Monkeyland and Knysna

We woke up and went to this cute restaurant at a B&B they had a breakfast buffet, with eggs, sausage, bacon (what we would call fried ham), cereal, yogurt, fruit, toast, muffins, juice, coffee and tea. One thing I've noticed, eating out anywhere, theres always a formal table setting. Also every place that we have visited, eaten, or stayed the people have been so accommodating and personable. I love it. It just makes the experience so much more enjoyable when the people care that your giving them your business and genuinely want to get to know you.

 

After breakfast we headed down the road again. We went Face Adrenalin, the world highest bungee bridge. The bridge is 709 feet above the Bloukrans River. The bridge is over a valley in between two mountains. One one side you a have a small river and the other side is the ocean. It was a beautiful view, but not beautiful enough for me to jump off it. Holly was going to do it, but we were a little short on time and with her eye problems she didn't know how it would hurt them. She going to do some research and maybe do it before she leaves in a week or so. We were able to watch some people do it from a lookout point and were able to see their faces on a big screen. It was really cool. We talked to a guy who had bungee jumped once before in New Zealand. He said that it was awesome, but walking out on the rope bridge to the jumping point was scarier than actually jumping. No one has died or been injured on the bridge yet. A 96 year old man actually bungeed off it.

 

We left and headed to Plenttenburg Burg Bay. The drive stayed beautiful as we drove past mountains and fields as far as you could see. We stopped in Plenttenburg at another lookout point over the ocean. The view was amazing. I keep saying everything is so beautiful, but it really is. Really really. Words and the pictures I took don't even begin to describe what I've seen in person. God's creation really is absolutely spectacular. We walked along the beach and watched a SA bird, the oyster catcher, try to open an oyster. It was really neat and a long process he had to go through. He would wait til a wave came up and wet the sand. Then he would run to that spot, stick the oyster down in the sand to hold it.

Then he would try to open the oyster with his beak. He did this over and over again. We watched for at least ten minutes and he still hadn't gotten it open. A jellyfish washed up on the shore and was still alive. Tracey and Holly are all about saving the planet, animals, bugs and even spiders. So they rolled the jellyfish back into the water so it would live.

  

We stopped at a bunch of shops along the way and small farm/shopping area that had Mohair sheep and mohair products. I had never saw a Mohair sheep before or the products made out of it. It was really cool looking. Its considered a luxury fabric so its pricy to buy... Next we drove on to Monkeyland. Its a huge enclosure full of all kinds of monkey's. We took a guided tour, walking though the woods. It was really cool because the monkeys were really close. One of them walked right up to my feet and sat down. We saw lots of types of lemurs, a baboon, capuchin monkey (like Jack on Pirates of the Caribbean), and tons of yellow monkey's. It was really neat to see them so closely. One came up and sat down right at my feet. It was so cool, but they warned us how mischievous they were. They didn't try to take anything from anyone on the tour, but it has happened before.  

 

After Monkeyland we headed into Knysna (the k is silent). Knysna has to be my favorite place so far for many reasons, but the main reason is that you get the best of both worlds. The beach with aqua blue waves plus the mountains and river. Gorgeous! A quote said often by locals, “Everything is nicer in Knysna.” I totally agree. Its not too big and not too small. You can walk just about everywhere and there is so much to do, just the perfect setting.  

First thing we did in Knysna, is take a ferry ride out on the river listening to a man tell us about the history of Knysna and the different places we past. The ferry ride went all the way to the Knysna heads. This is where the river meets the Indian Ocean. There were lots of rocks and huge waves. The water is really shallow in that area. Our guide told us about the first ships that came to Knysna and how many of them sank with land so close. Along with all the history information our guide gave us, he also had many funny stories to tell as well. The river we were on has lots of sea horses. I didn't know that the male sea horse gives birth to over 200 babies every 21 days. He called it the “revenge of mother nature.”

