This week has been crap to be perfectly honest. It has been overwhelming, draining, exhausting...I could go on but no one wants to hear about my bad week so let’s focus on the positives like talking about the rest of my day last Friday. It was a great day. Every two weeks we get to go to orphanage and seriously I count down the days until I get to see my kids again. They are so cute. So this week instead of me focusing on my words and then adding pictures, this post will be heavy on the pictures and light on the words. Changing it up. Plus you have got to see these kids. I’m in love. I get to see them again in a week and I can’t wait!

First up is Ricardo. Before I left for holiday Beth had me write profiles for each of the babies so I’ll let you imagine baby Ricardo telling you all about himself:

My name is Ricardo and I’m awesome! I enjoy walks to the chicken coop or around the orphanage. I’ll even show you around (so please don’t pick me up)! I can say “teacher” and I will say it often. I like to play catch and practice kicking the ball. I’m a very happy baby and it doesn’t take much to make me smile. Give me a raspberry on the belly and I give you the best smile ever!

Ricardo is adorable. You can’t see it in this picture but he used to have the cutest baby dreads ever. They shaved all the kids’ heads over holiday 🙁 Not sure why. But I love this picture because he was obviously going to town over whatever they were eating for lunch. Love him!

This cutie pie is Xabiso. It’s pronunced with a click but it’s pretty much impossible to explain how it goes without actually just saying it. So suffice it to say that the X is his name gives it a click. The other letters in Xhosa that give clicks are C and Q. Here’s his profile:

My name is Xabiso and I generally have a sad face but when I smile, I light up the room. I like tickling, sliding and swinging. I love music so give me a bell and I’ll show you what I can do. I also enjoy playing ball and I’m practicing to be the next big soccer star, so let’s get that soccer ball out! I can walk (obviously) so please don’t pick me up. Generally when I don’t get my way, I’m not happy but I can easily be soothed. I can also say “teacher” and I’ll show you the ropes around here.

Xabiso is a character. He loves being picked up and will cry unless you either walk away or pick him up but he is too cute. It’s awesome to see him progress because he only started walking last year!

Next up we have Lisa Khanya. The only girl among the babies. She is a hand full! Enjoy her star studded profile:

My name is Lisa Khanya and I’m a diva. I’m pretty happy if I have a bottle in my mouth but if you take it away from me, watch out! I will not be a happy camper. I can sit on my own no problem but I need a lot of coaxing to crawl. I like blocks and listening to stories. Generally, I’m very shy and quiet unless I don’t get my way.

I worked with Lisa Khanya for a few days and for the life of me I couldn’t get her to crawl. Thankfully she has made lots of progress since the holiday and is crawling around and even walking with some help. She is a great big tub of love 🙂

Last but certainly not least in baby Anathi. I think he could definitely pass for my child and no one would know the difference. I absoultely love this picture of me and him and more importantly his sister, Nugget took the picture (more on her later). Enjoy his profile:

My name is Anathi and I’m probably the cutest baby you’ll ever meet. Plus I’m generally a very happy baby and I love playtime! I’m teething right now so I will put everything in my mouth. I can crawl and stand up with your help. I love to cuddle but be careful because I have very sharp nails and I will scratch you. I’m very curious about the world and love playing with toys that make a lot of noise. Give me a rattle and I’m set!

Seriously have you ever seen a cuter baby? It is going to be so hard saying goodbye to all these beautiful little faces 🙁 But I won’t think about that now. For now I will cherish every single second Friday that never comes soon enough and is always over before I want it to be. Next post we’ll talk about the older kids. They will rock your world.

Thursday was picture day. I spent most of the break looking for Nosipho. Her hair is different! It’s so cute. It’s braided now with a red streak it in. Apparently that hairstyle is very popular here. I played with her for a while once I saw her and she saw my ring. Now keep in mind this girl NEVER talks to me, at least not in English. I have no idea how much English she knows but she pointed to the ring and asked “what’s this?” It made my day. I couldn’t believe she said that knowing that she never says anything to me in English. So cute!

Friday was an interesting day. Joel and I (the other long term teacher) had to do reading levels. Basically you give a child a page with a bunch of words on it (see below) and ask them to read the words to you. You have a list of all the words and you just check them off as they read or write an X if it’s wrong. It was interesting for me to see their different levels and learn some of their names. As a teacher’s assistant it’s really hard to learn all the learners name. There are so many of them (1) and 2. You never seem to work with the same ones, making it even more confusing. I suggested to Mel that we take all their pictures and have a resource with their pictures and names so I can learn them. Once they finish reading you count up all the ones they get right and that tells you his/her reading level. It’s very strange if you ask me. Who decided on the reading ages? And how did they decide on the words on the list? I guess I should look for the answers and get back to you on that. It was really interesting and I liked the fact that I got to learn some of their names. It was also a little strange that most of them got the word village right because I thought that was a hard one.

