Founders Day, teaching, and baboons (OH MY!)

Friday, January 25-Sunday, January 27

Everything has been going well. Friday was my first day teaching my Grade 8’s class. It was actually a lot of fun. I really enjoy teaching at my school because so many of the girls really do want to learn and want to have fun while learning. Katie H., you would be proud of me because the classroom that I am in for my Grade 8’s has a SMARTboard. The girls were so intrigued by the board and were telling me things like “Ms. Daughters, did you know that if you pick up the red pen with your left hand, you can use your right hand to write on the board?!” I did already know that, but I did it in front of them and all I heard out of their mouths were “WOWWWWW! That is soooo cool!” So nonetheless, it made my first teaching experience at Rustenburg a successful one. Good thing my first experience with it was in your classroom, Katie! I felt really confident with it and it was awesome! First lesson down… mark it as a success.

Friday was shortened because there was a ceremony titled “Founders Day.” It’s a day to mark the school’s birthday and it’s a ceremony they just started not too long ago. They invite the “old girls” (alumni) back for the celebration. The girls at the school sing all sorts of songs: The Lord’s Prayer, South Africa’s anthem, the school’s song, etc. I love when the girls sing The Lord’s Prayer. It really brings a sense a peace into the school. I actually got some video footage of the songs being sung so hopefully I can post those soon on my picture site. Then, Friday night was our staff braai which was also nice. I brought Terrez with me so he could see my school and meet some of the people I spend everyday with. Quite interesting. They were serving lamb, pig, and pig skin from the grill. It actually was really good. I tried the pig skin and it was pretty crunchy. Hmm. Overall, the day really made me think about how much I enjoy spending my student teaching practicum at Rustenburg. The staff is so friendly and everyone is making sure I’m okay with finding my way around town, the school, etc. I know I have two months left, but it’s going to be really hard to say goodbye. L

As a way to get to know my students, I created a “Fact Sheet about YOU” asking various questions such as if they have nicknames, what are their interests, what are they looking forward to most during the school year, favorite subject, etc. I also gave them an opportunity on the sheet to ask me any questions they had about me. I gave the sheet to my form class and to my Grade 8 (A3) class. Some of the girls were asking me what I was interested in, where in America I was from, how I’m doing in South Africa, why I chose to become a teacher, and if I’m enjoying my time at Rustenburg and SA. They were very sweet … I wanted to make sure I replied back to them so I spent most of my weekend writing on individual note cards to each girl in my form class. It’s an opportunity for me to get to know my students and for them to see my interests and to learn more about me.

On Sunday we woke up early and left the house around 9 AM to head to Cape Point. Cape Point is a site of interest because it’s the point where you look down to your right and you see the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean is on your left. It’s really neat. Too bad it was cloudy though L We’re going to go back on a clearer day. So… Cape Point has baboons and by baboons I mean like, crazy food-grabbing baboons. We actually saw some on our way up to Cape Point (you’ll see what I mean in my pictures when I post them). So there were signs all over Cape Point that said be cautious of the baboons because they are after food. Something along those lines. Anyway, we decided to get out of the car and to sit for a little while to eat some lunch. Wendy made the comment that as soon as we sit down, the baboons will probably come out. I suppose I really didn’t believe them when they said that the baboons come out for food. I guess it’s because I hadn’t really seen a baboon up close. Well… she was right. As soon as we sat down, out came running two baboons who were being chased by a man with a stick. One of the baboons stopped and looked at my food and I seriously sat there in disbelief. I’m thinking, uhhhh… what am I going to do if this baboon comes after me? Run?!?!! I jumped up pretty quickly and luckily they have these guys that run around chasing these baboons to stay away from people. What a job. Thankfully that man came running or else it would have been me against the baboon for my lunch. Yikes. I probably would have just chucked my lunch at it. Oh, and baboons bark. HA! I’ve never seen anything like that in my entire life until today. Quite an experience. I will try to post my pictures very soon. I know you want to see my baboon friends.

