woops...I forgot I had a blog

So I have this theory: it's easier to write multiple short blogposts then one large one. This is going to be the center idea behind my blogging...mainly because nothing else is working because I'm a horrible procrastinator.

So lately...

Not a whole lots has happened.

My exciting news for the past MONTH is mainly that the Lengkeeks have returned home safe and sound. I'm not saying that south africa wasn't a home to them but..this was their original home and therefore has been deemed "home." Just clarfying. :D It was really great seeing them all again, you never really realized how much you missed someone until you see them again. Then you just can't stop smiling. :) As usual I was surrounded by multiple screaming kids chasing me around the house. Currently I'm sitting at 16nieces and nephews with 2 on the way. I literally JUST counted how many people are in my immediate family. 35 people. that's insane. So heres a photo rendition of my evening:
Mixed in these pictures is a picture of Natalie Faith Vanderpol. This skatterbol is a week and a half old and the cutest thing ever :) Sara and Andria (seen below) are also both pregnant.

Other than the Lengkeeks coming over I haven't been up to too much. I started working landscaping (I call it "glorified weed picking" to be more accurate) but hey, you do what you gotta do. It's actually really great when me and dee work together because we get a lot of work done but we get to talk at the same time. The only problem is that we tend to do medians and you get a lot of wolf wistles etc. etc. mainly because you're a women. This is something I have yet to understand...I mean...we look like death? Ah well...the mind of men...a fathomless pit.
I've also been working to get some schoolwork done. I've been retaking some high school courses because I had 85% and I need 86% (woot woot) <- this is sarcasm. just saying. I just finished biology 12 :D The school I'm taking it through (FVDES) apparently gives "student of the week" rewards so they gave me $20. (cooool...:D) Right now I'm working on chemistry and hopefully I'll be done in a week.
In my spare time I talk to my boyfriend on skype...it's kinda an addiction...YAY for skype! :) Sadly when I start working the time distance is going to be incredibely annoying but hey, everything about 16000km is annoying so no biggie :D

PICTURES

I forgot to mention that in Frankfurt airport as I was busy going through security I by accident dropped my backpack on the counter. Now...I was already totally over the carry on limit with a backpack, sleeping bag bag, camera bag, and a pursed so full it was overflowing. As I dropped my bag it made an audible THUD noise and the security guy stopped me to say, "that thing seems to be quite packed..oh well..not my department." This made me giggle but I was careful from then on to not show how heavy my bag really was. It was CRAMMED with textbooks and must have weighed a TON.

The last saturday before I left we also went to the beach! Last time! I burned pretty bad (no matter what jerome says :) ) trying to get rid of some tan lines and now am experience some side effects of burning. I am NEVER going to take being naturally dark for granted again.

I also had the amazing experience of hiking up AND down table mountain. It was a great hike...after a certain point where I thought that I was going to collapse and die. After sitting halfway up a mountain and feeling like I was going to puke there wasn't a whole lot of options other than to keep trekking it. The amusing part is that the actual distance to hike is probably only about 2.5 km but it takes about 2.5 hours mainly because the entire climb is a 45degree angle. Imagine..2 and a half hours of just steps. Step. Step. Step. Step. I began to feel my legs go numb. It was an AMAZING view and we had some great company (more Canadians from Alberta!!) and lots of good chats (we mostly had the chats on the downhill stretch since the uphill was pure silence with the sound of 5 people attempting to drag in another breath). At the top we treated ourselves to some icecream and coke (beers for jerome and Michelle :D) and relaxed. Sadly at the top you can see a whole lot of tourists who opted to take the cable car up the mountain and are taking pictures in their mini skirts and high heels. It is quite a depressing thing to see...me and jerome decided that people should only get to see such amazing sights when they earn it. Jerome also said you can find the ones that have hiked it since normally their faces are covered in dirt with two clean tracts running down the cheeks where the tears were flowing haha. Here are a couple pictures of the last week in South Africa (and the WARM!)

We're still smiling at this point...

The view was amazing! This was nearing the top..

Our Canadian Friends :)

These girls are ADORABLE. We went and collected shells (that's what's in the bucket :) )

The view from the beach...wow.

These girls gave me letters EVERY sunday. It was such a treat getting to know them :)

Henri's brother Albrecht (He's 18). Usually we bug each other but we decided (actually..I forced) him to take a nice picture :)

The last koffee drink...not sure what was going on here.

PENGUINS!

I love these girls! 

yes. I did ride a camel.