So the list below is what I give each learner. They read left to right all the way down, as far as they can go. I have to stop them after five consecutive wrong answers: that is a mispronunciation or just saying another word instead of the one written.

If they do well then I give them this page of words which gets progressively harder. I was actually really impressed with some of them. As you might imagine encyclopaedia and steadiness were often mispronounced.

Below is the chart used to calculate the child’s reading age based on how many words he/she reads correctly.

And 110 is 14y 3m but it wouldn’t fit nicely into my table (you understand). So not sure if anyone else will find this interesting but I certainly did. I am curious to find out who and how someone came up with this. I was going to write on the rest of Friday but this is pretty full so we’ll save the rest for another day (I know you’re all dying in anticipation).

Thursday was picture day. I spent most of the break looking for Nosipho. Her hair is different! It’s so cute. It’s braided now with a red streak it in. Apparently that hairstyle is very popular here. I played with her for a while once I saw her and she saw my ring. Now keep in mind this girl NEVER talks to me, at least not in English. I have no idea how much English she knows but she pointed to the ring and asked “what’s this?” It made my day. I couldn’t believe she said that knowing that she never says anything to me in English. So cute!

Friday was an interesting day. Joel and I (the other long term teacher) had to do reading levels. Basically you give a child a page with a bunch of words on it (see below) and ask them to read the words to you. You have a list of all the words and you just check them off as they read or write an X if it’s wrong. It was interesting for me to see their different levels and learn some of their names. As a teacher’s assistant it’s really hard to learn all the learners name. There are so many of them (1) and 2. You never seem to work with the same ones, making it even more confusing. I suggested to Mel that we take all their pictures and have a resource with their pictures and names so I can learn them. Once they finish reading you count up all the ones they get right and that tells you his/her reading level. It’s very strange if you ask me. Who decided on the reading ages? And how did they decide on the words on the list? I guess I should look for the answers and get back to you on that. It was really interesting and I liked the fact that I got to learn some of their names. It was also a little strange that most of them got the word village right because I thought that was a hard one.

So the list below is what I give each learner. They read left to right all the way down, as far as they can go. I have to stop them after five consecutive wrong answers: that is a mispronunciation or just saying another word instead of the one written.

If they do well then I give them this page of words which gets progressively harder. I was actually really impressed with some of them. As you might imagine encyclopaedia and steadiness were often mispronounced.

Below is the chart used to calculate the child’s reading age based on how many words he/she reads correctly.

And 110 is 14y 3m but it wouldn’t fit nicely into my table (you understand). So not sure if anyone else will find this interesting but I certainly did. I am curious to find out who and how someone came up with this. I was going to write on the rest of Friday but this is pretty full so we’ll save the rest for another day (I know you’re all dying in anticipation).

Today was a great day. It was challenging but it was still really good. I taught my first full class. I was nervous but comforted by the fact that my teacher did not leave alone ONCE in the classroom. I’m not sure if you’ve been reading this blog enough to truly understand the amazingness of that but let me just say that THAT NEVER HAPPENS. I was so happy!

So today I was working with my math teacher (by far the superior subject to English). We were (or I guess I was) teaching them about rounding to the nearest ten. It still amazes me how something so simple (at least to me) can be so difficult to teach (more props to my teachers). I started off by reviewing place value. Just to make sure we were on the same page. We were which was awesome but there was one problem that I had not anticipated: number lines. So I basically explain that to round you needed to know which two tens surrounded the number you were trying to round. For example, if the number was 12. You would have to know that 10 and 20 surrounded 12 in order to round. After that you could draw a number line (10 to 20) and then figure out where 12 was (fill in the rest of the numbers), then determine what number was 12 closer to 10 or 20? Simple right? Not really. It was a massive undertaking explaining to the kids how to figure out the tens, especially when we got to any number over 100. It was hard. Much more difficult than I imagined.

So I went through various examples trying to get them to understand. After a few examples, I gave them an activity to work on their own and helped out wherever I was needed, which as it turned out was everywhere…Yeah, it was exhausting but I still loved it because I felt like I was actually doing something. Sometimes it feels like I do nothing of importance so today was really nice.

