Amanda in South Africa!: January 2009

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Roomies

I found my other roommate. Of course I found him in the bathroom!

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Every Tuesday there is an assembly for 10-12th graders and every Wednesday for 8-9th graders. Once the girls are seated in the Hall, the staff is seated on stage, and the management team is in ‘graduation robes’ at the front of the stage, the assembly starts. It begins with everyone singing a song from their hymn books, that the girls must carry with them at all times (and they may not use as a fan during the assembly despite the sweltering temps!) They also sing the Lord’s Prayer and then the Head Mistress greets everyone. Two prefects then read a lesson (often from the bible) and say a prayer. Then the Head Mistress talks about the weeks events and expectations of the girls. It is very interesting and intriguing to see the discipline and traditions that are upheld.

This is a picture of the students in the hall, and the staff is located on the stage. Some of the prefects are in the aisle guiding students where to sit.

Here is the Head Mistress addressing the students, the prefects also sit on the stage facting the other students.

Here is a picture of the Tuck Shop area. I have duty this week making sure that students don't cut in line when they are ordering. There are two prefects at the head of the line monitoring the other students.

Here is the menu for the Tuck Shop. I am not sure what Chicken Peri Peri is or Chicken Tikka Tikka. Their pies are 'savory', not sweet. They usually have some type of meat in them.

Here is a picture of the students eating during break in the tuck shop area.

Some girls eat on the playing fields--the grassy area here is the netball court and beyond the shrubs in the distance is the hockey field.

Here is a picture of my school keys. There are a lot of 'skeleton' keys in use. I have about 4 of them that I use at the house I live in.

Here is the volleyball courts. All volleyball games are played on turf, they don't have any indoor volleyball facilites. They also play beach volleyball, but not at the high school level.

Here is the swimming pool.

This is a movie of the school assembly with all of the girls singing.

Monday, January 26, 2009

New Roommate

Here is a picture of one of my roommates. I saw him on Friday night and I gave him 12 hours to move out. I assume that he did, as I didn't find him in the morning. I did find one of his smaller relatives in the kitchen the next day, and I promply put him in the refuse bag for dumping. I haven't been able to take any pictures of the gecko, but he often peeps in on me while I am in the shower. What a creep!

Weekend Fun

On Friday night I experienced a little bit of what Durban has to offer for night life. I went with Bex and Jo, sisters that I have met who are also teachers. We went to dinner at a Thai restaurant and had a great meal. We then went to the Harvey Wallbangerz in Durban North where we had a couple drinks and danced a little. The drinks were actually very cheap, it was about $2.20 for a mixed drink and it was happy hour (or something similar) so we got 2 for the price of 1. The club was very similar to bars we have in Denver, but maybe a little smaller. It had a patio on the edges that looked out to the city and a dance floor on the inside. We didn’t stay very long, but we did get to dance to Michael Jackson’s ‘Billie Jean.’
Most of our conversation that night was spent talking about the different words that we use. Here is what I found:
Word/phrase in SA—American translation
Just now—in a little bit
Now now—right now
Vodka and lemonade—vodka and sprite
Biscuits—cookies
Scones—biscuits
Shame—sheesh, darn, dang…
Mince—ground beef
Robots—stoplights
Math book—math notebook, paper, spiral (but they don’t have spiral notebooks here)
Booklet—packet of stapled papers
Text book—math book
Manual car—standard or stick shift (there aren’t very many automatics over here)
Cheers—goodbye
Pudding—dessert
Jelly—jello
Jam—jelly
Brown bread—wheat bread
Vest—tank top
Short coat—vest
I know that there are a ton more, I’ll try and remember them for later…

On Saturday I went to the mall (twice) and did some shopping. There are some of the same stores in that we have in the states, like Mac, Payless Shoes, Cinnabon, Aldo, Quicksilver, McDonalds, and Trade Secret. There are also some that are similar to Macy’s and Old Navy and some others as well. The girls showed me some cheaper stores to buy some clothes—I needed to buy some skirts to wear to school, as pants/capris are too hot to wear. I got two skirts and a tank top for about $15, a purse for about $6 and a couple dresses for about $20 each. I needed to get some dresses to wear when I got out—it seems that everyone dresses up a little! I also got a beach towel, so hopefully I can head to the beach sometime this weekend!

On Saturday night I went to the Suncoast, a casino/hotel type place. We saw a movie, Bride Wars, which was very cute. The price of the movie was about $2 and a drink was about $1.80. I think that I might be seeing a lot of movies while I am here. Generally, the movies come out a little later than they do in the States. Four Christmases, with Vince Vaughan and Reese Witherspoon just came out over here but they changed the name to something different (since it is past the holidays.) I wonder if they changed part of the movie? I didn’t get to do any gambling while at the Suncoast, but I am not sure what would happen if a foreigner won…would I get to keep the money?

On Sunday I went to church twice. The churches here are very similar to the ones that we have. In the morning I went with Glenda’s parents, Len and Elaine, and then we went to breakfast afterwards. The three of our meals came to about $8 with tip! What a deal! After breakfast we drove to Kloof and stopped at the Kloof Country Club for a stamp collectors fair. The golf course there was beautiful! There were also a lot of huge houses in the area, definitely a wealthier part of town. From there we drove to Botha’s Hill where at the top you can see the Valley of 1000 Hills. It was kind of hazy/misty on Sunday, so we couldn’t see too far. But, from what I could see it was gorgeous! Along the way we also past Drummond, which is the halfway point for the Comrades Marathon. The marathon takes place yearly and the course is from Durban to Pietermaritzburg (alternating ways each year) which is about 80 km (I think). Runners have to make it to Drummond after 5 ½ hours time otherwise they are disqualified. I guess that some of the runners finish the race is 6 hours! Along the road there was a brick wall signifying runners that have finished the race 10 or more times. I couldn’t believe all of the bricks!

