donderdag 23 februari 2012
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 20th 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 cafĂ© 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.
woensdag 22 februari 2012
Garden Route day five
day five
Friday the 17th 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.
Friday the 17th 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!
dinsdag 21 februari 2012
Garden Route day four
Day four
Thursday the 16th 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 15th 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 6th 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.
maandag 20 februari 2012
Garden Route day two
Day two
Tuesday the 14th 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 14th 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.
zondag 19 februari 2012
Table Mountain
On Friday the 10th 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 9th 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 3rd 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.
dinsdag 7 februari 2012
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.
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.
zaterdag 4 februari 2012
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.
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.
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