Emily's South African Adventure

Okay Okay I know I’m a horrible person for not updating sooner… But believe it or not I’ve been super super busyy!!! I have to go all the way back to Christmas.

Christmas in South Africa, didn’t quite feel like Christmas without snow, therefore making it not very sad, and I didn’t feel very homesick. We had a “Christmas lunch” both on Christmas eve and Christmas day. I received a lovely “The Body Shoppe” kit from my host parents as well as some little items. On Christmas Day I went on a ride to the top of Northcliff Hill in my host Dad’s jeep- which is from the 1940’s or something! Over all it was a nice Christmas, but I much prefer the snow. It was very interesting to see the South African Christmas traditions, which felt more like a Summer get together rather than actual Christmas!

the Jeep the presents I wrapped Host Dad in my gift!

After Christmas I went and stayed a week with my friend Robyn, because my host parents were going away back to Sabie Park, and I wanted to be here for New Years. While there I went to my first African wedding, which was quite similar to Canadian Weddings, except that it was more relaxed. I had lots of fun at the reception and met plenty of new people, the cutest of which was Zara, Robyn’s cousin. We also went out for dinner at a fancy shopping centre called Rosebank, where I met a new circle of friends- we called ourselves “the team”. For the remainder of the week, “the team” got together at various locations (different people’s houses, malls etc.) and just hung out. Oh I also dyed my hair dark. :)

For New Years Robyn, the team and I went out to Sandton- the rich, cool and expensive side of Johannesburg for a dinner and to watch the countdown. I was very pleased to receive a phone call from my family back in Canada at about 1 am, it was a great way to start the new year.

In January I had nights at my friend’s house, Rotary dinners, and I went back to school. It was so nice to see everyone again, and I love my new classes which are for the most part the same except for a few new additions. We also had the Interhouse Swimming Gala, which is where the 4 different houses (GO DRAGOON) compete in a Swimming Gala to see which house would represent Northcliff in other swimming events. My friends and I decided to be the cheerleaders and had such a good time pumping up the crowd and basically making fools of ourselves. It was such a shame that it started storming in the middle of the competition so it was scheduled to continue the following week. The weekend after the Gala was quite exciting because I got the opportunity to go to a South Africa vs. India cricket match!! Once I understood the game it was very suspenseful, as we lost by 2 wickets (and for those of you who don’t know anything about cricket, it means that we were very close to winning but there are only a certain number of balls to be thrown and we didn’t get enough runs…basically it was a very close game but SA lost…). Later in the next week I went skating with my old host brother Chad, which is something I hadn’t done in what seemed like months! We also finished the Swimming Gala- my house, Dragoon came secondnd for the first time in 12 years (we usually win). I also had a fun girls night out with my friends Robyn, Telisha, Nastasja, Carmen, Paige and Ashleigh where we went out for dinner at a nearby restaurant- it’s always fun to get dressed up :). I also had my first Braaikini- which is a braai that you wear your bikini to. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN. For the remainder of January I was preoccupied with Rotary, and Family dinners.

February was a busy, busy month full of family dinners, school projects and preparing for a school dance. On the first we played games (that we created in groups) for my Life Orientation class (which is kind of like Careers and Health put together), and my group of girls made all the boys in the class dress up (hehehehehe)… Which was both hilarious and tonnes of fun. Then on Groundhog Day I made a new host Grandmother- my host Dad’s Mom- June. I also joined the “Matric Dance Committee” at school- which is much like the prom committee except that the Grade 11’s run the show! So we had to work all week in preparation for the Valentine’s Ball (Grade 10-12’s) as well as the Valentine’s Social (Grade 8-9’s). We also had a talent show at my school- in which my History teacher sang “All That Jazz”, an Afrikaans teacher sang “Baby Chocolates”- which is a Country/Afrikaans song (complete with hand gestures and booty shake), there were Contemporary dancers, Hip hop dancers, “Steppers” (which is a South African dancing style) and Guitar Solos (the really hard Eddy Van Halen one!!). It was such a great night, and I was blown away with the hidden talents people have!

On the 5th I got up early to participate in an Interact day- where I finally got to see my club’s project- which is repairing and distributing wheelchairs that are sent over from England. After working hard to find the missing parts to broken wheelchairs, we had a quick boerewors braai and then I went to my friend Jodie’s house for a bring and braai. :) The next day was my host grandmother “Gran”’s 80th birthday party. It was a big event with lots of people, good food and silly dancing. I met a few new host cousins and overall had a good time.

I then spent the rest of the week setting up for the Valentine’s Ball- and then finally on Friday the 11th, I attended the Valentine’s ball with my besties! Although it was a masquerade theme, no one really wore their masks. So after we ate our meal, we danced and danced and danced until it was time to go home!

I also went to the Social (for the grade 8’s and 9’s) to supervise, and to be honest it was just as fun- if not more.

The next day- Sunday the 13th I was VERY VERY fortunate to be asked to go to the U2 concert….. Yes, you read correctly… THE U2 CONCERT!!!! I went with my host brother Jarred and two of his friends. It was sooo amazing- and just by listening to the radio in Canada, I knew all the songs, except for one or two.

