Day 8: School Day

After a very cold start to our morning, we ended up having a nice day at school. Saturday was probably the coldest it's been since we arrived, so it's great that the temperature is climbing back up again. The classrooms are still really cold- in between classes I have to go outside in the sun to warm up!

I taught two sections of Grade 11 Life Sciences today for 4 periods total. Because of the 8 day rotation, there are some days where the students don't see certain teachers and other days where they have a double-period. Mrs. Hagen had two double sessions today and two single sessions of Grade 12 Life Sciences for 6 total class periods. The lessons were so much fun to teach! At this point in the trip, I know a lot of student names and I know a few of the students very well, so I felt very comfortable with them. They made me feel welcome and they volunteered, answered when called on, and they worked when they were supposed to. But that doesn't mean they didn't have fun- they were obsessed with MY accent and had me say so many different words and pronounce different Afrikaans names. Mrs. Hagen was quite amused because they did the same thing to her when she started teaching in South Africa four years ago.
My first lesson of the day I had Tommy Cardaman, Nathan, and Nick in class. As I started teaching, I realized that NONE of their hosts were in this class! I had Tommy and Nick in class this year and Nathan in class the last two years- I couldn't believe they wanted to put up with me again! I asked them why they were in my class and they said that it was better than being in Math :)

It was nice hearing about everyone's weekends. Each person did something a little different- it just shows how many different things there are to do in this area! I think everyone had the opportunity to go shopping; I hope by this time they are done shopping for themselves and on to buying gifts for family and friends back home! Lauren told me that Cape Town was a lot of fun- "like all of the best parts of California all in one place." I'm looking forward to hearing more about what everyone did when we're not on a hectic school schedule.

We all had the afternoon off. If the host students have a co-curricular, then it's off to practice. Otherwise I think a lot of them hang out at each others' houses or go to the Irene Mall. A group of teachers invited me out for coffee afterschool- while the boarding house is nice, it was WONDERFUL to get away from teenage boys for a couple hours :) We went to Mugg & Bean at the Irene Mall. Mrs. Hagen told me that it was the closest thing that she's had compared to Starbucks, but it still doesn't quite measure up. They do, however, have an excellent strawberry cheesecake...

When we left school, I saw Maddie and her host Roxanne hard at work after school preparing for Inter-House Athletics on Wednesday. I'll write more about it after I actually see it, but the entire school is divided into 4(?) houses that compete against one another in track events and cheers. It should be a lot of fun! Today there were red signs all over school with odd messages on them. One of the houses is red, Penzance, so they are already gearing up for the events. Apparently it gets VERY competitive.

First, we have our last official school day. We will attend classes 1-6 tomorrow morning, get lunch at the boarding house, then we will have a tour of Pretoria. Mr. Simpson's father will be our tour guide! There are a lot of great things to see in Pretoria so the students should find it interesting. It's hard to believe that the trip is winding down so quickly!

Just in case I forget to post this later: I'm not sure what type of computer access I'll have on Thursday and Friday while we are away. We will only be an hour from Irene and the facilities look impressive (check it out here), but I'm not sure if they'll have a computer that I can use- I'm going to ask Mrs. Klopper tomorrow. We are so excited for our mini-getaway and we started planning activities this weekend. Between the exhibits at Maropeng and the animals at Pilanesburg, it looks like there is still a lot more excitement in these last few days.

Hope you have a great Monday!