South-Africa Exchange 2013

Saturday, 16 March 2013

Week #9... The End

Believe it or not, I’m currently lying on my own bed in my own room. I’m home. The expression of ‘home’ is now so confusing for me: what is home? Where your family is? Where you grew up? Where your school is located? Or where all your friends are? I do not know. Perhaps, my brain decided to make me suffer and let me believe that I now have two homes: one in Wassenaar and one in Cape Town, and that I’ll never feel complete again since I’ll always miss my second home and second family. Luckily, I know that the goodbye at the airport last night was not a final farewell; as promised, I will definitely see everyone again at one point in my life.

Anyway, I’m very glad to see my parents, sister and dog again, even though I have trouble with keeping my eyes open since I couldn’t sleep on the plane last night. But first: I still have to tell you my story about my last week in South Africa.

On Monday, I woke up earlier than usual as plans were on for that morning to climb Lionshead! Together with Tessa, the Birthday boy (Pieter) and his host parents, we set off to start our hike at the bottom of this uniquely shaped mountain. We rested for a long time at the top, had some sandwiches and walked down again. Then, we decided to have Wakaberry ice cream first before changing into our uniforms and going to school. The rest of the day was a normal school day again, and went to Cavendish after school. In the evening I met up with all our friends at Spur to celebrate Pieter’s 16^th birthday! Unfortunately, two people were missing from our group; Bella and Ana, the Colombian girls that had left the day before. Nevertheless, the evening was filled with laughter, singing ‘Happy Birthday’, eating burgers and signing our South African flags.

The next day, I started to taste the bittersweet flavour of going back home soon. I missed my family, friends, and home a lot of course, yet I was never homesick. If you wonder how that can be possible: I had such an awesome time that I couldn’t even think about being homesick. I spent my day at school, letting my friends sign my flag and enjoying the Herschel school life for one of the last times.

Wednesday, Di took all the Dutchies out to visit Kirstenbosch, the botanical garden, Stellenbosch, a university town, and Rhodes memorial. At Kirstenbosch, we walked around the gardens, stopped every five metres to rest on the benches from our strenuous hike and ended up having second breakfast at the local Moyo. The flowers did look very pretty though! Then we got in the car again and drove to Stellenbosch. Perhaps you heard about the university that has the same name, which is rather famous, especially here in South Africa. The town was cute, and we just walked around the shops before we set off to go to Rhodes Memorial, where we had lunch. At that time of the day, it was so, so hot! Walking was already too much work in that heat! After visiting the actual memorial and taking loads of pictures, we all went home.

As soon as we picked up Emma from school, I heard that Di organised a surprise for us. She drove us to a place called ‘Enmasse’, where we got a massage! Feeling completely relaxed again, we went home and had our last family dinner.

On Thursday, we went to school again, not being able to believe that in four days we would be studying at the RLW. After school, I went to Cavendish again where I bought my goodbye presents and spent the rest of the afternoon packing, writing goodbye letters and preparing for the Dutchies’ goodbye party! My host family invited all our friends, their parents and all the other exchange students to come to our house for snacks, drinks and a fun evening, mixed with a lot of sad feelings… I went for my last swim in the swimming pool at home, and stayed up until late.

My last sunrise, ‘brekkie’ (breakfast), drive to school, and my last day in South Africa. I had to say goodbye to so many people that day! It was a great last day though; on Friday there’s always music playing in the breaks (just as at our school) and they even played the Macarena! (The South-Americans teached us the lyrics of the Macarena, so we could sing and dance out loud.) Emma and I had a yummy lunch - leftovers from the night before and after school we headed off to Cavendish with a whole bunch of people so we could have our last Chocolate Frio together. Then, I had to say goodbye to all my South African friends, whom I will never forget. While Emma had a hockey match that afternoon, I finished my packing and had my last shower at the Brooks’ house. If you’re wondering why just mentioned such an unimportant detail as a shower in my blog; then please go and have a shower there; you’ll understand! Then, I had to say goodbye to Nero and Kayla, the two cutest Rottweilers, and the house because after I distributed my goodbye letters, flowers and chocolate we headed off to the airport. We had a quick meal at Mug&Bean (toasted bacon and egg sandwich) with a coffee, met up with all the others, checked our luggage in, and… cried. Somehow my brain registered that goodbye in slow motion, because I only randomly started crying my eyes out (if that’s an expression) after we passed the customs, and after we said goodbye. That was the moment when I realised that the exchange was completely over, there was no such thing as a ‘second part’ that we had when we had to say goodbye in Holland. In the plane, I read Emma’s goodbye letter and all the messages on my flag over and over again, thought of these four months and realised how incredibly fortunate I am, have been and will be since I had the opportunity to go on exchange. Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity and making me have the best four months of my life.