I apologize it takes me a while to respond to questions. But, I definitely wanted to take the time to do so. The main beverage here is wine. There are wine vineyards all around Cape Town so wine is pretty popular. They do have Coca-Cola and the best, Fanta soda (orange, grape, etc). There are also a lot of fruit drinks: pear juice, grape juice, apple juice, etc. The school I am at does have school sports teams. During the summer (right now), they have water polo, cricket, swimming, touch rugby, tennis, and also running club. They also have netball (equivalent is basketball I believe), but it’s offered in a different season (I think winter?). The school I am in is a racially integrated school. There are many different religions represented throughout the school which is why during Assembly they cannot emphasize a particular god. They still sing songs about God, but they cannot force one’s beliefs. As for fast food restaurants, they made it here! They do have a McDonalds and KFC. Those are the only two American fast food restaurants that I’ve seen. I should try both and see the differences. I can tell you that the ketchup here is actually tomato sauce. It tastes more like tomatoes. I actually like it more than home J

By the way, Kyle, I think of you every time I see a KFC. Yep… believe it or not, KFC made it to South Africa. Don’t worry, I took pictures for you. Oh, and I took two pictures for you. Just in case you were wondering my latitude and longitude J I’ll post them soon!

I miss all of you! I seem to really think and miss home a lot when I get really tired. I’m not sure why that is, but I just realized today that I only have two months left. That might seem like a long amount of time, but I can tell you the time is flying by.

And last, but not least… I am giving serious thought to running the “Two Oceans Half Marathon” here in Cape Town. They have an Ultra Marathon (56 km = 34.8 miles) and a Half (21 km = 13.1 miles). There are some stipulations such as being able to finish the half in 3 hours. Talk about an incentive to run faster, eh? I am really considering it because having a medal from SA would fit nicely with my other half marathon medals. The date of the race is March 22. So that gives me less than 2 months to prepare. Oh, and this is also an opportunity for you to come to Cape Town to cheer me on. I'm serious. Who's in?! What do you think I should do?

Love Always!

My life at Rustenburg

Yesterday was the first day for “Running Club” after school. It’s from 3:15-4:15, but we didn’t get started until about 3:30 or so. Okay, so… the running club has about 75-100 girls and there are two supervisors for it; me being one of them. The other supervisor is another teacher here. But anyway, we set off with all of the girls for a run. It really made me smile to see how many girls were interested in the club. I am definitely taking this idea back to wherever I end up teaching. The running club is made for girls who want to run or run/walk at their own paces. They can run with friends, etc. The after school activities are not mandatory for the girls, but they’re encouraged so the girls will stay active. I really felt great at the end of the run because I finished and then turned around to encourage girls to finish strong by running and not walking. Just call me Coach Daughters. Just kidding. Anyway, I truly enjoyed yesterday with the girls. There’s just something about running here with the mountains all around you and dodging the crazy after-school Cape Town traffic. Yikes… that’s another story.

I thought it would be a good idea to give you an idea of what my days are like here at school. I wake up around 5:15-5:20 AM every morning to shower and get ready for the day. At about 6:45 AM, my ride comes to pick me up. I ride with two ladies, one of which is a Maths teacher and the other is an Afrikaans teacher. We must leave early because the traffic here in Cape Town is terrible. Everyday it is bumper to bumper traffic and the robots (lights) don’t hold for very long. I must also add that there is a big problem with the electricity here. Basically what happens is they have to “load shed” which means shut off the power in parts of Cape Town because it’s using too much and there isn’t enough for all. In the 90s, the government realized we would be suffering for it today, but decided at the time in the 1990s that building houses was more important; therefore, we are dealing with the situation now. So anyway, my point is the robots aren’t working sometimes and then that just adds to the madness.