Just in case you were wondering..I'm not falling...I was actually betting mr. camel. I did this until he swiveled his neck and tried to bite me. Apparently he doesn't actually enjoy giving people rides :)

View from Chapmans Peak...amazing.

Well we documented the first legal drink...so I guess I should document the last. HOWEVER, I did have a couple of Baileys on the plane so this doesn't technically count as the last. But who can say no to baileys?

The Lengkeeks. THANK YOU so much for letting me stay. You guys were wonderful!

p.s as a side note...check out jerome's blog (walkingonmountains.blogspot.com) for some awesome Cango Cave pictures!!

Safely Home

I debated whether or not I wanted to continue blogging after I left south africa but for the interest of friends and families in Cape Town I'll try update it every so often with what I've been up to. This blog post however, is a rundown of my last week in foreign country. It was action packed and I had a wonderful time. (Thanks so much Andria and Jerome for the last day out!) Actually Thank you so much Jerome and Andria for EVERYTHING. I had a great time and you were amazing hosts. I think I'm going to owe you for the rest of my life...for multiple reasons :) But I'm sure Jerome had already thought of that and probably won't let me live it down anyways. The Lengkeeks were wonderful and I had so much fun spending time with the girls and with both of them. I also enjoyed Jerome Bootcamp...for the first couple weeks I did it! :P I'm proud of you Jerome for keeping it up though! I'm terribly sorry for often being out...seems 2.5 months is never enough time to do EVERYTHING. I'm so glad you're coming back in a month (although I sympathize and hope the goodbyes aren't too difficult).

So the last week was a combination of sadness at the idea of leaving and adventures that needed to be packed into the last couple days. I had a final koffee drink with the young peoples who planned a little get together evening for me. It was sad to say goodbye but hopefully I have the opportunity to come and visit again so we ended with "see you soon...hopefully :D" I decided to upload a bunch of pictures after so that I don't have to try put it between paragraphs

The last day jerome and andria took me on a drive to see many of the main points of Cape Town. The first stop was Simons town where I saw the African PENGUINS!!! They are so cute...really. It's odd to see them in South Africa and took a bit to get used to since I always had the preconceived notion that penguins only exist in cold areas :) After this we went on the Chapmans peak drive which was GORGEOUS. Jerome was telling me it's the most common stretch in the world to film car commercials..and for good reasons. Finally we went to a Camel Farm? I'm not sure exactly but I RODE A CAMEL. T'was pretty fantastic and I really enjoyed it. THANKS JEROME AND ANDRIA.

Finally...time to go. We quickly ran in the house and grabbed my bags (I figured out a week later that I had forgot a couple of things, but this is to be expected because..well..it's me!) and headed out the door. Henri and I drove to the airport behind Jerome and Andria and the girls. We waited for quite a while in the wrong line (woopsie :P) and finally figured out which one to get into. Happily all my suitcases were under (woot woot) and we managed to avoid getting my carry on checked by having andria and the girls watch it while I checked in. I've already learned all the tricks of flying. After a somewhat tearful goodbye (crying in public doesn't appeal to me in most circumstances) I headed off to my flight.
Flights:
Cape Town to Frankfurt: Flight gets delays by an hour, sit beside totally drunk men on the bus who hit on me for 15 min (they were probably like 45..), fly for 11 hours without a TV (which is HORRIBLE) and land 2.5 hours late in Frankfurt.
Frankfurt to Seattle: SO MUCH BETTER. Switch to seat in middle where I have 4 seats to myself, have my own TV and tons of leg room, Free Alcohol...lots of baileys...num..., watch movies for 9 hours straight.
Arrived in Seattle at 2:00pm (2 hours late...passable) and get off plane. SAY HI TO MOM AND DAD!!!

Course I saw all my amazing friends when I got home and some more the following days. It was great to see everyone and I am glad to bad back..somewhat :P 2.5 months didn't seem like that long especially since I was the one having all the fun. So the next couple weeks are packed with finding a new job, getting a LOT of schoolwork done, and basically catching up after 2.5 months of fun.

