Nelson Mandela's cell at Robben Island

(above left: Picture of prisoners at R.I.)
<-- penguin!

(above: me and marina with penguins!!!)

(right: our birthday milkshake- notice the HUGE bug bite on my forehead, we have nicknamed it "the pimple")

Hello- I am still alive sorry for the huge slack in the blog posting. We had a very busy last two weeks that I must fill you in on. Last week was our first real week of work- which went well but was a bit of a change from slacking off for one whole week. I am working in Prep at the moment which appears to be mostly admin because the shcool year just started here. I am liking it more as I get used to it and the women in the office I work for are super nice. I am sorting the medical files, activity sheets, answering phones and right now entering parents cell phone numbers so we can send mass text messages (cell phones etc are HUGE here). In the afternoons I work in sport- which is good as long as the class is under the age of 11- trying to convince gr 12s to go swimming is pretty much impossible. It has also been really hot and since pe is always outside that can get a little tiring. Both Kady and Franzi work in the Woods (aka kindergarden) and Marina is working in sport in the am and the library in the pm (with the most hard-core librarian ever!) The week went by pretty fast- we did our traditional wednesday night out with the boarding matrons and on friday night marina and I planned to go up table mountain in the cable car to watch the sunset with a picnic dinner (it is 50% off after 6) but after cabbing all the way there we realized it was CLOSED due to wind- grrr. We were also supposed to be workign for a catering company at this huge horse race event called the JP met but we learned last friday night that it wasn't going to work out so we went out instead. The night was good- except we got a first real taste of being out of country when marinas phone got stolen out of her pocket :(. The weekend was really good except absurdly hot. We also went to see the pegnuins!!!!! with Penny and Patrick (friends from the lake) which was awesome, but possibly the windiest day ever (a tree broke at school). I was taking a picture of marina near a penguin and it was so windy she was almost blown on top of it- watching it waddle away was so cute though. It was a little wierd to see penguins in such a hot place but they really are everywhere down there. Penny and Patrick also took us out for lunch (thank you- real food!!) and we poked around in shops for a bit. Sunday night we celebrated my birthday by going to some beachside clubs and watch this band called goldfish live- who were amazing!! All in all a really fun night- we celebrated my 19th at midnight and cabbed home by 1230 in time to sleep for work the next day. My actual birthday was also quite a good day- although a little embaressing. On mon mornings we have assembly which marina and I have to attend. The new headmistress was going on a very long speech and we were a little... tired, and all of a sudden she announces my name and askes me to come down to the front to wish me happy birthday (I was in the back top balcony) so I managed to get myself all the way down there and they gave me a present and wished me a great birthday. I also got little gifts from Tribly- my "boss" in prep and Mrs. Wooley the headmisstress of prep. Mum and dad also sent me flowers :):) BIG surpise. We celebrated that night with milkshakes and cheese cake at a nice little resturant called calichias. On wednesday marina and I were in charge of a group goign to Robben Island (Nelson Mandela's prison for 18 years) it was very interesting- beautiful views of cape town, i survived the boatride and we were given a tour by an ex-prisoner. It is crazy to think what they went through such a short time ago. We are havign a quiet day today, made some brownies to take to our braai with the bishops boys tomorrow- and hopefully going to bed earlish. Planning on hiking table mountain this weekend- wish us luck!

Love to all- Hope you enjoy the pictures (Peter- our Castle castle is for you!)

xxx Heather (and some good old fashioned british love from marina as well)

Weekend + First Day of Work

At the Camp's Bay House (notice backround- Left-> right Marina, Franzi, Me, Digby (English Bishops Gap)

My room.. very patriotic

View from Camp's Bay house..... soooo nice (he is away for 3 months btw)

marina and I at the beach

Clifton Beach (table mountain backround)