After the ferry ride Holly and I had dinner at a nice restaurant called JJ's. The menu had some wild stuff on there. I wish they had a sample platter of it all so I could taste each of them to see if I liked it. JJ's overlooked the all the boats in the river. We watched the sunset and then walked around the shops the had. Tracey came to get us and drove us around town telling us some more local history. We stopped at this really cool hotel. It use to be some type of industrial power plant. They kept all the machines and equipment inside though. They used them for decorations. They were painted all bright colors. It was really neat and artsy. We sat on the patio talking drinking coffee and tea. South Africans love their coffee and tea time. Even at school, with it so hot outside, the teachers will sip on these hot drinks. They find it so odd that I like my tea sweet with ice. 

 

Next we checked into another cute B&B that is ran by another sweet couple. Holly and I had a nice room that overlooked the pool. Tracey and I went swimming and talked for a little while. She is so funny. She has a wonderful personality. She says shes full of useless information and calls herself an old duck:-) I don't think she has ever met a stranger. Every place we've stopped at she has talked to someone like she's known them forever. She has two children, a son and a daughter. I'm between them in age by a year or so. She use to be a school teacher. 

Road Trip on the Garden Route

Holly and I wanted to travel to Cape Town because we've heard its the best place to visit in SA. We were going to fly, but since we had 6 day break from school we decided to take the Garden Route. The Garden Route is a beautiful drive with lots of scenery and places to stop along the way. Its around a 12 hour drive to Cape Town, but we split it up between a few days so we could stop and do a lot of the things along the way. Its a straight shot to get there, but thankfully we didn't have to drive it alone. Debbie has a travel agent friend named Tracey, who use to be a teacher. Tracey picked us up from Grahamstown to give us a tour of the Garden Route. She is WONDERFUL.

On the first day, Wednesday, Tracey picked Holly and I up from Grahamstown and we headed down the road. We passed by Jeffery's Bay on the way. It is famous for the Billabong surfing competition they have in July, it has huge waves. Our first stop was at the Tsitsikamma National Park. Its a tiny place out in the middle of no where. The ride reminded me of home again, not only because of the cow pastures on all sides, but because of the large amount of pine trees. I had not saw one pine tree up until then. They plant acres and acres of pine trees and let them grow and then harvest them for lumber. The don't grow naturally here. Around the pine trees and cow pastures were the Tsitsikamma mountains. A really nice view.

  

At the park, we took a hike through the woods to a rope bridge over Storms River mouth. You can go kayaking, tubing, and do lots of water sports along the river, which leads to the ocean. The view was beautiful because we had the mountains all around with huge trees and flowers. Then on one side of the bridge was calm Storms River and the other was the Indian Ocean with huge waves and rocks. A lot of people visit Tsitsikamma for camping and for the canopy tours. We were going to do the canopy tour on a zip-line, but we didn't make it in time. I hoping to go back and do it before I leave.

 

After our time at Storms River we checked into Tsitsikammas Backpackers. None of us had ever stayed at a backpackers place before, but it was really nice. We had our own room, but just had to share the bathroom and kitchen with everyone. It wasn't bad at all. There were lots of bed and breakfast places around, or B & B's as they say. Besides the B & B's and a few backpackers places Tsitsikamma has one street with a handful of shops and restaurants. The restaurant we ate at was so cool! I really felt like I was at home. It was called Marilyn's, after Marilyn Monroe. It was 60s themed with black and white tile and decorations of Grease, James Dean, the Beatles, and of course, Elvis. Along with Marilyn pictures and memorabilia, there was also a ton of Elvis stuff. The owner of the restaurant has 10 old Cadillac's. He had 3 of them in the restaurant. The menu was just like at home. They had different entree's named after certain states, like: The Mississippi, New Yorker, The Ohio, Nashville burger, and “American Pancakes,” SA pancakes aren't the same as the ones we have. They even had part of the restaurant called the Tupelo House! Not only where Elvis was born, but also the same place where my Bigmama lives! Such a small world.

