Table Mountain, Paarl, Gala, and Bowling

Well... I survived. This past Sunday I went hiking up Table Mountain. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but I’ll spell out what I really thought: H-E-L-L. I’m not even kidding. I almost died like nine times. Here’s the low down: I went hiking with one of the Maths teachers at my school. Here husband also went along. Pretty much the two of them out hiked me. I’m talking like the two of them are 55+ (her husband is over 60, FYI). So, they came to pick me up around 8:45 and the weather in the morning was rather gloomy. It was also pretty humid and had been raining in the morning. When I had woken up, I debated whether we were going to go or not, but we persevered anyway. We started at Kirstenbosch Gardens and hiked up a trail called something along the lines of “Skeleton Gorge” trail. Hmm. I wonder how it got its name. We started the hike around 9:00. We hiked (actually I should say we climbed up huge boulders) until about 11:45 am and then I pretty much decided we needed a break. I needed to eat something to have some sort of energy. I was dying. I win the idiot award for only bringing one Nalgene water bottle with me. Needless to say, I was pretty thirsty throughout the hike. Way to go, Emily. Anyway, after the break, we hiked some more for about an hour or so and pretty much decided that we shouldn’t hike up anymore because the weather wasn’t too good. It definitely started raining pretty hard while hiking and being the smart one that I am I wore cotton clothing and my clothes got extremely wet which later led to extreme chafing on my legs. MISERABLE. We stopped for lunch around 1:30 and then started our adventure back down the mountain around 2:00. We finally got back to the car around 4:00 pm. A fun-filled day of soggy wet clothes, socks, chafing, slipping on rocks, falling on my ass onto the rocks (bruises to prove it), hiking down 34324242 steps and dehydration. Now where’s my t-shirt that says, “I hiked up Table Mountain and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.” HA. That’s all I kept thinking. I am thankful I did go with people that know the trails because I can see how one can easily astray from the not-so-well marked trails and fall off the mountain. It does happen believe it or not. We also had to be careful because many people get mugged along the mountain trails. I do have to say the highlight of the hike was the awesome view I did get to see of Cape Town AND the fact that on my hike down from the mountain, they were playing Toto’s “Africa” from Kirstenbosch stadium (a band was between rehearsals for their Sunday night concert). MY THEME SONG! I kid you not. That has been the second time I’ve heard it while here. The first time was when I went shopping for clothes (because my luggage didn’t arrive with me) and they were playing it in one of the stores I was in.

Anyway, on Saturday (sorry I know I went backwards), I went with the Oregon lady and her family (she’s teaching here for a year) to Fairview Vineyards, a wine estate. LOVED IT. My food was fantastic and the wine was devine (as they say here J). I actually bought 3 bottles to take home (not USA home, SA home). After lunch, we went to Paarl and climbed up some enormous steep hills. That was pretty fun. I was able to see the entire city from atop a huge mountain. Looks like that seemed to be my theme for the weekend! We also drove through Stellenbosch and Franschoek (sp?) – both were quite nice. It was a really great weekend… tiring and sore, but good!

Oh, I never mentioned the swimming gala that was on Friday. It ended up going really well and was definitely interesting. Each of the form classes are divided into a particular house: Cambridge, Marchand, Bleby, Michael Vos, and Innes. The different houses each had their own theme. My form class is part of the Marchand house and their colors are yellow so they decided to be The Simpsons. It was rather cute. Girls were dressed in dresses with pearls like Marge and then others had pillows stuffed under their shirts to be like Homer. Each house competed by swimming. There were like 24 different types of swimming races for the girls. I took some videos so it’ll be a while before I can put them online because they take so long to upload. I do have plenty of pictures though! Keep watching for those.

As for this week, I started teaching a new chapter to my Grade 8 class. It’s been really fun. I really love the class and the girls. They’re a great group!!

Yesterday, one of my new South African friends from school, Clement, invited me to go bowling (they call it 10-pin bowling) after school. We went to N1 city and played a couple games of pool (and won 1 out of 5 games… wah wah), but regardless, it was fun. We then bowled and I have to say I was quite impressed with my scores. My dad would be proud: 140 the first game and 131 the second game. I suppose starting to bowl at the age of 6 had something to do with that (I’m pretty sure my 6th birthday party was at a bowling alley). Anywho, after bowling we went to KFC… Yes, KFC. And I have to say it tastes just like an American KFC (Kyle you’d fit in really well here.) Overall, I had a really nice time going out (I stayed out past my bed time… ha! 9:30 pm… that’s what happens when you have nothing else to do).

Thanks for reading and keeping me in your thoughts.

By the way, Denise, here’s your shout out. I have to say it’s been rather hard not running with you as I train for the half marathon. Don’t worry though… we’ll make it up this summer right?

I miss everyone!

Love Always!

PS. Happy Early Valentine’s Day!