Hello, everyone!
I haven’t blogged a lot lately, because we haven’t been
doing a whole lot around here.
Emily and I just finished our 10 days of teaching (our huge assignment
for the semester!), so now we can head out and do more fun stuff!
I figured, though, that I would share with you a typical
week in PE, SA!
Weekdays, I sit in on half of the classes and teach the
other half. It really just depends
on the day. Some days, though, I
have up to 3 free periods, some days I have none. Their time-table (schedule) is really confusing… Here’s a
picture of it:
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| They are on a 10-day rotation schedule. CRAZY. |
When I have free periods, I sometimes help out with
Plasma. Plasma is the school’s
substitute system. They choose to
spend their money on other things, so hiring substitutes for teachers who are
sick just doesn’t exist. Each
morning, our Deputy Vice Principal reads off the people who will be subbing for
every class. It’s fun, because I
get to see different classes and students, some who English is not their first
language!
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| My Grade 11s |
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| My silly Grade 8s- I'm with them the most, which is great because I love them! |
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| Such fun kiddos! |
The teachers are all so helpful and willing to support us in
completing our assignments for school.
I don’t think I’d be able to understand what was going on if it weren’t
for them!
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| Sweet Valentines presents from our Vice Principal, the wonderful Mr. Bubb! |
During school, we don’t have a lunch break. Those don’t really exist here. We have 2 tea breaks where tea and
coffee are served, but you can certainly order lunch. If you order lunch from the school, it is brought up at the
first break, which is normally before 10 am! Today, actually, we got our first food bill and we were all
panicking! We order lunch every
day, sometimes a drink, sometimes a snack after school. We thought our food bill was going to
be so expensive. We were
pleasantly surprised, however, to find that our bill was only around R330,
which is about $35!!! That is SO CHEAP for 20 days worth of food!
After school, the students are required to participate in
sport at least two days a week, which means that all the teachers coach at
least one sport. Here’s my after
school schedule:
Monday: Sprints and Fitness
Tuesday: FREE!
Wednesday: Sprints and Fitness
Thursday: Musical Ticket Sales
Friday: Cheerleading
So, basically, I’m busy and loving it!
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| Shannon and I take our Sprints and Fitness group to the beach sometimes! |
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| Chasing each other, trying not to get tagged! |
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| Fun in the sun! |
After school, we don’t have a whole lot to do because we
cannot drive. Normally our group
goes for a jog, heads to the beach, goes grocery shopping or prepares lesson plans. Weekdays are actually pretty boring and all the days run
together.
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| Hanging on the rocks by the shore |
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| Team America by the waves |
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| When 5 girls grocery shop, they let us take the cart home because we buy so much! |
For dinner, though, we have found tons of great spots! One of my favorites is Primi Piati-
they have everything from pizza to gourmet game and fish. They have quite an extensive drink
menu, too- The picture below is me with a “Jam Jar” and it’s basically a lot of
local juices. Tons of sugar, but
so delicious! They also have a “Tea Pot” and you drink your tea out of the tea
pot! So simple, but we love it!
Some of our other favorites are on Stanley Street but we
have to get in a cab to head over there!
It’s fun to stay local and walk off some of your dinner!
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| The giant JAM JAR! |
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| Delicious! |
After dinner on weekends, we usually head to Barney’s. Barney’s is the local college place so
it’s fun to hang out with all of the college kids from the local university and
dance the night away!
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| Sweet Nicole and Me at Barney's! |
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| Team America at Barney's! |
Hopefully, I’ll have an adventure to update you on soon- we
are going to Plettenburg next weekend and I am going to the HIGHEST BUNGEE JUMP
IN THE WORLD!
Lots of love from SA!
Katharine / Miss Martin
Katharine / Miss Martin
