More sickness, a Mexican dinner party, and a more friendly beach
Sorry it's been a few days since I've been able to update this journal. The day after I updated last, we went into Capetown and met up with Harold Herman, a professor at the University of the Western Cape, who also worked at Grand Valley for a year previously. He took us on a tour of some elementary and secondary schools, as well as the University of Capetown. I, unfortunately, stayed in the bus for the majority of the day because my allergies had gotten so severe that I couldn't go anywhere without a kleenex attached to my face and was sneezing so frequently that I was beginning to get lightheaded. So I didn't really see any of the schools other than a Catholic school that we stopped at because Sheri had another Grand Valley student to check up on while she's in Africa, who is student teaching at that school. Anyway, so that day was rather uneventful and miserable for me, so when we got back into Stellenbosch, I went straight "home" and went to sleep, only to wake up for dinner and then go back to sleep again.
Luckily that only lasted a day, and yesterday I felt much better. I got up in the morning and walked into town to do a little bit of last-minute shopping and get a phone card to call home with. Sorry I couldn't call anyone but Mom, but I figured nobody else would appreciate being telephoned at 5:30 in the morning :) After running those few errands, I walked back to the Lansdells' and got ready for that afternoon/evening, and then the Greeners (Missy and Ericka's host family) drove us all to the Taylors' house to start preparing for the Thank You dinner that night. We made Mexican food, and everything went really smoothly. We were done cooking everything fairly early compared to what time we were expecting to finish, so it was a nice relaxing day without too much rushing around. That night, all the host families came to dinner and everyone loved the food. Dana, you'll be happy to know that your bean dip recipe is a huge hit in Africa :) After dinner, Eric and I went home with the Lansdells and Tara stayed out for a bit with Ericka. I went to bed pretty early and got lots of sleep just to avoid another sick day, and this morning I got up and attempted to start packing away a few things that I don't think I'll need to use again before we leave.
This afternoon, Wynand took us to the beach again... this time to a SAFE one with actual sand and no high tide. I didn't go anywhere near the water this time, just layed out in the sun and played frisbee with Jake for a little while because he's like a little kid who can't sit still for 5 minutes and was bored out of his mind. I learned today that not only is tennis not my sport, neither is frisbee. I almost took Sheri out about 5 times because the wind kept catching the frisbee in mid-air and whipping it the opposite direction of where I was aiming, sending it sailing over where she was sitting with Missy. Oops. It was a nice day though. Any day spent just laying around on the beach is a day well spent in my book. Then, of course, after the beach we got ice cream again because pretty much not a day goes by here that someone doesn't suggest we stop somewhere for ice cream. I got a vanilla soft-serve with hardened caramel topping and it was wonderful. I wish I could pack some of them in my suitcase and bring them home, but something tells me they probably wouldn't make it back in the same form.
Tomorrow we're back to the Ark again. I think we will only be there 3 more days because we still have another day of school tours to fit in somewhere. Not sure yet what day that will be, but we're assuming Wednesday since Sheri will be on the east coast of the country tomorrow and Tuesday to check on another student who's student teaching over there. I'm sure I'll be back in town tomorrow after school, so I'll update again then. Miss you all, and looking forward to seeing some if not all of you in a week or two.
Until next time, love,
Meg
Luckily that only lasted a day, and yesterday I felt much better. I got up in the morning and walked into town to do a little bit of last-minute shopping and get a phone card to call home with. Sorry I couldn't call anyone but Mom, but I figured nobody else would appreciate being telephoned at 5:30 in the morning :) After running those few errands, I walked back to the Lansdells' and got ready for that afternoon/evening, and then the Greeners (Missy and Ericka's host family) drove us all to the Taylors' house to start preparing for the Thank You dinner that night. We made Mexican food, and everything went really smoothly. We were done cooking everything fairly early compared to what time we were expecting to finish, so it was a nice relaxing day without too much rushing around. That night, all the host families came to dinner and everyone loved the food. Dana, you'll be happy to know that your bean dip recipe is a huge hit in Africa :) After dinner, Eric and I went home with the Lansdells and Tara stayed out for a bit with Ericka. I went to bed pretty early and got lots of sleep just to avoid another sick day, and this morning I got up and attempted to start packing away a few things that I don't think I'll need to use again before we leave.
This afternoon, Wynand took us to the beach again... this time to a SAFE one with actual sand and no high tide. I didn't go anywhere near the water this time, just layed out in the sun and played frisbee with Jake for a little while because he's like a little kid who can't sit still for 5 minutes and was bored out of his mind. I learned today that not only is tennis not my sport, neither is frisbee. I almost took Sheri out about 5 times because the wind kept catching the frisbee in mid-air and whipping it the opposite direction of where I was aiming, sending it sailing over where she was sitting with Missy. Oops. It was a nice day though. Any day spent just laying around on the beach is a day well spent in my book. Then, of course, after the beach we got ice cream again because pretty much not a day goes by here that someone doesn't suggest we stop somewhere for ice cream. I got a vanilla soft-serve with hardened caramel topping and it was wonderful. I wish I could pack some of them in my suitcase and bring them home, but something tells me they probably wouldn't make it back in the same form.
Tomorrow we're back to the Ark again. I think we will only be there 3 more days because we still have another day of school tours to fit in somewhere. Not sure yet what day that will be, but we're assuming Wednesday since Sheri will be on the east coast of the country tomorrow and Tuesday to check on another student who's student teaching over there. I'm sure I'll be back in town tomorrow after school, so I'll update again then. Miss you all, and looking forward to seeing some if not all of you in a week or two.
Until next time, love,
Meg