To be continued...

I would like to start this post by apologising for not having written for you guys in a long time. I do have a valid reason for this though. It is very hard for me to say this, but unfortunately this will be my last blog post that I will be writing for you guys. This is because I'm not in South Africa anymore, but I'm back in Holland. I have been back for a little over a week now. You guys are probably all very confused now and that is why I will explain more about the situation. 

On friday the 24th of January I received some bad news from home, which led to me needing to go home. I was not forced by anyone to go back, it was my own decision. Due to privacy reasons I'm not going to write about what specifically happened and I would very much appreciate if you could understand and not try to ask any further questions about it. I do want to mention that everyone is healthy, so don't worry about that. 

For those of you who did not know about all of this you are probably quite shocked right now. I can tell you that I was very shocked too and I would have never in a million years expected this to happen. 

Now that I'm sitting here on my couch I realise what an amazing experience it was, even with the fact that I was only in Cape Town for two weeks (instead of eight). I met so many lovely people that I will never forget and experienced so many things that I will cherish forever. It is really true that you don't realise what you have until it is gone. 

This was unfortunately not my trip of a lifetime, but it was pretty damn close! My trip has ended, but life still goes on and so will I. I'm so incredibly grateful for all the people, who made my trip worthwhile and as I said I will never forget you! Also I would like to add that I'm definitely going back someday and do all the things I did not get a chance to do, hence the title of this post.

Thank you so much to the people who read my blog. It means the world to me. 

Sincerely,

Paulina

Stellenbosch, The Waterfront 2.0 and The Schoolhouses

Before I start my post I really just want to say how grateful I am for all the people who read and comment on my blog. I did not know I could do this, but Rachel told me how to see on my account how many people read my blog. I was completely shocked when I saw the number 539!!!! I really can't believe that so many people read my blog. It makes me feel so motivated and it definitely  keeps me going! So thank you :)

Stellenbosch market

Now for the actual blog post. This last weekend Sara and her family took me to Stellenbosch. Stellenbosch is about 50 km east of Cape Town. It is a beautiful place surrounded by beautiful vineyards and huge mountains. It is mostly famous for the university there. In Stellenbosch, which I would describe as a mixture of the French countryside and the California mountains, we visited a little market At the market they sold everything from clothes to garden ornaments. A part of the market was completely dedicated to food. They sold Chinese food, American food, Italian food, Indian food and even Dutch food, including "kroketten" and "oliebollen". We walked around the market for some time and then went to another part of Stellenbosch to have lunch at an Italian restaurant. Then around three o'clock, while we were driving home we decided that we wanted to go the Waterfront for the rest of the day. We first went home to freshen up a little as we were all quite sweaty from walking around in the heat. Oh yeah, I think I forgot to say that it was 33 degrees celsius that day. However it seemed to me that the native South-Africans I was with were complaining more about the heat than I was, which is weird seeing as they live in the heat the whole year round and I come from a country where summer is basically non-excisting. After freshening up we headed off to the Waterfront. 

The view of the Waterfront from the boat

As you would know, if you have read my last blog posts, I had already been to the Waterfront before. However this time we did not only walk around and visit the mall, but we also went on a boat tour of the harbour. It was a lovely way to see not only the harbour itself, but also to see the Waterfront with Table Mountain in the background. After the tour we went for dinner at a sea food restaurant and then headed back home. 

We passed the beach on the way back and decided to watch the sunset on the beach. It was one of the prettiest views I've ever seen, but unfortunately due to the sudden change in weather we did not stay too long, because it was way too windy and cold for what we were wearing (shorts and a t-shirt). All in all it was a great day and I'm really thankful to my host family for showing me around. Seeing more of South-Africa makes me realise how beautiful this country is. It makes me fall in love with it even more. 

Table Mountain at sunset

Jagger Cupcake 

Today (wednesday 22 January) we had to wear our house t-shirts to school. You must be wondering what the hell house t-shirts are. House t-shirts are t-shirts, which each represent a house in the school. A house is nothing more than a group of girls, who for example during inter house competitions belong together as a team. They also have their own cheer, which is supposed impress the other houses. At Herschel there are four different houses: Carta, Merriman, Rolt and Jagger. Sara belongs to the Jagger house, which means that I'm also a part of that one. The reason for us wearing our house t-shirts today is that it was house introducing day. Each house had to present their cheer to the other houses and then we all got cupcakes. The funny thing is though is that neither me nor Rachel, who was also part of Jagger, knew the cheer. So we just awkwardly looked around us and tried to join some of the clapping. I can tell you, it was not a pretty sight. We enjoyed the cupcakes though. 


