Summer Holidays and the start of a New year

The last 2 weeks of November were quite relaxing, it became warm in die Kaap, the summer was coming. Me and the other Gappies have been to the beach a few times, and in the evenings we went often out for a drink with other staff members. In the for last week the Wynberg staff played a cricket match against their rivals, Sacs. I was playing as well and because I never played before I needed some practice, so we went one day to the beach to play some beach cricket! The first time I was batting went totally wrong.. when I tried to hit the ball my bat flew into the sea and we had to get it out! The sea in Cape Town is freezing, especially Camps Bay and Clifton! After all I decided not to bat in the game, but just to play as a fielder.

The last weeks at school were test weeks, the student had to make test for a period of three weeks, quite a lot comparing to our toetsweken! I invigilated many hours that week, sometimes in a classroom and sometimes in the hall with two other teachers.

In the first week of December when the holiday started, I went to my family in Pretoria and stayed there for 3 days. It was nice to see my family and I also went to one of the most famous theme parks of the country, Gold Reef city, named after Johannesburg ‘the city of gold’. After Pretoria I joined my family for a holiday in Reebok, a little village in the Western Cape between George and Mosselbaai. That area was very Afrikaans and totally different from Cape Town or Pretoria. There were no big gates and walls for the houses and doors were standing wide open, something you can’t imagine in the big cities of South Africa. It was a very nice 1,5 week and I saw a different side of South Africa. I also ate lots of typical South African food and snacks, a 16 gangen fish menu, lots of braais and Vetkoek, something which is quite similar to the “oliebol”.

After Reebok I went back home for Christmas and New Years, It was nice to see my family and friends for 2 weeks. For me it was very cold back home, especially in the beginning, but as a real Dutch man, you get used to the weather quite quickly. You also get used to the Dutch prices quite quickly, it’s actually shocking how expensive everything is in The Netherlands compared to South Africa.

The day I went back to the sun, back to Cape Town, a couple of friends came to the airport again! Respect and thanks for them, 6am in the morning. I bought lots of typical Dutch sweets and some souvenirs for a few people overseas and for myself I took some hagelslag and a peanut butter with me. Unfortunately my peanut butter didn’t survive the security check, because apparently they compare it with hair gel. It was the first sign for a terrible flight. My television wasn’t working for 11,5 hours and the meals were delicious as always, luckily my neighbors were very nice this time and we chatted a lot. Just before the landing the head stewardess came to me and told me that she felt sorry for me. She told me she would give me something from business class, I was hoping for a business class flight ticket, but my expectations turned out to be a little bit high. They gave me a canal house, with Jenever in it…. Anyway I arrived safely and that’s the most important thing.

When arrived back in Cape Town, it felt as a arrived back home, just like I lived here whole my life. The weather was much better than Holland, but it was maybe to hot though. Since I’m back there hasn’t been a day below the 30 degrees and I read in the paper that one day the temperature reached almost the 40 degrees. It took me a while to get used to the climate change, a difference from 30 degrees is quite heavy! At the moment the difference between Holland and Cape Town is about the 40 degrees. The warm weather is perfect for a holiday, but working in a shirt with tie and at some days even a blazer is quite tough! I also think the climate change is the main reason for the infection that I got here. I visited the doctor for it and he gave me antibiotics, it should be fine now. I’m also used to the hot weather again.

The first weeks at school had been busy, we are with three Gap Students, since Tafa and Ed left, so that means more work to do, but it was nice though.

Since I’m back I climbed the back of the table mountain, the hike was fun and the view was stunning.
A few days later Wynberg hosted the world championships of debating. There were 4 teams: Kuwait, The Philippines, Romania and The Netherlands. I showed team The Netherlands around the school and helped them when they needed me. The Netherlands won also all their debates, hopefully we can get tickets for the final.

I also started to speak Afrikaans to some teachers now, it’s amazing how similar those languages are, which sometimes also cause some problems. The pronunciation is very different and as a Dutchman you’re tempted to pronounce some words the way you’re pronounce them in Dutch.

Yesterday was a nice day to practice for me. Wynberg went to the Paarl athletics in Paarl, which is a very Afrikaans speaking area. Wynberg won a few races, but we couldn’t compete with the Afrikaanse skools. All those boys and girls were so quickly, it was ridiculous. The vibe was amazing, especially at the end when all the schools were singing there school songs. If you see how passionate and fanatic those schools are, you know that we miss something in Holland.

I’m very excited for the last 6 months of my stay, I’ve got so many nice things in the prospect. The first four months were amazing, but I think the next coming months are going to be even better!