  

 Marilyn's played music by Elvis, Percy Sledge and Eric Clapton. They also had posters from The Elvis Festival, where people impersonate Elvis Presley! The impersonation pictures looked really good. The last Elvis winner was from Scotland. Can you imagine? A Scottish Elvis? That sounds strange to me:-) Supposedly many people come from all over to the Elvis festival. This place blew me away. Its weird to think how famous and world wide Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe are even years after their death. 

School Days

The past few school days have been a little hectic for me. I've been teaching time to my students. This is my first time ever teaching on the topic of time. Also its the first time the majority of the students are learning about it. I've never really introduced a topic to a whole class. I've usually just built on lessons and practiced with them over what they have already been taught. This was a challenge for me for many reasons. I felt a lot of pressure because I was introducing the foundation or the base of the lesson (the most important part). It was my first time teaching on this subject where they say and tell time differently than we do in America. And for some reason my lessons wouldn't load on the SMART Board, so I had to do them orally with out all the clocks and pictures and interactive things (Can't depend on technology)....Lots and lots of stress because I wanted to do well and it really wasn't going well.

After looking back on the past few days, I think the lessons were average. They were definitely not successful, but not an absolute failure either. A large amount of the students new time really well and then there were others who had never had it before. So on the assignments, some students couldn't even do them and others breezed right through them. I need to work on differentiating better. My teacher kept wanting me to move forward with the material, but I didn't feel we should if there were so many students still struggling. You can't move on until they understand the base because everything move into goes back to it. Anyway, I'm working with my teacher and learning through experiences...the successful and unsuccessful ones.

 

Today we had a Splash Gala. Its for the preppy's, students in grades first to third grade. Its kind of like a big swim meet and our field day put together. The student's are on teams and they get to practice their swim strokes doing relay races and fun things. They had one race where they had to swim across the pool with a board balancing a cup of water. Another one where they raced with funny glasses on and caught tennis balls in the pool. 

I and a girl named Roberta were in the freezing cold pool for the majority of the day. We cheered on students and helped the young ones, team tadpole and goldfish. They are the beginner swimmers, most of these kids are terrified of the water. Their races were simple things like: getting them to jump off the side into the pool, floating, doggy paddle, swimming with a noodle, kicking with a board and blowing bubbles. I really enjoyed it, even though I spent most of the day getting splashed in the face with their kicking and being latched onto. I would have two students on each arm swimming to the end of the pool with them, help them out and go back to the end to get two more. I got my exercise and sunburn for the day, but loved ever minute of it.

Roberta is a gap year student from New Zealand. A gap year student is the year after high school and before college. Most students travel to another country and work. She will in SA until December. Roberta stays in the girls intermediate hostile and gets them where they need to go as well as weekend outings. She helps out with cricket and swimming and also works in the computer lab at school. In exchange of working at Kingswood, she gets to stay in the hostile and eat in the dining hall for free. Her birthday is this weekend. She's turning 18 and having a big party. The theme is for everyone to dress up like something that starts with the letter B. Roberta is going to dress up as a bow. Some other people are going to be a baboon, balloon, banana and some other cool things. Unfortunately I won't be able to go, but I'm sure it will be a great time. 

This is a short week because were starting half term. Half term is like our spring break, so we will be out of school for 6 days. Tomorrow we have a big Gala for the older students and will be done at one o'clock. Holly and I are leaving at two o'clock for a road trip on the Garden Route to Cape Town. Were extremely excited because we hear the Garden Route is awesome with a lot of cool things to do. We also hear that Cape Town is the best place in SA. Tracey, one of Debbie's friends, is a travel agent/guide. She is going to take the trip half way with us and then were going to take a tour bus the rest of the way. I'll have my computer with me, but I'm not sure if we will be able to get internet connection along the way. If not, I'll post all about my trip when I get back to Grahamstown:-)

Wild Weekend

Okay, okay! After many Skype calls, Facebook messages and emails I have finally got on here to update you on the last few exciting days I have had. I know, I know I have been slackin. Sorry:-)

This weekend we rented a car again and I drove us to a small game reserve in Port Elizabeth. We got a really nice car this time. It took us about an hour and a half to get there. Port Elizabeth is a much bigger city so there was a lot of traffic. I did pretty well driving I thought. Holly and Sean didn't complain so I think I did well. I only got mixed up on the wrong side of the road once:-) Anyway, the small game park is the same one Debbie and I went to a few weeks ago and got stuck. The roads were really rough and I would have felt more comfortable if I had a bigger 4x4 to drive, instead of a fancy Hyundai. Good news is we didn't get stuck. We drove around and got to see a ton of animals. They were so close to the car we could have touched them out the window.We even got to see a baby rhino.

