Half Way

Well i have been here for about 25 or so days, so i am about half done my stay here. This is a real buzz kill, because i would much rather stay here for a year or so. I'm making really good friends, which I'm going to have to leave in a month, probably never to see them again. So that's a bummer, but at least i still have a few more weeks here.
Last weekend, on Thursday, I went to Plush, which was really cool. They are this chill South African band, with a good sound. I met the singer, and i told him that I'd bring them back to Canada. They were really cool guys. Also, that night I had the first McDonnalds since I've gotten here, which was a good taste of home. I had the McFeast, which was pretty intense lol. That night we went out in Stellenbosch, which i found pretty boring and lame, but oh well. We got home at 3, on a school night which was pretty gay because i was so tired the next morning.
So on Friday it was Founders Day, so it was half a day of school, and no classes. I just sat in the back of the hall and talked with people lol. Then that night we went to the Grade Ten Social, which was a dance at the hall. The theme of the dance was Neon, so i put on lime green hockey socks, and a shirt with random colours. It was a fun time, but for some reason, in South Africa guys seem to dance with guys, and girls dance with girls. It was pretty awkward. And the only music they play is Techno Drum and Bass, which is really hard to dance to. So you can guess how cool i looked as i danced.
And on Saturday, we went to the British Leaving Party. The party was really lame, like a 10 guys to 1 girl ratio, which was really awkward in the dance area of the party. One girl walks in and every guy surrounds her. I laughed when that happened to the Canadian girls though, because it was hilarious to see how awkward they were. But all in all, the party sucked, but it was good to say goodbye to the Britts, Jack Carr and Chris Roy. Hopefully next year on the Europe trip, they can stop by and say Hi. It sucks because the odds are that i will never see them again.
I really want to go shopping this week, and go to District 9 while I'm in South Africa, because it will be cool being in the country of the film. I still have to buy things for people, and for my parents, but I will get on that. Well it's ten to nine now, so I have to go. I will post again when something interesting happens. Peace out!

