Hey Bru’s!
Sorry I’m getting worse and worse at updating this. I’m probably just going to stick with updating it once a week with a long post. This past week and a half was super busy with school starting and all of the clubs having their first meetings etc. I’m happy to finally be on a more set schedule, but it’s a bit overwhelming getting back into school mode in a foreign country after being off for a month and a half. I’m sure as classes get underway a little more I’ll have a better feel for everything.
On Thursday, we went to Cavendish Mall. It’s a really nice mall that has some American stores, a movie theater and restaurants like any other mall. In the middle of the mall they have an outside area where vendors sell their goods for really cheap. That was my favorite part of the mall because I’m trying to not spend much money on clothes while I’m here, so it was more just sad looking at all of the clothes I wanted haha.
Friday we finally started classes. I had just an exhausting day with my one class. Usually I will have between 3 and 5 classes a day, but the first day was a special schedule. Most of the students didn’t even go, it seemed to just be a lot of fresher’s and international students. The rest of the day was spent enjoying Braaiday. We braaied, hung out by the pool and had some people over. Braaiday is quickly becoming my favorite day of the week. It’s a really relaxing way to end the week and hang out with the housemates.
Kathryn and I woke up bright and early to go on a wine and bike tour on Saturday morning. If I had known that we had to meet at 6:30AM, I certainly would not have signed up. Not much excites me before about 11AM. We took the train to Stellenbosch which was nice because it was about an hour train ride and all of the international students took the opportunity to sleep the whole time. Stellenbosch is gorgeous with lots of mountains, hills, vineyards and flowers. We biked to the first vineyard which was only about a 15 minute bike ride away. The biking was pretty difficult because we were on dirt and sand roads. Sand roads were the worst because we couldn’t get any traction, so we were sliding all over the place. The first winery was really nice and we tried about 6 different kinds of wines.
Then we went to the next vineyard…The route that we took was right alone the train tracks. I was getting frustrated because pretty much everyone was passing me on their bikes and I was peddling very hard. I knew I wasn’t in tip top shape, but it was frankly just embarrassing how many people were passing me. I figured I was missing out on some secret about how to go faster or something, so I asked the guide what gears I should be on. He then noticed that I had a flat tire. The next winery wasn’t too far away, so we just switched bikes. Thanks to the flat tire I was pretty far behind most people. Everyone else was pretty much across the train tracks/street and at the winery. There were only 2 people in front of me and I one of them crossed the tracks. I was still further back than the girl in front of me when I heard what sounded like a weird/soft siren on an ambulance. I turned around to see that it was a train and as I watched the girl in front of me was hit by it! She was concentrating on biking because she was nervous about falling, so she was too close to the tracks and didn’t notice that a train was coming until the last second. Luckily, she turned at the last second, so the train only hit her arm.
I saw what happened, so I got off my bike and sprinted to her. We both looked down at her arm and saw that her bone was cut, all of the muscles and tendons were cut and the rest of her arm was just like jello. I sat her down and then ran across the tracks to scream and wave for help. By the time I got back the guide behind us was there, along with her friend who had just crossed the tracks. The guide wrapped her arm to stop the bleeding and we just sat there comforting her and keeping her conscious. We called the ambulance right when it happened, but it took them 20 minutes to come! She did a great job and when she would start freaking out we would just calm her down again. It’s very good that blood doesn’t bother me or seeing bones or anything like that because there was blood everywhere and one of the guides almost passed out after seeing her arm, so he had to leave. It was very scary because she had lost all of the feeling in her arm because the ambulance took so long to get there. When they got there they gave her morphine and right away at the hospital she was brought to the operating room. They thought she would need skin grafts and be in the hospital for a few days.
I had to be interviewed in the police office because I was the only one who really saw it. He said that it happens all of the time and normally they wouldn’t even report it, but because she was American they had too. I later read in the newspaper that she is the only person that they know of who has been hit by a train in the area and survived.
