Winter holiday...

Because YES, it is winter here. It was quite an eventful holiday with a fair amount of travel so I will try and post a picture or two that highlights each place I traveled with the fam. We started out in PE where I live, which gave my family some time to get over jetlag and relax a bit before we start the bigger travels. There's not much to do here, so our weekend was filled with eating at some of the good restaurants we've found here, exploring a music festival on Stanley Street, and going to South Africa vs. England rugby match.

All green for the Springboks!

After the weekend here, we began our drive down the Garden Route. This drive is known to be one of the most scenic in South Africa, and has lots of great little towns to stop at along the way. Our first stop was Tsitsikamma (where Andrew and I traveled a few weekends back), where we did 2 short hikes along the coast. We continued the drive to Knsyna where we spent our first night. We had great seafood on the water front and spent the next day exploring the Knysna Heads.

Knysna heads

Then we were off to Mossel Bay, another quiet beach town just a couple hours further down the Garden Route. We stayed at a B&B with and incredible view and enjoyed another great dinner on the water. Unfortunately we didn't get to spend too much time in Mossel Bay before we were off to Cape Town!

The next 3 days were spent in Cape Town. We hit up a lot of the touristy things including Table Mountain, the V&A Waterfront, Cape penguins, and Cape Point/Cape of Good Hope. I enjoyed getting to see all the well-known places, but we all agreed we'd like to have more time to just explore the city and some of the cuter neighborhoods. What I did get to do, however, that I was SO stoked about was have a hamburger and milkshake at the Royale Eatery on Long Street. They had fantastic burgers and ice cream (two things that, on average, seem to be prepared entirely differently in this country). So I was a happy girl that day. We loved Cape Town and I am definitely ready to plan a trip back to see more!

Cape Town from the base of Table Mountain

Table Mountain from Cape Town

Wine tasting

The girls at a windy Cape Point

Cape of Good Hope

Then we were off to Joburg for the afternoon where we stumbled across a very similar music festival to the one we went to in PE and explored some cute areas (after about an hour of driving in circles through central Johannesburg because of a broken GPS). And then we were off to Kruger! Every part of this trip was incredible, but this may have been the best part. We stayed at a lodge called Londolozi in Sabi Sands, a private game reserve in the southernmost part of Kruger National Park. The lodge was exquisite, the staff was phenomenal, and you can see for yourself below what the game drives were like...

Baby elephant trying to learn to eat with its trunk

Our Londolozi crew

I couldn't rave about this part of the trip enough! SAVE YOUR MONEY AND GO HERE!

After the fam departed, I was back to PE for one more week of holiday before school. It was mostly spent relaxing and cooking with Andrew, but I did have a few last adventures. The weekend after I arrived home, Andrew and I went to the Grahamstown Arts Festival, which is the national art festival here. We saw a few shows and walked around the tents full of jewelry, crafts, and clothing. It's an 11 day festival, but I felt like I got a good taste in the day we spent there. 

Andrew and I :)

The last weekend of the holiday was spent back in Knysna. Andrew and I, along with 6 other of our friends, traveled to Knsyna to run the Forest Half Marathon.. or that was the plan. Until the largest rain/wind storm imaginable hit the SA coast and flooded most coastal cities, resulting in a cancelled race. As it turned out, not only was the race cancelled, but the road to the house we rented flooded while we were out to lunch, forcing us to leave the cars, be transported back to the house, pack our stuff, and wade out! 

Wading... I hope this makes you Americans appreciate your summer right now! 

It turned into one adventurous weekend and we had quite a jol (good time) regardless! After about 2 months of holiday, its back to the working world. We've got a lot of work and a lot of travel planned for the upcoming months. Will be busy, but I'm looking forward to it. Work hard, play hard :)

Things I love.

So oddly enough, I am about halfway through my time in South Africa. Before I go travel over holiday, I thought I would do a fun little post to round off the last few months. Below are a series of photos of things I love. Many of them are silly. Most of them are poor quality (go camera phones). Some of them were stolen from online. But this series of photos is a better look into my day to day life here than any post I could write. Enjoy!

I LOVE:

Game parks you can drive yourself through and still have elephants walk that close to your car

The energy from 1,600 students singing at morning assembly 

This book! That somehow manages to do an equal job of humoring the stereotypes of each racial/ethnic group in South Africa

The fact that a "wine pour" and a "beer pour" are synonymous in this country... fill it to the rim! 

Our view

My roommate! The girl who I spent almost every breathing second with, yet still can't go 10 minutes apart without finding something to text her about. The girl I cook with, bike with, teach with, vent with, plan with- she keeps me absolutely sane. 

The fact that I have a South African running license! Almost essential to run races in this country, but also makes me feel like a real resident!

The fact that this is the name of the Christian bookstore here...

