Week 7 Already?!?!

Yeah, I can't believe it either. I'm not really sure where the time is going, but I suppose I've just been chilling on the bandwagon this whole time holding on as time flies by me. Emily, get a move on it already!... which is what I'm going to do.

This past weekend was rather exciting! Every Saturday morning Terrez and I get our butts out of bed around 6:30 for our long, morning run. Thats... AM. So we try to leave the house by 7ish so we can beat the heat and get a nice, long, relaxing run in and not feeling rushed. So, Terrez and I were downstairs getting ready and he says to me, "Let's run to Wendy's school." Mind you, we have only trained up to about 9K (equivalent to roughly 6 miles or so). I'm thinking, "Okay, I will totally do it." My host mom is the principal for one of the primary schools in the area and it's about 8K to her school (you do the math... okay... yes, 16K there and back). So we head off to her school around 7:45 or so. Ladies and gents, we arrived at her school around 8:50... wam bam thank you ma'am. The run there was actually really great. I felt really confident that I could run 8K solid. Once we arrived at her school, we hung out for about ten minutes and then started our journey home. Suprisingly we made it back! We ran 16K... well, ran a majority of the way, walking occasionally. I felt so good after the run and pretty confident that this race is going to be a good one. Now, the only thing I'm worried about are the hills on the route. We haven't done any hill training yet, but I'm convinced if I can run the hills in good ole' Athens, Ohio, then these should be fine. Actually, I'm convinced if I can walk up the hills in Athens, then the half really won't be that bad. Am I right OU gang or am I right? I am getting really excited for this race! :-) Less than a month of training to go!

Since my procrastination is catching up with me and kicking my butt, I asked my host parents if they would take me to the Waterfront so I could look into some touristy attractions. So, that's what I spent my Sunday doing. Terrez and I were dropped off at the Waterfront around noon and stayed there until 5 or so. I actually went on a mini-shopping spree. HA. oops. I needed to buy new running shoes because my other ones are starting to become torn and I've trained for two half marathons on them so I thought I'd retire them and start brand new. I bought some beadwork, a purse, etc. My favorite purchase was "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela. Terrez, Patrick, and I are heading to Robben Island next Friday and although it's not enough time to get through the book, I thought it would be great to start it. I'm really going to get to see a piece of history... not that I don't see it when driving (i.e. townships, homeless people, etc), I'll see a piece of history that marks meaning and honor to men who stood up for their country.

Terrez and I got some information on a "game" park (Safari trip) which we are thinking of doing as our final trip. We are starting to book our weekends. This coming weekend, my host rents are taking me to a couple of wineries (watch out!!!). Next week is just busy busy busy... I'm actually going to be spending two days observing schools set up through my advisor. She would like for us to see a township school and for us to see a coloured school. So we'll be doing that either Monday/Tuesday or Tuesday/Wednesday. She's trying to set it up where we can stay with one of the teachers and then ride with them to school. On Thursday, I'm heading out on a geography field trip with some of the girls. One of the geography teachers wanted to include me and needs the help. And then, Friday is Robben Island. We don't have any plans as of yet for the weekend of March 8 and March 15, but hopefully we do! I've had suggestions to visit the ostrich farm (which I really want to do!) or maybe a weekend trip somewhere (not sure). And then finally, our last weekend will be the Two Oceans Half Marathon and probably a cookout at our house for all of the people who have helped us out during our stay such as the ladies I ride to school with everyday, my advisor, friends, etc. I thought that would be a really great gesture and a semi-final way to say goodbye to some :( And then that Monday, 24th, I think we might do a day tour of Cape Town. They have a bus called "City Sight Seeing" in which they take you all over Cape Town and you can choose to get off at certain stops. And then finally, would be our Aquila Safari Trip on that Tuesday. We wanted to chill out around the house for my birthday so we could say more goodbyes to people and then we leave on Thursday.

That's the rest of my trip in a nutshell. I really can't believe I only have 4 weeks left. It may seem like a lot, but my days go by so quickly and then I'm busy on the weekends. It just goes way too fast.

Thanks for reading this far and for the e-mails and comments daily. Being so far from home really makes me take a look at the people who matter so much in my life. I'm blessed to have such wonderful people in my life. :)

Love Always!