Grey weekend

Almost the entire school went to Port Elizabeth in the weekend of the 11^th and 12^th of May. Friday morning we left from school, the busses were leaving at half past 5 and the trip would take us in total almost 13 hours. During the Grey weekend, the schools Wynberg Boys high and Grey Boys are playing several sports against each other such as rugby, athletics, squash, surfing, sailing and hockey. One year Wynberg goes to Port Elizabeth to visit Grey and the next year Wynberg is hosting Grey in Cape Town. I was lucky that I was here at the time Wynberg went to Port Elizabeth.

When I arrived, I quickly dropped my stuff in the hostel we were staying at. At 8 ‘o clock we had a stuff supper and we could really eat and drink whatever we wanted. We stayed there till late and went out later with the Wynberg staff.

I was already impressed of the school the evening that I arrived, and because I didn’t have to coach a sport team (soccer wasn’t one of the sports), I could do whatever I felt like doing. I decided to set my alarm for the next morning which is for me quite unusual in the weekend. I first watched Fearghas’ rugby team and after that we walked together through the school.   Wynberg Boys' High School gave me the feeling that I was working at Hogwarts the first few days and so felt Grey! The school is absolutely stunning and I’m so jealous that we don’t have schools like Wynberg and Grey in Holland.

At half past 3 the biggest game of the weekend started the first team rugby game. The results of the whole weekend don’t count if you’re able to win this game. Wynberg had never won a game against Grey before, and Wynberg is going to Grey since 1982, so there was a bit of pressure. It was really incredible, the crowd went crazy and song all their typical sports songs. Wynberg was the first team on the field; they walked around all the stands to show the field was theirs. Grey accompanied by drummers and a sort of “cheerleaders” followed later, the crowd started screaming. Although I don’t know much about rugby, it’s really enjoyable to watch. The game was very close Wynberg was leading the entire first half, but in the last 2 minutes of that first half Grey took over the lead. The second half started really bad for Wynberg, with immediately a try for Grey. It seemed almost impossible, Grey didn’t seem to give this game away anymore, but at the end we became closer. With one minute on the clock Wynberg scored a winning try 21-22, for the first time ever they beat Grey and I was there! I watched once a Stormers game, in the Newlands stadium, but school rugby is the best! It’s actually a pity that we don’t have school sports in Holland. I wish I could go 6 years back in the time and follow High Shool at Wyberg.

After the rugby we had a final supper before we went back to Cape Town. The bus trip was horrendous. I basically skipped a night of sleep due to the fact my sleeping pills weren’t working, but I’m glad I went, I didn’t want to miss this fantastic weekend!  

 

A visit from my Family

Apologies, my old blog site was not working for a while. I gave up and put all my old and new blogs on this website.

I have been extremely busy the first two weeks after we got back from our trip. In two weeks it would be Afrikaans week at Wynberg, so there was a lot to do for me. I made posters for the corridors, made a cd with Afrikaans songs and I did the décor and the music for the Afrikaans play that the Afrikaans teachers played. I had also one of the most horrible jobs to do. I had also my normal jobs and one horrendous job where I had to make a list with all the Hockey players from Wynberg since Hockey was introduced at the school. That list had quite a lot names! I also went together with Elise. You can compare a Matric dance with the American prom, we don’t have such a thing in Holland, but in South Africa it’s probably the biggest thing in the school year. First you have a sort of pre drink. Then you’re going to your table to eat your starter and immediately after that there was a speech by the headmaster and head girl followed by the opening dance. It was funny to compare this all with our own “eindexamen gala” back in Holland, actually you can’t compare it! 

The week after the Afrikaans week was shorter as normal; Friday was a public holiday so after school on Thursday I went back to my host family. That particular Friday my parents and younger brother arrived from Holland. Luckily for me there were also 2 public holidays the following week, so I only worked one day.  It was very nice to have my parents here and I showed them my new world and life. We drove back to the airport to rent a car for that week, but my parents forgot their passport, so we couldn’t hire a car that day.  Besides that, we went to “Canal Walk” a big shopping mall and Rhodes memorial. In the evening we had supper at friends of my host family. They had a house on a cliff with an amazing view over the False Baai.