Once I get to school, I take my stuff upstairs to my locker in the staff computer room and then pull out my laptop to check my e-mail, blogs, etc before the school day starts. Facebook is blocked during the school day because the girls use it way too much so therefore it’s only active before school and then after 4:00. Oy, Emily. So then after that, I must figure out what “Day” it is and by “Day,” I mean that Rustenburg runs on a 2-week cycle. So for example, the 2-week school period has 10 days. So this is what it’s like:

Day 1 – Monday

Day 2 – Tuesday

Day 3 – Wednesday

Day 4 – Thursday

Day 5 – Friday

Day 6 – Monday

Day 7 – Tuesday

Day 8 – Wednesday

Day 9 – Thursday

Day 10 – Friday

Now you think it would be easy right? Oh no, it’s a little bit confusing. I’ll explain in a second. There are normally 8 periods in a day. We start every day off with a staff meeting from 7:50-8:00. Any new information about a student is shared in the meeting, updates from staff members, etc. Basically it’s an opportunity to present things in front of the entire staff which is great. My favorite staff conversation was this morning. Apparently there was a staff member here who passed away a couple of years ago and a bench was put out in the Matric lawn (where the Grade 12s hang out) and someone moved it to the back of the building for smokers. The staff members who enjoyed sitting down on the bench in the Matric lawn can no longer do so because the smokers needed a place to sit in the back of the building. There was mass talking about where to move the bench back to and about how the lady who passed away would feel about her bench being moved. It really made me laugh because someone then pointed out that since the majority of the staff are non-smokers, the decision should be left to the smokers. HA! Anyway, now that I think about it, I think everyone just came to the conclusion that the lady would be happy at wherever the bench is placed.

After the staff meeting, each teacher reports to their Form class (if they have one) and they inform students of particular events, information, etc. The girls then move onto first period. Now each day of the week has a different schedule with the exception of Tuesdays and Wednesdays. So here’s the lay out:

Mondays

07:50-08:00 Staff Meeting/Form

08:00-08:10 Form

08:10-08:55 Period 1 Assembly

08:55-09:40 Period 2

09:40-10:25 Period 3

10:25-10:45 Break

10:45-11:30 Period 4

11:30-12:15 Period 5

12:15-13:00 Period 6

13:00-13:35 Break

13:35-14:20 Period 7

14:20-15:00 Period 8

Tuesdays and Wednesdays

07:50-08:00 Staff Meeting/Form

08:00-08:10 Form

08:10-08:55 Period 1

08:55-09:40 Period 2

09:40-10:25 Period 3

10:25-10:45 Break

10:45-11:30 Period 4

11:30-12:15 Period 5

12:15-13:00 Period 6

13:00-13:35 Break

13:35-14:20 Period 7

14:20-15:00 Period 8

Thursdays

07:50-08:00 Staff Meeting/Form

08:00-08:10 Form

08:10-08:55 Period 1

08:55-09:40 Period 2

09:40-10:25 Period 3 Assembly

10:25-10:45 Break

10:45-11:30 Period 4

11:30-12:15 Period 5

12:15-13:00 Period 6

13:00-13:35 Break

13:35-14:20 Period 7

14:20-15:00 Period 8

Fridays

07:50-08:00 Staff Meeting/Form

08:00-08:10 Form

08:10-08:55 Period 1

08:55-09:40 Period 2

09:40-10:25 Period 3

10:25-11:10 Period 4

11:10-11:45 Break/Staff Meeting

11:45-12:30 Period 5

12:30-13:15 Period 6

13:15-14:00 Period 7

End of academic day for learners (Sport/Music as usual)

14:00-15:00 SMT meeting (bi-weekly)

So here’s what my 2-week timetable looks like. You should be able to click on it: If you’re not confused after looking at it, then I give you credit. I ended up having to fill in my own timetable because I wasn’t assigned to one particular teacher therefore I had to look to see when the other teachers were teaching. It’s a different experience to student teaching because I have like four mentoring teachers. I don’t know if I will be teaching in all of those classes, but definitely in the A3 class (the Grade 8s).

I believe that’s all I have for now. Happy reading!

Love always!

PS. Rhonda, I haven’t forgotten about the boys’ questions. I will find out some of the answers to your questions for you because I don’t even know myself! :-)

Lots has happened

January 16-19, 2008 (Wednesday-Saturday)

