Hello everyone,
I hope you are all doing well. I am doing pretty good. It has become ice cold here in the past two weeks. I am in class right now and I can almost see my breath. Everyday when I get home from work I spend about 2 hours doing various things to try and get myself warm again, usually without success for more than a few minutes. I think I am going to walk into town and buy a fleece after work today, I have been putting this off for quite some time, but I don't think I can take the cold anymore.
Two weekends ago I made my way to Durban with Katie, Sarah, and our South African family, the Josephs. It was an 8 hour drive to get there, although I don't remember much of it because I was out cold. It was such nice weather there. We only had one full day there before we had to return to Kroonstad, which we of course voted to spend at the beach. The water was soooo nice. It was almost the same temperature as the air. I was so swimming deprived that I spent about 3 hours riding the waves, which were also the perfect size. At about the 2 hour mark the lifeguards came out to see if I was okay. I said yes and that I just really like swimming. They joined me for about 15 minutes, then said they were tired and went back in...not really the most reassuring feeling that I could outlast the lifeguards by a longshot. We also went to the largest mall in the southern hemisphere, Gateway. That was pretty cool to see, I don't know if it is bigger than the Mall of America, but it certainly was not as overwhelming as the Mall of America. Part of it is outside and they have waterslides instead of a theme park, which I liked but it doesn't really make a ton of sense because who wants to be wet at a mall? Well, I kind of did, but I doubt many people would share that sentiment with me. Durban was definitely cool, I am sure we will return in the future.
As many of you know, Friday night was the opening match for the World Cup. We decided to go out to the township that my students are from and that Sarah and Katie teach in to watch the game. Soccer is stereotypically the "black" sport here, and the township is all blacks, so it seemed like the most logical place to go. We went to a tavern that was showing the game. It was really fun, although I got a pretty bad headache from blowing in the vuvuzelas and having them blown at me. I know these noise makers have been quite the controversy, but in case you don't know what they are, they are long horns and they make the bee-like buzzing sound when watching the game on tv. Needless to say, I could not hear much the rest of the night my ears were ringing so much. I think I will have to get earplugs for the game I am going to. It is funny thing here because there are commercials that jokingly measure how many decibals a vuvuzela makes when you blow in it. In the commercials, and in reality, they are loud enough to cause hearing damage, and this makes the crowds go wild with happiness. Perfect.
Plans for the upcoming week: I am going to Sowetto, the township outside of Johannesburg where Soccer City is located, to watch the South Africa vs. France (I think?) game this Saturday at a big public viewing stadium. Next week the holiday activities with the kids start so I am mostly planning on resting this weekend to get my energy up to deal with 300 children. The rest of my plans are a mystery.
Talk to you later!
Kelly
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Mirror
So Johannesburg was a blast last weekend. It is such a cool looking city. It is built on rolling hills, and although it is gigantic, it doesn't feel overwhelming, which is nice. The city is decked out for the World Cup. Any space that could have a huge poster hung on it was sure to have one and they just stuck giant soccerballs at the top of most of the buildings. I got to see the outside of the new stadium there too which was really cool. We were also supposed to go to the apartheid museum while we were there, but it was closed. Instead we went to Constitutional Hill, which was also really cool. It used to be a prison during apartheid for both black and white people, men and women. The current supreme court is located there too, although they left much of the old prison in tact. It was really interesting, but I will not bore you with the details of the museum. I will just say that if you ever find yourself in South Africa, pay a visit.
As I said in my last post, I was mainly in Johannesburg for a retreat and for reflection over the past two months. Let me tell you, if I reflected any more, I am sure that I would've actually turned into a mirror. It was really nice, though, and very relaxing. Everything was about being peaceful and soothing. We had an avacado tree growing in our back yard. Naturally we were on a ladder within about an hour trying to get them down. We eventually had to climb up on the roof and walls to reach them, we got about 8 in the end. Now we have delicious guacamole in our fridge. I still don't understand my body's relationship with avacados, however. I know I am mildly allergic to them when I just eat them by themselves, especially if they are not ripe. But for some reason I can eat tons of guacamole without any problems. Katie, coincidently enough, has very similar allergies as me. She cannot eat melons of any kind and avacados bother her too. She is more allergic to these things than me, but it did make me feel a little better that there might actually be some rational behind this problem.
We are friends with an Indian family here, the Josephs, who have basically integrated us into their family as daughters. We went there this past weekend for food and games and I had the most delicious thing. It was fish brayani, and the fish was baracuda. No joke, I thought I was eating pork for about 10 minutes because the baracuda was so different than other types of fish. They are also taking us to Durban with them this weekend. We leave at 4 a.m. tomorrow morning and it is about an 8 hour drive. We will get back in the middle of the night on Sunday. Hopefully I will be able to sleep away most of the driving. I don't know exactly what we are doing there, but knowing the Josephs, food will be a huge part of the weekend. My only goal is to go swimming in the ocean. The water is supposed to be a swimmable temperature, which is all I am looking for.
Other than that, things are going good here. I realized yesterday that the computers in my classroom did not have anti-virus protection for the past week. I installed some yesterday and of course all of the computers had viruses because my students were using the internet for a week and I have been moving files between the computers. The computers make a loud beeping sound when a detection is found, which is pretty funny because now everything is quiet except for this symphony of beeps that resonates through the computers for about an hour.
Write to me!
Kelly
As I said in my last post, I was mainly in Johannesburg for a retreat and for reflection over the past two months. Let me tell you, if I reflected any more, I am sure that I would've actually turned into a mirror. It was really nice, though, and very relaxing. Everything was about being peaceful and soothing. We had an avacado tree growing in our back yard. Naturally we were on a ladder within about an hour trying to get them down. We eventually had to climb up on the roof and walls to reach them, we got about 8 in the end. Now we have delicious guacamole in our fridge. I still don't understand my body's relationship with avacados, however. I know I am mildly allergic to them when I just eat them by themselves, especially if they are not ripe. But for some reason I can eat tons of guacamole without any problems. Katie, coincidently enough, has very similar allergies as me. She cannot eat melons of any kind and avacados bother her too. She is more allergic to these things than me, but it did make me feel a little better that there might actually be some rational behind this problem.
We are friends with an Indian family here, the Josephs, who have basically integrated us into their family as daughters. We went there this past weekend for food and games and I had the most delicious thing. It was fish brayani, and the fish was baracuda. No joke, I thought I was eating pork for about 10 minutes because the baracuda was so different than other types of fish. They are also taking us to Durban with them this weekend. We leave at 4 a.m. tomorrow morning and it is about an 8 hour drive. We will get back in the middle of the night on Sunday. Hopefully I will be able to sleep away most of the driving. I don't know exactly what we are doing there, but knowing the Josephs, food will be a huge part of the weekend. My only goal is to go swimming in the ocean. The water is supposed to be a swimmable temperature, which is all I am looking for.
Other than that, things are going good here. I realized yesterday that the computers in my classroom did not have anti-virus protection for the past week. I installed some yesterday and of course all of the computers had viruses because my students were using the internet for a week and I have been moving files between the computers. The computers make a loud beeping sound when a detection is found, which is pretty funny because now everything is quiet except for this symphony of beeps that resonates through the computers for about an hour.
Write to me!
Kelly
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