Sunday we went to Franschoek where we had lunch and had a wine tasting. On Monday I went with my parents to school to watch the rugby. It was rugby festival at Wynberg, schools all over the country are participating, it was quite a good vibe! Unfortunately it started to rain when we had lunch in “Dutch” and it stayed like that for 3 days. It also rains in Africa!

Other things I did with my family were: V&A Waterfront, we went up Table Mountain, we visited Simon’s Town and Cape Point, we did two touristic tours through Cape Town, the aquarium and I probably forget a view other things. On Wednesday, when they fetched me from work, I showed them around the school. They were quite impressed of the School ground, the students politeness (every single boy greeted and stood up for them) and the school itself.   

The other 2 Gappies and Elise came one night for supper, so as mr. Rchardson and his wife. It was nice for my parents to get to know them all.

Queens’s day also took place in that week. Myself, Elise, Fearghas, Andrea (a teacher from school) and a border mistress from the girls hostel went to a Dutch bar in town, to celebrate it. It was quite amazing how many Dutch people there are living in Cape Town, it was a good night!

My parents are back home now, but it won’t be long anymore till I’ll go back. This year went so incredibly fast, it’s now less than one more month to go… I’m going to enjoy every last minute I have in South Africa!


More pictures on my facebook page "South Africa/ Cape Town 2011-2012" (album 1 & 2)

Backpacking from Durban to Cape Town

After a fantastic Holiday we had a final assembly on Friday, before the Easter holiday started. The holiday was quite relaxed, didn’t really do anything till the Thursday, when we were leaving in the morning to Durban. When Fearghas and I arrived in Durban we had to hire a car, because later that day we would fetch Elise from the airport, who couldn’t get the same flight. The Durban airport was miles away from the actual city, so to save a lot of money hiring a car was the best option. While I was waiting for our baggage, Fearghas went outside to arrange a car, which wasn’t that easy as we thought it would be. As I already said, Durban city centre is miles away from the airport, so many people had plans to hire a car, there were no cars available. 10 different companies and no cars available, I started to stress, but luckily we could get a last car at Europe Car. We were very lucky, because at Europe Car you must have your license at least 2 years, Fearghas didn’t even have his license for a year... But anyway we got a car and our trip could begin.

Durban
All the streets in the city centre of Durban do have new names. Of course also the street where our hostel was situated. The Tom-tom was not up to date and calling the people in hostel was useless, because they kept saying the old street name. Fearghas and I are used to get lost, but this time it was a slightly different situation, driving in Durban city centre is horrific. People crossing the roads without looking, everywhere you look you see those typical African mini bus taxi’s (those taxi’s don’t understand traffic rules) and on every street corner there was a market. It was a hell! I was not just worried about how to get to that place, but also in which area our hostel was situated. Durban city centre is not a nice place!

Eventually we found the place, and it was not too bad. The hostel was situated more on the outside of the city and 15minutes walking to the beach. We dropped our stuff in our room and drove to the world cup stadium in Durban, the Moses Mabia stadium. It is not as big as the Green point Stadium and Soccer City Stadium, but very nice! In the evening we fetched Elise from the airport and had supper at a sushi bar near our hostel and then we went back to our suite where we found a dead cockroach under one of the beds.

The next day we had a breakfast in a restaurant at the beach, we went back to get our towels and spent the afternoon on the beach. The sea in Durban is much more comfortable than the sea back in Cape Town. The difference in temperatures of the water is about 15 degrees. In the evening we went out for dinner and to a concert of Avicii a famous Swedish DJ.

As good as the weather was a day before, how bad was that Saturday. We decided to go to Ushacka a aqua marine park. It’s a park with water glides and a aquarium. Unfortunately we couldn’t swim with the dolphins, because that was fully booked, but there were lots of other things to do, like snorkling above sharks. We also went on the highest water glide of the Southern part of the world, which was actually very disappointing. 

Umthatha
On Monday we left Durban with the bazbus and headed off to Umthatha the capital of the Transkei. The trip took us 8 hours, but it was nice to see the different landscapes of South Africa.  The Transkei used to be a homeland for black people during the Apartheid (they sent black people to this place) and was a country itself. Nelson Mandela was born in the Transkei and we also passed the church where he was married with Winnie Mandela and his house where he still lives if he’s not in hospital. Arrived in Umthatha we had to get a taxi to the orphanage where we would help out for 2 days. We saw a police car and managed somehow to get a lift. First they had to look for a man and then they would drop us at the orphanage. The police men in Umthatha are different from the police men in Holland. Looking for a guy means knocking on the door hoping if someone opens the door (didn’t happen), the police car drove way to fast and furthermore nobody fasted his seatbelt.