Wednesday was the first day of school for the students. Regardless of how I was feeling, it was great to see the students active in a school atmosphere. I ride to school with two ladies – Anita and Helen, one of which is an Afrikaans teacher and the other is Maths. As you can see, they say maths and not math. That has been one of the changes I am attempting to make in my South African vocabulary while I am here. As of now, I don’t really have a set schedule of what and when I am teaching, but I do know I am teaching Grade 8, 9, and possible some Grade 10s. I am helping Anita with her Form class. Form is similar to what we call a “homeroom.” The girls meet there every morning before Period 1. While the students are in Form, the entire faculty is in the staff room for their daily meeting. I really do love this idea because it gets all the staff onto one page of the day’s activities and schedule. On the first day, I was thinking, “well, what are the girls going to do? Are they just unsupervised while we’re all here?” Yep. I’m not sure if this type of set-up in the States would work or not. My concern was about the girls and if they cause trouble. Shame on me for thinking that! The only trouble the girls would get in is for talking way too much! They love catching up with their friends and talking about their boyfriends, facebook, etc.

At the school on Mondays and Thursdays, all of the girls have to attend Assembly. The entire school meets in Kemp Hall and upcoming events, etc are shared. This is also a time the girls sing out of their Hymn books. On the first day of school, they sang the Lord’s Prayer which sounded so great. But, my thought while I heard these girls singing these songs was “Wow! This is not allowed in the public schools in the States!” I mentioned the fact to some of the faculty members and they pointed out to me that since Rustenburg is a public school owned by the government, they cannot actually force a certain God upon the girls. They can sing about a God, but not be forced to believe a certain God within a certain religion. It was quite fascinating to learn of this.

The girls at my school also wear uniforms. They wear light blue dresses and have the option to wear their jerseys (pullover sweater) and their jacket with their dress or just the jacket with their dress, I believe. It’s also a must to make sure their “colors” (the collar on their dress) are out and over their jersey and/or jacket. The music teacher actually asked me what I thought of the uniforms. I can’t remember if I already posted this or not. Anyway, she said the uniforms are nice and serve as a common ground for the girls. Girls can’t flaunt their money by wearing particular clothes.

Friday night (January 18), the school held a “bring and braii” for the parents and for the girls. This was an opportunity for the parents to meet some of the faculty and to have a casual evening together. Many families showed up and I was introduced to a couple of them by the French teacher, Dominique. She was gracious enough to take me around with her as she was meeting some of the parents which I was happy about because I was a little timid to do that on my own. Everyone brings their own drinks for the braii and my choice of drink was wine. It’s tradition here to drink wine with meals. It was a crazy idea to me that I was drinking wine with families and other faculty members on school grounds. What a difference from the schools in the States! By the end of the night, I was exhausted as I had spent all day at school. Although one of my feelings by the end of the night was that I was happy. I was happy because I had reflected on the past few days and realized how great Rustenburg is and how much I enjoy the faculty here. They have all been very gracious in helping me get around the school and including me in everything. For their kindness, I gave them a box of the Esther Price candy I brought from home. The loved the chocolates! Good work, Emily. J

January 19, 2008 (Saturday)

Terrez, Patrick, and I decided to do some touristy things. We walked to the train station to catch a ride to Simon’s Town because we wanted to go and see the African Jackass penguins. We walked to the train station which was about a good mile or so. In all honesty, once I got to the train station, I was a little nervous because I felt like the three of us stood out as Americans. It was the first time since I’ve been here where I felt like a minority. Immediately I felt insecure, held tight on to my bag, and was cautious of everything around me. Once I was on the train, I felt better, but Terrez and Patrick got into a really good discussion about blacks and whites. I just listened and didn’t take too much part in the conversation only because I wanted to hear Patrick’s thoughts and Terrez’s perspective as he is black.

Once we got off of the train, we walked to grab some lunch and then after, continued our walk to Boulders Beach. I suppose I should state that continued is an understatement. The three of us walked and walked and … we walked some more to get to this beach. We really didn’t even have a map to tell us how far to go. Oy! In total, I was told our walk was over 8K (3.1 miles = 5K)… you do the math. Nonetheless, we FINALLY found it and it was so worth it. These penguins were everywhere! I took many pictures and hope to post them soon. The cool thing about the penguins is that they were indigenous to the beach. They found South Africa themselves and over time, built up their habitat! We eventually made our way back to the train station and for home.

