was asked to peel onions, cut potatoes or cut butternut. We were all standing along this long table, some people crying from the onions and other struggling to cut the hard butternut. I had the task of peeling the butternut which was quite a challenge with the blunt knives everyone was asked to take from home. After everything was cut, we made the chicken with all the veggies in the pot. Even though we ate in darkness and I could barely see what I was eating, it was extremely good. After dinner we were gathered around the fire and spilt up in tow groups for the next day. I was in group A which meant I was doing the abseiling, looking at bushman paintings and having a solo sleeping night the next day.

Day Two: Tuesday the 28^th of February

I woke up, feeling a little cold and looking to my left and right and seeing Lotte and Yiyo still sleeping next to me. My back was sore and I was already looking forward to my double bed at home. I stepped out of my sleeping bed and went straight to the showers. After breakfast we had to back our bag for the day and we went for a hike in out group to go to the cliff for the abseiling. It was another hot day and when we finally managed to get up, I could feel the sun burning on my shoulders. The gear was set up and we had to get into our harness and put on a helmet and gloves. The teacher asked us who wanted to be the first one to go down and seeing that there was no one else willing to go first, I decided to go first. It was my first time and I when I was standing on the edge I got a little nervous because I had absolutely no idea what it was going on, how I was meant to go down and if I would even make it down safely. He attached me to the rope and then asked me to lean backwards and spread my arms to take a picture!! My life was literally hanging by a thread. Then he told me I had to feed the rope to go down. My hands were a little shaky and my feet were taking tiny steps along the side of the mountain. Very slowly I could see the faces fade away as I was going down. After about two meters I got more confident and I was going down more steadily and quicker now. I was actually enjoying it. I bounced off the wall and found my way down jumping like a professional. I personally thought the way down was way too short and wanted to do more once I was down but unfortunately couldn’t. Mr Court was standing there waiting for me with an apple and unattached me once my feet were back on the ground. After the rope was pulled up again, the next person was coming already. Once everyone was down, we went back to the camp to have lunch and look at the Bushman paintings after that. The Bushman paintings were not that exciting and most of them had faded away quite a lot already so there was not much to see. They were all basically about elongated people and animals like elands and elephants. Afterwards we went to the camp to prepare ourselves for the solo sleeping night. We packed our sleeping bags and our food stash for the night. Everyone was having supper at the camping place except for Loic, Agustine (Argentina) and me. We took a pot and pasta to make our own food. I was one of the first three to be dropped off and I had an absolutely beautiful spot. There was a bit of sand where I was planning to sleep on and a big tree hanging over the river. I could literally step into the river from my spot. I put on my bikini and went straight into the river. The water was very shallow and the sun hadn’t set yet but was giving this reflection onto the water. I walked through the water a bit and walked back when there was nothing left to see. There were stones lying in a circle on the sand and I took some bricks and my matchers to make a fire. Once the fire was burning nicely I took out my pot and pasta to make supper. I filled the pot with some water from the river and waited till it was boiling. I put the pasta in and after 10 minutes it was ready and I could enjoy my meal but unfortunately ‘enjoying’ wasn’t really the right word. They had given me some sauce to put over but the sauce was absolutely disgusting. I hate half of it and then dug a hole to put the rest in. I decided to go for a walk and explore the surroundings and see if there were any other people close by to keep me company. I had to find my way through bushes and dead trees but finally made it out into the open where I saw one of the post matrics walking. He showed me his spot and decided to spend the night there together. The solo sleeping night turned out to be a duo sleeping night. We watched the stars but sleeping became quite difficult seeing that there were mosquitoes flying around our heads the entire time. We literally tried everything to scare them away. We used anti-bug cream and spray. We tried to kill them but that is quite a challenge outside and more will come anyways. We were desperately looking for a way to make them go leave so then we turned on this app on my phone which is supposed to scare them away by making this high pitchy sound which was absolutely painful to my own ears so then we just gave up and fell asleep eventually.  

Day Three: Wednesday the 29th of February

The next morning the sunrise woke me up but I didn’t want to get out of my sleeping back seeing that it was still early and really cold. My sleeping bag was filled with sand and my face was wet from the dew. We went back to the camp together and had a nice breakfast. At Half past 9 we left to go a school nearby where we would be playing games and making butterflies with the children. The children were all smiling when we arrived and they were enjoying it so much. We had to pair up with one of the children and help them with making the butterflies. I was helping this girl called Nicole and even though she could barely speak English, we could still get along quite well. Not only the girls were making butterflies, the boys were making ones of their own too. While the butterflies were drying in the sun, we were playing games outside. We played games like hide-and-seek, soccer and jumping over the rope. The girls were doing our hair and they were smiling all the time, having the time of their lives. We gave them some cookies and something to drink and they sang us songs afterwards. They were giving us this private concert of dancing and singing songs by Justin Bieber which was absolutely adorable. It was so hard to leave them behind because them were hugging you and pulling these sad faces. I was such a nice experience though, to see them smile. When we came back we had quite a lot of time for ourselves to go swimming or just relaxing. Later that day we went to the Leopard Trust fund where we went on a hike to look for tracks and footprints and see the traps. Unfortunately we didn’t see any leopards but seeing one is very unlikely in the first place. The man who studies these leopards has worked there for over 9 years and has only seen seven leopards in the wild without a collar. I wasn’t very exciting to be honest but it was quite interesting to see how dedicated someone can be to help these leopards. I wouldn’t be able to spend my life saving these leopards if you barely see any. At night we just sat at the fire and roasted marshmallows while listening to music and everyone’s stories of the solo sleeping night.