The orphanage itself was a good experience; there were 85 children between the age of 0 and 8 years old. A friend of Fearghas who’s working there for a year arranged a own flat for us, which was amazing. We had 3 bedrooms, a kitchen and a bathroom with a ice cold shower. The Transkei is proper Africa, with cows on the road etc. But it was a good experience! Wednesday we went on the African way to Coffee Bay, hitchhiking! It was actually very funny and very cheap. It took us about 2 hours and had to pay just 4 euro’s each. When we arrived in Coffee Bay we knew immediately why they call that small place in the middle of nowhere “little Amsterdam”. We got out the taxi and we were immediately surrounded by at least 5 drug dealers. Beside the Drug dealers has Coffee Bay a amazing landscape. We went for a surf and we watched the sundown on a hill. The next morning we already had to leave Coffee Bay, next destination Addo.

Addo Elephant Park
It was a day of almost 12 hours travelling when we finally arrived in Addo, near Port Elisabeth. Addo was amazing! We went on a safari with the 3 of us and a Swedish couple and saw lots of animals. We even saw lions, which doesn’t happen every day. When we got back to our hostel we had a nice braai and went to bed early, because the next morning we would leave at 5.30 am.

Jeffrey’s Bay and Plettenberg Bay
After Addo we went to Jeffrey’s Bay, a famous surfing village. We had an amazing flat, the first night we shared it with an Brazilian couple but the other 2 nights we had the flat for ourselves. It’s actually ridiculous for how cheap we got it, but we couldn’t complain. The days in Jeffrey’s Bay where very relaxed. We went to the beach to body board and walk, slept quite a lot and Elise cooked for us. We also did a surfing lesson, where I finally managed to stand on the board and me and Elise stood one and a half hours in cue to buy a jersey for me, because I lost mine in Coffee Bay and the weather became quite chilly. We also invited the Swedish couple, who we had met in Addo for a Braai at our place; it was a very nice evening.

From Jeffrey’s Bay we went to another town in the Eastern Cape/ Garden Route, Plettenberg Bay. The weather was much nicer, so we were able to do more activities. We met one Dutch girl on the Bazbus and after we arrived we went for a walk, to have eventually a drink at the beach. The next morning we went with the four of us on a kayak trip to spot dolphins and seals. Unfortunately we didn’t see any dolphins but we saw a lot of seals. When we got back in our hostel I got slightly worried about what we would do the next day. We had a braai in our hostel and met there two other Dutch girls who showed us a video of their bungee jump. We would do the same thing the next morning!

It was actually a miracle that I had a good sleep that night, I was so nervous! At half past 10 we left our hostel to go to the Bloukrans bridge, the highest bungee jump bridge in the world. I was very exciting, and on our way to the bridge I could only think of the thought that I would die of a heart attack. Luckily I didn’t die, but I was not happy at all, when we arrived at the reception and had to sign that it is all your on responsibility etc. The walk to the bridge “the catwalk” gave me another boost of excitement; we walked on a sort of bouncy chicken wire bridge over the river. It was high and I don’t like heights! Sounds maybe weird that I chose to do the bungee jump, but something in me told me I had to do it. They gave us some instructions on the actual bridge where we would do our jump, after that they played very loud music. The music actually helped, but what really helped me was that Fearghas and Elise were doing it as well! I jumped and I’m very glad I did it!

The jump was basically the last thing we did on our trip. That night we went out for a drink with the three Dutch girls we met and the next morning we had to go back to Cape Town. We got picked up by the Bazbus around half past twelve in the afternoon. It was a trip of nine hours, but with all the stops we had it’s not too bad. We were of course in the same bus with our Swedish friends again who also travelled to Cape Town.



Once arrived in Cape Town, my host father fetched us and we went to our host families. We had the weekend to rest and on Monday we had to go back to school. It has been an awesome holiday, where we met lots of nice people and saw lots of things. We had a wonderful time.