Congratulations, you made it to the end of this very long post. Hope you enjoyed it :) Talk to you later!


Sincerely,

Paulina

The school Herschel

I just read my second blog post again and realised that I did not really tell you a lot about the school and all that comes with it. Maybe you disagree, but that is just too bad for you. 

First of all I need to tell you about the times of the lessons. School starts officially at twenty minutes to eight. Your first "lesson" is not really a lesson. It is called tutor class and it is basically a lesson in which you get informed about new events coming up, new schedules, the latest news about the school and they check if everybody is present. I would say that it is comparable to our "mentorles", which we have at my school in Holland. Only we have it once a week, not every day. After tutor class, the actual school part starts. In a day you usually have about seven or eight lessons and there are two breaks in between, a little one from 10:05 until 10:20 am and a big one from 12:35 until 13:30 pm. School ends at 15:00 pm, but lots of girls don't go home then because they have after school activities, which they also do at school. It is not like in Holland that kids go home after school and then go elsewhere to do their after school activities, no here everything is at school. You can do sports like basketball, field hockey, netball, water polo and swimming and then there are also more cultural activities such as choir, singing, orchestra and drama/musical. I'm probably leaving a lot of activities out, but these are the ones that I've heard of so far. 

Another important and especially crucial thing for me is that during the day the school bell only rings to mark the beginning of school, the beginning and end of the two breaks and the end of school. So this means that I have no clue as to when my classes start and when they end, because the bell does not ring in between classes. To me it seems like the teachers don't know either. I think this because the other day when I was in drama class the teacher went fifteen minutes overtime and then made me twenty minutes late for my next class! It just all seems very inconvenient to me. 

The classes themselves are very small. In Holland I'm usually in a class with at least twenty-five people. Here none of the classes I've been in have been bigger than twenty people. Also the classes are a lot more quiet and usually the only thing you hear is the teacher talking. What I do have to say though is that not a lot of the people here raise their hand when they want to say something, they just say it instead. This kind of surprised me seeing as the school is so proper. 

On wednesday the 15th of January we had eucharist during school. You must be wondering what the hell that is. Well, eucharist is a lovely church service which takes only two hours in which you sing beautiful hymns and say inspirational prayers. If you did not realise that the last sentence consisted entirely of sarcasm then I have nothing to say to you. Thankfully eucharist is only at the beginning and end of the term and for special occasions. So if the forces are with me I won't be going back to eucharist again. 

Me in my school uniform

The uniforms. What to say about them. My uniform consists of a greyish/greenish/ blueish coloured dress, which has short sleeves and comes to a little bit above the knee. Then you also have a blazer in the same colour as the dress, but you only wear that for special occasions or if you just want to wear it. These very flattering clothing items are then accompanied by fawn (beige grey) coloured socks and very elegant and comfortable brown leather shoes. Again if you didn't catch the sarcasm there then you and me are probably not going to get along. Even though the uniform might not be the most comfortable or prettiest thing there is, it is actually quite nice to not have to worry about what you are wearing to school and because everyone wears the same thing we are all just badly dressed together. 

This is it for now about the school. I'm sure I'll tell you guys more about it in the future, but for now I think it is enough. Sorry if I've bored you with this post, because you were probably expecting something more thrilling and adventurous. However I promise that those stories will come. They just have not happened yet. 

Sincerely,

Paulina     

The First Three Days

15/01/'14

Hello again! It has been three days since I last posted something on here, so I figured that I should probably write something today. I'm going to tell you about my first three days in South-Africa. Well actually it has only been two days, because the first day we just sat on the airplane for eleven hours. Let me just start at the beginning, for I don't want to skip telling you about anything. 

Our airplane at Schiphol

Day one. Day one was a day of mixed emotions. I was excited about going on this great adventure, sad about leaving my family and friends and nervous, because I did not really know what was awaiting me. I woke up very early on monday morning (January 13) and headed off to the airport. I then had to say goodbye to my family and leave them behind, which was quite sad now that I think about it, but because I was so overwhelmed by all the things I was feeling I was just kind of blinded to the fact that I was actually not going to see them for two months. Anyway, after I said my goodbyes Rachel and I briefly went into the shops at the airport and then went to our gate. For the people who don't know who Rachel is, she is my exchange buddy and she is also from Holland. She attends the same school as I do as well as in Holland as in Cape Town. Then we basically spent the whole day sitting in the plane and watching some movies. The time flew by and before we knew it we were there. 

Then came the greeting of our host families. Sara, who is the girl that came from Cape Town to stay at my house for two months, was at the airport with her family. They were all very kind and it was especially nice to see Sara again. After we drove home from the airport I just unpacked and then went to bed, because I was really tired!