Day Four: Thursday the 1^st of March

Thursday was basically our last day. We went on this big hike which would take us 8 hours. We had to take as much water as possible seeing that we could only refill it once on our way up the mountain. It was again a really hot day and I had the feeling I was going to get a sun burn at the end of the day. The boys had to walk all the way to the mountain but as girls we needed a head of start and therefore we were driven to the foot of the mountain. We arrived there earlier and started walking up. The guys caught up with us quickly but most of us ended up going up the mountain together. Some boys however went up like they were doing a race. We went through caves, tunnels and cracks with the weirdest names. Cracks called The Birth Canal and passages called the coffin where you had to lie on your back and make your way underneath this big rock hanging above you. It was quite tiring all of this but Mr Court told us that once we were on top of the mountain we would be walking on flat paths. Once we were up the mountain, we realized that Mr Court wasn’t entirely right. He made us walk all the way to this arch which looked like it was at least 2 hours away of where we were standing but luckily we stayed there for about an hour to have lunch in the shade and enjoy the view. Some of us decided to go up the arch. In order to get on the arch we had to climb through cracks and push ourselves through this tiny crack which almost impossible to get through. One of the post matrics, who was known as “big Fred” decided he wanted to go up the arch too but in order to do that he had to pass through this crack. He managed to get into the crack but his leg was still sticking out which he used the push himself through. He was kicking around and I seriously thought he was stuck but miraculously, he got through.  We went down the arch again after the picture was taken of us standing on top and we thought we could finally go back to the camp but the Mr Court thought it would be nice to go up another hill, the highest peak of the mountain to be precise. On top of the peak there was a flag and there were kittle pots with pen and paper to write our names on. You could see the names of the exchange students and post matrics of last year and I actually recognized some of them.  We went back to the camp again; my legs full of scratches, a dry throat, an exploding bladder but luckily only a single bruise.  We went for another swim at Maalgat to cool down and at night we had our last supper. Big Fred was roasting chicken and Boerewors which was delicious. We emptied all the bags of marshmallows and around 11 ‘o clock I went for a night swim in the river. The water was surprisingly warm but once I got out, I got quite cold and I ran straight to the bathrooms to take a hot shower. I took my sleeping bag and lay down on the grass with the others to watch the stars. We talked and played games for hours but I fell asleep eventually around 4 in the morning.

Day Five: Friday the 2^nd of March

 Friday was our last day. We didn’t do that much actually. We basically packed all our bags and tents and cleared out the camping place. We drove off in the tow separate vans again around half past nine and after an hour or so, we stopped at a Spur to have lunch together. A spur is a South African restaurant where you can have burgers, meat, chips etc. We had our order ready which made it much easier. We left an hour later and drove straight to Bishops where our trip ended.

Township

Wednesday the 22^nd of February.

On Wednesday the 22^nd of February we went to the township called Vrijgrond. We didn’t go with all the exchange students, only the girls, because the boys had spent their day there on Tuesday. We left at about 9:30 so we still had classes before that. We took some apples and cookies to give to the children in the township. It took us only half an hour to drive to the township, and in only half an hour you could see the enormous difference in wealth. When I saw the township I realized how privileged I was. How blessed I am with the fact that I have a proper house and don’t have to worry about leaking rooms or a lack of food. I take everything for granted and you can’t imagine living without all the luxuries you have at home.                                                                                         After half an hour we arrived in the township where we were greeted by a woman working for the program to get the children from the street. We went into the kindergarten where the children were having breakfast. All of them were either coloured or black and between the age of 5 to 8. The children were all smiling when they saw us coming in. They all reached for you when you passed them and they wanted to hug you and hold you. They were looking for love and attention. We left after the woman from the beginning had given us some back ground information about the program and we headed off to the ‘Computer Room’ where we would meet some people who would join us in our walk through the township. The ‘Computer Room’ is being used to teach them how to use a computer to get a proper job. From here, we were taken on a tour through Vrijgrond. The sky was cloudy and grey and it even started raining. The clouds and the rain made the township look dull, even though most of the shacks were brightly coloured. There were dogs walking through the muddy streets and the township was littered with trash. Old shoes, plastic bags and tins of coke covered the streets. Along our way we passed many hairdressers and we even went into a greenhouse where they tried to encourage the people to grow their own plants and food. I talked to some of the people in the group who actually lived in the township and heard their side of the story. It was quite fascinating to hear that most of them didn’t even want to leave the township. They were happy about their lives, mainly because they liked the people in the township and the fact that everyone is friendly with each other. After the tour we went back to the children where we gave them the cookies. The moment when we walked in they were screaming and ran to us to hug us and adore us. They were seeking for our attention and we had to stop them from climbing on our backs and pulling our hair. We sat on the floor and they were hanging on us like little koala bears. They were absolutely adorable and I just loved the fact that we made them smile. That was the best moment of the day for me, making them smile. It was an amazing and especially interesting experience.

A Weekend in a Tent

On Friday the 24^th of February, Lotte’s host family had invited me to go camping with them for the weekend. It was a normal day at school except for the fact that there were three human individuals of the opposite sex joining us at school... The exchange guys from Holland and Yiyo (from Chilli). When I stepped out of the car in the morning, not only my jaw almost dropped my school bag, camping bag and sleeping bag  too because I was just absolutely amazed by the fact that all the girls were staring at the guys and standing around them like they were these Greek gods. Throughout the day, girls asked me if I knew them and asked me to take them to my classes because they wanted to meet them. They were having the time of their lives. Unfortunately for them, Fridays end at 10 past 2 and they had to leave early. After school, Lotte and I were picked up to drive to Slangenhoek, the camping place where we would be spending our weekend. We drove for about 2 hours and when we arrived, Loren’s dad had already set up our tents and was preparing dinner. We walked around the camping place and planned what we would be doing the next day. After dinner we played some card games but we were soon interrupted by this enormous moth flying around our heads, attracted by the light of the lamp. I’ve never seen a moth that big, I am not exaggerating; it had a diameter of 7 centimetres. We quickly took the lamp and went into the tent to continue our game. We closed the top and side of the tent but forgot to zip the bottom so after about 5 minutes, we heard the moth trying to sneak through the tiny ... we had left open. I’ve never heard Lotte scream that much in her life. We opened the tent and chased it away. When we thought it was out we quickly closed it again. We were making jokes about the moth now and Lotte said it would be so funny if she was sitting on it, and you can call it karma, because at that moment, she felt something hard underneath her. She stood up and pulled up her sleeping bag. The moth flew from underneath and I can tell you, the entire camping lot could have probably heard us screaming. We stopped our game, took the lamp out of the tent and went to bed, but Lotte got such a fright, she wanted me to kill every single bug in the tent.