One last message, quoting my new sister and best friend for life:

“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”

Thank you.

At Kirstenbosch

On top of Rhodes Memorial

After our massage (:

Climbing Lionshead! (This is Pieter)

Pieter's birthdaydinner at Spur

Kirstenbosch

With Tess at Kirstenbosch

Second breakfast! (or pre-lunch?)

On top of Rhodes Memorial, with Di

Goodbye party

Last time going to Cavendish

Last lunch at school

Last day of school...

Last Frio

My flag

Sunday, 10 March 2013

Week #8

On Sunday, exactly one week ago, I went to the beach at Camps Bay together with Domas, Matthew, Pieter and Tessa. The weather was great, but it was a bit windy though. We didn’t swim, since Camps Bay is located on the Atlantic side of South Africa’s coastline and the water is freezing cold, comparable with our North Sea in spring. However, we had a fun relaxing morning filled with sunbathing and sleeping, until the moment when I suddenly got ill and stayed ill until Monday evening. Because of my illness, I missed the Goldfish concert (South African band) on Sunday afternoon and the township tour on Monday.

Luckily, I felt much better on Tuesday, so I went to school. But this day, I didn’t go to Herschel: our exchange coordinators organised for all the exchange girls to go to Bishops for a day! Once arrived, we each got paired up with an ex-exchange student (if that’s a word) that showed us around the school. We went to their lessons, and we were introduced to hundreds of boys. Bishops and Herschel may be brother-sister schools, yet they are completely different. Bishops is HUGE! Also, the students are way more independent than the girls at Herschel. Here, the teachers don’t care if you bunk out of their lesson, that’s considered as your own responsibility. The boys also get less homework, and are allowed to use their laptops in class, which is at Herschel only a privilege for exchange students like us.

After saying goodbye to my host for the day, and finding out that he’s going on a hockey tour in Holland and will actually play a match at my hockey club (HGC), I was picked up by Tessa’s host mom and chilled at Tessa’s for the rest of the afternoon.

Wednesday, I didn’t go to school either. Di took Tessa and me on an outing to Cape Point, where we drove around in the enormous National Park, stopping in the barren landscape and seeing loads of animals, including traffic yams of tortoises crossing the road. We parked the car under the lighthouse and hiked to the actual point. When we drove back home, we stopped to have lunch at Steenberg, a vineyard and golf club where I had a delicious mushroom Panini.

On Thursday, I did go to Herschel, not for a day of school, but to meet up with the others exchangelings since we had a surfing outing on for this day! We went to Muizenberg beach, where we surfed for two and a half hours. Even though I cannot surf at all, I had so much fun! I even managed to stay on my surfboard, standing, for more than 5 seconds! After surfing, we rushed into the Knead Bakery to get some food that we ate in the bus back to Herschel. Here, Dani’s mom picked up Tessa and me again and dropped us off at Access Park, where you could find outlets of all kinds of shops, but the only thing I bought here was food. Tessa and I had a great picnic in the middle of a parking lot, sitting on the sidewalk, don’t ask me how we ended up there…

Wow! What a surprise! I actually went to school on Friday! Mati, Domas and Pieter came to Herschel as well, to experience a day at a girl’s school. Sadly, it rained all day so we had to sit inside instead of our usual lunch spot outside on the grass. After school, we walked with the whole exchange group to Cavendish for a Frio.

