Farewell for Now, South Africa

Today is my last day at Alex HS. I can't even wrap my mind around the fact that I'm going to be back on American soil in about 72 hours. I won't lie to you; I'm not ready to come home just yet. Don't get me wrong, if you're reading this it probably means that we're …

The end is drawing near.

Can we all just be in shock about the obvious for a minute: I'm coming home in less than two weeks. To me, this is unreal. Time is always such a novelty, you know? How many times have you found yourself saying, "Today absolutely FLEW by" or "Where has this year …

this tops it all...

It has been really interesting because I just assumed that because I'm in South Africa, the students would be reading all South African literature. Not so. This year, they have read The Crucible, To Kill a Mockingbird, Shakespeare (duh), The Outsiders, Animal Farm, …

Cintsa

Cinsta was lovely, but if I had thought that our trip there was any sign of what the weekend was going to be like, I would have turned around and gone back to PE. Luckily, the trip to Cintsa only left room for improvement because the rest of the weekend was wonderful. …

Clarification:

clarification. I am not "living with a boy." Rather, he is living in the same house with the same host family as me. Thanks, Dad, for letting me know how sketchy that sounded!

Halloween in South Africa

Wow. It's November. This is so unreal--just yesterday I was still in August. ACTUALLY, yesterday I was literally in October, which means we just celebrated Halloween. And by "we," I mean, me...and John...the two Americans. Halloween isn't a celebrated holiday over …

And just when I thought I had forgotten how a sunburn felt...

Yes, that's right, Meg and I headed to Coffee Bay this weekend--a town that many South Africans haven't even heard of. I'll tell you what, that place is awesome. It is WAY north of Port Elizabeth, but well-worth the trip. We stayed at The Coffee Shack, a backpacker's …

A Noteworthy Fiasco

A Noteworthy Fiasco

So I decided to cook dinner. I wanted to cook something that I've done plenty of times so as to guarantee that I wouldn't screw anything up as well as something that has ingredients that South Africa would have (you'd be surprised by how much the …

I will tell you all about it just now.

Megan and I spent the last week and a half in Cape Town seeing as our schools were on holiday. Let me just set up a few scenerios for you so that you can get the basic idea of the sort of things we got into:
Picture yourself (or picture me, unless you'd like to live …

I'm not afraid of heights, I'm not afraid of heights...

That's right, I did it. I don't know exactly how I got through it, but I did. It was definitely one of the coolest things I've ever done, though. Check out the pictures, and you'll see the proof for yourself. I'm still hoarse from screaming. They said that by the …

Knysna and Such.

Okay, hope that little preface to the blog didn't startle any of you because I'm not literally moving here, but I would in a heartbeat if I wouldn't be breaking so many hearts over in the States by staying. (just thinking of others, really.) Knysna was one of the most …

I drink tea.

I just finished my first week of student teaching a short 2 hours ago! To be honest, I'm liking it more and more each day. The first day, as expected, had that "I'm American and it's my first day and did I mention I'm American" feel to it. I think I drank 4 cups of …

I'm Sold.

I love it. The family I'm living with is amazing. Jeanene and Brenden are only 28 and 29, so they are really cool. There are 2 other American students living with them and 2 South African students. It's so great! I live not even half a mile from the beach. I do …

Reality? Who needs it...

Today is our first day in Port Elizabeth, but let me briefly tell you about the heaven I've been in the past few days.

On Monday we arrived at Shamwari Game Reserve. This quite possibly tops the charts for the coolest things I've done. I've posted a few pictures …

Cloud Nine?

Before I get to today, let me backtrack a bit and briefly describe yesterday, our first full day in South Africa.

It was raining when we woke up, so that helped Mom, Karen, and I to narrow down the decision of what to do. We voted and unanimously decided to head for …

Ah, yes.

In about 8 days, I'm taking a 14 hour flight from Washington DC to Johannesburg, South Africa. I won't come back until December. People are going to miss me (it's inevitable) so I wanted to give everyone the opportunity to stay up to date with the happenings in Port …