 

Half-way through the drive we stopped at the restaurant and gift shop to buy our pass to pet the tame CHEETAH'S! The park cost $7 per person to get in and $4 to pet a cheetah for 15 minutes! So so cheap! We couldn't miss the opportunity. We did have a zoologist or a guide with us. He told us all about the cheetahs. The cheetah's were born into captivity as brothers. Their names are Monty and Mark. They were so calm. They purred and just laid around like a house cat would. One thing that surprised me is that their fur was a lot more coarse than I expected. They don't like their tails touched or their bellies rubbed. They did jump up from sleeping at one point when they saw a family of warthogs walk by. They just watched them and purred, nothing really dangerous happened towards us. The majority of the time they just laid there and slept. One did lick my arm a few times! It was so cool. You know how a house cat's tongue feels? Well, it was just like that expect a little more rough and a lot bigger. 

 

After our cheetah time we walked around the restaurant looking for monkey's through this little trial. We didn't see any monkeys, but we did get some nice exercise and saw a few untamed cheetahs in the enclosure. They had just gotten fed so we saw them eating. It was cool. When we went back to the car there was an ostrich hanging out in the parking lot. It had been over by the picnic tables with a family trying to get their food. The girls and I just laughed and said, "You know your in Africa when there an ostrich in the parking lot." This is a true statement and can be filled in with many more things. 

We finished driving the rest of the park and then drove back to Grahamstown. We stopped ate at this nice Italian restaurant and had supper. They had wonderful brick oven pizza, as do most places in SA. You pick any topping you want. Another delicious thing they have is milkshakes and smoothies. I should say they are "divine" because thats what true SA would say. After we had supper we went to Pick-n-Pay, the grocery store in town, to get food for the week. We loaded up because we realized this will be our last weekend renting a car. So the less we have to buy on our next trip is the less we have to carry walking home. Also Holly and Sean will be leaving the first week in March, so there wont be anyone to slip the cost of the car rental either. I'll be on my own then:-)

 

On Saturday we went to Schotia game reserve. They are famous for their wild lions. They have 18 total. We had a four hour game drive, a SA meal around a camp fire, and then a night drive to see the hippos out of the water and the lions hunting. The hippos weren't out of the water because it was so windy and they don't like being cold. We did get to see their heads a few times and them yawning. The lions were hunting. They encircled a group of impala. It was an exciting process to watch and our guide was giving us a play by play. The impala ended up getting away. I was a little disappointed because the lion is the king of the jungle. They are suppose to be the best at hunting and killing their prey, but come to find out they are only 30% successful with their hunting. After thinking about it, it makes sense that all animals have a form of defense against their prey. The way the impala jump and run makes it difficult for the lions to catch them because lions aren't that fast. Our guide said the lions would spend the rest of the night hunting until they were successful. Then tomorrow they would sleep all day as usually. Lions sleep up to 18 hours a day!

We also got to see four lion cubs! They were so precious. At one point they were playing and running with one another while the mothers slept. I recorded them, but the connection here isn't working well enough for me to upload the video. I'll have to show ya'll when I get home:-)

 

Our Land Rover, or Landy as they call them, consisted of a couple from Germany and two men from Amsterdam. They men were really friendly and spoke English very well. They also spoke German, as well as our female guide. The tour was lead in English, but then our guide repeated everything in German. The couple, the men, and the guide had many conversations in German. Sometimes they would tell us what they were talking about and sometimes not. It was interesting to be in a country where German wasn't an official language, but it was the dominant language used on our tour. Kind of made me feel like a foreigner when I don't understand half of whats being said. Guess it's true, I am a foreigner, makes me feel a little more sympathy to the foreigners in America. I know what they are going through and its a little tough not knowing what people are saying around you or all the cultural aspects you miss because your unaware of them. 

