South-Africa Exchange 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.