The host family...

^ my host family's cat Ginger (aka Gingie) at the end of my bed (he sleeps there every night- ugh he is so flipping cute- most affectionate cat ever)

I really lucked out.  My host family is wonderful.  My room is downstairs so I kind of have my own lair haha.  My host mom is a great cook and I wrote it on Facebook, but some people might not know- my host family fed me ostrich the first night I was here!  After, I was done, they asked me what kind of meat I thought that was and at that point, I knew I was in for a surprise haha.  It was this casserole type thing and I thought it was beef.  It looked and tasted just like beef and if they hadn't told me, I would never have known I'd eaten ostrich!!  Anyway, that was one of those- wow I really am in Africa moments and I loved it!  Anyway, what else can I say about my host family...We always talk about how American English and South African English differ and my host dad especially loves those discussions (my host mom calls him a "closeted American").  Sweaters are jerseys.  Bathrooms are toilets.  Bathing suits are swimming costumes.  Closets are cupboards.  Cookies are biscuits.  and many more.  Plus, I learned a phrase that all South Africans know about, which is "just now."  Basically, you say it when you are going to be somewhere or do something in the near future, but not right that second.  It could mean in 10 minutes, an hour, more, who knows- just don't wait up haha.  Also, they have showed me the joys of electric tea kettles, which boil water 10x faster than on a stove, which I guess comes in handy more here because people drink tea 24/7.  Lots of South Africans drink this particular type of herbal tea called rooibos tea with these biscuit thingies called rusks.  Really tasty.  Rooibos, by the way, is Afrikaans for red bush.  The languages most commonly spoken here are Afrikaans (which is really similar to Dutch), Xhosa (pronouced *click*- osa, yes, it is a language with clicks!!), and English.  My host family just speaks English, but as I said, it isn't the same and I love it.  Anyways, I really like my host family's daughters.  All of them are younger than me (9, 12, and 14).  All of them are really polite and sweet and the youngest two are especially hilarious when it comes to being absolutely random and kidding around all the time.  We all went to their cousin's fifth birthday party this past weekend and had an awesome time on the moonbounce (aka jumping castle) acting like complete fools.  Oh and another thing is that at that party, I learned a new game that is apparently a must-do at kids parties around here- "Pass the Parcel."  You basically wrap some prize up in layer upon layer upon layer of wrapping paper, put on music, and pass it around it a circle.  Whenever the music stops, whoever is holding the package takes off one layer of wrapping paper and usually gets a lollipop or something that was wrapped up in between layers.  Then you just keep passing until all the layers are gone and someone gets the grand prize!  I'm playing that at my next birthday party...haha, but no, really, I don't know why we don't play that at younger kids parties in America- it's fun!  but anyway, I should wrap this up and go to sleep. In America right now, it is 5:02 PM (my laptop still says American time by the way, so all I had to do just now was look up in the corner of the screen), but here it is 10:02 PM, so 6 hours later!

Kalk Bay

Ok, so on Saturday, I went to Kalk Bay and it was blogworthy, but I just hadn't gotten the chance to write about it until now.  We went to this fish and chips place called Kaulky's and it was legit because there really wasn't anything on the menu besides seafood (unless you wanted to be the boring person who got the Greek Salad), so I got some hake and chips.  Note that here, chips is the word for French Fries.  Anyway, in true South Africa National Geographic style, there were 3 seals swimming in the harbo(u)r so you could see them up close.  Another memorable part of that day was that there was a band playing these xylophone type instruments and guess what one of the songs was that they played?  Come on...think of a  song that would make you extra happy and highly aware that you were in Africa at the moment?  WAKA WAKA!! hahaha I was so excited.  I couldn't help but throw a 2 rand coin in their hat.  We have the dollar.  South Africa has the rand.  I think its 6.5 rand to a dollar and I always have to take a minute to convert prices in my head, although I've found that prices here are for the most part the same as in America.  Except, however, movie tickets here cost about the equivalent of 3 U.S. dollars (Harry Potter, here I come!!) and my host family was scandalized when I told them that tickets cost 10 bucks at home.  The money here is so much prettier than in the U.S. because each bill has some awesome animal on it- the 200 rand note has a leopard, the 100 has a buffalo, the 50 has a lion, the 20 has an elephant, and the 10 has a rhino.  Also, as the amount the bill is worth goes down, the actual length of the bill becomes sliiightly shorter (cool).  fun fact: the leopard, the buffalo, the rhino, the elephant, and the lion are the "Big 5" animals that South Africa is famous for.  Well, that was quite the tangent about the money, but anyway, I liked Kalk Bay.  We also did a bit of shopping, but I'm trying to control myself, so I've been kind of stingy so far!  It's only a matter of time though haha.