Hello everyone, it is 37 degrees here and going up to 42 tomorrow- i bet many of you are jealous but guess what no air conditioning so don't be too jealous! We had a very nice weekend- Friday night went out to Long Street (a street near-ish us where everyone goes at night) and met the Bishops Gaps (our brother school). They are really nice (Englandx2, australia and SA) and it was great to meet them since we end up doing stuff together in the next couple weeks. Saturday morning marina and I hung around, organized our rooms etc. and then in the afternoon we went to the beach with Franzi (german gap) and her boyfriend and his friend (super because we got a ride!) the beach was beautiful and we got the the 4th beach which was much less busy. It was extremely hot though and the water is freezing so it wasn't really comfortable lying around and we wended up walking up and down the beach for most of the afternoon (life is so hard!). Saturday night was very low-key, good dinner, movie and then an early night to bed. Sunday we woke up early and walked down to the Green Point flea market which is a huge sunday market with anything from crafts to sunscreen. We didn't ended up buying anything but got lots of ideas (waiting for payday). Then we went home for Sunday lunch (supposed to be the best lunch of all) and in the afternoon we went out with the Bishops boys. One of the guys from England's Uncle was away and he gave him the keys to his BEAUTIFUL house that is up in camp's bay on the mountain overlooking the ocean. (about 1000 stairs) Insanely nice. Swimming in the pool overlooking the ocean on a beautiful day was a perfect end to the first week. It was nice to sit around with them getting to know them and having a glass of wine on a sunday afternoon (very different being of age here). Luckily their boss is a pretty nice guy and drove us around all afternoon. We had another relaxing time and just hung around and chatted and then Marina and I went to bed and Franzi went to fetch Kady(the australian gap) at the airport. This morning we got to meet Kady the new Gap who has just returned from an overland in eastern africa. We also started work which was good but busy. I worked Prep in the moring which at the moment= paperwork/secretary. Hopefully as school gets organized i will be able to be more int he classroom. In the afternoon I did sports which was fun except everything is outside so sooooooooooooo hot. It is difficult time trialing children swimming when you are practically melting yourself. Also i have a new appreciation for teachers that stay after school for sports when really all you want to do is go home and relax. Tonight we are off to dinner with Jenn Wallace (our boss) to regroup and the head of sport- Sarie just because we are all working for her. The rest of the week looks pretty similar except i am joining marina on a trip to a township childrens hospital on thursday (hopefully it is part of library but i am hoping i will be able to join in). It should be very eye-opening and an amazing experience. Also this saturday we are working at the horse race festival that is here. (HUGE EVENT) We are working for a cataring company so helping prepare food and serving- apparently it is hard work but quite fun and a little extra money+ good food. I think birthday celebrations will follow on sunday.

I will keep you posted- i am missing snow a bit... feels like i should be going to the lake any day now. Love to everyone xx

Hello Everybody- Thank you all for your comments it was great to hear from everyone. I think you should all visit so you can see how incredible that mountain really is- and experience the INSANE wind (weather forecast for today: Gale force southeasterly winds reaching 65km/h or 35kt are expected between Table Bay and Cape Agulhas.) . The trees actually grow sideways here because it is so wind! Things have been going quite well since I last posted- instead of going to bed early like i planned we actually ended up going out for a drinks and dancing with the girls who work in the dorm and some of their capetonian friends which was really fun! It was nice to meet new people and the place we went was very fancy so it was fun to get dressed up and go out together. And afterwards I had a terrific sleep which I was very happy about and made for a better day. We continued to sell books with this women called Cherry who is hilarious because she is VERY stern about the dress code and the girls try valiantly to break it but she manages to catch every single bracelet, ring, short skirt, wrong tights and messy hair there is. I think as a student it would be quite frustrating but being on the other side is quite entertaining. Afterwards marina and I did some groceries including figure out my cell phone and buying a 16R bottle of wine (2.30 CND) for dinner tonight- which should be interesting (or awful according to NIna's mum). Last night was also our dinner with Nel and Nina which was very fun. Nel drove us to their house showing us all the sights on the way incluing the hospital where the first heart transplant was ever done! There house is very nice and has a pool which we are hoping we can swim in at some point.... We went to a nice small italian place on the waterfront and had huge pizzas which were very yummy both last night and this afternoon! Great to see both of them and very nice to be around a mum again- and as she is a teacher she can give us a bit of inside scoop. Today we worked with the sports department because the Jrs. did their sports trials to day (swimming, running, high jump and long jump ) because their sports day is coming up. An 11 year old girl managed to jump 4m today- extremely impressive. We got off early and so Marina and I set off to Camp's bay a beachy area on the other side of Table Mountain. It was lovely out today 30 degrees - very windy however, we were on the beach and it was like being pelted by tiny needles because the sand was blowing at us. and the water is freezing!!!!! But we had a good poke around and had the most amazing icecream at this place called sinful. Afterwards we decided to walk a bit towards the waterfront of cape town (on the other side of table mountain) until we got tired and then we could call a cab (no public transport here so we a pinching pennies a bit when it comes to cabs). So we decided to follow the water and ended up walking for 3 HOURS 10+km to the waterfront. We were just chatting and having a good time and we kept saying things like "just around the bend". It ended up being a really beautiful walk and a lot of fun plus we are feeling like we burnt off our icecream and got some physical activity. We looked around the waterfront mall for a bit (you could be anywhere in the world in that mall- much cooler shops than at home) and i tried to buy flip flops (because mine kept breaking during our adventure) but they all cost at least 140R which is wayy to much- if only they had an old navy. Finally we cabbed back to Gardens (shopping area new St. Cyps) and fought gale winds while walking up to the school (very much uphill). We made it back in one piece with lots of stories to tell. Tonight we are going to meet Nina at a club called Tin Roof and tomorrow we are planning to go to the beach for the day (a sheltered one!). Plans for Sunday are up in the air- perhaps seeing the penguins with Nina. I am very upset with myself because i FORGOT my camera :( so weve agreed to do it again to capture the amazing scenery! Hope all is well at home- stay in touch! Looking forward to calling Ottawa this weekend, it has been too long. Oh and I saw my first uncaptured Zebra!!! (they are apparently are v. common here but i freaked out like a true tourist!)