Valentine's Day

School today was great. I was surprised they don't go all out like we do for Valentines day. The kids don't bring cards and candy for all their friends. They do make cards for their parents and the school had mini roses for sell. So far this week I've gotten to teach two math lessons, a writing lesson and read to first graders. Today I read Brer Rabbit to the first graders. The kids talked about my accent again. I guess it really showed when reading that book.  

 

 

Some more sayings....

We say:                                        South Africans say:
motorcycle                                          motorbike
scared me                                           gave me a fright
almost                                                 nearly
back-talk                                             back-chat
tennis shoes                                         tackies
your welcome                                     pleasure
trash can                                              dust bin
receipt                                                  till slip
spicy                                                     burney
permanent marker/sharpie                    coakie
good/great/delicious/wonderful            divine
Valentines dance                                 Valentines disco

Yee-haw! I'm on an ELEPHANT!!

  

This weekend was AMAZING! We rented a car again and went to Kwantu Elephant Reserve and Game Park. The elephant reserve was my favorite!! We got to spend an hour leaning about elephants, riding them and feeding them. It was so so fun! My guide was great. The first thing I asked him was how long he had been working with elephants. He told me it was his first day:-) Really funny guy from Zimbabwe. He had really been working with elephants for five years. I cannot even attempt to say or spell his name or the elephant I rode. I can tell you that my elephant was a female and the meaning of her name was beard! Not a very attractive name for a lady if you ask me. The elephant was a lot harder than I was expecting. Its spine was so big, it didn't make the ride very comfortable. I'm still sore from it, but it was enjoyable none the less. 

   

The elephants did a little show for us. They walked in a  circle, did all these cute poses and stuff. They responded so well. Just like you would tell a dog to sit, roll over and shake. These elephants did the exact same. It was so cool. Elephants have an extremely good memory, making them smart creatures. I was a little nervous feeding them at first because they had their trunks moving all around asking for food. They would breathe really hard or sigh at certain points and kinda spit on me! I won't lie it was a little gross, but so cool to be feeding them at the same time. I fed their trunk and their mouths. The mouth wads really gross looking with its big nasty tongue. They did have nice teeth though. Elephants have 6 different sets of teeth within their lifetime and can live up to 70 years old. 

  

After we finished with the elephant reserve we drove twenty minutes to the game park. They had snack, tea and coffee waiting on us. We then loaded this open air jeep and took off on a ride through the wild with our guide named Patrick. Patrick has been working in game parks for over 15 years. When we entered the gate he said "Welcome to my office." He drove us around showing us the wildlife and telling us a lot of information about them. We got to see all kinds of buck, zebra, rhino, wildebeest, and elephants. I was a little disappointed that we didn't see a hippo or or any lions. We did see some lions and two tigers, but they were caged up in the rehabilitation center. Not as exciting as seeing them in the wild, but cool either way. There was a family that was on the tour with us. They had a little girl with a bright yellow giraffe hat on. The lions got up and followed her around everywhere, growling and hissing at her, like they were going to tear her to shreds if they got through the electric fence. It was actually pretty scary even though they were behind the fence. One neat thing I learned about lions is that they sleep 80 percent of the day to conserve their energy. A famous bushman saying, "You are never alone in the bush. If you see one animal, there are ten more with their eyes on you." 

After the game drive Kwantu had a surprise presentation for us. It ended up being about snakes. Simon, the snake expert talked to us about snakes and gave us information to teach us not to be afraid of them. He spoke the whole time with a python around his neck. It was neat to hear all the facts about snakes. At the end I held it along with a few others watching. 