The next day it was really hot. We didn’t really feel like doing something very active so we just spent the day at the swimming pool, tanning or lying in the shade playing games. Loren’s dad prepared fish for lunch which was really nice but it attracted the flies. You couldn’t eat without having at least 5 flies on your arms and legs and 3 flies around your food so we switched turns waving our arms and scaring them away.  There were two boys from the neighbourhood who brought a guitar and we asked them if we could borrow it. Loren is very good at playing the guitar and she can sing extremely well so she gave us a private concert. We played some more card games with the boys and sat around the fire for supper. At night, we sat on the trampoline and watched the stars in our sleeping bags. We talked for hours and only went to bed around 1 ‘o clock. The next morning we had to leave at 10 ‘o clock so we got up early and had took a shower. We left straight after our freshly baked pancake breakfast. They dropped me off at home at around 12 ‘o clock and half an hour later, my host family took me to Stellenbosh where we would be having dinner with Nicole. We ate at this vineyard called Tokara. Later that day, my neighbour across the road decided to visit me again before I left to go on the Cederberg camp. Overall it was a really nice weekend.

A weekend at the Beach House

Last weekend, my host family decided to go to their beach house in Hermanus, the town we went to on the last day of the garden route. Janette (my host mom) told me I could invite some friends and I immediately asked Lotte, Loren Pipa and Sofia to come with. On Saturday morning they came to my house around 9 ‘o clock so we could leave early. It took us almost one and a half hours to drive there but we stopped at a wimpy to have brunch. A wimpy is a typical South African road restaurant. It was my first time to go one and it was actually really nice food. I shared a wrap and a club sandwich with Lotte seeing that we couldn’t decide which one to take. When we arrived, we went upstairs to prepare our beds and put on our swimming costume. We decided to go to the beach immediately to go sand boarding and it took us only 3 minutes to walk there. It was incredibly windy and the sand blew up in our eyes all the time which hurt a lot but we enjoyed the sand boarding too much to leave. We went back home and watched The Hangover which was probably everyone’s 20^th time of watching it. We had lunch and decided to go to the beach further away and rent a movie afterwards. In the movie rent shop we didn’t only see DVDs but we saw actual videos too. We started laughing really hard and wondered who would still watch a video. We ended up taking, “Something Borrowed” which was a romantic comedy. At night we went onto the balcony in our sleeping bags and lay down, watched the stars and talked. The stars were incredible. There were millions of them and I know they are always there but in Holland you don’t really get to see that many stars. Hermanus is a small town with mostly beach houses and doesn’t really have street lights, there is almost no light and that’s what makes the stars appear so bright.

The next day we woke up, put on our bikinis and lay on the balcony again, not for watching stars but for tanning. It must’ve looked ridiculous, four girls side to side on the balcony at 9 AM. We had breakfast and went straight to town where we went shopping for a bit and went to a café where we had something to drink. We didn’t stay there for long and we got picked up after an hour. It wasn’t as windy as the day before so we went to the beach again, for some tanning and swimming this time. When we went to the beach for the last time for some extra tanning and swimming. The sea wasn’t as cold as at for example Camps Bay where it is freezing.

I wouldn’t mind having a beach house here, it’s quiet and the beach is so close, spending your weekends here would be amazing. Just getting out of the city area and relaxing. Normally when you want to go to the beach you have to stay for quite a while to make it worthy to drive all the way to the beach but seeing that you can walk to the beach in less than three minutes you can just come and go.  We left Hermanus around 3 ‘o clock and dropped everyone off at home having a tan as a reminder for a nice weekend.

Garden Route day five

day five

Friday the 17^th of February. This was not only the last day of the Garden Route but it was also the last day of Julia’s and Kadi’s stay here in South Africa unfortunately. We decided to go running around 8 ‘o clock. It was really nice, it wasn’t too hot and the view was beautiful. We were surrounded by mountains and grazing cows. Afterwards, we had breakfast, scrambled eggs with bacon and toast again. We packed our bags, cleared out the lodges and left to go to Hermanus. At Hermanus we had 2 hours and 45 minutes to walk around. Hermanus is known for whale watching but unfortunately there are not many whales around this time of the year. We actually didn’t see any whales, the best time to go is around September. We went to an African market where we bought souvenirs for ourselves and our friends and family. 2 hours and 45 minutes is way too long and we just ended up sitting on the rocks at the sea. It was very windy and unsurprisingly, Yiyo’s (from Chili) blew off, into the sea. It was his favourite hat and was very upset. He walked down to the see and stood on the rocks, the waves crashing on the sides and splashing up to him. Even though he was very perseverant and stood there for fifteen minutes, he didn’t manage to get his cap back. It was almost time and we decided to walk back to the van. In the van, everyone finished their sweets and snacks and wrote some notes for Kadi and Julia. We arrived at bishops at 5 ‘o clock and the Garden Route was over.