Love Heather

First Days in Cape Town

**School Front, Does NOT do it justice!

**Courtyard in middle of school building (this one is the main one but there are 4 other ones throughout the school, the pond in the middle has real goldfish and this one is kinda the center of the entire school, all the other hallways surround it or come off of it

**front of School, (from the side)table mountain in backround

**Soccar field, with more table mountain and school building

**again,

**Again, Note: "Tablecloth"

**Back of School Grounds

Hello All,

Sorry it has taken me this long to post anything but i have arrived!! Honestly I think I've been staying away from the computer/phone in order to avoid homesickness but today was a good day so I am feeling less like skipping the country. (bound to completely wear off in a weeks time). Since I got here we have been pretty busy. I arrived at 12:30ish SA time on Monday night (5:30 CND time) and tried to go to sleep immediatly since I had not sle[t at all on the plane- needless to say it did not work out quite the way I wanted. (also added humidity and bird noises!) but I was able to sleep till 9 on tues morning because the students had yet to arrive. I was able to fully shower and unpack and home-ify my room. Then we met with Jenn, my boss here. She is super nice but very busy right now because she had 7 exchanges that arrived that day and they were having a bit of a hard time, plus she is head of matric (what gr 12 is called here) and they have a lot of responsibilities within the school (almost more than us gaps to be honest haha) Aftwerwards we sold books to the students which apparently is a HUGE job since each student from gr 4 up needs like 10 books (makes university book buying look small). Luckily we don't have to deal with money since both marina and I are completely lost on how rands work. Last night we played some games, chatted, hug out with the dorm girls (girls who are around our age that are hired to work in the dorms- they come to our place because we have a common room/kitchen/tv/computer etc) and watched a bit of Tv. I was pretty tired so decided to go to bed around 10- but apparently I am still on Canada time cuz I fell asleep at 3:30 am.. But today hasn't been to rough suprisingly. LOTS of work selling books again and then in the afternoon we went down to long street (a street full of shops and markets- kind a hot spot) It was pretty nice and soooooooooooooooo hot today which made for nice walking. Also the mountains around here a spectacular and very fun to look at. We just got back from dinner- (meals have been very good so far) and i think it will be a quiet night with an gravol around 8:30 that will hopefully put me on SA time by 9:30. Tomorrow Marina and I are going over to Nina's for dinner (I have been working a bit with Nel- her mom who invited us) Also I am goign tio try to rope nina into going to VOtacom with me because I have bought a cell phone plan but I am unable to text long distance... which was a large portion of the point. So hopefully I can get that sorted. I took some pictures of the shcool/campus so you can see how beautiful it is. Sorry mum no people pictures this time but I promise some to come! Love to all I miss you guys!!

x Heather

ps. There are open courtyards in the middle of the school building which are really beautiful but right now it is so windy it is blowing everyone's stuff everywhere haha

Packing

Wednesday, January 9th

4 Days till take off and I am trying to pack. So far one suitcase weighs 46 pounds and the other weighs 50 pounds (limit is 50) and still a bit of laundry to go in. Looks like I may have to take some hoodies out and so much for bringing Grey's Anatomy dvds.