Kaylene, Jean’s friend, came to pick us up around 7 PM. Jean was taking the three of us, and many other students who are here from Norway, out to an African restaurant called Marco’s. It actually was really good and I enjoyed myself. I am rather proud of myself because I tried some new meats that I wouldn’t have tried otherwise. For example, for my main course, I ordered ostrich which actually tasted like a lean beef. I also tried crocodile from the others who had ordered it. Now… I told myself before I left for this trip that I would try anything and everything. Well, let’s say I did just that when I was at Marco’s. Jean suggested I try tripe. The word tripe is the equivalent to the words “cow stomach.” So someone had ordered it and I attempted to try a piece. I… cut the little piece in half and took a bite. Dun dun dun. As soon as I put it in my mouth, I just knew it wasn’t going to work out. I ended up having to spit it out into my napkin because the flavor was horrendous to me. I won’t state on here what it tasted like to me, but if you’d like to know, I’d be happy to tell you. For those who enjoy tripe, hands down to you.

Overall, the dinner was a nice experience and I danced my booty off to some African music. They had live music and all of us danced around and just had so much fun. Marco’s is definitely a restaurant I would love to go back to.

I hope to have pictures and videos posted soon. I am also going to try and make it a point to reflect every day. There is so much that goes on during the days and I really don’t want to forget about anything I’ve experienced here. Thanks for reading if you made it this far!

I've caught the 24-48 hour sick bug

Yes... I am ill. :( It seems that there is something going around the staff and it's causing me to feel sick. I mean sick. I went to bed last night after my not so good tasting meal (which you'll hear about later) and woke up at 2:00 AM. I kept thinking about my dinner and so I went and had to throw up to make myself feel better. Get it out of my system, right? Not so much. About 2 hours later, I was up again getting sick. Shame. It appears it's going around in the staff here so please pray it goes away quickly. Today was my first day with the students and I'm absolutely NOT feeling 100%. Get me better QUICKLY!

So since I can't write everyday on my blog, I have decided to write at night through Microsoft Word and then just copy and paste. So happy reading! Please hope that the next time I post, when I let you know about my school and my first day!, that I'll be feeling better.

January 12, 2008

My luggage arrived! I have never been so happy to receive my things – I finally feel complete. After hearing that my luggage had not arrived after my 11-hour flight Thursday night, I mentally broke down. I was emotionally and physically tired. I “phoned” my mom once I got in and of course, after hearing her voice and knowing my luggage was wandering around in Amsterdam somewhere, I just had to let out a cry. I cried in front of my host parents and felt completely embarrassed because I had just met them 20 minutes prior. But alas, I am rested and adapting VERY well! The culture here is so similar to what I am used to. The only exception is they drive on the left side of the road and talk in British accents. I absolutely am in love with Cape Town and am so thankful I followed my heart to come here. I really wasn’t sure what to expect from this country, but it isn’t your typical “African” country some might think of. They accept all major credit cards, they chat on cell phones, and they love SMS (text messaging). Sounds like America, eh?

The main point of this posting was to share what an incredible feeling I had today while I was running in my neighbourhood. I set out for a run around 19:00 (7:00 PM) and the temperature was about 65 degrees, which is about 10 degrees cooler than it was earlier today. It starts to cool down around 18:00 (6 PM). So Wendy and Ron live in a part of Cape Town where the mountain is in the background. It is quite beautiful. As I was running, I wanted to get closer to get a better view of the distance mountain and I did just that. After about a mile out, I couldn’t help but to stop and stand in awe of the mountain. It was so surreal to me. The clouds just kept moving right through the mountain and it presented the image of the clouds lying on top of the mountain (which they call “table cloth” because the clouds cover the top of the mountain like a table cloth). That moment in time tops every feeling I have ever had after finishing a half marathon. I know that might sound crazy, but it was so moving. It is by far my favorite place to run to. I hope to remember this feeling in my running and races in the future because it is that image that will get me through to the finish line.