More on orientation...

        Orientation was wonderful.  The first night we were there, we got kind of an introductory talk and we were informed that our first stop in the morning was to Boulder's Beach to see...wait for it...PENGUINS.  Needless to say, I went to bed pretty excited haha.  Oh and about bed, there is no central heating in South Africa because most of the year you don't really need it.  People just use hot water bottles and I bought one when I bought my cell phone, so that was new.  Hot water bottles are so soothing! Plus, you really do need them around here.  Speaking of those, my host family gave me a mini one with a lion shaped cover to put over it.  I thought that was SO cute of them.  Anyway, back to orientation.  The penguins were great and were so, so close because they are used to people coming to look at them.  Some of them had babies!!  We saw so many other animals over the next few days.  It isn't like America where all the cool animals try and hide for some reason.  There are animals EVERYWHERE.  It isn't hard to get National Geographic-status pictures.  So far, I've seen baboons, antelope, ostrich, a tortoise, and dassies (I never knew what they were until I got here, so I provided a picture haha).  The photo below is a prime example of how animals around here (at least it seems to me) stare right back at you!!  I took that picture at Cape Point- the southernmost point of Africa.

               Other than looking at beautiful scenery and cute animals, we have talked to all kinds of people.  I have to admit, the first time we went to a township called Khayelitsha and walked around talking to people, I felt overwhelmed.  I had no idea how to engage people in conversation and I really just wanted to step back to my comfort zone.  However, after a week of orientation, I've realized that the experience is so much more interesting when you actually talk to people.  We went to a township recently and on the outskirts, there was a small community of Rastafarians and we just went up to an older guy, introduced ourselves, and he told us about his life.  I know that people don't take Rastafarians seriously because they smoke ganja (aka marijuana), but he explained to us other parts of his community's lifestyle, like how Rastas like to live a more isolated lifestyle because with more people comes more crime.  He was saying how his community would be having a demonstration in town the upcoming weeks to petition the government for toilets (well, port-o-potties) and how, since wealthier people have everything they need, they don't think to give poorer people the basics unless you get right in their faces and make them listen.  It was really interesting talking to him.  P.S.  Yes he had dreadlocks.

Welcome to the Fairest Cape of them all...

^ I made this the title because it is what the pilot said as we landed    
  
           Ok, so landing in Cape Town on a beautiful sunny morning felt like flying straight into a brochure- a feeling that I haven't been able to shake since.  Mountains everywhere.  You just can't escape the view even if you were crazy enough to want to.  We also got to see some of the beautiful beaches.  One of the most memorable parts of the first day we got here was when we saw this sign that said "shark spotters," with guys standing there with binoculars.  Basically, these guys are paid to keep an eye out for Great Whites and if they see one, set off an alarm to warn the surfers.  Awesome.  Also, I got my first tastes of South African English pronunciation.  zebra= zeh-bra, baboon= b-boon haha, albino= al-bee-no.  I love it.  We got our first view of the townships i.e. towns where all the houses are tin shacks.  More on that later.  After picking up some cheap cell phones at the mall, we got to move into our campsite- not really camping- we stayed in little buildings aka "bungalows" hehe.  Another memorable moment was when we met the program directors' daughter at the door and she was telling us how a baboon had just broken in, but he ran away when reached for the broom haha.  By the way, it is common for baboons to walk down the road or if you don't lock your doors, break in and ransack your kitchen.  *common*  
        

      

So THAT’s how you say Burger King in Arabic...