The Elusive Blog Post

Yes it has been an INCREDIBLY long time since I deemed this site worthy of being updated. I can honestly say that the past few weeks have been busy but with nothing extraordinarily interesting worth blog posting. I`m finishing volunteering this week and yes the date is finalized. I`m coming back March 15 2011.
Sniffle

I had an interesting indecent about a week ago with a rat. Anyone who knows me also knows that I actually have no problems with bugs or rats or mice or snakes or anything of the sort. I think this is mainly because of Daniel who owed 1 rat and two mice. All who suffered horrible deaths..but that`s another story. Anyways, one day I was suffering in 38degree weather and was in dire need of some sort of refreshment. Considering I was working on the computer at the same time (and keeping in my my past history of laptops and beverages) I chose the smartest option and opted to take a bottle with a lid that shuts! Ingenious. Sadly, as I reached into the cupboard unawares I grab a bottle and proceed to pick it up. It was surprisingly heavy. Then...it started to move. Then I screamed (yes..I screamed...a very girlish sort of scream. I`m not proud.) Emily came running. The hilarious part was that she didn`t come very close because she was afraid of whatever it was. Later when I asked her why she said she thought maybe it was a cape cobra (a HIGHLY toxic snakes..kills in 15 min) and opted to keep her distance. I laughed and said, 'so if it was a cape cobra would you just have left me?' She responded by saying that it was better for one of us to die then both...good answer...I guess. Anyways, I was busy calmly reassuring emily that it was just a mouse (because it was quite small) and that I`m sure it was harmless but just in case it carried diseases we shouldn`t touch it. What a wise auntie I am. The girls of course were completely grossed out. You can totally tell this is a family that grew up with all girls...they don`t tolerate bugs. They don`t play with bugs, they don`t touch bugs, and they REALLY DON`T LIKE BUGS. I`ve been trying to explain that a spider has done nothing wrong in life other that born ugly..which really isn`t it`s fault if you think about it. However, the girls are having non of it and I`m not allowed to release the spider outside (in case it comes crawling back) but HAVE to kill it. This is sad for me..I don`t like killing anything. Especially innocent spiders.

This is the baby rat that I mistook for a mouse :P


Just this past saturday (March 5) was the Swim Gala nearby our house. It`s a competition between the two schools Huron and GLB. It was really great to go and watch because the girls were having TONS of fun and Esther won one of her races. This is really exciting mainly because everyone here has swimming lessons in school so at the beginning of this year Emily and Esther were a little behind. Now they`re catching up because they`re such quick learners (they get it from their tannie lollos :D) and are doing well for themselves! I had fun ``watching.`` Albert came because he was bored so we actually spent most of that time socializing instead of watching. But it was all in good fun and we really enjoyed ourselves. The rest of the day was spent in a complicated clash of events. At 8:30 I could either attend a Chrismar Bazaar or the Swim Gala. We had to watch the arsenal game (soccer) at 5:00 of COURSE. Later on that evening we had the option of a Braai at the Luijks with Lengkeeks, hanging out with one of my friend Janika, or heading to my friend Roberts for a braai as well. In an attempt to cover most areas we ended up going to the swim gala, watching soccer at my friend pieters, heading to Henri`s (Luijks) for a quick braai dinner, and finally heading to Roberts. Twas a very busy evening but very enjoyable as well :) 

 The first picture is dinner with the Luijks and Lengkeeks. The second is at the swim gala, Esther and Tineke and the last is a south african style braai! Put some olive oil on the fire and watch it burn. The steak filets tasted EXCELLENT.
Finally I thought I would post a couple random pictures. 

 The Luijks dog Zhara is REALLY cute. I realize she looks like she's trying to bite me here but she actually does really love me :) 

Crafts! This is the volunteering that I do at Chrismar. The old ladies are really sweet! :D

This was at the Luijks family get together which was pretty busy :) Made me think of my huge family back home!

Best friends in the world? I think so :D

I have yet to comment on my amazing friends in canada and in south africa!! I just have a specific example being a package I received from Tanners (Tanya Schutte) and Ash (Ashley Meyer) who put together letters for each week that have to be opened on specific days. Usually these letters have something amusing that makes me giggle for 5 minutes straight. Some have incriminating photos (teehee) that I have to destroy in an allotted period of time (*sniffle*) while others have fantismal memories. Either way..you know you have good friends when they buy you a starbucks card for your 10 hour layover in Frankfurt AND add directions as to where the starbucks in frankfurt is located. I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!

Since I have to open the envelopes on allotted days (and no earlier or I'll be in big trouble from Tan and Ash) I sometimes stay up late and open them at 12:00am...heehee....but that's because I'm always so curious. Especially when they say things like...

I was very amused with what I found inside...no...I'm not planning on saying what it was. But Tanya dearie had me curious about this one for a month!

These are some of the pictures I got from them :) Oh how I love my friends...A LOT!

My recent dates....

Yes I have been on quite a few dates recently but I only plan on telling you about one. I figure I’ll leave you in suspense about the others. :D This past week I took Emily and Esther out on a date to the mall. :) The plan had been to go to Mugg&Bean (which is an absolutely DELECTABLE restaurant) but they were closed for reservations so we went to Ziggys :D It’s crazy to see how much they’ve grown up already! Emily and I discussed earlier how her and I are closer in age than Alicia and her. I find that odd….