January 15, 2008

There has been much happening in my South African life on a daily basis. The staff of my school started school on Monday, January 14. Jean dropped me off at my school and introduced me to the principal (head mistress) and secretary (pronounced sec-re-tree in SA). I was then taken to the staff room for a general “Welcome Back!” meeting. I was introduced to the entire faculty which was nerve-wrecking, but I managed. There are quite a number of new teachers at Rustenburg so I don’t feel like the odd ball. There is also an exchange teacher who is from Oregon which is nice to connect with someone from the States. I do believe I am the first student teacher ever at my school. Jean mentioned that she has never placed someone in the school and I believe the principal mentioned I was the first one. So I must set the bar high, eh? Anyway, everyone seems very pleasant at my school and I hope that continues once school starts and the madness settles. I have arranged for someone to pick me up at 6:45 every morning, but as far as a ride home, I hope it’s with the same. That has been an issue for me. I don’t mind getting rides with others, but I feel like I’m being needy by asking all the time. I suppose I better toughen up and get over it because I have no other choice. So by far, that is something I do miss from America (DRIVING!!!!). So today, Tuesday, was the second day for teachers and it was a little bit more hectic. I don’t really understand the daily routine and what not (Forms, Day 1, Day 2, etc). I know that sounds confusing, believe me I know, but I know it will eventually come together. At this point, I have no idea who I am teaching with or when. All I have currently is a Grade 8, Grade 9, and Grade 10 textbook. They use the term “Grade 8,” for example, instead of saying 8^th grade. I’m starting to see many differences and I think the changes are good. I thought today about how I do miss teaching at my old high school and as much as I dislike change, viewing a different education system will broaden my knowledge. I made the comment to my host Mom today about how I was so confused in the staff meetings because I have no idea what some of the stuff they are talking about. This is my first time viewing a staff meeting and seeing what the first few days are like before the students come and with that said, it’s quite all new to me and I have nothing to compare it to. So, I won’t really see differences again until I begin a teaching job in the States. A difference I do notice is they call students “learners” and the teachers are “educators.”

Living with host parents has been wonderful so far. Every evening dinner is prepared for us which has been an experience. I have tried a variety of foods. Although tonight, an Indian dish was prepared and it did not taste good to me. I do have to say, I have been very good about trying an assortment of new food. For example, over the weekend I tried prawn, mussles, calamari, baby calamari, and perch. Way to go, Emily! You aren’t a picky eater anymore!

This past Sunday, the 13^th, Terrez and I decided to attend a church service at the local Methodist Church. I would say the average age in the morning service was about 68. Not kidding. They loved us, though! The message was also very nice. It related to HIV/AIDS and the moral of the story was that a nun went to a clinic to get tested for HIV because she was going to prove that not everyone that goes to the clinic is HIV positive. There were some locals that believed in this. So she went and they asked her questions such as “Have you been sexually active?” “Have you used drugs before?” “Do you use protection?” … that sort of thing. So of course she tested negative because she answered no to all of the questions. The point of the message was that someone has to make a difference and a change. I found it very relevant to my life. Being in South Africa has definitely increased my faith in God. I often get sad when I think of home, but I put trust and faith in God because I know he’ll get me through anything. So new years resolution… CHEERS!

Wendy and Ron also took us to Hout Bay to walk the beach and to stick our feet in the cold Atlantic ocean. I hope to have pictures posted soon! It was beautiful and everytime I see the mountains, it’s breath taking. We also took a drive through Camps Bay which consists of houses costing R20,000,000-R30,000,000. Divide those numbers by 7 and that will give you a rough estimate of what it would be in USD. The prices are so high mainly because of their location. They have a view of the ocean and are mountainside. Very beautiful.

Sorry I am jumping around so much, but I wanted to make sure I wrote about this. Tonight at dinner, we talked about similarities and differences between America and South Africa. In particular, food, our accents, tv shows, etc. We had a pretty extensive conversation about food and tried to think of a dish in America that we claimed. Patrick came up with fried chicken! I think he’s right. I also notice a difference with the accents. Although Wendy and Ron sound British, I do hear the South African accent when they speak. Words like “yeah” are “Yaaa” and when Wendy pronounces my last name, it’s the funniest thing because their a’s tend to sound more like an “o”. so like “dowters.” So when she pronounces the “a” in my name like an “a,” she sounds America. We got a good laugh out of it. Lastly, Wendy talked about how many of the tv shows here are our shows, i.e. Cartoon Network, E!, etc so they hear our accent. Terrez asked if they have our shows such as “Judge Judy” aired here. They do. HA! And the best part of the conversation was Wendy, in her accent, saying, “What about Jerry Springer?” That was quite amusing! We talked about the rubbish on that show as well.