It had been an amazing five days and it was a really good way to get to know each other better. Even though we spend most of the time in the bus, I really enjoyed myself and did some great things like the bungee jump. Luckily this is not our last trip and I am looking forward to the Cederberg Camp!

Garden Route day four

Day four

Thursday the 16^th of February. This was the second last day of our trip. We woke up and had scrambled eggs with bacon and toast for breakfast. We left at about half past 8. Today we would be doing the Canopy gliding tour at Stormriver. We arrived and got instructions on about the tour. They gave us the gear and a helmet for safety. We also got a bottle of water which was quite nice seeing that I didn’t bring my own. On the wall in the room where we got our gear, there was a map of the world and pins. People who had done this tour have all put a pin on the place they came from. Europe was completely covered with pins and so was Hong Kong and Argentina. There were almost now pins in Africa and only some in Australia. We went on a small open van which drove us to where the tour would start. We climbed up the stairs and stood on a platform where the first person got attached to the line and abseiled down to the next tree. We went from tree to tree like this, every time attaching to the abseiling line and then again on another safety cord. Sometimes the man on the platform on the next tree would wave at you and then you had to break by pulling the line down with your right hand if you were right handed and with your left hand if you were left handed. The tour was nice but not as exciting as the bungee jumping. It would have been better if we did the bungee jump first. After the tour, we had lunch and received our certificate. We went straight to the Buffeljagtsdam where we would spend the night and have dinner. When we arrived, it was still light but the sun was about to set. We were told that the night sky would be littered with stars but unfortunately it was cloudy so no stars for us. Dinner was really nice, we had chicken with salad and rice. After dinner we sat outside a bit and some of use watched a part of the soccer match between Ajax and Manchester. We slept in two separate lodges, one for the boys and one for the girls. While we were sitting in the girl’s lodge, we heard Pipa screaming. We ran to her to see what she was screaming about and then we saw it, this huge spider on the wall. Miss Stephens came in the room with a bucket and a ladle to get it out. At first it didn’t work so I asked her if I could do it because she is not that tall and she could hardly reach it. So I tried but then she got mad at me because she said I might hurt it. Then Lotte came in screaming that she wanted to kill it and then Miss Stephens took over again to make sure the SPIDER was okay. She told Lotte she couldn’t kill it seeing that it had as much right to live as Lotte did. After what felt like ages, Miss Stephens succeeded in chasing it out of the lodge. We chatted a little longer with the group and at half past 11 Miss Stephens told us to go to bed. The girls went to their rooms and the boys went back to their own lodge. Half an hour later Lotte and I got really thirsty and because we couldn’t drink the water from the tap seeing that it was brown, we decided to go to the kitchen to get some water. When we walked out the door, Miss Stephens came to check on us that we wouldn’t sneak out and she checked all the doors to see if they were still closed and no boys at tried to pay us a nightly visit. We went to our rooms again, giggling about her paranoia and fell asleep soon afterwards.

Garden Route day three

day three

Wednesday the 15^th of February. Today was the big day. I woke up and realized that we would be bungee jumping today. For breakfast we could either have eggs with bacon tomato and toast or a health breakfast with muesli, yoghurt and fresh fruit. I decided to have the health breakfast seeing that it is my regular breakfast here in South Africa. We put our plates in the kitchen and went to our rooms to pack our bags. We left the backpackers around 9 ‘o clock to go canoeing. When we arrived, there were 5 canoes on the shore. I shared my canoe with Lotte and we were the first ones to leave. We called ourselves the dynamic due seeing that we were a great team and stayed ahead of everyone. They told us that we had to go up the river for about half an hour but after fifteen minutes we couldn’t go any further unless we lifted our canoe over the rocks and walk 30 meters or so, so we decided to stay here and relax for a while. The boys were doing a contest for who could make the stones bounce on the water the most and who could throw their stones the furthest. After about fifteen minutes we went back, this time downstream luckily.

We drove for about one and an hour to Bloukrans where the bungee jump was. When we arrived we had to wait another hour before we could go on the bridge. We had to fill in the forms and we had to stand on the weight scale. With a permanent marker, they wrote our weight and jump number on our right hand. My jump number was 69 which was quite unfortunate seeing that there were only 2 numbers before me to jump. We had to wear a harness and after half an hour we could go on the bridge. Only two of us decided not to go and they waited in the cafe where they had an amazing view over the mountains, the sea and us jumping. There were for about 15 other people jumping with us. There was a long cage hanging from underneath the bridge where we had to walk through. I was so scared when I was walking in the cage because the bottom was see-through and you could look down, 216 meters. I got really nervous and I thought to myself... Why am I doing this! I did move on and when I eventually made it till the bridge, I heard the music playing which made me less tense. It was quite cold up there but the staff handed out blankets to keep us warm. I was actually looking forward to the jump now and was so glad I would be the third one to jump but then they started calling out random numbers instead of doing it in the order of the number. I was the 6^th one to jump which was not that bad. I had to sit on a bench where they attached protective pads around my legs and tied the rope around them. Lourents was before me and I could see him jumping as well as screaming. They told me it was 100% safe and asked me some questions but I wasn’t really paying attention, I was thinking of the jump and the height. They asked me to stand and walked me to the edge of the bridge. I could hear the music blasting in my ears and I could feel my heart beating against my chest. They were counting now... 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 BUNGY! I jumped off and felt like I was flying. I was a complete freefall and felt like I had never felt before. At a certain point I thought I was going to die but then I was bounced up again and saw the amazing view. It was incredible but after about half a minute, my head started to feel like it was exploding. I imagined myself to have this big red head and my feet hurt a little but when I looked up I could see someone coming down along the rope. He told me not to worry and He attached me to this cord and pulled me up. Once up, they were taking pictures of me. I could see the rest of the group coming towards me, jumping up and down and sharing my excitement. It felt like I was on drugs and still flying. I watched the others jump and after everyone had had their turn we went back again. We went to the shop where everyone bought their video and photos. The teacher gathered everyone back together and we left to go to the backpackers nearby. At the backpackers, we watched everyone’s video of the bungee jump and had dinner. On the video, you could see everyone dancing in the back which was quite enjoyable and when I was watching my video, I was reliving the moment. This was by far the most amazing thing I have ever done. After dinner, everyone enjoyed themselves by playing card games, playing billiard or watching a soccer game on television. I played the card game bullshit with Julia and Kadi (the exchange girls from Hong Kong), Yiyo (from Chili) Lotte and Cristian (from Colombia). Even though the Julia and Kadi won most of the time, everyone had a great time. We laughed a lot which might have been a bit disturbing for the rest of the backpackers seeing that it was quite loud and Lotte kept on screaming BULLSHIT all the time. We went to bed quite early seeing that everyone was a bit tired and we had to get up early again the next morning, day four.