^ I bought Burger King at the airport  (:

       

        Dubai was an experience!  Now that we had taken the morning flight from JFK, we arrived in Dubai at around 7 AM the next day (Sunday 6/19)  and our next flight didn’t leave until 3:50 AM the NEXT morning (Monday 6/20).  Just to clarify, the actual flight was about 11 or 12 hours long and then there is an 8 hour time difference, so it all added up to make it so we arrived almost an entire day later.  We got our passports stamped (yay!  my first passport stamp!)  and our first stop was the bathroom, in which we were surprised to find that each toilet came with its very own handheld hose (my first   experience stepping foot in a foreign bathroom haha). The moment when it finally hit me that I had finally set foot in another country though was actually when I stepped outside into the HEAT.  Dang!

Anyway, the volunteers and I decided to get a hotel in Dubai because that was just way too long to spend sitting in an airport.  We spent 200 dollars for 2 rooms, which wasn’t so bad, especially considering that the hotel was super fancy.  Also, the staff was ridiculously polite and offered us these mango drinks at the counter while we waited to be checked in.  We ended up taking a tour of the city to take advantage of our

unexpected day in Dubai.  We saw the Burj Khalifa (the tallest building in the world), Ski Dubai (a mini place to ski indoors!), and the Mall of Dubai, complete with gigantic aquarium and iceskating rink.  Every time we stopped somewhere scenic, our driver would get down on one knee and attempt to balance himself precariously while taking excessive amounts of group photos. Anyway, jetlag hit us all hard about 1 hour into the 3 hour tour.  Most of the people knocked out in the back seat, but I was in the front seat right next to the guy so I was really trying to stay awake.  My head kept tilting forward slowly and snapping back for rest of the tour and I fell asleep like a baby when we got back to the hotel for your average everyday 5 hour late afternoon nap (4:30 to 9:30 PM) before we left for the airport.

oh Emirates...haha

The flight...

        The flight to Dubai (6/18) was a fascinating experience because Emirates (as I was once told) is a super fancy airline.  The plane had cameras in the front and underside of the plane so you could see scenery during takeoff and landing (althought all you could see was ocean for most of our flight), we were given the stickers in the picture above, a mini toothbrush complete with even mini-er toothpaste, a change of socks, and a complete lunch and breakfast.  I totally took pictures of and stole everything I could, including the menus.  I mean, it was all going to get thrown away anyway.  Maybe I’ll try to do a scrapbook or something haha.  

Anyway, so most of the people on the flight looked like they were from the Middle East, the introduction/safety video was shown in Arabic first and then English, the instructions to open the fold-down table in the backs of the chairs was in Arabic and English, and so were those menus!  Very cool.  

Getting here...

10:45 PM Friday 6/24/11

Getting here...

Wow, so right now I am sitting in the guest room of my host family’s house, getting my first solid chunk of time on a computer since I left on last Friday (6/17).  I guess we should start with the craziness of actually getting to South Africa!  Let me write out the logistics for the original plan:

3:15 PM flight from Boston to JFK Aiport in New York

11 PM flight (with all of the other Worldteach volunteers) from JFK to Dubai

and then a flight a few hours later from Dubai to Cape Town, South Africa

So anyway, I’m going to try to make this short since there is so much more to say!  My flight to New York was delayed 8 hours due to thunderstorms at JFK.  Basically, I ended up leaving Boston around the same time my supposed-to-be flight was taking off at JFK for Dubai.  Once I got to JFK, I met up with a few of the other stranded volunteers who had missed the flight and we slept on the floor of JFK because the next flight didn’t leave until the next morning.  Not comfortable haha.  Anyway, it was an experience!