I had to continue the tour after that, so although it was beautiful I don’t know how much I actually enjoyed it. We went to a brandy tasting and then went to a restaurant/winery for lunch. They shouldn’t call it wine and bike as they advertised; they should call it wine and mountain bike because it was pretty extreme. We had to bike up part of a mountain that was all sand, so that was pretty tough. On the way back we had to make our train (which by the way I no longer enjoy), so they made us go down very quickly. It was pretty scary because it was really steep and all sand, so there really wasn’t any way to stop. Most people ended up crushing lots of grapes as they fell into the bushes etc.
I was very happy to see the girl who was hit by the train on the Jammie the other day! Her parents were with her because they flew here when they finally got the news (when we left the wine and bike her parents still didn’t know). Her arm was in a sling and she was bandaged a lot, but she didn’t end up having to get skin grafts. It seems like she is going to stay here which I’m really happy about. I was relieved to see her doing ok, because I had been worrying about her all week.
On Sunday some of the housemates and all went into one of the townships to go to Mzoli’s. Mzoli’s is a popular restaurant for tourists and natives as well. We got there early, but still all of the tables were packed. We finally found one, but we were scorched by the sun the whole time because we weren’t covered by a tent and it was the one day without wind! Mzoli’s doesn’t have servers, or hostesses or even plates, napkins and utensils for that matter. Everyone goes inside and you pick out your meat and then they cook it on their massive braai. You have to wait about an hour and a half for it to be done. For 200r (less than 30 dollars) we fed 9 of us. When the food is ready it’s all just in a bucket and that’s all you get. We ended up paying for plate, napkins and bread. The bucket was full of chicken, sausage, lamb and steak and everyone just digs in. It was very cool and delicious. I’m sure when I’m older I’ll look back and think that was gross, but it was a neat experience and brought us out of our comfort zones experiencing the township and all that.
Monday felt like the real first day of school. Campus was packed and the line for the Jammie looked like it was about 45 minutes long which meant we had rough it and walk (more like hike) to class. I joined the gym here, but just going to class sometimes is enough of a workout. I had my first volleyball practice that night too which was really fun. I love playing again and strangely they have me playing outside hitter at the moment which is different (but fun!) because usually I play back row with my height. We have practice twice a week and then social play on Friday’s (but that’s braaiday, so we’ll see about that…) and we the competitive play doesn’t start for a little bit.
I also played soccer this week with some of the guys in the house who play soccer at their schools. We played against only guys on a tiny turf field. I was out of my league with all of the guys, but it was still fun. The girls team saw me and another housemate there, so they asked if we wanted to play with them. We played for awhile with them, and it was nice to play again because I really haven’t played much at all since high school. The fields are really nice and they back up to the Table Mountains. It was definitely the prettiest place I have ever played.
The rest of the week was filled with classes and homework. It’s going to take some time to learn the system here and get used to how things are run. School seems to be really tough here. Most kids just try to pass the classes, because that’s hard enough. They don’t really seem to have GPA’s here, but it stinks for us international students because we need to do more than just pass because our grades count back home. Even though I’m only taking 4 classes I think it’s going to be a lot of work because so far I have already had a lot of homework and reading.
Some things I have noticed about classes here:
Students laugh really hard at lecturer’s jokes. I always feel like back home I’m the only one even smiling when a teacher makes a joke, but here they act like the teacher is a comic.
People don’t use notebooks and folders just don’t exist. Everyone just writes on pads of paper.
Lecturer’s don’t use powerpoint or even the board very often. They just talk and you take notes from that.
Every South African uses a ruler in class and they underline everything with it! I haven’t seen a ruler used in class since we had to diagram sentences in junior high.
Planners are called diaries and it’s impossible to find one that doesn’t say “Diary” across it in bold letters. My diary even has a spot for my parents to sign on everyday to make sure I did my homework.
This morning I had training for SHAWCO. I’m going to be teaching/tutoring in one of the townships once a week for 3 hours starting on Wednesday. I’ll probably be teaching 6th graders. We’re teaching math, reading with a stress on life orientation. Life orientation deals with some health issues like nutrition, drugs and AIDS, so that’s why I chose the program.
Since I still haven’t posted pictures of the house, here is a link to a website with it if you really want to see it…
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Cheers,
Megan
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