Garden Route day two

Day two

Tuesday the 14^th of February. Today we had to wake up early to go on our second game drive. The sun was up already and so were the animals. Yesterday we didn’t see any elephants so we made a special request to look for them first. We saw two elephants walking and eating and we took some beautiful pictures. We saw the lions again and some other animals like Bontebeesies and Springbok. After the game drive we had breakfast and seeing that it was the 14^th of February, everyone was wishing each other a happy Valentine’s Day. The Exchange students from Hong Kong had made origami hearts for everyone and had some candy from China. Last week you could send a rose to someone for Valentine’s Day. Not only could you send them to girls in Herschel but you could send them to other schools too, boy’s schools in Cape Town like Bishops, Sacs and Rondebosch. I had sent some roses to the exchange students from chilli and my partner which they received after garden route when they came back. I got a rose myself too and when I came home I saw it standing in a vase on my desk. After breakfast we went to an ostrich farm which as really nice. When we came there we had to sit in this room where someone told us about the ostriches. He told us that ostriches eat stones because they don’t chew their food but the stones in their stomach will grind it and he told us what the feathers and skins are used for. Then the girls got some ostrich hugs from a female ostrich called Bessie and the boys got a kiss. Afterwards, it was time to ride an ostrich. First only half of the group could ride on one which was quite sad because everyone wanted to go but then the guide felt sorry for us and arranged that we could all go. It was quite an experience to ride on an ostrich. The Ostrich got a sac over its head to keep it calm and then you had to sit on his back with your legs underneath its wings and hold on tightly onto its wings. They pulled the sac off his head and then the ostrich started running. Luckily I was held by two men to make it safer and I had to get off quickly not to fall. The guide thought it would be nice to let the ostriches give us a neck massage. We had to hold a bucket of food in front of us and lean against the fence where the ostriches stayed and then they tried to get the food. It was quite ticklish and the ostriches were rather rough, it was not that good of a massage but the ostriches were soft though. I’d rather have a real massage.

We went back to the van and drove about half an hour to go to the Cango Caves where we would get an adventurous tour. We entered the cave into this huge chamber. It was quite dark in there but when the guide turned off the light, we could see the massive formations like stalagmites and stalactites. She told us that people used to give concerts in these caves and I can imagine the sound and ambiance to be amazing. She turned off most of the light again and we moved further into the caves. The tour took us through narrow tunnels like the tunnel of love which was given this name because it was so tight; you were actually getting hugs and squeezes from the walls. It was quite slippery in the caves so you had to be really careful not the fall. I personally believe that the scariest think of the tour was the devil’s chimney and I wouldn’t have given it a different name. It looked like there was a hole in the wall with a dead end and I thought the tour guide was making a joke about going in there but then I looked up into the hole and you I realized she was being serious. We had to climb up for about 3 meters into the chimney. I was so relieved when I finally came out. At one point in the tour, we had to go through a tunnel which was only 27 cm high. We had to crawl on our bellies over the floor and at the end slide down through a crack. Luckily, no one got stuck and after one and a half hours we went out again. This was the last activity for the day and we drove to the backpackers where we would be spending the night. We had dinner and played billiards afterwards. We played some more card games and then Miss Stephens told us to go to go to our rooms and prepare ourselves for the next day, because the next day was the big day, BUNGY JUMPING.

Garden Route

In this update of my blog I will tell you all the ins and outs from the garden route. As this was one of the most amazing things I have ever done I will try to tell you in as much detail as possible to give you a slight hint of the things we have done on the Garden Route.

Day One

Our trip started on Monday the 13th of February. We had to meet at Bishops at 7:45 where the BOKBUS tour van would take us on our 5 day journey through the Southern and Eastern Cape. When I arrived, all the girls were already there but we were still waiting on some boys. We decided to go to the chapel to attend to the assembly. When we came in the chapel, all the guys were staring at us seeing that they go to an all-boys school and barely see girls. We sat close to the back where we were not too much of a distraction. The Chapel was white from the inside with a high ceiling and an organ at the back. They said their prayers and the choir started singing. This assembly was not that much different than our assemblies, the main difference is that our assemblies our held in the theater where Bishops assemblies are in their chapel. After assembly all the boys had to go to classes and we as exchange students had to go to the van where we would be leaving any minute. Miss Stephens, the teacher who was going with us, decided it would be nice to have a Herschel mascot which turned out to be a pig. We, the girls, got really excited seeing that this pig was adorable with its pig flappy ears and cute curled tail. Obviously, we had to give it a name which was not that easy seeing that everyone wanted to call it something else. Call it after someone’s boyfriend or give it another ridiculous name but eventually everyone agreed to call it Piggy Oink. We put our bags in the trailer and settled in the van, turned the music on and put our snacks on our laps.