Exchange Weekend

Last Thursday, we went on an Exchange Weekend. It was one of the best weekends ever. The first day started with a lot of driving. We drove from the school to Tsitsikamma where we hung out at a huge log cabin resort area. They had a volleyball net, but a flat volleyball. We still attempted to play, but it was sweet because the Canadians were the only ones who play it at the school so we destroyed lol. After that we went to the campfire and we sang songs. I started out by singing O Canada, and then all of the representatives from other countries sang there national anthem. Then we kept singing different songs, and the manager brought out a guitar, which was a good time. When we got bored, we went inside where there was a bar, a pool table, a fooseball table, and a dart board. We started a country fooseball tournament, but Kori and I represented Canada and lost to Jack and Chris Roy, the Britts. It was 10-9, so it was a pretty close game. That night the guys had to head to our houses, about three blocks away. We stayed in this house area, with a bunch of different rooms and beds. Three people had to stay outside in a hut, so Ryan (South African), Charles (Australian), and I stayed there. It was good because we got first dibs for showers in the morning. The next day we head out to the Tsitsikamma Canopy Tour, which was so much fun. you are harnessed in, and you zip line from tree to tree, which are 90 meters high. It was so much fun, and was cool because i didn't get nervous. On one of the courses, i didn't break fast enough and i got stopped by the emergency break. So that was interesting. A solid stop was not comfortable with the harness lol. After we had a lunch and then shopped around the area. We then drove to Knysna, where we went to the Knysna Elephant Park. We got to go feed the elephants which was really cool. The stupid biggest elephants wouldn't let me feed the baby one. They stole the apple from my hand. So a girl and I tricked the bigger elephants. I pretended to have something and then she ran in to the baby and fed it. It was great lol. Then we went to restaurant and ordered drinks, then chilled out on the deck. It started out with Chris Roy, Adrian, Melissa Rabe, and Tristan hanging out on the deck. I got a cream soda, which is green here. I told them it's pink in Canada and they thought it was really messed up. I was so confused. We must have been a big deal, because eventually everyone came and sat with us. We played a tap game, which i guess is a drinking game, but everyone had fun still. We were called to go to supper, where a man read a 20 minute poem about elephants. It was very good, and it was surprising he had it memorized. After i was going to buy a copy of the poem, but it was 400 rand, which i didn't want to spend. Then the original gang, being Chris, Adrian, Melissa, Nicole, Emke, and I went and chilled in a veranda with straw chairs and such. We talked about awkward stories and told jokes. Eventually, everyone came and ruined the vibe. For shame. Then after, the guys had our Nightly Meeting, and the girls were listening through the walls. Lol. The next day we went on a ferry ride to Featherbed Nature Reserve. After the ferry, we got on a huge truck thing, that took us up and showed us things. We got off and walked down the hill and again, we saw a jubilee of things. On the way down i rolled my ankle something fierce. I was telling the people to be careful of a root sticking out, and while i was warning them, I twisted the ankle. I limped down the rest of the way, and we went to this huge cave. It was really sweet, we got a few good pictures in there. Jack, Chris Roy, Adrian, and I took matching pictures so we will all have matching profile pictures FTW. After we walked along the coastline. When we got back to the lodge, we had chicken burgers and chips. We then took the ferry back to main land and went to the Featherbed Mall. I was going to buy a really sweet hoodie, but it was 600 rand so i didn't. I want to go shopping so i can buy some shirts, because they are insanely cheap here. After shopping we drove to Wilderness Resort where we went swimming in the Indian Ocean. The waves were insane! Like way over my head, and the current was very strong. After that we went back and just hung out with eachother. Made a lot of really good friends, from all around the world. That night we played pool, had pizza, and just relaxed. On the way home we went to the Cango Caves. It was a bunch of underground caverns and such. Really cool. I wanted to go on the Adventure tour, where you have to crawl and squeeze through small caves, but we could only have 25 people, and i didn't want to hurt my ankle. It was still pretty cool though. On the way home i compared iPods with Melissa and listened to a bunch of new music. Pretty sweet lol.
So that was my weekend. A lot has happened since this, but i will make a new post with that later. Sorry this took a long time. Peace out!
P.S. Ollie from Australia says Hi!

Week Two

I have been in South Africa for two weeks now. It has been amazing so far. I haven't really done that much since the last post. I have been going to school here. The classes are a lot more fun then in Canada, or at least they are fun when you aren't expected to do work. I go to Music, Drama, Home EC, Math, and English. The fun thing is that you don't have to go to class if you don't feel like it. For example, I'm writing this post during second class. So it is pretty slack, but the classes are still really fun to go to, so I try to go to most of them. This weekend we went to a party at this girls house. It was a James Bond themed party. It had music and snacks and such, and people just chilled inside with the music or outside on the deck. It was awkward because i didn't really know anyone that well, so i just looked like a loser standing around lol. But the party was still pretty cool. The party was just for the grade 10 class, so there was about seventy or eighty kids there. Pretty huge class.

Two days ago i went for a walk up in the mountain/forest area in the backyard. They have a river going through the mountains and goes really close to there house too. I found a really sweet spot by the river. I just chilled out for half an hour or so, it was really cool. The nature and the scenery is so amazing. The only thing i hate about the environment is it is a very polluted area. The river looks so amazing from one angle, but if you turn around there is garbage everywhere. It's a total buzz kill.