We worked with that first class until break time. Meaning it took about an hour to get through my lesson and the activity and I’m pretty sure all of them didn’t get through it. After break, we moved onto another class and after some thinking during break, I thought of another way to make my lesson more effective. My kids love to use their fingers to count so I thought why not use that to my advantage. It sort of worked. I ended up going through the same lesson with the added use of the fingers method and helped out when needed as well. It went better than the first group but still as I went through and marked the papers there were still a lot of issues. It’s hard to really know what is the issue: language, delivery, methodology. But tomorrow I get to have at it again and hopefully the lessons from today will help with tomorrow.

I helped out with workshop today. Our theme for the month is space and the universe and it’s been really fun. Our display is awesome. Tomorrow is picture day so I’ll try to get some pictures! Today we had a literacy based lesson. We started a story with: Oh no! Our spaceship has crashed. I see all these strange things and I don’t know how to get back to earth….The kids had to finish the story. I was worried that it wouldn’t work because there were such varying grade levels but with our assistance it turned out really well. The stories were actually amazing.

Wednesday is also Nia day. Every Monday and Wednesday I take this dance class called Nia and if you haven’t tried, I urge you to. It’s amazing. It’s hard to describe but it’s a mixture of ballet, martial art, etc. It’s really fun. Today was extra awesome because Michelle (our dance instructor) brought in her awesome pants! So every session she wears these crazy pants that look amazing. Apparently she sells them, so I bought a pair instantly and I can’t wait for her to bring some more back.

The actual class was good too. We played with swords, invisible play swords that is. But it’s always fun. I love it but it’s a combination of following the instructor and then free dance so you can let it all out. It’s fun and you work up a sweat. What could be better?

Wednesday is also social night (so many good things in one day). It was trivia round which is always fun even if you know nothing (which I normally do). The coolest part was trying to figure out the top 25 songs from 2011. It was a crazy mix of all the songs and it was really difficult but fun to listen to and then there were normal questions, apparently brought to you by Australian day (which is tomorrow in case you’re wondering). It was a good time. What a good day.

Today was a great day. It was challenging but it was still really good. I taught my first full class. I was nervous but comforted by the fact that my teacher did not leave alone ONCE in the classroom. I’m not sure if you’ve been reading this blog enough to truly understand the amazingness of that but let me just say that THAT NEVER HAPPENS. I was so happy!

So today I was working with my math teacher (by far the superior subject to English). We were (or I guess I was) teaching them about rounding to the nearest ten. It still amazes me how something so simple (at least to me) can be so difficult to teach (more props to my teachers). I started off by reviewing place value. Just to make sure we were on the same page. We were which was awesome but there was one problem that I had not anticipated: number lines. So I basically explain that to round you needed to know which two tens surrounded the number you were trying to round. For example, if the number was 12. You would have to know that 10 and 20 surrounded 12 in order to round. After that you could draw a number line (10 to 20) and then figure out where 12 was (fill in the rest of the numbers), then determine what number was 12 closer to 10 or 20? Simple right? Not really. It was a massive undertaking explaining to the kids how to figure out the tens, especially when we got to any number over 100. It was hard. Much more difficult than I imagined.

So I went through various examples trying to get them to understand. After a few examples, I gave them an activity to work on their own and helped out wherever I was needed, which as it turned out was everywhere…Yeah, it was exhausting but I still loved it because I felt like I was actually doing something. Sometimes it feels like I do nothing of importance so today was really nice.

We worked with that first class until break time. Meaning it took about an hour to get through my lesson and the activity and I’m pretty sure all of them didn’t get through it. After break, we moved onto another class and after some thinking during break, I thought of another way to make my lesson more effective. My kids love to use their fingers to count so I thought why not use that to my advantage. It sort of worked. I ended up going through the same lesson with the added use of the fingers method and helped out when needed as well. It went better than the first group but still as I went through and marked the papers there were still a lot of issues. It’s hard to really know what is the issue: language, delivery, methodology. But tomorrow I get to have at it again and hopefully the lessons from today will help with tomorrow.

I helped out with workshop today. Our theme for the month is space and the universe and it’s been really fun. Our display is awesome. Tomorrow is picture day so I’ll try to get some pictures! Today we had a literacy based lesson. We started a story with: Oh no! Our spaceship has crashed. I see all these strange things and I don’t know how to get back to earth….The kids had to finish the story. I was worried that it wouldn’t work because there were such varying grade levels but with our assistance it turned out really well. The stories were actually amazing.