We first went to a place where we could see African penguins. They were really cute but we were told not to come too close because they bite. Some of the guys were scaring Pipa (exchange student from Chili) by saying that they will go for the eyes first but that didn't bother her, she was absolutely in love with them and if she could, I'm sure she would have taken one home. We only stayed here for about half an hour and left straight after everyone had done their business in the bathroom. Our second stop was at the Southernmost Tip of Africa and the lighthouse nearby. Everyone went up in the lighthouse which was quite scary because the stairs were very steep. After everyone had taken their photos, which took quite a while, we went off again, this time to the game farm where we would be going on a game drive and spending the night. When we arrived, we only had time to put our bags in our s-person hut because the guides were ready for their drive. This was my first safari ever and I really enjoyed it. I was in a truck with Julia (exchange student from Hong Kong), Lourents and for about 10 other visitors. There were blankets in the car to keep us warm which was quite necessary when it got darker. The first animals we saw were rhinos. There were three of them, two adults and a baby. They told us that these were white rhinos which we first didn’t believe seeing that they were covered in mud. After everyone had packed their cameras back in again, we continued our search for some more animals. The next animal to see was a female giraffe. She was standing in the bushes having dinner and enjoying the last bit of sun. The driver told us a giraffe’s tongue has an average length of 55 cm which is quite impressive. Lourents spotted a lion further away and we quickly drove to the lions territory. The lions are kept separately seeing that they need at least 80 hectares of land for themselves to naturally live in. we had to go through two gates to enter the lion terrain. The driver told us these lions are quite aggressive, especially the male lion, and said that’s why we couldn’t get too close to them. We could see both lions but at first they were quite far apart. Eventually we could see the male lion walking to the female lion and once he made it till her, she submissively lay down on her back to show him her respect.  We drove out of the gate again and continued the game of hide and seek. On our way we saw some buffalos, blue cranes  and springbok. A bit further to the back of the game farm, we spotted a cheetah feeding on a carcass. The cheetah had a big red scar on his back leg. A buffalo had attacked this cheetah and almost killed it. It was stabbed on both sides of its body and was just very lucky when the buffalo was pushed off him by one of the game farm jeeps. It took almost 8 months until it was fully recovered and the scar is still visible even though this accident was for about a year ago. The sun was almost down and it was time for us to go back and have dinner. Unfortunately we didn’t see any elephants but the next day we had another opportunity to see them. We were sitting at a long table with the entire group and had real South African food which was delicious. I tried some ostrich neck which was the first time in my life I tried ostrich meat and it was surprisingly good. Everyone shared their stories of what animals they had seen and showed their pictures. After dinner half of the group, including me, decided to go and swim in the pool. There were two pools, one appeared to be freezing cold and the other one was luckily heated. Miss Stephens came by and told us we had to get out and go to bed. The moment we got out of the pool we realized how cold it was and some of us forgot their towels so they were standing in the cold, shivering, waiting to get a towel. We quickly put on some clothes and ran to our huts to take a warm shower.  I shared my hut with Lotte and we were told this was our own night of luxury and I have to agree with that. The bed was amazing and I fell asleep straight away.

Table Mountain

On Friday the 10^th we went on our hike up Table Mountain. We met again at Bishops where the school bus would again take us to our destination. This time we didn’t go with only one bus, we left with too. We drove all the way up to where the cable cart could take people up Table Mountain. This is where our journey began. We turned the music on, drank some water and prepared ourselves both physically and mentally on this hike. I personally thought the first half of the hike was rather exhausting and I kept saying to myself I never wanted to climb a mountain again but halfway I started enjoying myself. I even said to the rest of the group I thought it was fun and wanted to climb another mountain. We stopped a couple of times in between to wait for the rest, drink some water and enjoy the view. The view was amazing, we could see almost all of Cape town. Halfway, the Hike started to be more of a climb and the path got a bit rougher. The top was coming closer and closer and made us more excited resulting in walking faster. Once on top, I realized I climbed my first mountain ever in my life. I was such an amazing feeling to just stand on top of the mountain, look down and see what you just walked up. The view was incredible but it was rather windy on top so I put on my exchange hoody. On top of Table mountain everyone was taking pictures to remember this moment and show everyone the view and their major achievement. Luckily we didn’t have to walk down and we just took the cable cart down. It took us only 2 minutes to go down the way it took us 3 hours to go up. The cable cart was really nice because it was turning. Once down, the girls had to go in the one bus and the boys in the other bus so we could be driven to Herschel directly.

At night there was a valentine’s concert at Bishops where I went to with Lotte and the exchange students from Chili. We met with Loic and some other exchange students from Colombia and enjoyed ourselves for the night. There were acrobats and bands playing music. It was a lovely night even though it was raining and we met some nice people. Overall I had a great day, I hiked up a mountain and finished the day with a nice evening and a sleep over at Lotte’s house.

Robben Island

On Thursday the 9^th of March we were going to Robben Island. We were meeting at Bishops in front of the chapel around 7.45. We took the bishops school bus to waterfront where we would take the fairy to Robben Island. The waves were quite rough and the fairy was rocking over the ocean. Lucky none of us got see sick. Once on the Island we got a bus where we were introduced to the tour guide. He would be giving us information about the island while we were driving through. It was quite an interesting bus ride seeing that he had a lot to say and had a really good sense of humour. He knew how to interact with the people in the bus and their nationalities to make it more interesting. He told us some fascinating and sometimes rather shocking stories about the island and the apartheid. He told us that during the apartheid, people in Holland would say in supermarkets like Albert Heijn that whenever you ate an orange imported from South Africa, you would be sucking the blood of the black people. I was shocked when I heard that and at the same moment ashamed of my own country.