This weekend was very busy and I was quite tired by the time I got home on Sunday night. I made it through the weekend without driving the car—which proved to be a good idea since I didn’t stall it at all on Monday! I just might be getting the hang of it!

I realized over the weekend that I use the internet a lot! I am hooked on email and skype, and I am still teaching on online course which does account for some of the use. I exceeded the internet limit for the account, since they don’t have unlimited usage over here, and they locked me out. I will be able to use it again next Sunday when the billing cycle starts over. So, in the mean time I purchased a ‘pay as you go’ plan that I can use when I go over the limit. I think that I just needed a lot of personal contact when I first moved here—I needed some reminders of home.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

First Days of School

Here is a picture taken from my school. They have a huge hockey field and the school overlooks the port. It is the 8th largest port in the world and the biggest in Africa.

This is a picture of the school hallway. 10-12th grade students may only cross the yellow line during class time, all 8-9 graders must find another route. During all other times students must either go upstairs or downstairs to bypass this hallway. The door on the left is the staff lounge where all staff must meet during the 1st 'tea' break for daily announcements. The door on the right is a kitchen, restrooms, and the teacher pigeon holes--in the states we call them the teacher mailboxes.

This is a picture of my classroom. I don't have AC but I do have 4 big windows on each side of the room. I creates quite a nice breeze to the with open air hallway.

This is a picture of Durban from a flat near my school. It shows the city of Durban.

This is another picture of the city.

Here is a picture of all of the new teachers and Durban Girls High School.

Hello! Well, I taught my first 3 classes at Durban Girls High School today. The girls all wear uniforms and are very well behaved. They must stand in a line outside of the class room until I let them in and then they remain standing until I greet them and instruct them to sit down. The class schedules are very different here, I teach different classes at different times every day. It will definitely take some getting used to. The students have an assembly once a week, where the 'head students' or prefects start the assembly with a prayer and a song. Each student must have their song book so that they can sing along. I have two breaks each day. One in the morning, a tea break, and one around noon time for lunch. Extra curricular activites are everyday after school. Students can participate in many activities, such that each sport/club only usually meets twice a week. The biggest sports over here are field hockey and net ball. I haven't seen either of them played yet, but I am quite interested in watching both.

The food over here is a little different from home. Depending on where you shop, they have a lot of different brands and prices. The quantities are generally a lot smaller and they don't have as much variety. The largest size jug (or bag) of milk is about a quart. The expiration date is also very soon, you must drink it fast and buy frequently. They have some of the same cereal here, like corn flakes and rice krispies, but no cheerios or chex. They do have Weet-Bix (like shredded wheat), but I only think that it is cool because of the name. I did find some hamburger to buy today along with some noodles and spaghetti sauce. I made a huge dish of it, so I should be eating spaghetti for the next two weeks!

The weather lately has been quite rainy. Usually it is a misty rain, but the other night it was raining in buckets! It is still quite humid here, but the heat isn't too bad yet. I hear that February is miserable. I am not sure what I will do to keep cool, my school and my house do not have AC. I might have to spend a lot of time at the local shopping mall! Which, by the way is huge. It is 3 levels and has a ton of shops. I plan on going there this weekend to check it out. I guess that there is an even bigger mall a little ways away.

I went to a friends house yesterday for afternoon tea. She is a great person and I think that we will be great friends. She played volleyball in college in Missouri and has since moved back to SA. She is also a teacher. I am planning on going out with her and her sister this weekend. I think that it will be great to see what the night life is like in Durban. I hear that they like to dance and the drinks are a lot cheaper than in the states. It should be a fun time!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

My New House

This is my backyard. The community caretaker, Wiseman, came by today and mowed the lawn. It hadn't been mowed in 3 weeks and was still shorter than our lawns in CO. There are a lot of nice flowers and plants--very tropical!

This is my living room. I have 4 TV channels that are mainly spoken in Zulu. I was able to watch Oprah and The Young and the Restless in english before the Zulu news came on. I wonder if they will air Grey's Anatomy in english??

This is my kitchen/laundry room.

This is my front door/dining room.

This is my sweet bedroom. At night you have to sleep with the windows open, since it is so hot. Glenda advised me that if a cat jumps through the window--just send it right back out. Ahh!

This is my front door.

This is the gate outside my front door. There is a little porch with a bird bath. I have 3 different keys to use to get into my house. There are also 2 different keys to get out the back door, 2 to get out the kitchen door, one to get into the garage, and another to open the back gate. I have so many keys it is hard to keep track of them all. But, at least I know that I am safely locked into my house. I just hope that I never accidently get locked out!

This is what my house looks like from the parking lot.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

I made it!

Well, I made it safely to South Africa. I am trying to get used to the time difference, humid weather and bugs. I got situated in my house and plan on going to the consulate today for a briefing. I went to the grocery store yesterday and bought a few things...they sell superman tp and milk in a bag. I am not sure how you open, poor, and then close milk in a bag...but I will make it work. The town I am in is pretty nice. I haven't seen a lot of the actual city yet, but plan on it the next couple of days. I also want to go to the beach! I will be at school tomorrow for the new teacher orientation. I will see my class room and meet some of the other teachers. Everyone that I have met is very nice and friendly.