 

On Sunday we drove up the Sunshine Coast and spent part of the day in Bathurst, a small town on the way to Port Alfred. We did the tourist thing, rambling around in all the shops buying souvenirs. When we finished we went to the beach to hang out. We were going to tan and swim, but the wind was too bad. The sand was blowing everywhere. Crazy how it hurts when the sand hits you, feels like needles stabbing into you. I couldn't imagine being out in an actual sandstorm, would be terrible. On our way back we stopped at this famous flight school and saw some cool planes. The flight school use to be an Airforce base. People come from all over to learn how to fly because classes are really cheap. After this we headed to the grocery store to get food for the week. We loaded up because we had a car to take it home in, instead of having to carry it like usual.

Week 4

This week I got to do a lot of different things at school. On Monday I got to work with one of the fourth grade classes. I taught them art because the teacher had an appointment. We talked about self portraits and then they drew one. This class was so great. They were so interested in my accent and the states. They told me everything they knew about it and place people they know visited. One boy told me his older brother went to Las Vegas and came home with a tattoo! He also said that his brother said he was never allowed to visit Vegas because it was too wild! I also go to help this class in Food Tech, which is kind of like Home Ec. where they cook. I was in charge of two groups just making sure they followed the recipe correctly and had all the ingredients. The kids do it all on their own. The teacher just puts the food in and out of the oven. They made cornflake cookies. They were really good. 

Through out the week I got to teach some mini lesson in my class in math and reading. I also had a chance to teach a computer lesson over the basics of Microsoft Word. I've used this program plenty of times, but I've never taught an organized lesson over it, so I was a little worried about it. Mrs. Reynolds said she thought it went really well, which is good. I used this big projector and all the kids were at their computers following my steps. On Thursday the school hosted a Gala swim meet for a few other schools in the area. I was in charge with timing one lane and then recording it for scoring. They gave me a Kingwood shirt, a clip board and stop watch! I felt so official:-) But really enjoyed it, was fun to watch all the kids compete. 

Also this week I subbed all day for one of the second grade teachers that was sick. It was cool having the whole class to myself and doing lessons with them. I enjoyed it. The kids behaved well. I had a few African students that I could not pronounce their names at all. Some of them were: Lipiwe, Ndeinogbe, Lisakhanya, and Kamvelihle. I tried my best, but definitely was not successful. They had one writing assignment and they kept asking me how to spell words, so I would sound them out for them. I found out real quickly that the way they sound out letters and I do are a little different. 

 

 

On Friday, we had a class outing (field trip) to Port Alfred. Both fourth grade classes went to the beach for the day. The teachers drove this mini buses/vans with all the students. It was low tide so the rocks were really exposed. They searched the rocks for all types of things they've been learning about. They were so excited. Then they had a sand castle building contest. They love to compete with one another. They had some really creative ideas for their castles. 

Home is Where the Spiders Are

For the next few weeks I'll be staying in Dr. Baxen's garden cottage in her back yard. Its a cute tiny little place that Holly and I will share. It has two twin beds, one closet, one bathroom, and a kitchen. Its not much, but its enough for what we need. We're not here half the time anyway. My favorite part about it is the Dutch door. Since there isn't any air or heat in the houses, windows and doors are always open.

I should explain that every house, shop or building has bars on the windows and doors. The houses are usually fenced in with barbed wire around the top of the fence and sometimes with electriciy running around them as well. Theft is a large problem here so most places are locked up tightly.

  

Along with open windows and doors comes lots of bugs and things. There are barely any flies here, none compared to the ones that come with the chicken houses at home. So the house isn't swarming with them. This is probably due to the LARGE amount of spiders around. My first night here, Holly got to know me real well. I had just laid down for bed and I noticed a big, brown, hairy spider on the ceiling above my head. I was not happy about it...creeped me out thinking about that thing getting in the bed with me while I'm sleeping! Ewww! So that was the first of many spiders I have killed here. Holly and Sean call me the exterminator because I kill every bug I see and the ones they can't deal with:-) Along with the spiders come mosquitos. There are tons of them, I get bitten by them often, even if I was at home. Don't worry, where am I at is a malaria free area. I googled it. Dr. Baxen said that all the insect are around because her backyard has a very heathy ecosystem.