An interesting fact about Robben Island is that it has the 3^rd world’s biggest penguin colony and that even though the Dutch people used to eat the penguins with cheese, it still has the third biggest penguin population. After the bus ride, we went into the prison on Robben Island where we obviously visited the cell of Nelson Mandela. I was impressed by the fact that it was so small and He was able to stay there for about 18 years.  Afterwards we went back to Waterfront and had some time to look around and have fun. We went back around 2 ‘o clock and were dropped off at Bishops where we would be picked up by the Herschel school bus to take us back.

I really enjoyed the trip to Robben Island because that it was interesting and made me realize how it must have been a couple of years ago seeing that it was rather unimaginable to me.

house spirit

Jagger, Rolt and Merriman.
Herschel is divided into these three houses, all grades, from grade 8 till 12. Each house has it's own colour and mascotte. Jagger is green and has the hippo as mascotte, Rolt is yellow and has a rabbit and Merriman is red with the raindeer as mascotte. As Lauren belongs to Jagger, I automatically belong to Jagger too.
This week started with a "House Braai" which is Afrikaans for a house barbecue. The house braai started at 6 'o clock and took place at the house of someone from Jagger. The purpose of this braai was to initiate the grade 8 girls and to prepare ourselves for the inter house gala which took place today. The dresscode of this event was obviously green. When we arrived, we were requested to put our personal belongings on the side, the purpose of this became clear later as they greeted us with the host pipe and threw green goo at us like we weren't already green enough with everyone walking around in green shirts, shorts or other assessories. As soon as everyone had arrived, the initiation could begin. The grade 8 girls had to jump in the pool to get their badge out and swear to always be loyal and true to Jagger. Apparently the initiations used to be much worse, when lauren had to do her initiation, she had to drink this lovely smoothie consisting of tomatoes, eggs and grass. No house is allowed to be as extreme as then. After the initiation we could eat from all the food everyone had brought with them adn we finished the evening with rehearsing our cheers for the next day seeing that we had to support the swimmers for the inter house gala.

Today was the inter house gala which was like nothing we have ever had at our own school back in Holland. Everyone was wearing their house shirt and sat at the pool. Warming up our voices for the cheers, the swimmers started the race. Everyone was singing and cheering as loud as they could and it seemed like over a thousand people were there when there were only 600 girls. The swimmers were trying their hardest to win the cup but unfortunately, Jagger didn't win the cup, this year it was Rolt. They have the best swimmers and won with a total of around 450 points while jagger only had for about 250 points. There were many other cups for individual swimmers but another main cup was the "Spirit Cup" which was won by Merriman. Everyone was going home with a sore throat of the cheering but you could see them leaving, all with a smile on their face.

I am getting used now to the way of life and going to school in South Africa now. It is like I have been in Herschel all my life. Every single monday we have assembly where we have to be absolutely silent except for the moments when we have to sing the songs from the hymne booklets. last week on Wednesday we had our first prefects assembly which is a assembly which is held by students instead of teachers. It was quite a surprise when we walked into the theater seeing as there was music blasting out of the speakers. It reminded me a bit of the "Sint viering" because the everyone comes together and there is music as well as videos. You could really see that everyone loosened up a little.
On Thursday I woke up with pain in my foot which was probably caused by a bite of an animal. I could barely walk and had to wear flipflops to school. Considering that the teachers are very strict on the people wearing their uniform properly, I had to get permission to wear flipflops. Later that day, at consumers, I backed that lemon merengue pie which was absolutely DELICIOUS! There was nothing left by the end of the day. The next day would be my first trip, to Elandspad, but sadly I couldn't go because my foot was still very painful. I decided to stay home and walk as little as possible and luckily my foot was better by the next day.
Over the weekend I did the usual things, going to the beach and enjoying the sun. My host family took me to "The Nutcracker" on ice which was amazing. People were applauding throughout the play which was quite distracting and personally I believed that it was quite rude but that is probably the way South Africans attend to a performans.

This week I went on my first trip which was a tour through Cape Town on a hop-on-hop-off bus which was really nice. We were driven to Bisshops by a Herschel school bus. This was the first time I had seen Bisshops from close by and it was huge. Bisshops is much bigger thatn Herschel and it reminded me a bit of a Britisch boarding school. Bisshops has assembly every single day and that's why we could see the boys walking out the chapel even though it was not a Monday (assembly day at herschel). We left Bisshops again in a Bisshops school bus. On the tour we went to a market, gardens, a museum, the Castle of Good Hope and Camps Bay which is a beach at the west coast. At night, Lauren and I baked cupcakes. This is what I like most about herschel. Whenever there is a tough double period like biology, the girls take something to eat to class to share with everyone. So Lauren and I decided to bake the cupcakes for the next day. You always have to keep in mind that you have to bake enough for everyone seeing that most girls will gather around you and ask for food whenever they see something they like and cupcakes are definately one of their favourites.

My first week of school had been a great experience. Noticing all these differences between my own school and Herschel. I have finally gotten used to the dress and the tough shoes. Going to school is becoming a routine. Putting on the dress and shoes, packing my bag and my lunch packet and being driven to school. School begins at 7.45 every single day and officially ends at 3 ‘o clock with Friday as an exception. On Friday, school ends at 14.10 resulting in a longer weekend for everyone, going to the beach and doing other fun things.

The classes I am taking are drama, art, consumers, math and English. For drama we are doing a play to perform on the 90^th birthday of the school. This is quite an unusual play since it takes place in the pool. Not only for drama, but for art too, we have a project for the school’s birthday. We have to design a fantasy creature to hang up above the pool. I am taking my classes together with Lotte so we don’t get lost, and if we do anyway, we will not be alone.

