Wine, hot springs, and new arrivals...
Yesterday was pretty amazing. We left Stellenbosch for the day to go wine tasting and to the hot springs. It was about a two hour drive out of town, and on the way we stopped at a small winery called Springfield Estates, where we tasted about 7 or 8 different wines. I was brave and tried them all even though I knew I wouldn't like most of them. Amazingly, the first white wine we tried was actually very good, so I bought two bottles of it... the wine here is very inexpensive since they make so much of it. I got two bottles for R100 (I think that's about $16 total... I haven't yet gotten accustomed to converting the exchange rate in my head).
After the short stop there, we headed to the second winery where we got a big table and all sat together, and they brought us out several bottles of wine and left us alone to taste them ourselves... there was no explanation of the wines from the workers, we just got to independently taste whatever we wanted. We probably tried about 20 different wines at the second place, and I found two there that I liked, so I bought one of each of those as well, surprisingly both reds.
After the wineries, we drove a bit further and stopped at a third winery just for lunch, but many of us had packed sandwiches so a few of us just ordered shakes. Then we were on our way to the hot springs in Montagu. The ride there was breathtaking... we drove through the mountains and had several opportunities to take beautiful pictures. We saw baboons running along the side of the road several times. The scenery here is just amazing... where else in the world can you be driving along a road that has palm trees on one side and a cactus on the other, meanwhile watching ostrich and monkeys wandering around out in the wild? Yesterday it finally sank in that we're "not in Kansas anymore."
The hot springs were amazing as well. For some reason, I was picturing something out in nature, with a dirt bottom and grass all around. The place we went to was anything but. It was a hotel resort, and the hot springs were basically huge heated pools, surrounded by cliffs and palm trees. Absolutely beautiful. I got a bit too much sun yesterday even wearing sunscreen, but it was worth it.
Last night, we tried to come downtown but most places were closed because it was a holiday here... Human Rights Day. So we sat around town at the local cafe "Mugg and Bean" that we often meet at, and waited for our ride to pick us up to head to the airport because Tara and Karly arrived last night. It's been exciting all over again because we've gotten to show Tara the ropes, so it's like we're back to day one.
Today, we went to the school again, and we actually got to work today. My classroom is a bit intimidating to me because I occasionally have trouble understanding their accent, and the teacher did not really acknowledge me much at first. Today though, she slowly came around and had me grade their math exams, which eventually led to me working with a small group of the children who were struggling to finish their tests. We worked with popsicle sticks to do addition and subtration. The kids have a really hard time with this, despite being second graders. But I began to feel really valuable in the classroom today. One boy, Manfred, came up to me to read a short passage of a book to me, and stopped mid sentence and wrapped his little arms around me and said "I love you." The children here are just so sweet and so polite.
Later in the afternoon, we got to walk around to the other rooms and help out here and there. In one classroom they were working on painting flags of various countries, so we got to help them draw stars and pick out paints, and I made the "mistake" of getting out my camera. After that, I couldn't keep the kids away. They were all flooding around Katie and I saying "Can you take a picture for me alone?" Very cute. So I now have about 50 pictures of nothing but children holding up their paintings.
Tonight we have a free night, so I am not sure where we will end up, but I will update again soon. For now, I need to plan out some lessons for tomorrow because my classroom's teacher would like me to take over tomorrow so she can learn from me. This is a very strange situation for me, being the more experienced one in the room. I'm not quite ready to leap into it, but I'll learn alot from it.
Until next time,
Meg
After the short stop there, we headed to the second winery where we got a big table and all sat together, and they brought us out several bottles of wine and left us alone to taste them ourselves... there was no explanation of the wines from the workers, we just got to independently taste whatever we wanted. We probably tried about 20 different wines at the second place, and I found two there that I liked, so I bought one of each of those as well, surprisingly both reds.
After the wineries, we drove a bit further and stopped at a third winery just for lunch, but many of us had packed sandwiches so a few of us just ordered shakes. Then we were on our way to the hot springs in Montagu. The ride there was breathtaking... we drove through the mountains and had several opportunities to take beautiful pictures. We saw baboons running along the side of the road several times. The scenery here is just amazing... where else in the world can you be driving along a road that has palm trees on one side and a cactus on the other, meanwhile watching ostrich and monkeys wandering around out in the wild? Yesterday it finally sank in that we're "not in Kansas anymore."
The hot springs were amazing as well. For some reason, I was picturing something out in nature, with a dirt bottom and grass all around. The place we went to was anything but. It was a hotel resort, and the hot springs were basically huge heated pools, surrounded by cliffs and palm trees. Absolutely beautiful. I got a bit too much sun yesterday even wearing sunscreen, but it was worth it.
Last night, we tried to come downtown but most places were closed because it was a holiday here... Human Rights Day. So we sat around town at the local cafe "Mugg and Bean" that we often meet at, and waited for our ride to pick us up to head to the airport because Tara and Karly arrived last night. It's been exciting all over again because we've gotten to show Tara the ropes, so it's like we're back to day one.
Today, we went to the school again, and we actually got to work today. My classroom is a bit intimidating to me because I occasionally have trouble understanding their accent, and the teacher did not really acknowledge me much at first. Today though, she slowly came around and had me grade their math exams, which eventually led to me working with a small group of the children who were struggling to finish their tests. We worked with popsicle sticks to do addition and subtration. The kids have a really hard time with this, despite being second graders. But I began to feel really valuable in the classroom today. One boy, Manfred, came up to me to read a short passage of a book to me, and stopped mid sentence and wrapped his little arms around me and said "I love you." The children here are just so sweet and so polite.
Later in the afternoon, we got to walk around to the other rooms and help out here and there. In one classroom they were working on painting flags of various countries, so we got to help them draw stars and pick out paints, and I made the "mistake" of getting out my camera. After that, I couldn't keep the kids away. They were all flooding around Katie and I saying "Can you take a picture for me alone?" Very cute. So I now have about 50 pictures of nothing but children holding up their paintings.
Tonight we have a free night, so I am not sure where we will end up, but I will update again soon. For now, I need to plan out some lessons for tomorrow because my classroom's teacher would like me to take over tomorrow so she can learn from me. This is a very strange situation for me, being the more experienced one in the room. I'm not quite ready to leap into it, but I'll learn alot from it.
Until next time,
Meg