We first went and got some coke floats for the girls and a milkshake for me.  We ended up having some pretty interesting conversations about all sorts of things (obviously boys was mixed in there…we’re women…it’s what we do!) I loved just spending time with them since I’ve been rather busy lately and haven’t had time for school, friends, and family. After our milkshake I watched the girls run down the up escalator and up the down escalator. However, heading up the second time Emily tripped and gashed her leg open.  It was quite a bloody mess and we had to go ask a shop keeper for some napkins to try and clean it up. I told Emily it was her war wound :) The most Ironic part was that she had managed to gash it going the proper way up the escalator. Finally after wandering around (and visiting “Hang out” for auntie Deanna) we headed home so the girl could go to bed. Sometimes I stay and cuddle with them but it doesn’t really work all that well because I’m a softy (yes…I am…I can’t say no) so when they say “please stay a little longer” with their pleading little voices I just can’t resist. Which usually means they end up going to bed far later than was originally intended…woops. 

The plan is to take Bethany and Alicia next week so if you have any suggestions (that are affordable for a broke university student) feel free to tell me!

Lets see..what else…

On Saturday I went to Holandse Molen (which is a about a 45min drive from where I live) with the Luijks. This meant meeting the entire Luijk clan who were very hospitable. I soon got over my nerves…sorta.  Holandse Molen is a park with camping but it is a river that has been diverted to fill a pool. It was a very relaxing day and I enjoyed myself immensely.  It’s difficult to describe what I did because…well you know what it’s like when you go to the beach…you don’t do anything hahaha. Therefore I’ll just post some pictures of my day. 

 This is Henri's younger sister Carla (she's 11) and she's awesome :D

This is me :) Having a grand time relaxing and getting a tan.

On Tuesday I went to visit my friends classes in Stellenbosh. It would be so interesting to go to school here because the entire town is FULL of young peoples. My friends tell me that more than half of the population is students. The campus is HUGE and is a network of interlacing buildings. It really is the typical “university experience.” Something I’m lacking at my university mostly because I go to evening classes and don’t usually attend any student organized activities. Sniffle. I ended up going to Applied Maths with Henri and Pieter. The course was taught in Afrikaans but I recognized a lot of the formulas! For example…the quadratic formula (yes I did just say that so that I could sound smart…don’t judge). I felt ingenious for about 20 seconds until I realized the difficulty level of what Henri and Pieter are studying. It’s not wonder they have to spend days getting ready for tests. I consoled myself by saying that I was still 18 compared to their ANCIENT age of 20 and I still had 2 years to catch up to their smartness level :D.  They strange part for me is that they teach the course in Afrikaans (therefore using the Afrikaans terms for things such as mean, median, and mode) but all the textbooks are in English. So the students have to know both the English mathematical term AND the Afrikaans term. That’s what you call seriously bilingual. 

After attending class we headed to the apartment at stellenbosh shared by Pieter, Albert, and Hanco. Then we all went out for lunch and watched the cricket game. Yes…I watched cricket. HAHA actually “watched” because I promptly fell asleep after the first 10 min. I’ve become a soccer fan but I don’t think anything in this life could make me watch a game of cricket that takes an entire day. Some of them even take 5 days! The guys here are so in love with sports  (Pieter and Henri…cough cough) that they’ll sit and watch cricket for 5 days straight. Wow. If you’ve seen cricket…that takes a lot of love…it’s so….BOOORRRIIINNNGGG. heehee. To all my south African readers…terribly sorry to put down a sport you love. If it makes you feel better I’ve been watching a phenomenal amount of soccer!

 A picture I very sneakily took...Henri didn't tell me until after we got in the class that sometimes the prof asks people questions..in afrikaans. So if he asked me I had to reply Ek weet nie ("I don't know"). That's not a nice thing to tell something after they're already stuck in a classroom..and my accent would be a dead giveaway.

My camera was taking dark pictures for some odd reason...but these are some of the guys watching cricket and studying :) 

So that is the conclusion of my blog post....have a FANTISMAL day everyone

Catching Up...

I just spent 5 minutes trying to think of a catchy title for this blog post and am sitting with nothing coming to mind. I've concluded from my limited experience that writing blog posts is incredibly complicated and time consuming. And yet here I am...writing a blog post...

So as a note to start off with. Jerome, Andria, and my South African friends are all busy having a good laugh at my completely horrid list of facts in recent blog posts. So for future reference...if you want facts that are actually correct...find someone (perhaps jerome?) with an attention span longer than a 5 year old. I never said my facts were correct...just the slightly scewed lauren version! heeehee.