Next week we will be baking a lemon merengue pie for consumers. With this recipe, I have no doubts that the pie will be delicious.

Recipe:

dough
1 packet of tennis biscuits
125 g margarine

lemon filling

½ liters of lemon juice
1 tin of condensed milk
3 yolk

Merengue

3 egg white
75 g sugar

This weekend we went to Ratango Junction which is an amusement park near canal walk. I went together with Lotte, Lourents, Loic and Loren. We went straight to the slingshot which is a kind of launcher which was amazing. We had to put on a special special gear and we were hung up facing the ground. We went up backwards and once up, the guides were giving us these signs which I didn't understand at all until Lotte said I had to pull the red cord. I pulled the red cord which I considered a huge mistake considering the function of it, launch us!

On Sunday, my host family took lotte and me to Stellenbos, to Nicole's (Lauren's siter) university. Afterwards we decided to go spier where you can pet cheetahs and owls. We were very lucky because they had baby cheetahs which was quite exceptional. Before we could go in and pet them, we had to clean our hands and the soles of our shoes. We were only allowed to pet them on the back and along the sides seeing that they are very ticklish around their head and belly. What really surprised me was that they purred, just like a domestic cat. They were so adorable and had to almost fight back the urge to take them home. After petting the cheetahs we went to the owls. I could see some owls sitting on a stick and one of the volunteers asked, 'Would you like to pet them?' and I thought, why would I pet a dead animal. Apparently they weren't dead after all, they were just sitting very still. I eventually pet them and they were surprisingly calm and especially soft. Unlike the cheetahs, they didn't purr, but they were cute anyway.

The First Day of School

It's half past six, my alarm goes off and I get out of bed. After a nice shower I walk back into my room and stand in front of my closet. I open it slowely and see my schooldress hanging and at the bottom of the closet I can see my brown shoes staring at me. They aren't just looking, they are literally staring as they are made of this tough leather. Although my shoes are terrible and the design of my dress is 90 years old, I am still looking forward to wear them, as this will be a whole new experience for me.
After Lauren and I got dropped off at school, we went to assembly in the theater. The theater was filled with girls with blue dresses stystematically sitting in rows by their class. The rest of the day was actually like a normal school day but much better. I could choose my own subjects which eventually were: Afrikaans, French, English, maths, art and drama. the lessons were completely different to our lessons in Holland. In most of the classes absolutely no speaking was allowed and the classes were much smaller than what I was used too. My favourite subject so far is drama. This is mainly because we can talk and do exercises to relax. Tomorrow we will have our drama lesson in the pool.

I will tell you everything about that and more another time

Unpacking my Bags

The last couple of days literally felt like holiday. I spent most of the time in the pool or tanning in the garden considering that it has been over 25 degrees every single day. I've been settling in, unpacked my bags and tried to adapt to this new way of life.

On Sunday I went to the beach together with Lauren and her sister Nicole. This was quite an experience as there were many people selling things on the beach like coke and ice cream. They would then say all these little jingles like, 'A cokie for your oukie' and 'A lolly to make you jolly'. They would randomly talk to you and say that their ice cream comes from Iceland and the Coke is magical. The beach is very different from our beach. You can see mountains in the distance, the san is white and the waves are enormous. The only thing which reminds me of Holland at the beach is the temperature of the water which is surprisingly cold. At night, all the exchange students came to my temporary home for dinner which was really nice to hear how they survived the first few days. Lourents had a sunburn already from being at the golf course for 3 hours.

On Monday, Lauren had organized a "small" welcome-get-to-know party which turned out to become much bigger. This was a great idea seeing that I could meet some girls already so I wouldn't have to follow Lauren around the entire first day of school.

Today we went to school to pick up Lauren's school books and meanwhile she showed me around the school. We'll find out tomorrow how it is to actually go to school here, my first SCHOOL DAY!

desert

first day

I finally arrived in South Africa, the moment I had been looking forward to for half a year. I still can't realize that I am really here, at the other side of the world, in a different family. A place where it is actually not cold and where it's not raining 24/7.

Of course, for every new destination you want to go to, you have to travel, which I did yesterday. My dad and two oldest sisters brought me to the airport early in the morning and what a surprise, it was raining. When we arrived at the airport I dropped off my bag which appeared to be 27 kg, highly overweight but I managed to take out enough clothes and books and took it in a bag as handluggage. then it was time to say goodbye. It was really hard to leave my family behind and of course everyone got very emotional. I turned my backs on them with wet eyes and I could see Lotte coming to me and we went to the gate together with lourents joining us halfway. Around 9.45 we could go on the plane and start the 2nd half of our exchange.
There were many movies involved in our flight and many useless games to kill the time. Luckily I sat at the window so I could look outside and enjoy the amazing view. I have seen a desert for the first time in my life and I was amazed. there was literally nothing, only sand. This might sound obvious but I was overwhelmed by the emptiness. I then understood why there was no wildlife.

9700 km later, we finally arrived in south africa. when we stepped out of the plane we could see our host families standing a floor lower, waving at us and making these excited movements. After we took our bags we went straight to our host families and hugged them like we've known them for ages. It was really nice to see everyone again. I went straight to bed as it was around 1 AM.

the next morning I woke up and looked outside the window, seeing clear blue sky. The view which was invisible the night before appeared to be wonderful. you can see mountains and many trees. Today we went swimming in the pool which was very refreshing since it was around 25 degrees. The rest of the day, Lauren just showed me around the neighbourhood and took me to the shops where we had a lovely smoothie. At the end of the day, my host family took me out for dinner at Waterfront. A perfect beginning of an amazing exchange.