24 March 2009 (Day 8)

My kids had a field trip today! It was awesome, we went to the local museum. We actually aren’t going with my GVSU group, so it was an opportunity I probably would have missed out on otherwise. The museum consisted of several houses that were maintained in their old ways. It was all colonial stuff, though, so it (obviously) reminded me a lot of the types of museums and estates you see in Europe.

My kids had a great time, though. There was a sort of Easter program going on, and they got to do a little story play about Easter. One of my students was chosen to represent the people who came to get Jesus, and the museum guides gave him a very realistic-looking play gun! That’s so different from what you would see in the US. Then they talked about the story of Easter. I learned to say, “Jesus has risen,” in Afrikaans. It’s been a day and I’ve already forgotten, oops. Then they talked about how Easter eggs are hollow because when they came to the cave it was empty, which was funny because later on they got candy eggs with marshmallow filling (aka NOT hollow).

After that they got to go out to the gardens where they met up with the Easter bunny (who gave them their eggs). I also got a candy egg. I thought it would be similar to the French oursons guimauvre, but it was actually pretty different. The marshmallow was less chewy and almost creamier. Strange. They also got their faces painted, which resulted in dozens of adorable pictures. Someday I’ll post pictures, I swear!

And the fun didn’t stop there. After we were done at the museum, we walked all of the students through downtown Stellenbosch to the Eikestad mall. We went to a fast food chain called the Hungry Lion and ordered 37 ice cream cones (34 students and 3 adults), then we walked everyone across the street to an open field/park area to play until our taxi came to get us. Once again, transporation proved interesting when we fit 35 people into a bus made for 16.

After school the GVSU group was dropped off in town. Anna, Alex, Heather, and I went off in search of some cardigans. We didn’t find any, but I got a zip-up from a store called Pep that looks decent and cost about $4US. Then we went to La Cubana, a sort of bar/restaurant/hookah lounge in town. We each tried a shot (they looked awesome, and were only $1.50US) at 3 in the afternoon, and we all shared an order of nachos as a bit of an after-school snack. They were delicious, we’ll have to do it again sometime.

Then Anna and Alex headed to the internet café and Heather and I started to walk home. We wanted to get some University of Stellenbosch tee shirts on our way home, because Jess and Emily got some that were really cute on clearance. I guess we asked directions from a student at exactly the right time, because we were right by where we needed to be to get to the bookstore. Heather and I each got v-necks (mine black, hers maroon), Heather got a really cute sweatshirt and I got a crew-neck tee shirt with the school crest on it. Each of our purchases came out to less than $25US, and Heather even got a free scarf with hers! Lucky. Now we’ll have something to wear when we go to next week’s rugby game.