South-Africa Exchange 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.