Who Knew The Lion King Was Such An Educational Movie?

How would I have ever known that warthogs run with their tails in the air before going on an African safari if I had never seen The Lion King? On Valentine’s Day weekend I went on a safari that incorporated the two oldest game parks in the Eastern Cape: Schotia game park and Addo Elephant National Park. For the Schotia trip we were picked up in the afternoon by our fantastic tour guide, Justin, whose family owns the park, we later discovered. He took us on an afternoon game drive where we sat on a bench on top of a Land Rover. As soon as we entered the park we were greeted by the sight of zebras, wildebeests, and bushbucks. As we drove around we also got to see giraffes, rhinos, hippos, crocodiles, monkeys, a TON of warthogs, red hartebeest, duikers, cape grysbok, ostriches, mongooses, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. By far the most amazing thing was when we saw the lions up close; we got to see two females and two males. After the afternoon game drive we had a very tasty dinner and then went out again for a nighttime game drive. There we got to see the lions once more, and they were lazing around after enjoying the food they had caught. We saw some more of the aforementioned animals and headed to the bush camp which would be our lodging for the night. The bush camp looked like wild African bush from the outside, but once you go through the trees you find a gate that leads into a wonderful little camping area. I suppose you can’t really call it camping when you have two cabins with two double beds and running, heated water.

We sat around the campfire for a while that night and then went off to bed. The next morning we got ourselves up and ready for yet another game drive. We went in search of the rhinos to see if we could find them doing anything other than just laying around. Unfortunately we were unsuccessful but we did have the good fortune to get up close to a few giraffes. I had asked Justin if we could lure them close to the car so that I could see my favorite animal close-up in the wild. Instead he did me one better. He let us get out of the car and walk up close to them! Mind you, we were on the side of the fence where the lions live so he even brought a gun along for protection. I was so excited about the encounter and I was sure that my day could not get any better! We left then for a delicious English breakfast and then left Schotia to head to Addo.

At Addo we met Ali’s teacher who had offered to show us around the park. She snuck us in as South Africans and even paid our entrance fee! She is well acquainted with Addo and made a fantastic tour guide. At the first watering hole we saw around 100 elephants bathing, playing, and drinking. It was incredible to see all these creatures in their natural habitat. We drove around the park for a long time and did not have much luck seeing other wild life until we got to the other watering hole and found around 150 more elephants! There we saw a humongous bull elephant, and also some of the smallest baby elephants of the day. All in all it was an incredible experience and by far the most fantastic Valentine’s Day I’ve ever had!

I know I haven’t updated in a long time so I feel like I should mention that the weekend before this I went on a canoeing safari on the Sundays River where I saw lots of birds and watched our extremely hot guide rescue a drowning baby donkey. Ali and I had a lot of trouble with the canoeing part even though we have both been canoeing before. We ran into the reeds about a million times and even got stuck at one point. It made the trip extremely entertaining! This last weekend I had a very relaxing stay in our home in Port Elizabeth. I spent Friday night at a cricket test, all day Saturday at the pool and the beach, and Sunday at the local market. It was a nice break from all the traveling we have been doing. School is still going well; today we started our unit on rock pools and we are going on a field trip on Thursday to Sacramento to look at the rock pools there. Should be an exciting week and I’ll try not to go so long in between posting again!

Mama Mia! Here I Go Again...

Today my little girls left the classroom belting out ABBA's "Mama Mia", it was quite entertaining. I have also been amused to hear them sing songs like "Single Ladies" by Beyonce. Who knew that 5 and 6 year old South African girls would know such random songs? Things are still going well in my classroom, although last week and this week have been far more exhausting. Our grade started going to specials (aka music, pe, computers, etc) last week and it has completely disrupted their whole schedule. They have been very rowdy and not listening well lately. We have also developed a bit of a bullying problem. I never knew that 5 and 6 year old girls could be so nasty!

This past weekend we went to Tsitsikama to do a zipline tree-top canopy to celebrate the birthday of one of the girls that I am living with. It was amazing to be whizzing through trees that high up! One of the trees was over 600 years old...it was humongous! That night we stayed in a tree house hotel overlooking a gorge. It was beautiful there and we woke up to the wonderful sound of light rain on our canopy roof.

This weekend the plan is to hang out more in the area of Port Elizabeth and have a bit of a rest. At the moment we're thinking of either doing a Township tour or going on a boat tour to see the penguin sanctuary at St. Croix Island. I'll keep you posted!

