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!