More photos of my backpack trip and safari on Facebook "backpack trip Durban back to Cape Town"

A week in Guateng

When Nico had left the country, my normal life started again. It were the final days of term one, so it was pretty hectic at school. Students stressed because of the tests and the teachers were stressed because of all the marking. Me and the other two GAP students had to capture the marks, we managed to finish it in two days, but it was a hell of a job. That week and the weeks before I was also often in Afrikaans class, due to the fact a teacher was ill and I took over quite a lot lessons.

The last day before the holiday started, we had a big event at the school, `The night of the Stars`. A sort of Fancy fair. Me and the other 2 Gaps were working behind the Bar, despite the bad weather and the long shift (from 14.30 till 2.00) was it pretty decent and quite manageable.
Guateng

The 17th of March me and Fearghas left in the early morning to the airport, destination Johannesburg. We arrived at 10.20 in the morning, went to my cousin’s house, who was fetching us from the airport. Around 2 o’ clock we headed off to Soccer city (world cup final Stadium) to see the Feyenoord – Ajax of South Africa, Orlando Pirates versus Kaizer Chiefs. The traffic to the stadium was hectic, people dancing on the highway, people who pie on the side of the road and everywhere cars. Luckily we found a road nobody took and got there eventually quite quickly. The game and the stadium where amazing, unfortunately it was 3-2 to Pirates, but it was a great afternoon/ evening. After the match I got almost robbed by a idiot who first was first pretending to do a sort of greet with me, but actually he was trying to get my valuables out of my pocket. I didn’t realise it, but my cousin saved the day to push that guy away! After the match we went to a Dutch shop, where I got some Schuddebuikjes, gestampte muisjes en Chocolade vlokken. We also tasted apparently the world’s best Brandy, I doubt it! From the store we went to one of my other cousin’s where we had a lovely braai!

The Next day we headed off to Sun City, the Las Vegas from South Africa. We were extremely spoiled, we stayed there for 3 nights. Sun City is amazing, you can do so many things, we went on a safari, a quad safari, we went to the Valley of the waves (a fake beach) and we went on jet ski’s. Everything was awesome, except maybe for the quad biking.. It took me a while to get used to it, and very embarrassing was that a bumped into a tree, while I was at second position. Anyway, after a while I got used to it and then it’s actually lots of fun, disappointing was just that some other people on the safari didn’t know what the word breaking means.

One of the most amazing things about Sun City was that we ended our days with more money than that we started the day with, even while we did activities where we had to pay for and went out for supper every night. Me and Fearghas were very Lucky, we both managed to win every night in the casino, it made us feel rich! Luck was really at our side, because the day we were leaving Sun City we also managed to get into the palace Hotel to look around. The Palace of the lost city is one of the top Hotels in the world and no wonder why!

The next day we went to the Union Buildings and the stadium of The Blue Bulls, where we had a VIP tour. The Union buildings are stunning, it is the building (don’t ask why it’s called buildings) where the government of South Africa is settled for a half year each year. After Loftus (The blue Bull Stadium) we had a quick and massive lunch and went to the airport.

It have been 5 amazing days, one of the best weeks since the start of my Gap Year! Thanks a lot Michelle!

The baboon hike and Nico in SA

I was already more than a month back in South Africa, when I went joined my host parents and the parents of my host mother for a weekend to Hermanus. Peter my exchange student, couldn’t come, because he was in India, Luke (my new international brother, who has a wonderful nickname for me) couldn’t come neither, because he had to work that weekend. That weekend I was able to speak mainly Dutch, due to the parents of my host mother “Marianne” are from Haarlem. We stayed in a lovely house near the beach and close to a wonderful cliff walk. It was still extremely hot that week (temperatures were around 35 degrees), but the sea was freezing as always.

While Peter was in India, I organized a farewell surprise party for him. When he got back from India, Peter organized to go on a hike with his friends and of course exactly the same weekend that I organized his surprise party. I first had to make sure they went on a Friday and not on a Saturday, before I decided to join them. I’m not a big fan of hiking, but I thought let’s give it a try. Peter fetched me and prepared as I was I didn’t forget to pack my sun block this time.  We fetched two friends and headed off to a place in the middle of nowhere. We had to hurry because it was already dark and they wanted to reach the cave before it would become dark. I was already less excited because I was told all the stories what to do if you spot a snake or baboon. The beginning was quite hard (for me with my perfect balance), but after a while I got into it. We reached the cave just before it became dark and prepared dinner after we had built our camp. Maybe I wasn’t that well prepared because I didn’t have a mat, where I could sleep on and I managed to forget my pillow as well. Anyways, I finished quickly and chose the spot which was the farthest removed from the hole in the cave. I expected that we could get company of a snake that night.

