"the gerkin"

The most spectacularly disgusting thing happened to me this morning. I still can't believe it.

6:03am - I awake, feeling not so refreshed due to the warm room conditions and a snoring roommate, but I drag my tiny heiny (love to the sister) into the shower and emerge refreshed and cleansed, ready for the day that lies ahead.

6:14am - I sneak into the room so as not to wake said snoring roommate and tiptoe up to my bed, so I can make it (what a good girl I am, right, Mama?). What's that little stain? Did I have a bloody nose last night? Maybe that's why I didn't sleep so well. I go up to touch the stain, to see if it's blood... it's 3-dimensional... and slimy. A worm? I poke it. It turns over... it has a little face. It's a DEAD BABY LIZARD!

I'm in shock. Did I sleep with it all night? Did I kill the little baby lizard?

I collect myself and the lizard... and have a little laugh, but decide that I need my sheets changed before I can sleep in that bed again.

I run into "the domestic" (aka housekeeper) on my way to school and try to explain the situation to her. Could she please change my sheets because I found a dead baby lizard in my bed this morning. She looks confused. I remember the last lizard escapade and recall that my students used a different name for the lizard... it started with a g.... gerkin? So, I tell the housekeeper that there was a dead baby gerkin in my bed this morning and could she please change the sheets. This time she looks at me like I'm crazy. I try to repeat myself, enunciating, speaking more slowly... then, I remember, the students didn't say gerkin. They said gecco. I just told the housekeeper that I found a little baby pickle in my bed!

I attempt to sort out the situation... but I feel like a fool. LIKE A FOOL! Haha! Oops! Off to school!

P.S. The sheets were changed.

Stay tuned for the next episode: Meatloaf on a stick.

I love Cape Town!

Oh, what a beautiful mooooooooorning! And now, it’s actually a beautiful day/afternoon. I just got back from Kenilworth where Tesha and I did some much needed shopping! YAY!

I’m not gonna lie. The last few weeks have been tough. Being away from family and other personal drama, it makes me crave the comfort of home. But I’ve made it through and things are going really well! This past Monday I taught the entire day (except for the Afrikaans lesson). I also taught Maths for three days IN A ROW (I know, spectacular!) AND (yeah, I’m not even finished yet) we are well on our way with the Solar System Unit of which I am the BOSS! Hard to believe I’ve come so far. Yeah, I know it.

Tuesday Mrs. Meyer took me to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens and we have a very nice walk through this spectacular place (I’m definitely going back with my camera… and a good book). One of the most popular flowers is called Erica (spelled the same way. Mom, did you know that?) My teacher was surprised when I told her that was my sister’s name. I don’t think she’s ever heard of it as a person’s name before. It made me miss my mama as I zoned out when Mrs. Meyer talked about the names of the many many flowers and plants (heh heh).

Thursday the grade 3s went to the Planetarium. I asked my students what it was like before we got there. They said it was like a domed-shaped movie theater. I immediately envisioned the I-Max… hmmm…. It was a bit different. Try tiny. The movie was supposed to be about the planets, but it was basically a hyped up cartoon, but the cartoons didn’t even change position. It was just a photo that moved... The girls loved it. Then we walked around the garden and the teachers and I had tea in a little café under a tree. A pigeon pooped on one of the girls and I found out that that’s considered good luck!

I have recently noticed the spectacular amount of cockroaches in this beautiful city. Thankfully, the ones that I see are all dead. On the ground at my school. On the sidewalk (called pavement here). Right in front of my face as I did a backbend over a yoga ball at the gym… that one was my favorite. We really bonded.

P.S. Check out new peekshurs (translation: pictures)
P.P.S. Another funny tale. We were shopping at the little vender places right outside the mall and I asked this woman what size the dress was. She said something, and I could not understand her. So she said, "small may-sssssssss" (small makes). I apologized then started laughing. It was funny. Oh, silly, silly American. Can't understand the accent. She laughed. I laughed. Being a foreigner is strange and hilarious.

Check out new random pictures!

http://picasaweb.google.com/heinz.christie

here's the website again... ERICA!