Love always! Cheers!

Yay teaching and firsts of everything!!!

I'm still alive!!! There has been so much going on and I've had very little time to write. I have a couple of posts I need to put on here, but unfortunately my access to the internet is very little! I will try to write more when I can!

Also... just an FYI, facebook is just as popular here as it is in America. It's actually an Access Denied page for me when I try to access it at school. HA!

Thanks for everyone who has been reading. I promise to start updating soon.

By the way, I start my first day with the students tomorrow! NERVOUS! The staff at Rustenburg is so nice and they have all been very friendly making sure I'm getting around okay.

One thing I miss back home: DRIVING. I dislike having to depend on others for rides. I miss you too, Mom. :) Amanda and Kyle, I hope things are going well for you. Rhonda, thanks for reading! Tell the boys I said hello! Katie H., thanks for convincing me to go to South Africa! And to everyone else reading, I miss you JUST AS MUCH!!!!

I promise to have more soon.

Love Always!

PS. One of the "extracurriculars" is "Running Club." guess who is joining it?

WE MADE IT!

So... I'm writing from an internet cafe in South Africa! I made it... although my luggage did not. Supposively it is coming in on a flight today and I should have it tomorrow. We'll see about that. The first flight to Amsterdam wasn't too bad, but the flight to Cape Town was SOOO long. MY god. I was so ready to get off of the plane and to take a shower... but it didn't happen because i realized they left our luggage in Amsterdam. Thanks KLM.

Anyway, I was greeted by Dr. Baxen who is so lovely. She picked us (meaning Terrez, Patrick, and I) up at the airport and took us to our host parents house. The house I'm staying at is beautiful. We each have our own rooms, mine with a bathroom. It doesn't feel like I'm in Africa. The house and weather reminds me of Florida, yet this reminder vanishes when my host parents start speaking. They have lovely accents and are so nice. They are very willing to help us out in our journey here.

Today Dr. Baxen took us to the local mall so we could get toothbrushes, toothpaste, change of clothes, etc. Praise the lord.

I'll write more when I can. :)

Love always!

The time has finally come...

Well... I'm off to Africa. I have made it to the Columbus International Airport (which is how I'm even writing this entry). I had no problems with checking in (thank god... even though both bags were over 50 lbs... wah wah). I leave Columbus at 2:40 PM and arrive in New York. From there, I'll fly to Amsterdam, Netherlands (8-hour flight). Then finally, I'll be leaving for Cape Town (11-hour flight).

I'm filled with lots of different emotions and am sad to leave home, but I know the time will go by and I'll learn so much about another culture and myself. As I sit here in the airport, I see men who are in the military with their families. I watched families say goodbye and it really broke my heart. The families were waiting at the window to watch the plane leave and then walked away with tissues and tears. I started crying... I'm not going to lie. I should say it really put things into perspective for myself. I'm leaving for three months and they are probably returning back to duty for who knows how long.

Thanks again for all the prayers... please continue to keep Terrez and I in them as we travel and are in Africa. :)

Love Always!

One week to go nerves

It has finally set in. I have hit the seven days to go benchmark and the feeling I have right now makes it seem like I'm leaving tomorrow. I'm not really sure what to think. Maybe I have this feeling because I don't feel I am complete yet. I have everything laid out and lists made here and there for what to include, but I keep getting this feeling like I'm going to forget something and it makes me feel really uneasy. Maybe I will feel better once I begin to pack my suitcases. Stop procrastinating Emily!

On the flip side to things, I have a 4-word resolution which encompasses what I think will help me get through anything. Faith. Love. Run. Pray. I really think this will help me while I am away from home. I think I'm feeling the nervous tension because it's setting in that I'm leaving home for 3 months. I'm not going to Athens. I'm not going to be able to get in my car and be home after a 2-hour drive. I'm going to be very far from home.

Thanks for all the prayers and wishes from many of you! Your support is a driving force for me to be strong, confident, and endure all that I can while in a new place. The support is much appreciated.

So here's to the one week to go nerves!