My normal day starts off at 5:15 in the morning, so i can have a bath. Not a shower, a bath. It's very weird, i don't like it lol. I have breakfast and get on the bus by 6:50. We have to drive to the bus station, so we leave his house by 6:30. The bus ride is long. We get to school at about 7:40, and school starts at ten to 8:00. I have the classes and the breaks and stuff, and get done school at 2:50. Then i have to wait at the school until 4:00 so i can catch the bus home. I get back at the bus station at 5:15, and then get a ride home so i am home at 5:30. We have about an hour or a half an hour until supper, which is usually at 6:00 or 6:30. In that hour, me and Adrian usually play ping pong, which i get schooled in. The best score i have had is 22-20, so i almost won. We finish supper at about 7:00 or 7:30, so we go up and play ping pong again, or Adrian does homework. Usually i check facebook in that time, because I can only check it after 7:00 because they have dial up. We head to the cottage at 8:00 or 8:30, so I go to bed insanely early, which is weird because I am not used to that. But that is my average day.

Today is different though, I am playing the drums in a concert tonight. The exchange students are opening a concert tonight, playing the African drums. Curtis, the German exchange is doing the drum solo. He's hardcore at it too lol. So after school today, Adrian and I are going to Leonard's house, who's exchange is Chris Roy, the British exchange. We are hanging out there until 6:00 where we have to go to practice. I am stoked because we are having pizza tonight, and pizza is one of the closest things to home food, although pizza is Italian, it feels like it should be Canadian. I still miss good cheese burgers, i haven't been able to stop by McD's, and i miss our Timmy Ho's, but i will try to manage for the next few weeks.
Tomorrow we leave on our exchange weekend. We miss two days of school FTW and get to go do a bunch of crazy activities. We go on a canopy tour, where we zip line over stuff and things lol. I don't really know exactly what we do, but it sounds like a good time. There is about forty students going, twenty foreigners as we are called and twenty African children lol.
I will post again on Monday.
See ya

The Cape and School

Yesterday I went to Cape Town with the exchange students. There is a total of fourteen of us. The four Canadians, two Brits, three French, two New Zealanders, one Aussie, two Dutch girls, and one German guy. We first went to Street Beads, which is a bead art factory. They make everything into bead art. Supposedly they were featured on Oprah, and are all over the world. They had some really cool things, and they are coming for a workshop soon, where we get to bead stuff.
After that, we were going to go to Green Market Square, but it was pouring rain, so we decided not to. We were also going to go to the Castle, but we figured it was too wet and people didn't want to. So instead we went to Waterfront. There is a nice view of Table Mountain, and it is a really sweet place. We went to the mall there, and it was huge. So instead of school, we got to go run through the mall, so really sick day.
First thing, some of us went to the Pancake Restaurant. It was really cool, they had savoury and sweet pancakes. I didn't get anything because i am cheap, but i had a milkshake. It was a really cool restaurant though.
After we went back to the mall to the theater and went to the Hangover. Second time I've seen it, and it was pretty funny. The theater tickets were 15 rand, so like $2.50 Canadian. Pretty cheap movie.
When the movie was over, we went shopping for a while. We went to a music store, and it was embarrassing. They are so far behind us in the media it's insane. I went to the Billabong store and i bought a watch. 950 rand, so like $130 Canadian. It was expensive, but i was so lost for time that i figured i needed one.
Today was my first full day of school. The first two classes was Afrikaans, so the exchange students went to a dorm room and watched a movie called Tsutsi. South African movie, and it was surprisingly quite well done. I thought it was decent at least. After the movie I went to music class, which was pretty slack because the teacher was sick. It was a lot of fun though, because they had a spare guitar i borrowed. We played My Guardian Angel by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, and a bunch of other songs i knew. I wish we had a class like it in Canada, Band just isn't the same. There assignments were to make nursery rhymes into songs. I helped the one girl get Rain Rain Go Away into a song. Sounded pretty sweet. After Music, we had English, then Math. Last class we were late, so instead of walking in we went and chilled in the Library. But anyways i have to catch the bus home.
See Ya