Wednesday is also Nia day. Every Monday and Wednesday I take this dance class called Nia and if you haven’t tried, I urge you to. It’s amazing. It’s hard to describe but it’s a mixture of ballet, martial art, etc. It’s really fun. Today was extra awesome because Michelle (our dance instructor) brought in her awesome pants! So every session she wears these crazy pants that look amazing. Apparently she sells them, so I bought a pair instantly and I can’t wait for her to bring some more back.

The actual class was good too. We played with swords, invisible play swords that is. But it’s always fun. I love it but it’s a combination of following the instructor and then free dance so you can let it all out. It’s fun and you work up a sweat. What could be better?

Wednesday is also social night (so many good things in one day). It was trivia round which is always fun even if you know nothing (which I normally do). The coolest part was trying to figure out the top 25 songs from 2011. It was a crazy mix of all the songs and it was really difficult but fun to listen to and then there were normal questions, apparently brought to you by Australian day (which is tomorrow in case you’re wondering). It was a good time. What a good day.

Wednesday was by far the best day of the week for me. I worked with my numeracy teacher and she had me take some groups out and I actually got to teach. It was then that I remembered how much I actually like teaching (because the two days before we lacking in that front), especially numeracy. They worked on the constant function. Basically it was introducing the idea of exponents and they got to use their calculator so they all did really well. Once we finished the assignment we played games and they were all really good at it. It’s really awesome when the kids get it and everyone’s learning and having fun.

Wednesday was also social night. I should have been suspicious when Cheryl, the new orphanage coordinator, started the minute I walked into the room but I didn’t really think much of it. Social night was in my honour! We celebrated my engagement through a fun competition on  who could make the best wedding dress out of recycled materials: trash bags, shopping bags, random cloth, tissue paper, toilet paper, etc.

It was hilarious to see what they came up with and at the end we had a fashion show. I was actually really impressed with one of the groups who made a dress that I would actually consider wearing. Two of the models were male which was, of course a huge laugh. One went for a toga look while the other went for a more scandalous barely there look with a really long train and then there was the pregnant bride (not planning on that one) who was planning to have her wedding in Vegas (not doing that either).  It was so much fun and I was so honoured that they did all of that just for me!

Not sure if this is appropriate for a blog post but there have been requests so I will oblige J On Friday January 13 (Friday the 13^th no less), Chris asked me to marry him. I was completely shocked and overwhelmed but said yes none the less.

He asked Friday morning as we were trying to decide what to do that day. He had given me a little stuffed bunny when I got back to the States and I was playing with it when I noticed something shiny on one of its ear. I was so surprised! I remember saying what? Over and over again because I was so surprised.  But yeah that’s it. Simple and cute and the ring is gorgeous (though the pictures don’t do it justice). I’m so excited. I have to plan a wedding!

We ended up going into Cape Town on Friday to finish up some shopping. We went to the Waterfront and despite the rainy weather walked to Green Market Square. We ate at a 24 hour Indian restaurant on Long Street which if you ever get the chance is amazing. Cheap and good food and Indian food my favourite.

Saturday was an interesting day. We had to check out of our lovely guest house with its beautiful views so we spent most of the morning packing up. Then we went to Journey’s End to do some more packing because Chris needed to take some stuff back for me (I’m dreading having to pack up my life here).  We also met some of my new housemates before walking up to Mont Blanc to see Tilda. She was so excited to see me which was nice and even more excited when she found that I was engaged.

After that we had drive to Cape Town to drop off the car. I really wish I knew how to drive a stick shift then we would have had the car later but it was alright because we were able to take a bus from the airport into Cape Town. We dropped off Chris’ luggage at the airport. Then we went to Green Square Market again to get me some pants but they were closing down. L Then we went to the Royale Eatery which is this amazing burger place in Cape Town. I’ve been several times and I love it every single time. I also got a milkshake which was delicious.

We then made the foolish decision to climb up Table Mountain. Foolish because it was late around 5:30 and we didn’t start climbing the mountain until 6. Also it was supposed to take three hours to climb the mountain, mind you we did it in one and half but still it starts getting dark now around 8 which meant that by the time we got up the mountain it was getting dark. I was panicking because I have been stuck on Table Mountain before and I also knew that they shut the cable car down for wind and it was windy. At several points, I was afraid of being blown off the mountain. Luckily none of that happened and even though we were the last ones off the mountain, we at least got off the mountain and Chris made his flight no problem. So it all worked out. It was just scary at the time. Not something I would recommend. Hike Table Mountain in the morning/early afternoon. Give yourself plenty of time. You don’t want to be climbing down in the dark.

