Wellyna and I are finally starting to settle in at VG and here in Grahamstown. We've been here about a month and are teaching on a quite frequent basis. It hardly seems like I've been here (and away from home!) for a whole month! The learners at VG still have a hard time saying my last name, but then again, I only see one quarter of them on any sort of regular basis in class. The ladies I have in class all know how to say my name by now and if they hesitate at all, Jillian puts them in their place :P This week went by super quickly and definitely faster than the others have gone.
Wellyna and I are definitely ready to get out of Grahamstown again and she's been in touch with her friend's who are student teaching in Port Elizabeth. We are hoping to make a weekend excursion to PE next weekend. There is a shuttle that goes between PE and Grahamstown that doesn't cost a whole lot if we go when it is scheduled. It is the same shuttle that we can call and schedule a trip at any other time, but it would cost more money. We are also beginning to plan for our week off in April. The other COST student, Laura, will have joined us by then and so we're hoping she has that same week off and can come with us on the trip.
I think we've decided that we're going to rent a car for that week, which means we will have to learn how to drive here! Thankfully, Mrs. McConnachie, one of the music teachers, has offered to teach us to drive, we just have to find a time we can all go and with her having three kids, one a 7 month old baby, that might turn out to be difficult :/ Almost all of the cars here are manual, which I've only ever driven a limit number of minutes at a time and which Wellyna has not yet driven. Hopefully we'll get some pictures of the adventure of learning how to drive. Plus, the drivers side is on the right side of the car, which means the stick shift will be in our left hand which I haven't even experienced. It'll be fun.
The learners have a short week because all boarders have to go home this weekend for "leave-out," so none of them have to come to school on Friday unless they have detention. The teachers still have to come and they call it a "project day" for the teachers. It is basically an admin day to get everything done. I will probably use that day to reflect on my teaching and figure out if there are things I need to do differently in the classroom. So far, I've noticed that I have a really hard time with timing and I often run out of time before we have time to work on a worksheet or finish the lesson. I also have trouble starting lessons effectively, but I think that's getting better after this week of focusing on that.
Earlier this week, Wellyna and I walked around and explored the neighborhood some, then made our way "downtown." We explored a little down there and decided to go to a Mexican restaurant for lunch. While we were there a storm came out of nowhere and the power went out! The skies were literally clear blue with no clouds and then we started seeing some clouds and 15 minutes later we were in the midst of a thunderstorm and the power went out! It came back on like, 30 minutes later, but it was rainy the rest of the day. I decided to try the beer of the nation while we were at lunch. It was a little reminder of EIU, if you can catch my reference based on the picture :) Like Budweiser is the most commonly seen beer product in America, this brand is the most commonly seen and advertised for beer here in South Africa. They even offer it free of charge on South African Airways (which was the short flight I took from Johannesburg to PE)!
We celebrated a colleagues birthday on Thursday night for a little bit and we are headed to her house this afternoon to celebrate some more with a braai! We got some pre-marinated chicken kabobs from the grocery store yesterday on our way home and one of the other teachers is picking us up in just a couple hours!
Cheers!
:)
--Anna
Wellyna and I are definitely ready to get out of Grahamstown again and she's been in touch with her friend's who are student teaching in Port Elizabeth. We are hoping to make a weekend excursion to PE next weekend. There is a shuttle that goes between PE and Grahamstown that doesn't cost a whole lot if we go when it is scheduled. It is the same shuttle that we can call and schedule a trip at any other time, but it would cost more money. We are also beginning to plan for our week off in April. The other COST student, Laura, will have joined us by then and so we're hoping she has that same week off and can come with us on the trip.
I think we've decided that we're going to rent a car for that week, which means we will have to learn how to drive here! Thankfully, Mrs. McConnachie, one of the music teachers, has offered to teach us to drive, we just have to find a time we can all go and with her having three kids, one a 7 month old baby, that might turn out to be difficult :/ Almost all of the cars here are manual, which I've only ever driven a limit number of minutes at a time and which Wellyna has not yet driven. Hopefully we'll get some pictures of the adventure of learning how to drive. Plus, the drivers side is on the right side of the car, which means the stick shift will be in our left hand which I haven't even experienced. It'll be fun.
The learners have a short week because all boarders have to go home this weekend for "leave-out," so none of them have to come to school on Friday unless they have detention. The teachers still have to come and they call it a "project day" for the teachers. It is basically an admin day to get everything done. I will probably use that day to reflect on my teaching and figure out if there are things I need to do differently in the classroom. So far, I've noticed that I have a really hard time with timing and I often run out of time before we have time to work on a worksheet or finish the lesson. I also have trouble starting lessons effectively, but I think that's getting better after this week of focusing on that.
Earlier this week, Wellyna and I walked around and explored the neighborhood some, then made our way "downtown." We explored a little down there and decided to go to a Mexican restaurant for lunch. While we were there a storm came out of nowhere and the power went out! The skies were literally clear blue with no clouds and then we started seeing some clouds and 15 minutes later we were in the midst of a thunderstorm and the power went out! It came back on like, 30 minutes later, but it was rainy the rest of the day. I decided to try the beer of the nation while we were at lunch. It was a little reminder of EIU, if you can catch my reference based on the picture :) Like Budweiser is the most commonly seen beer product in America, this brand is the most commonly seen and advertised for beer here in South Africa. They even offer it free of charge on South African Airways (which was the short flight I took from Johannesburg to PE)!
We celebrated a colleagues birthday on Thursday night for a little bit and we are headed to her house this afternoon to celebrate some more with a braai! We got some pre-marinated chicken kabobs from the grocery store yesterday on our way home and one of the other teachers is picking us up in just a couple hours!
Cheers!
:)
--Anna