My American friends here! As wonderful as it is to befriend the locals, it has been wonderful to have a group of fellow Americans close by as well

Banana and bacon pizza. Yep, a normal combo here. They're on to something...

Apology letters from our students Alice assigned after they were disrespectful. Especially when they give you a nickname halfway through the letter... 

This flag! So colorful. And a whole lot better than their last flag (see below). The black, yellow, and green of the flag represent the colors of the ANC (the current ruling party), while the red, white, and blue represent the flag of the United Kingdom (former ruling party).  

The old flag of South Africa... No, this is not a joke. 

Trail runs that end at Bridge Street Brewery

Baby lions I can pet.

The fact that Alice and I take pictures of most of the food we cook. Above: a butternut, goat cheese, caramelized onion, and rocket pizza drizzled with balsamic reduction. 

Our prefects! The group of grade 10, 11, and 12s that work in the library, speak English fluently enough not only to chat with us, but understand our sarcasm and make fun of us (and know us well enough to do so). An incredible group of young adults. 

Stanley street! An awesome block of restaurants, bars, and shops.

Excited waiters on Stanley Street. Go America!

Rugby. (As close as I can get to American football here). And owning my own Sprinboks jersey.

These grade 8 boys: this picture says it all

Did I mention I loved our view? Normal sunset out my bedroom window..

ETA Reunion!

This last weekend, Alice and I traveled to Gauteng for a Fulbright Mid Year Conference at The Cradle of Humankind (an area about an hour outside of Joburg). It is called the Cradle of Humankind because one of the first full skulls ever was discovered here. Unfortunately the conference schedule didn't allow us any time to go see it, but we had a nice weekend regardless. 

"Mrs. Ples"- one of the oldest skulls ever discovered.

It was great to see all the other ETAs, most of whom I have not seen since we arrived in Pretoria. We also got to meet the Fulbright students and scholars who are here on research grants, as well as the South Africans that are preparing to leave for the United States on their Fulbright in August. The weekend was a great opportunity to hear what everyone has been up to in their respective parts of the country. More specifically, it was great to share experiences/frustrations with the other ETAs. There have been times, especially recently with all of our down time during exams, that Alice and I have questioned our purpose here. Are we actually making any sort of impact or difference on these learners? What does it mean to be a white American, coming in to "make a difference" and what repercussions does that have on Walmer? Are we spending our time meaningfully and thoughtfully? etc. etc. It was great to hear that other Fulbrighters were asking many of the same questions (and many even more so than Alice and I). After watching everyone's presentations, we definitely seem to have one of the more full schedules out of the group, which is nice to remember when we think we have a lot of down time.

A handful of Fulbrighters at happy hour- from left to right: Alice, myself, Nick, Andrew (ETAs in Bloemfontein), Allie (ETA in Stellenbosch), and Ryan (student researched from Denver!)

Speaking of downtime, we have had quite a bit of it. We are invigilating exams, as they call it here, which go from 9-11am ish. We spend a bit of time in the library afterwards, usually with the same group of Grade 8 boys that come in every day, and then head back home. With the rest of our time we workout (exam time is going to make us SUPER fit), practice Xhosa (which is getting pretty good btw- can't wait to show the fam next week!), put a little too much planning into our dinners, and power through books. It is nice to remind myself that while the downtime doesn't feel nearly as productive as our busy schedules did earlier in the term, the shift in schedule has allowed me to enjoy some new things. The invigilating has demanded our presence in the teachers lounge more than usual which has allowed us to get to know the staff much better (something we can't usually do because the library is normally the busiest during the long and short breaks when the teachers are in the lounge). It has also allowed us to get to know some of our students a lot better because we can spend more time with them in an informal context- more specifically this little group of Grade 8 boys that are so sharp and witty and always keen to help us with our Xhosa. (I think I'll do one of my next blog posts in all Xhosa, with a translation of course).

We don't have too much planned this weekend- the Euro soccer tournament is going on so Andrew and most of our Grassroots Soccer friends are excited to watch that most of the weekend. Saturday is National Youth Day here so Alice and I will got an event in the location that some of our students are participating in that morning. And Sunday will start bright and early with a trail run- Alice, Andrew, and perhaps a few of our other friends are running a 5k and I'll be a few hours behind them after 18ks! I am registered for a half marathon the weekend after my family leaves (great planning right?) so I'm excited to get a long run in on a beautiful trail through a valley that ends at a great cafe/brewery... we'll see which I feel more up for after the run, coffee or beer!

Bridge Street Brewery- one of the only places in town that sells craft beers! Also has great food and is tucked right into Baakens Valley, has become one of our favorites! 

My family arrives one week from today!! Couldn't be more excited to show off this awesome country and spend some good time with them. Our travels start in PE before spending time on the Garden Route driving from PE to Cape Town, a few nights in Cape Town, a night in Jozi, and a couple nights on safari in Kruger. Should have some great stories and photos for the next blog post! Cheers, x