I will write a real post probably tomorrow. I know. VERY exciting!

Trains, trains, & more trains?... wait... where am I?

So, it’s been one month. It’s hard to believe and yet… not so hard to believe.

Story #1: I am Mr. Miagi!

Tesha and I went out to lunch yesterday. As I may have mentioned before, most places don’t have air conditioning, so they just open doors/windows to keep cool. There also seems to be a complete lack of screens, so, as you can imagine there are flies around. So, Tesha and I get our food and dig in, but there are flies swarming around us (in reality there were just two house flies). So, I wave my hand back and forth over my plate, trying to shoo them away. I feel something in between my index and middle finger. I look. It’s a fly. I caught it in between my fingers. EW! I put it in my napkin; Tesha passed me some hand sanitizer from her purse. I AM MR. MIAGI! (sans chopsticks)

Uh, I can’t seem to think of any other stories right now, so here’s a list of funny expressions:

Naughty (for bad)
SHAME! (instead of saying, ‘what a shame,’ they’ll just say ‘shame!’)
Boot (For trunk)
Rubbish or litter (for trash)
Ya (for yes)
Now (but it doesn’t mean right now, it means soon or later)
Cokey (for marker)
Rubber (for pencil eraser)
Duster (blackboard eraser)
Jerseys (for cardigans)
Tomato (pronounced toe-ma-toe) sauce (for ketchup)

That’s all I can think of right now… but I will continue in my anthropological endeavors…

Not much happened this week. Went to school all week. Went to a Professional Development seminar on Friday afternoon about phonological awareness. It was really interesting – talked about how to make different sounds and how to explain these sounds to ESL students. Friday Tesha and I rented movies, Saturday we ventured into the world of the Cape Town train system. We got lost (my fault – I thought we were going to Muizenburg, but really we wanted Hoet Bay), but eventually found our way to some shopping. I didn’t buy anything, but it was fun taking the train. Saturday night I finished a book and went to bed early. Then, this morning I made breakfast for everyone. I wanted to make pancakes, but I couldn’t find pancake mix at the grocery store!? SHAME! Heh heh. See how well I’m adapting to my new environment.

I’m excited for school this week, continuing with the Solar System Unit and doing a fun Dictionary Detective activity. I think I’ll explore the UCT campus sometime this week. The adventure continues!

There are ROBOTS in South Africa!

Please, do not be too alarmed. Robots, aka traffic lights, exist in the United States as well. You may have seen some…

So, this week went by very quickly. I kept myself busy at school Monday through Friday. Then, Friday night Tesha and I just vegged out. Saturday we went to a nearby market with Nathan and some of his friends from school. The market was a bit posh for my style, but it was fun getting out the house and walking around. Then, Tesha, Nathan, Dylan (Nathan’s friend from school), and I took a scenic drive along the beach. We stopped and shopped a bit and then went to the beach. It was lovely. I love laying at the beach, listening to the waves and watching people. I saw my first real-life SURFERS! I know. Shocking. Seriously, though, it was fun just hanging out and, like I said, people watching.

After that we all came home, had some dinner, and watched a movie since Nathan and I got up at 6:30AM! (on a non-school day) to go and climb TABLE MOUNTAIN! And guess what? WE DID IT! (see the pictures).

It was absolutely, indescribably, breathtakingly BEAUTIFUL! It was a tough climb (it took us about 4 and a half hours to get to the top), but the view was amazing and the experience itself was wonderful. Nathan, Mark (one of the teachers at Nathan’s school), and Mark’s girlfriend (I can’t spell her name) ended up walking down. Actually, as I’m typing this they are still in the process of climbing down. But Dylan, his two friends, and I opted for the cableway, which gave us a great new perspective of the mountain on the way down. So, now I’ve gotta hurry up and relax (heh heh) because I’ve got a long week ahead of me at school.

P.S. I had a long talk with my supervisor and my cooperating teacher, and I think that the school situation is going to work out just fine. Although I must admit, I am very jealous of Nathan's school!