Ok time for the recap. I have been so exhausted the last couple days that I haven’t written. Wednesday we went sandboarding like I said. It was really nice because they picked us up from the hostel and took us to Atlantis, a part of South Africa that I had never been to. Our guide took us to a rest stop where we got food and water before continuing on to Atlantis.

The dunes were empty. We were the only ones there. We left in the morning so it wasn’t too hot, but it was definitely bad when we were heading back. I was afraid my feet were going to be burnt off from the hot sand!

The actual sandboarding was awesome. We started out small, on hills where you could go straight down without going too fast. Chris has been snowboarding before so he had no trouble picking it up and I have been sandboarding several times so it wasn’t too long before I got into the hang out things.

The most exhausting part of sandboarding is climbing back up the dunes. Climbing up sand is not an easy task and after doing it a couple of times you definitely working up a sweat.

The weather overall was pretty nice. There was a nice breeze which made it a lot more bearable. Our guide taught us how to cut, which is when your back faces the bottom of the hill and you lean back on your heels. It’s pretty easy once you get the hang of it. I personally found it a bit scary not facing where you were going, but it isn’t too bad.

We left the dunes exhausted and satisified, having conquered some of the biggest dunes they had. There were a couple of falls which is to be expected but nothing broke, just soreness.

Then we got ready to come to Gordon’s Bay where I stay as a volunteer. We packed up our stuff and were off. It was only on the drive here that I realized we hadn’t eaten anything substantial since breakfast. Not fun. But after much ado about nothing (including several stops at Journey’s End for direction), we found our guest house. It’s beautiful. Our room faces the mountains and it’s gorgeous.

Once we had settled in, we finally had dinner at Habour Island which was a very short walk from our place. I tried the chicken malay which is a kind of special sauce made specially here and it was amazing. It was sort of like Indian food but not quite the same. It was really good though.

Yesterday was awesome. I got to show Chris my school and the orphanage and the nursery. We first stopped at the orphanage. It was very strange to be at the orphanage so early. The kids were very surprised (and thankfully happy) to see me. It was chaos but I absolutely loved it. I love those kids so much. They’re so adorable. I can’t imagine right now how hard it is to say goodbye especially after being here this long. Ok not going to think about that yet. I still have two more months!

After the orphanage, we went to the school and I showed Chris our classroom and the library. The library is currently a mess but still very much intact which is good. Then I took him to the classrooms where I work. He met all my teachers. It was very strange walking the classroom and seeing a bunch of new faces. Almost all my kids are gone. I’m happy for them of course but I won’t see them as much since they moved on to Grade 7.

After that, we stopped quickly at the nursery. They were actually pretty quiet but that was probably because they were eating. Feeding time is usually much less chaotic especially since the volunteers weren’t there and the carers were in charge. The kids don’t mess around with them. It was nice to seem them, though I was sad not all the kids were there.

After our visit, we went back to our place and made the plan for the day: first Somerset Mall, then Stellenbosch, then Franschhoek. We went to Somerset Mall to find a GPS because it’s kind of hard getting around here with just directions. But actually our directions worked just fine yesterday unlike on Wednesday trying to find the guest house. We couldn’t find a GPS for a good price so we quickly moved on to Stellenbosch.

Ok time for the recap. I have been so exhausted the last couple days that I haven’t written. Wednesday we went sandboarding like I said. It was really nice because they picked us up from the hostel and took us to Atlantis, a part of South Africa that I had never been to. Our guide took us to a rest stop where we got food and water before continuing on to Atlantis.

The dunes were empty. We were the only ones there. We left in the morning so it wasn’t too hot, but it was definitely bad when we were heading back. I was afraid my feet were going to be burnt off from the hot sand!

The actual sandboarding was awesome. We started out small, on hills where you could go straight down without going too fast. Chris has been snowboarding before so he had no trouble picking it up and I have been sandboarding several times so it wasn’t too long before I got into the hang out things.

The most exhausting part of sandboarding is climbing back up the dunes. Climbing up sand is not an easy task and after doing it a couple of times you definitely working up a sweat.

The weather overall was pretty nice. There was a nice breeze which made it a lot more bearable. Our guide taught us how to cut, which is when your back faces the bottom of the hill and you lean back on your heels. It’s pretty easy once you get the hang of it. I personally found it a bit scary not facing where you were going, but it isn’t too bad.