View from my window

Day two. Day two started off with me eating my breakfast outside in the SUN! That was so nice, especially after coming from a miserably cold and rainy climate. Afterwards Sara took me to a shopping mall near school. This mall is called Cavendish. When she was finished with giving me a tour of the mall we walked to school. The school that I'm attending here is called 'Herschel Girls' School'. It is an all girls school and in my mind could easily, judged by its appearance, be qualified as a hotel. Not only the school building itself is pretty, but the area surrounding it is also lovely. It is very green and has amazing school facilities, such as a big swimming pool, an indoor gym and an outdoor hockey field. We went to school so Sara could big up her books, as it was the day before school started after her summer holiday and to pick up my uniform. At school I met a lot of girls, but there were so many of them at the same time that I could not for the life of me remember all their names. 

The Waterfront (Rachel, Sara, me, Jemma)

After going to school we went back home for a bit and then went to the Waterfront with Rachel and Jemma, who is Rachel's exchange host. The Waterfront is basically a shopping area near a harbour. It was a very hot day, but we still managed to walk around quite a bit. We went into another mall there and went into some souvenir shops. The one thing that really stood out to me when I was there was that there were security guards everywhere and when I asked Sara why there were so many security guards she replied: "Because this is South-Africa." 

Herschel Girls' School

Day three. Day three was my first day of school. It was my first day of wearing a uniform ever in my life. It was the first day that I attended an all girls school and it was the first time that I was in a school where there was a clear and very much respected what I would like to call 'school-hierarchy'. Let's just say it was a big day of firsts. At the beginning of the day we went to assembly, which is basically when the whole school gets together in the theatre and listens to what the people at the top of the school-hierarchy (like the principal, arch-bishop, head girl and other teachers or members of the staff) had to say. All I can say about it is that it was very long and seemed a bit outdated to me. The way they did everything was so official, by which I mean singing hymns and giving speeches about how you should find your voice so you can speak to god. What I did find out there is that Herschel is apparently the top school of the Western Cape province in South-Africa, which I found very impressive. 

The rest of the day I just tried to find my way around and get to my classes. Sara often had to help me though, because most of the time I had no idea where I was going. The classes I'm taking here are French, maths, business, drama, consumer studies and English. Then school ended at three o'clock and the rest of the afternoon I spent either lying in the pool or next to it. 

My first few days were pretty exciting, but also quite daunting. Meeting all these new people and being in an whole new environment just takes a while to get used to. However I'm very much looking forward to what the rest of this trip brings! Catch up with you later.

Sincerely,

Paulina

The Before

12/01/'14

This is it. Tomorrow I'm taking off. I'm leaving my home country of Holland to go on a trip of a lifetime. This trip will take me to South-Africa, Cape Town specifically. I will be living my life for two whole months in a country and even continent I've never set foot in. The thought of this is kind of scary, but a good kind of scary. I feel like I'm ready for a change. This trip is all I've been thinking of since I received the good new that I was selected to go on an exchange to South-Africa, in May last year. Now the moment of actually getting on that plane is almost here and I can't believe it. 

The packing. Where to begin. I've packed before for long holidays, meaning three or four weeks, but never for eight! I almost just wanted to stuff the whole contents of my wardrobe into my suitcase, but seeing as I only have one suitcase that was never going to work. My mom had to remind that people in South-Africa do have washing machines, I laughed and then kindly asked (begged) her to help me pack. Finally, with lots of blood sweat and tears we managed to pack all my stuff. No, I'm just kidding, no sweat and tears, just the blood. ;)

Saying my goodbyes. Now this is probably the hardest part for me. Even though they are not really good-byes, but more like see you laters, it is still weird to not see the people that you see every day for two months. All of my friends were so sweet and I have to admit they made me tear up a little. I do not know how I'm going to handle tomorrow morning at the airport, saying goodbye to my family, but let's just hope that I can manage to keep it dry. I've never been away from my family for longer than a week. So this is a big challenge for me. I've already made myself a promise though. I'm not going to let being homesick ruin my experience. I want to enjoy it to the fullest and make the best out of it, so homesickness you've been warned! 

My expectations. I don't have any really. Well no, that is a lie. Of course I have an idea of what it is going to be like, but I want to try and have an open mind and 'go with the flow' when I'm there. This way I think I will enjoy it the most and hopefully have no regrets. 

Have no regrets. That is my aim for this trip. This is a once in a lifetime experience and I want to take everything from it that I can and cherish it forever.

This was my first post of a series in which I want to record all of my impressions and experiences during my trip. I'm going to take you guys along for the ride and I really hope you will enjoy it.

Sincerely,

Paulina