In the evening, Emma and I were waitressing at the annual Herschel Matric Dance. All the girls looked absolutely stunning in their evening dresses, and even the hall where it took place was completely decorated.

I spent my last Saturday in Cape Town shopping with Di and Emma. First, we went to the Porters Market, where I had my second breakfast (pancakes, ice cream and chocolate-espresso fudge), then to Long Street and Green Market Square, where I bought two dresses and some souvenirs, and finally to the Waterfront where we had a late lunch at a sushi restaurant (excellent sushi!). We had to rush back home to change and make ourselves ready for the party that was on for that night: Bella and Ana, two Colombian girls were leaving today, and this was their farewell party. The party was great, for the first time in this exchange I knew practically everyone there and we laughed, danced and cried until late that evening.

Today, after sleeping in of course, we set off to watch the Argus annual cycling tour, a 109 km long tour through the mountains of Cape Town. Then we had lunch at Jonkershuis, the restaurant at Groot Constantia, the vineyard that I visited in my first week here. Macey (Bella’s exchange partner) was also there, an emotional wreck at that moment since she just came back from dropping Bella off at the airport. The only thing that was crossing my mind was: oh my gosh, that’s me in less than a week! It is hard to explain my feelings about this situation; I’m really looking forward to seeing my family and friends again but I just simply don’t want this exchange to be over. I’m trying to stay optimistic here, but if you think about it: how big is the chance that I’ll ever see my South American friends, and all my friends here in Cape Town again? We did promise something to each other though: sometime, no-one knows when or where (though there are some speculations going on of either Hawaii or India [long story]) we will have a reunion with the people where we spent the (so far) best two months of our lives with.

The wifi connection is really bad at the moment, so I'll try to upload more pictures later.

On our way to Cape Point

At the Lighthouse

Picnic time!

In the National Park

Monday, 4 March 2013

Week #7

As soon as we arrived in Cape Town on the 22^nd of February, we left immediately again because friends invited us to go on a boat tour around the Waterfront! It was great to see the Waterfront from a different perspective, especially with the beautiful weather.

The next day, the whole Holland exchange group went to the Biscuit mill market again, but this time for lunch. The food was amazing! Missing Europe, I even had a delicious hot Belgium waffle with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and relaxing at Tessa’s house, while we made our plans for the evening. We decided to go the Waterfront again, where we had dinner at Spur (bacon and cheese burger!) and went to the movies where we saw Life of Pi. We still had enough time until our host parents would pick us up again, so we decided to go for a ride in the Wheel of Excellence. Unfortunately, you could barely see a thing since it was dark, but it was great fun though, and it was nice to be finally able to talk a whole night in Dutch. J

Sunday was filled with packing for the Garden Route Tour, and we also went to a restaurant called ‘Babylonstoren’ for lunch, where I had one of the best meals in my life. I ordered a green salad as a starter, trout as a main and a panna cotta as dessert. See the pictures provided! After lunch, we walked around in the gardens for a bit before going home again.

Monday was just an ordinary day of school, and I finished packing. The next morning, all the exchange students assembled at Herschel at the fountain, ready to leave for a five-day-trip. The trip was organised by a travelling company called Ilios Travel, which I can highly recommend! We all got into a van after the driver and tour guide introduced themselves. We covered a lot of distance this day, all the way from Cape Town to Oudtshoorn, a town also know as the ostrich capital of South Africa. On our way, the tour guide, whom we could call ‘dad’, told us interesting stories about our surroundings and we made lots of stops, to enjoy views or go to the Cango Wildlife Ranch. This ranch is located in Oudtshoorn, and it has loads of animals to look at. We saw crocodiles, bats, birds, tiger cubs, lions, cheetahs, a white tiger, and much more.

After we visited this ranch, we continued our tour to the Cango Caves, also located in Oudtshoorn. In my opinion, these caves were very impressive since they were huge! Full of stalactites and stalagmites, our tour guide showed us around the dark caverns. These caves had been used as homes by our ancestors thousands of years ago, and were rediscovered in 1780 by a local farmer.