I was quite busy all last week with homework and assignments, so I didn’t get up to too much. I made up for that on Saturday when I got up early to go volunteer for Interact. We ended up at a new project, as well as drinking coffee and eating cake at “the Rusty Hook”- a small restaurant on a lake. night when I went to watch the Blue Bulls and Lions game. Which is essentially Pretoria vs.. Johannesburg. Afrikaners vs.. the English. It was unreal !!! It was also very nice to sit in box seats with free sushi, biltong, drinks, dinner, and dessert. Another cool thing about the game was that they let the fans come onto the field after the game to play their own games of touch rugby, as well as meet the players and get pictures and signatures. It was so cool.

Action shot! Extreme Blue Bulls fan! On the field !

Since the game I have been going to school, working hard on my homework, getting up early for my daily bike ride or run (that’s right, for all of you who know me well- know it is a mission to get me up in the morning… but now I’m getting up at 5 to do exercise!), studying, writing this HUGE blog entry, making a power point for Rotary Youth Exchange and just LIVING THE GOOD LIFE!!!

I hope I have redeemed myself with the U2 video… :)

February is almost over- it’s going by tooo fast!! I’m going to Durban on the 12th of March, I will be going on “Grade 11 Adventure Camp” on March 29th (which is like a survivor meets the OEC meets summer camp where the whole grade goes!!), I will be starting Term 1 exams on March 9th (too soon!) and I will be going home on June 20th. AND I’m hoping that my dear mother will come visit me sometime in May. (I thought if I put it here, then she would feel obliged to come, since I have announced it to the world!)

Happy Belated Family day you Canadians!! And I hope everything is going well for my other 6330 Outbounders around the world !! (If any of you are reading this). Enjoy the melting snow Thornbury! :)

TOOTLES XOXOXOXOXOOX EM :)

When I came back from Cape Town- I was thrown into a series of exams that I really hadn’t studied for. I think I did quite well, but I haven’t actually seen my report yet!

I didn’t do much during exams as my host sister was quite busy studying so I stayed home most of the time. I went skating, went to a friends house before some of the exams, went to gym and did some Zumba dancing classes, and celebrated my host grandparent’s anniversary as well as Ma’s birthday.

This is the sun… weird right? Pretty Rainbow :)

On the 20th of November we had an overnight Rotary Conference- but it was just the one night. It was mostly for the outbounds… just training and stuff but we had lots of fun just staying up and asking questions and getting to know each other. It was really sad having to say goodbye to everyone though… It’s probably the worst part about the Exchange program- saying goodbye.

On the 29th I received a package of birthday cards from Canada- and I promise I didn’t open any until my birthday!!! The next day was my last exam so I went to a friends house after school. And then the day after that (Dec 1st) there was a Liquid Deep concert at a nearby mall! It was sooooo cool. I know half of the people reading this don’t really know who Liquid Deep is but here’s a link to one of his songs- he makes really good house music ( Liquid Deep- Angel). Then on the Second I moved in with my friend Alexa for a night, and had a small birthday party on Friday the 3rd. I then moved onto another friends house, Ashleigh, who hosted me for a few nights, one of which was my birthday!!!

We stayed up until 12:01 and Ash and my other friend Paige sang me Happy birthday. We then went to bed and got up at 8 or so. We had cake and sparkling fruit cider for breakfast ( I got to pop it like it was Champagne! It was so much fun!!) as well as poached eggs on toast- which is my all time favourite breakfast ever. I opened all my cards and guess what I got…. KRAFT DINNER!! I still havent eaten it yet but I was sooo happy. Thanks to everyone who sent me a card…We then went to the movies and saw Spud (a very South African movie), and then I went with Alexa, Clarice, and my two host brothers Chad and Matt to Zoolake. We didn’t really do much there- but just relax and laugh and stuff. Then my other friend Telisha was having a braai with her family that doubled as a birthday party. We ate and ate and ate, it was awesome. Telisha, my friend Rossco and myself then decided to not go to bed- but rather stay up as long as possible to see the sun rise. It was actually a lot of fun just sitting up talking- but as soon as the sun came up we went to sleep.

On Dec 6th I moved into my new host families home- Rotarians John and Alison Turner. They’re really nice and have a lot of pets- 3 dogs (2 German Sheppards, 1 Husky) and 2 cats (1 Siamese and one Ginger cat). Also they have a cottage on the property that hosts Alison’s parents who are also Rotarians-Margaret and Norman. Although they work all day they are very involved in their family and are usually quite busy in the evenings- which keeps me busy! I get along quite well with my new host cousins- Megan (28) and Michael (19) and have spent quite a bit of time getting to know them better. Megan is like my new big sister :).

Then on the 15th I had the priveledge of going to Kruger park until the 19th. I brought my friend Diana, who is also an exchange student from France with me. Although I was sick for the first few days we managed to get to the park twice. Where we were staying is called Sabie Park- and you can literally see Kruger National Park from Sabie Park. It was incredible. Even just driving to our house we saw about 10 giraffe, 3 zebra, 4 warthog an ostrich and 2 wildebeests. We even have a bush baby living somewhere in the roof of the house!! While we were in the park we saw almost all the animals we wanted to- except for Lions, only paw prints. We saw impala, water buffalo, hippo, elephants, rhinos, crocodiles, turtles, birds, baboons and kudu on the first day- which was 39 degrees C!!! And on the second day we saw more elephants, water buffalo, kudu, a tawny eagle, giraffe, rhino, and a leopard!! And you won’t believe what happened- while we were outside playing UNO, a baboon came into the house and stole a package of peanuts!! Hahahah!!