So the past couple weeks...
      So I've started volunteering regularly on tuesdays and wednesdays from 8:30 to 12:30. Tuesdays I head to Chrismar which is an old age home founded by one of the churches here that became a large organization. It's a lot of fun because tuesdays is craft day! Sometimes it's very slow and there isn't a lot for me to do which is frustrating because I'm supposed to be volunteering. The nurses (they call them "sisters" here) are very very sweet and always give me hugs when I come and go. It's very amusing since most of them are about half my height so it's like hugging little kids. Usually their head is resting somewhere on my stomach.
      This past week Gwen (the lady in charge of crafts) couldn't think of anything to do so we took all the 90 year old women and gave them manicures! I'm expecting you to use your imagination for this one...these women were literally giggling at their manicured nails and pink nailpolish. After we had finished with them (around 10 or so) they all held up their beautiful pink nails for us to admire. I really noticed that a lot of them really need the attention so when we did their nails we would also massage their hands with oil etc. Most of them were so pleased to have someone to talk to. Sadly they didn't quite realize that I didn't understand a word of afrikaans but I smiled and nodded in all the right places so they were still happy.


On Wednesdays I volunteer at Tygerburg which is the main public hospital here. The healthcare system here is very different from Canada so most people with more money have private healthcare. The first time I volunteered I was on the trolley where we sold goodies to the people waiting to be helped. The second week they put me in a room full of black men....haha
I was packaging sterilization bags in one of the rooms and it was just me, the woman teaching me..and about 20 black guys. At one point I had 3 or 4 of them waiting for me to give them my number to which I politely said "I don't have a phone." Sadly at that point in time I had just been texting someone and one of them looked pointedly at the phone in my hand. I backtracked quickly and said "I don't know my own number." This is actually entirely true so they couldn't complain! I really have no idea what my own number is :P
I volunteered today as well where they put me in the Milk Room. This was about the worst place they probably could have put me because:
1. I'm clumsy
2. I'm really clumsy..
The whole point of the milk room is that everything has to be sterilized. So if you drop something on the floor you have to wash your hands every time. This means that lauren had to wash here hands more times than I could possibly count. ERG. I have pictures on my phone but I don't know how to get them off so I'll put some pictures of volunteering up in a later blog post.

Last week friday jerome was finished his 2 week module and he took the family on a trip through the winelands and other places to celebrate. I think this is hitting one of the prettiest drives I've ever been on. The winelands is just green green with lots of estates everywhere with options for wine tasting. It was BEAUTIFUL. We ended up driving to Franschhoek:
[this information is taking directly from the Franshhoek official tourism site so it is correct...shocking]
Here's proof if you're looking for it: http://www.franschhoek.org.za/ (also so I'm not plagiarizing :D)  
The Franschhoek Valley - first settled by French Huguenot refugees in 1688 - mixes magical ingredients to create unforgettable experiences.
When it comes to accommodation in Franschhoek the options are endless, with accommodation to suit all tastes and budgets. Decide between classic auberges, boutique hotels, lavish country lodges, cosy B&Bs, pleasant guesthouses or comfortable self-catering cottages.
Franschhoek is the gourmet capital of South Africa. Franschhoek restaurants will treat you to cuisine that is delectably indulgent, ranging from gourmet to rustic with something to please every palate.
We ended up getting some gourmet milkshakes, tea, and coffee as a treat from jerome. It was delectable! The girls had difficulty finishing their milkshakes but Andria, Jerome and I were happy to oblige.

 This is me and Alicia sipping my tea with straws..a new experience for me :)

It was a pretty long drive...apparently :P

We continued on from Franshhoek with a beautiful drive along the coast to Hermanus. The main attraction here is probably the whale watching (see deanna's post for whale sightings!) but sadly you really only see whales in the winter so I didn't see any. I did get my first glance of dassies!! I've lived here almost a month and hadn't actually really seen any (which is shocking because they're like rabbits here :P).

 Me :)

Finally we went to the MTBS which is a competition between a couple of the public schools here. My friends Janika and Simon go to Bellville school. It's very similar to track and field except that they also have cheering competitions as well. It's amazing! They choose students from each school and they make designs by having jackets with black outsides and white interiors. I'll show a picture since it's kinda difficult to explain but it really encourages school spirit! In my opinion we should start doing things like this in Canada :)

I'm running out of time so that's all I can do for now :) Hopefully I'll do another one this week so I'm not so behind.