After dinner we went straight to our beds. I was very comfortable lying on the rocks and the sound of fighting baboons made it even more comfortable. I couldn’t sleep properly, but felt sometimes asleep for like 15 minutes. Every time I woke up, I looked on my phone to see what the time was. I didn’t put my phone in my bag, because I had heard stories that baboons steel bags, and I didn’t want that they would take mine with my phone in it. Around 00.30 I woke up again, hearing the lovely sound of fighting baboons. I tried to look for my phone, but I couldn’t find it. I thought it would have fall out of my pocket and looked in my sleeping bag. Eventually I found it, but when I pressed a random button, it just showed me a white screen with a black line. My inside screen was cracked. The benefit that this happened was that I wasn’t worried anymore of baboons or snakes.

The rest woke up at about six, lay down till eight and ate some breakfast. Me and mine phone were totally broken. We continued our hike at 8.30am. The day before I was so proud that I didn’t forget to pack my sun block, but unfortunately it was raining that morning. We had to climb a waterfall; I couldn’t be bothered to step from rock to rock, so I walked through the water. Because of that I wasn’t able to follow the others when it became more difficult, it was quite slippery and needed often help from the others. I hated it and gave up 150M before the end. I told them to continue without me and that I would wait on a random rock. While they were away three rocks felt down off the top and almost hit me. I was afraid the baboons were hunting me and decided to climb in the direction of the waterfall. I was very glad when I saw them again and could started our way down. Conclusion: I hate hiking!

That evening we had Peter’s surprise party, he didn’t expect it at all, so I was glad. That night we went to Claremont and the next day at 1pm the farewell party which Peter organized himself. The next day me, Peter and his parents went to the Clifton beach to have a picnic and on Tuesday we went to the airport. Peter went to Holland!    
5 Days later a friend from Holland arrived to visit me! He arrived on Saturday, Sunday we went to Franschoek, a small little villages on the wine route. It was very beautiful and I did mine first wine tasting ever. On Monday I showed him around the school. I was supposed to coach a tennis team, so I had a plan to cycle to school around a quarter to two. Unfortunately one of the bikes broke and we had to walk all the way (45min). Of course the tennis was cancelled, due to the rain, but we were invited to have supper at a teacher’s place which was very nice!

Nico
On Tuesday and Wednesday Nico and I were real tourists. We took the African train to town and walked from there to the waterfront, where we took the red bus (with our American friends). On Tuesday we went with the bus on a trip through the town. We also went on the table mountain and had a cocktail/ late lunch at camps bay. That evening we went out for a dinner with the two other gappers. On Wednesday we started off in Kirstenbosch gardens. We wanted to do a township tour, but unfortunately they were fighting in the township over there, so we decided to take the bus to the waterfront and walk from there to Cape Town stadium. We finished the day at the Constantia wine farming.   Thursday we went to the beach at Fishhoek and in the evening I showed Nico one of the Captonian clubs. Friday we went to an Afrikaans play in town and Saturday my host family took us for a nice ride past Chapman’s Peak and the coast all the way down to Simon’s Town. That evening we went to the Stormers game! My first live rugby match ever! We didn't understand everything, but it was nice tough. The week that Nico was down in South Africa went so quickly, we had lots of fun, it was amazing!

 In 1,5 week me and Fearghas are going to Johannesburg , where we going to watch the Feyenoord-Ajax from South Africa, Orlando Pirates against Kaizer Chiefs. On Sunday we will go to Sun City where we stay for a few days! One week later me, Fearghas and Elise are going to Durban. From there we going to travel along the coast all the way back to Cape Town and we will also stop in a few cities. In My next blog I will write about all my experiences from the different parts of South Africa. March is going to be a very exciting month, I’m looking forward to it!

For more pictures see my photo albums "South Africa / Cape Town 2011-2012" (album 1 & 2)