Learning South African English

I have now been in South Africa for a little over a week. It’s fantastic here! The weather and the landscape are absolutely stunning, and the people are all so friendly! I am doing my student teaching at Collegiate in a Kindergarten classroom and next week I’ll start helping out with their field hockey team and their arts and crafts club. The school year here starts in January so I am getting to see what it’s like for kindergartners to learn how to adjust to being in school. I think this will really help me decide if I want to teach this grade or if I should go with children that are a little bit older. So far I love every minute of it! The teachers that I work with are all so nice and it is entertaining to learn some of the differences between the US and South Africa. Here is my current list of translations for South African English:
Robot = traffic light
Plaster = band-aide
Gum boots = rain boots
Costume = bathing suit
Pritt = glue stick (Pritt is the most popular brand name of glue sticks)
Trolly = shopping cart
Kokis = markers
Takkies = sneakers
Pram = baby stroller
Jearsy = sweater
Braai = a bbq
Pigeon hole = office mail box
Garage = gas station
Rubber = eraser
Now = within the next hour or so
Now now = right this moment
Just now = sometime in the next few hours

The host family that I am living with has a flat off to the side of the house which is where I live with the other American girls. Right now there are 5 of us. There is another flat behind ours where some South African students live who attend Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. Right now there is just one boy living there, names Gideon, and he is going to be a freshman at NMMU this year. He and his friends have been really helpful with giving us tips and advice about living in South Africa. One of the other American girls is living in the back flat as well. We’ll have a South African girl moving into our flat, and then an American boy and a South African boy will also be moving into the back. Our host family keeps a very big and busy house. They also have 6 month old twins and Jeanine’s mother living with them. Amazingly enough Jeanine finds time to cook dinner for us every night. The food is very good, although I have noticed that food in South Africa is sweeter than it is at home. Their sauces and stuff that they use on their meet are almost always sweet...it’s taking some getting used to!

There is so much to see and do here in South Africa. Our home in PE is within walking distance to the beach and the downtown boardwalk. This weekend we drove to Jeffery’s Bay, which the locals call J-Bay. This is supposed to be the sight of the perfect wave. So, we drove an hour and took surf lessons. We all had such a good time! Learning to surf and being able to stand up on the board even for a few seconds has probably been one of the happiest times of my life. On Sunday we drove to Sea View game reserve and got to see lions, giraffes, spring bucks, tigers, meerkats, leopards, crocodiles, and other animals. We decided to pay a bit extra so that we could go in with the lion cubs and pet them. They were so sweet, and one scratched me a little while trying to play with me! Alright well I think this is a long enough post for now, and I’ll try and post at least once a week, but I can’t make any promises! I’m so busy doing all this cool stuff and it makes it really hard to find time to blog! :)

South Africa bound!

I will soon be leaving on a jet plane to start my four month adventure in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The adventure all began last year at the study abroad fair when I first learned about the Consortium for Overseas Student Teaching. Until then I had given up all thoughts and hopes of studying abroad for a semester. Lucky for me there was a program that would allow me to do my student teaching abroad for a price comparable to a semester's tuition at Auburn University. After much consideration and debate with family and friends I chose my top four placement cites: Greece, Costa Rica, South Africa, and Hong Kong.

I knew my chances of being placed in Greece were very unlikely since there were only about two placements available there for the whole country. With this in mind I was preparing myself to most likely be placed in Costa Rica; I figured I would be a more desirable candidate for that placement site because of my minor in Spanish. But, as I've come to discover more and more, life is full of unexpected surprises! In late September I found out that I was headed to Port Elizabeth, South Africa, with my best friend and roommate, Rebecca Macintire. We were both shocked at being placed at the same site since she had put South Africa as her first choice and it was only my third. Not only will we be in the same city, but we will also be living with the same host family. We will be working in different schools while we're there. I have been placed at an all-girl private school, and I'll find out what grade I'm working in once I get there.

So, on January 14th, Becky and I will be headed to Atlanta to catch our flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. The flight is a mere 18 hours or so and we'll arrive in Jo'burg on the 15th. We'll be spending the night there that night in a hotel close to the airport that our host family helped us set up reservations for. Then, on the 16th, we'll be hopping on our 2 hour flight to Port Elizabeth. Wish us luck on recovering from our jet lag quickly, since we'll be starting our internship bright and early on the morning of the 18th!