When we walked out of the cool caves into the boiling heat again, the van took us to our hotel, called the Opstal Country Lodge where we sat around the swimming pool for a while before having dinner. All the girls shared one house, with four bedrooms and a living room, and (of course) we stayed up till late chatting and laughing.

The next day, we checked out of the hotel, packed and went to an ostrich farm nearby. Unfortunately, since almost everyone of the group disobeyed to one of the silly camp rules we couldn’t ride the ostriches and had to wait for an hour. After this, we got into the small bus again that took us to the town of Knysna, located at the coast.

We visited the Waterfront, which is about a hundred times as small as the Waterfront in Cape Town. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed walking around here, before we got onto the ferry that took us across the Knysna Lagoon. At the so-called Featherbed, we got off the boat and a huge tractor with about 6 carts behind it took us and all the other tourists up the hill, one of the two heads of Knysna. We had great views from here, and walked back to the Featherbed again, where the boat was waiting for us. We went back to our hotel again where we freshened up for a bit before going to the Waterfront for dinner, in a cute fish restaurant called “The Ocean Basket”. (Great sushi!)

On Thursday, I woke up by the sound of pouring rain. After breakfast, we went to the Knysna Elephant Park. Even though we were walking outside in the rain, it was great! We could stroke, hug and feed the elephants. And I promise you; the feeling of an elephant trunk taking an apple from your hand is something that you will never forget!

Feeling cold, I ordered a take away coffee before we got back on the bus that took us to the Bloukrans Bridge. The bridge spans over a 216 meters deep gorge. We all had the opportunity to bungee jump from this bridge, but unfortunately I had to promise my parents that I would never do this, so I had to wait and take loads of pictures while the others jumped down.

At lunchtime, it hadn’t stopped raining yet, and we were all feeling hungry. We went to a restaurant called the Peppermill where we had a yummy lunch before going to the Birds of Eden. The Birds of Eden is a huge birds aviary, you really had the feeling you were walking in a jungle with all those exotic birds surrounding you. I sometimes even had trouble with seeing the cage! Some parrots could also talk, so we had very Deep Meaningful Conversations with these colorful birds.

After this outing, we went back to the same hotel in Knysna again before going out for dinner to a local pizzeria.

On Friday, we spent our morning at the beach whilst swimming in the warm Indian Ocean, while three of us were skydiving. After they shared their super cool experiences with us, we went to the Garden Route Game Lodge where we would stay overnight. We went on an evening safari, and saw lots of animals; elephants, giraffes, cheetahs, a meat-eating male lion, and a waiting-till-her-husband-was-ready lioness. We also saw loads of springboks, wildebeests and rhinos. The only problem is that the battery of my camera went dead just when we got to the lions, so the pictures from that moment on are not my own.

When the jeep dropped us off again at the main lodge, we rushed inside, hungry and wanting to have dinner. The food was awesome! Again, I ate so much that I felt like I could explode, but that’s what exchange is all about! Realizing it was our last night of the trip already, we spend the rest of our evening relaxing together on the chairs next to the pool, while gazing the stars.

Saturday morning was filled with packing and preparing ourselves for a long drive back home again. That day, we drove for about 7 hours, and we stopped at Cape Agulhas, which is the most southern tip of Africa. Yep, I can tick another thing of my bucket list again! We bought our lunch in a supermarket, and Pieter and I decided to do it the Dutch way so we bought bread, ham, cheese, salad and ‘La vache qui rit’. We prepared our sandwiches with my razor sharp pocketknife in the moving van on a bumpy road, trying very hard not to cut ourselves. Perhaps this wasn’t such a good idea after all… Nevertheless, the sandwiches were great! J

In Somerset West, a small town at the edge of the suburbs of Cape Town, we made our second stop, to visit a cheetah park. At around 5.30 in the afternoon, we finally arrived at Herschel again, and we all went home.
I had the quickest shower and change in my life, because 5 minutes later I was ready again to go out for dinner at Moyo, where I had lunch on my first Sunday in South Africa as well. When I got home again, my bed was screaming so loud for me that I even had trouble with brushing my teeth. Luckily, I had a great night of sleep and dreamed about the busy, mind-blowing trip with all my friends and slept in till late next morning.