First Day of school! First day of school!!

“First day of school, first day of school!” (movie??!...this one is easy!)


(and second day of school aand 3^rd day of school lol)


Soooo I know I’m skipping a head but yesterday (well now 2 days a go) was my first day at Brooklands Primary and im really excited to tell you all about it!  I promise write about the weekend and cage diving ASAP cause I know you would all love to hear more detail about my shark attack lol.


But first things first, let me introduce you to my host family, I moved in with the Keet family Tuesday night.  My mommy is Marena Keet; she is also my mentor teacher for grade 6 at Brooklands Primary, my daddy is Charles Keet, he is a business man working for Coca-Cola and my brother, Randal Keet is in his third year of law school at University of the Western Cape.  He plays a lot of soccer and his indoor team just won the finals.  Oh and, a beautiful Siberian husky names Casper, I might bring him back with me!  It all started Tuesday night, we had a function where all the host families came to meet us and then we went home with them.  Not going to lie, we all were pretty nervous.  There were so many things on my mind…after being together for so long it was bittersweet to leave each other, we had finally all gotten so close and now we were splitting up.  It was like we had just been taken on a wonderful 2 week vacation sight seeing and touring the most beautiful city I think I have ever been to and now we were off to work, I didn’t feel ready at all.  We didn’t know what to expect, what kind of environment we would be exposed to.  I felt like we had been ‘preped’ so much for the experiences in the schools, what the behavior might be like what this or that might be like, that I almost didn’t know what to expect any more.  It was just a whole lot of commotion and emotion, nervous, excited scared….all the above.  We sat at the church for a while and patiently waited to get picked up and the families slowly trickled in…one by one we were called over – it was like the lottery lol.  Then finally my family arrived and I was called over to meet them, it was really exciting!  We chatted, did the usual small talk ya know, then we all introduced ourselves to everyone, ate and then went home.  I have a lot of luggage..but somehow I don’t have enough warm clothes lol tooo many gifts I guess J.  Anyways, the house is beautiful, very classy!  I have my own room and some shelves so I could totally unpack! Yay for no suitcases for the next 4 weeks lol.  Being in a new country there are soooo many differences, from the people, the culture, the language, (ill tell you some good words later), the housing style, sports…literally anything you can think of its pretty cool.  But ya, the only big differences in the houses here is that the toilet is always separate, from the rest of the bathroom, and they have water shortages so the flush is very tiny lol and there are also burglar bars on all the windows and doors (in most houses)…just to be extra safe.  (I will talk more about housing later too).  Then the next way was the first day of school.  I wasn’t really nervous.  More excited I guess.  The students knew that I (an Americans) was coming to the school and going to spend time in their classroom.  And I they were pretty excited!  It is not often that Americans come here in to their classrooms, especially and they have a lot of questions for me and are very curious about the United States.  Its intriguing to hear what they want to know and what they ‘think’ of America.  its somewhat disappointing the images and pretenses they have that are incorrect that they have simply derived from the TV and movies.  They put America on this pedestal that is so perfect, that there is no crime, no poverty, they think we are all celebrities and that we live in mansions…it breaks my heart to think what they assume of us.  I think it’s important that they know that there is crime and poverty everywhere, nobody is perfect, nowhere is perfect.  We all have to work hard for the things that we want.  I will talk more about this later as well I am going to give a lesson/presentation on it so when I so I post about it the.  Meanwhile…I have never had so many eyes on me when I walked through the halls.. it was a different feeling, I don’t really know how to explain it.  I wasn’t scared or uncomfortable thought, just different I don’t really have any other way to describe it.  However, after hearing some of the questions they asked me, I sort of wonder what they were thinking of me or about me when they first actually saw me.  Mrs. Keet works with three different 6^th grade classes.  So throughout the week I have introduced myself to each of the classes, showed them on a map where I am from (Cleveland) where I go to school (east Lansing) and where Andrew goes to school (Illinois).  They were intrigued by the distances from home to school shocked them, I then said we didn’t make the drive every day lol only on holidays. Then I have been getting to know more students each day and allow them to ask me some questions.  the questions were good…had I ever been to the empire state building, the statue of liberty, do I know any celebrities (Justin Bieber in particular), can I dance like usher, have I met usher, have I seen lil wayne (yes twice!), do I like in a mansion, have I seen Obama…and many more questions about the states.  They wanted to know what it was like there – I told them it was cold and flat lol.  There are a lot of differences between the schools, which I will tell you more in a later post, I am having a hard time posting, sorry.  I get caught up in stuff during the day and then when I go to write I fall a sleep or it’s too late to use the computer with the Internet.  Sorry!!  Any ways, its Friday now and I’m about to leave for my 3^rd day.  Im teaching some math today!! …I have no idea what im doing lol I didn’t really prepare much at all….im gonna wing it, wish me luck!


Welpp didn’t teach math…but I gave a spelling test!  I am having a great time and I really love the kids and I have just been getting to know them.  It’s so different in grade 6.  I can relate to the students much better and they can help me too throughout the day.  Today I led an impromptu lesson and it’s just like having a conversation.  You want to know what they know and they want to know what you know.  They are curious and want to learn (well most of them).  im really enjoying being at this level I can't wait to get more into it.  Im so happy that im actually excited about this, I have been so apprehensive about teaching and this excitement that I am feeling really makes it come alive and motivates me to finally TRULY WANT to do something.  Im still not 100% but who ever is...im doing what im supposed to be doing for the time being at least and I am so grateful for this life experience.  More to come soon (I hope)


Much love,


Me