We left the dunes exhausted and satisified, having conquered some of the biggest dunes they had. There were a couple of falls which is to be expected but nothing broke, just soreness.

Then we got ready to come to Gordon’s Bay where I stay as a volunteer. We packed up our stuff and were off. It was only on the drive here that I realized we hadn’t eaten anything substantial since breakfast. Not fun. But after much ado about nothing (including several stops at Journey’s End for direction), we found our guest house. It’s beautiful. Our room faces the mountains and it’s gorgeous.

Once we had settled in, we finally had dinner at Habour Island which was a very short walk from our place. I tried the chicken malay which is a kind of special sauce made specially here and it was amazing. It was sort of like Indian food but not quite the same. It was really good though.

Yesterday was awesome. I got to show Chris my school and the orphanage and the nursery. We first stopped at the orphanage. It was very strange to be at the orphanage so early. The kids were very surprised (and thankfully happy) to see me. It was chaos but I absolutely loved it. I love those kids so much. They’re so adorable. I can’t imagine right now how hard it is to say goodbye especially after being here this long. Ok not going to think about that yet. I still have two more months!

After the orphanage, we went to the school and I showed Chris our classroom and the library. The library is currently a mess but still very much intact which is good. Then I took him to the classrooms where I work. He met all my teachers. It was very strange walking the classroom and seeing a bunch of new faces. Almost all my kids are gone. I’m happy for them of course but I won’t see them as much since they moved on to Grade 7.

After that, we stopped quickly at the nursery. They were actually pretty quiet but that was probably because they were eating. Feeding time is usually much less chaotic especially since the volunteers weren’t there and the carers were in charge. The kids don’t mess around with them. It was nice to seem them, though I was sad not all the kids were there.

After our visit, we went back to our place and made the plan for the day: first Somerset Mall, then Stellenbosch, then Franschhoek. We went to Somerset Mall to find a GPS because it’s kind of hard getting around here with just directions. But actually our directions worked just fine yesterday unlike on Wednesday trying to find the guest house. We couldn’t find a GPS for a good price so we quickly moved on to Stellenbosch.

Today was my first day back in Cape Town. The weather is amazing and I’m so happy to be back. Chris, my boyfriend, is here with me for a week so it makes coming back even more special.

Our trip here was really long. We first flew from St. Louis to Detroit, where we had a four hour layover. Then we flew Detroit to Amsterdam, a seven hour flight. It was alright though because they feed us (not the greatest food but it is better than nothing) and they have movies. We watched “Friends With Benefits” and “Debt”. They were pretty good. Then in Amsterdam we had another long layover.  It went by pretty quickly though. Then we had 11 hours to Cape Town. It wasn’t bad though, except Chris and I didn’t get to sit next to each other. L Finally after 24+ hours of traveling, we arrived in Cape Town late. I was nervous because we weren’t certain that we would have a ride. We ordered a cab but via email and we weren’t sure that it was confirmed but sure enough our driver was there and we were dropped off at our hostel. Unforunately there was some mix up with our room, but we were able to get a room even if it wasn’t the one we ordered.

Tuesday came bright and hot. The weather here is so hot but I love it especially after the cold of the States. We sorted out our room and had breakfast at the hotel before embarking into the city. It was a beautiful hot and sunny. We found our way to Green Market Square, looking around for souvernirs. Then we went down to the Waterfront and walked around more shops. We found the Nelson Mandela Gateway to Robben Island and got tickets for the 5pm boat ride to the Island. Then we wandered around some more before taking a ride on the ferris wheel which wasn’t there the last time I was here. It gave us beautiful views of the city and the Waterfront. Then we decided to see a movie. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. It is a very dark movie and I recommend preparing mentally for it.

After the movie it was time for Robben Island. I was very excited because I was supposed to go over two years ago when I was here before but because of various reasons I didn’t get to go. It was so worth the wait. The ferry ride was beautiful and we took tons of pictures. The prison tour was interesting and informative and I loved the bus ride around the Island. We even saw some penguins which I didn’t realized lived on the Island.

After our Robben Island tour, we had dinner at the Cape Town Fish Market which I highly recommend. I made Chris try the malva pudding which I also recommend. It’s unique to South Africa and I absolutely love it. Well that’s all for today. Tomorrow we’re going sandboarding, like snowboarding without the snow. It should be fun. More updates later!