"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!

What an incredible day! Tesha, Nathan, and I went on an amazing adventure with our neighbor’s son Heinz. First, I feel the need to describe our neighbors a bit. They are incredibly, interestingly eccentric and kind. They come from Germany and have lived here since Heinz was young (I’m guessing about twenty-five years). Dieter speaks so quickly in his German/South African accent and is usually incredibly difficult to understand. Brenna has three windy white curls protruding from her chin mole and a little dog with long, white hair. The dog’s balding and has patches of bright pink skin peering through it’s fur. I can hardly look at it! But they are seriously the NICEST people I’ve met in a long time! Dieter walked us to call our families the second night when we were really freaked out, Brenna continually gives me advice, from shopping to laundering (which I must learn to do by hand). Their son Heinz has offered to drive us around whenever he has a day off (he’s a baker).

So, anyway, today, we went with Heinz on a three-hour car ride around "my mountain" stopping at Clifton Beach, Hout Bay, and various other spots for an entirely new perspective of this country. Let me tell you, it was spectacular!

We overlooked the city and various suburbs, saw some amazing Oceanside apartments and mansions, a castle (pictured), beautiful mountains, seals, a police helicopter (looking for Nathan), dolphins, lots of people… it was beautiful. Then we hiked up part of Table Mountain and had yet another amazing view. We ended up having to leave Tesha for the wolves (seriously, we left her on the trail as she refused to hike any further!), but it turned out that when we reached "the top," there were about six different trails to choose from the shortest of which was an hour long. We couldn’t leave Tesha for that long, so we turned back, but we’re definitely going back soon because you can hike all the way to the cable cars at the top of Table Mountain or through Kirstenbosch Gardens! By the end of the day all of us had shaky legs (literally), and decided to head home for some much-needed relaxation.

My first week of school went pretty well. It’s so different from what I expected. The girls color A LOT. I teach my first lesson on evens and odds on Monday, so I’m excited to plan plan plan away tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully, my teacher won’t mind if they do something besides dittos or … COLORING! My teacher, Mrs. Meyer (pronounced Mayor) is very nice, though. She’s older and we’ve had some interesting discussions on the end of Apartheid and how the education in South Africa has changed since then. She explained how difficult it is to reconcile the ideals versus the realities of this nation. While every group of individuals wants to be heard and respected, the schools can only do so much.
I volunteered to help one of the other third grade teachers with the Swim Team, so that should be fun.

Finally, a short anecdote from the classroom:

Roxi: Miss Heinz, Miss Heinz, I got a 10 out of 10 on my Maths (pronounced Mats)
homework. Oh wait, in America you say Math (pronounced Mat).

Me: Actually, we say Math –th –th (emphasizing the -th sound).

Roxi: -th –th (she repeats with her tongue shoved between her teeth and halfway
sticking out of her mouth). [She shakes her head and looks at me like I'm crazy]

P.S. Just tried handwashing laundry... = not fun!

Also, check out new pictures!

Stories from the other side...

...of the equator.

So, every time I finish blogging (oh, I am so technologically advanced!), I finish feeling like I had nothing to say only to arrive home and realize I didn't tell any of the funny happenings that occur daily.

Story #1: The Cockroach

A shriek from the kitchen!
nathan and I look at each other and don't do anything. We decide to go into the kitchen after a little while. Tesha is hiding behind the refridgerator. Tehsa has discovered a cockroach in the kitchen. It goes without saying that this is gross, but I'm a big girl. I'm not afraid of bugs (too much). I have lived by myself and been forced to kill more bugs in various shapes and sizes than I would care to remember, so I ask her where it went and quickly attempt cockroach death squat position 9B. Then I saw it. It was HUGE!!! At least two inches long AT LEAST and fat! I scream, which makes Tesha scream again and we both hide behind the refridgerator. So, long story short, Nathan tries to catch it with a tube sock! Tesha and I keep screamign when we see it, so he thinks there are more cockroaches and starts freaking out. We (mainly Nathan - although I offered some serious moral support) captured the cockroach and nathan set him free somewhere... I never did ask.

Tale B: The Pushover

So, after just a few short days with nathan I realized that he says "uh-huh" a lot when he doesn't understand what the person is saying instead of doing what I do which is ask the person, "what?" "excuse me?" "one more time" until you understand them. So, the trio is at the mall and we stop to have something to eat. The lady takes our drink order and nathan says he'd like a water with lemon. nathan seems to think she is confused, so he tries to explain he'd like a lemon and water. the woman says "lime." He explains again what he'd like. Tesha and I start to laugh and tell him that she gets it.

two minutes later:
Nathan's water and lemon comes out.... it's GREEN. She made him a lime water, water with lime juice. Tesha and I proceed to crack up (kindly, after the waitress has left). Nathan won't send the water back since he spent two minutes trying to explain to the woman exactly what he wanted and he still didn't get it. We let it go. (although not without the picture I took).

The bill comes. nathan was charged 9 rand for the lime water! Tesha and I proceed to pee in our pants!

So, again, just two stories I failed to mention.

Life has been stressful the past couple of days. Tesha and I both hate our schools.

All my kids have done for the past week is color and there is NO and I mean NO behavior management plan in my classroom...? It makes no sense.... She says she gets stricter and they have more to do as the term progresses... I'm crossing my fingers because right now I just feel terribly disappointed.

I have learned a couple of math (which they call "maths") techniques that I think are helpful, but when I asked her today if they use manipulatives... she stared at me like she'd never heard of them... hmmmm....

Anyhoo, we're going to go hiking with Heinz again this Saturday and I'm super excited. Tesha and I joined the gym yesterday, so hopefully the endorphins will help me keep from crying at school.

More later.

I added new pictures of Rhodes Memorial (where we went with Heinz on Sunday).