First Days

I left for South Africa on August 5th. We flew to Calgary and then to London. We stayed in London for 10 hours, so we went to Megan's dad Kevin's house. It was really cool. We walked around the town and had fish and chips. Then we drove back to the air port for a 12 hour flight. It was pretty brutal. Little to no leg room, and three tiny tv screens, with distorted colors, only playing 17 Again. We arrived in Cape Town at 12 noon. I met up with my exchange family, and we drove through some towns and such. There are tons of fruit farms and vineyards. We met up with his sisters at there "flat". I'm trying to get used to there different terms for words. Torch means Flashlight, Jersey means Sweater, Bucky means Truck, it's all different. We also drove by "Squater Camps". These are the places the poor black people live. They come from other places of South Africa to work, and they bring nothing. They build there houses out of tin, scrap metal, and other junk. Supposedly it is quite dangerous and you do not want to end up in them if you are white. Driving down the streets of Cape Town and other suburbs, is very different. They have razor wire or electric wire along the tops of the fences and walls. Most of the houses are very rustic and old.
We got to my family's house, and it was quite big. It is crazy long, much longer then most houses in Canada. Every room has a door that goes to there back yard. They have a pool outside, but since it is there winter, they don't have it cleaned. The yard is nice, with a bunch of different plants. If you go past the wall of trees, there is a bunch of wild plants and a river going through.
I was dying of jet lag so i went back to the house i am staying in to sleep. It is small, but it is very cool. There is a king size bed, a few chairs and seats, a mini fridge, a microwave, and a bathroom. I fell asleep, but was woken up an hour later to go to the Pops Concert. It was a concert that had students from Somerset West College performing. It was pretty cool. They played a lot of American and some Canadian music. They played Riot by Three Days Grace. Some guys played Are You Going To Be My Girl? by Jet and completely butchered it. We head back home and i fell asleep instantly.
The next day we just relaxed at the farm. We hiked up the mountain in the back yard, which was really cool, but tiring. We took a long way back and went through the forest area. There was a river going through and wooden made bridges to we could get to either side. Lots of cool animals running around.
The next day we got up early and head to Cape Point. It's one of the most southern points in South Africa. You can see the Atlantic all around you, the Indian is just around the mountains. The view was absolutely amazing. I took a lot of pictures, i can't publish them on Facebook yet, but i will when i can. That day we also went to see penguins, which was unreal. On the drive, i saw baboons on the side of the road. So crazy lol. There are shops outside, with hand made crafts and jewellery. They have so many cool things to buy there, i will bring a lot home. I feel like a crazy tourist, because I've taken more pictures i probably have ever taken in my life.
Today was my first day at school. First class was math. They were taking graphing, stuff that i knew how to do, so i felt very smart. After that we had History, but five minutes in Chris, a British exchange student, told me that we had to go to the Exchange meeting thing. We went on a bus and head to Spier, so i missed the day FTW. We went to a Birds of Prey farm. It was awesome, they had owls and other birds that landed on our hands. He pulled out a vulture, and it flew out and landed on my head. This is a huge freaking bird. Quite an interesting experience, but it happened. Kirstin was terrified so she ran away. There was another vulture with a 2.5 meter wingspan. I was glad that it didn't land on my head. After the birds of prey, we went next door to the Cheetah Outreach farm. Se paid 90 rand, and we got to pet the cheetah. While i was petting it, a motorcycle drove by and it scared it, so it jumped up and got everyone panicked. I was stoked lol. After we went to a restaurant to get drinks. The seats were awesome, they had really long bottoms, and small pillow sized backs, so you essentially layed down when you sat there. Quite relaxing. A squirrel was running through too, because everything is outdoors. I got the bubblegum milkshake, which was pretty gross, not gonna lie. After we went to a deli and i got a "roll", which is bread, and put meat and cheese to have a sub. After we head back to school for the last class, which was drumming. It was unreal. All of the exchange students take it. There are two students from England, one from Germany, about four from France, two from New Zealand, and one from Australia.
I don't have hi speed at the farm, so i will make new posts when i can.
Peace out Canada.