The eighth week

 

Monday  was a different school day because we went to Bishops boys school for a day. The official name of the school is Bishops Diocesan College and it was established in 1849 by the Bishop of Cape Town. It is located in Rondebosch  and the school territory is extremely large, with many different sport fields, swimming pools, beautiful buildings and boarding houses.  First we went to a chapel service, which was almost an hour. It was amusing when hundreds of boys are singing. The organ was quite loud, their voices were deep and  I enjoyed listening to them.  After chapel Mr Court paired me with one of the boys from grade 11 - Sean.  We visited some lessons and I found it quite interesting. We had lunch at the boarding house. It was really cool. I wish that we had something like that in the Netherlands. We walked around the campus and I was amazed how many different sport fields they have and how beautiful the park is around the school. It was interesting to experience a complete different school as we are used to. 


Bishops Chapel

 

Rugby field

 

Tuesday I just had my normal school day. During consumer studies we learned how to make a bread. I am sure that I’ll make this at home for my family. Of course I also had "Afrikaans". I love these language lessons so much.

On Wednesday all exchange students from Herschel went off to explore some more of Cape Town on a "Hop On, Hop Off" bus. We started our tour at the Waterfront. It was funny to see the city from a little higher point of view. We were on the top of a double decker open bus. First we visited the District Six Museum which shows the history of this area of Cape Town. After WW II this region was a cosmopolitan district. On 11 February 1966, the government declared District Six a "WHITE ONLY" area. More than 60000 people were removed from their homes. It is an interactive museum where you really get the feeling that you live in that area. It was sad to face the damage of the Apartheid Regime. After that we visited the oldest building of South Africa - The Castle of Good Hope.  This star shaped fort was built in the 17th century by Jan van Riebeeck and the Dutch East India Company.  The five bastions of the Castle are named after Dutch Royals: Orange, Nassau, Catzenellenbogen, Leerdam and Buuren. The main function of this fort was to support and protect the Dutch spice trade with the East Indies.

District Six Museum

The Castle of Good Hope

After this tour we had lunch at Camps Bay. It was so nice to be there with all the exchange girls. Around half past two we had to be back at Herschel, because we went to support the waterpolo teams at “Waller Cup” at the Newlands Pool. The Waller Cup is an annual waterpolo event where all the best school teams in the Western Cape compete against each other. It was fantastic that a part of the school was there to support its teams.

On Thursday I did not go to school, because surfing at Muizenberg beach was organized for all exchange students of Herschel and Bishops. This was actually the last program together, because Sunday half of the Chilean students were going home. I loved this program so much. There were amazing waves and I could stand up on the surfboard quite a few times. It is such an awesome feeling to be on top of the waves. Once everyone was tired we had a nice lunch on the beach.

In the evening we had a "winter program" in the hottest summer in Cape Town. Maarten invited all exchanges for an hour of ice skating at an indoor rink at the + 66 Grand West Casino. The place looked exactly like the indoor ice skate rink at Polus Center in Budapest. It was fun but we were not very well prepared. No gloves! It was disco ice skating, so there were coloured lights everywhere.

Friday morning we had a normal school day but everybody was very excited because of the Matric Dance. This Matric Farewell is one of the most exciting events in the high school students life. A fantastic dinner and dance party is organized for the 12 grades students. I signed up together with the other girls to waitress at this dance. All afternoon we were busy with a waitressing training. We had to take our job seriously to make it an amazing night. It was even not allowed for us to dance or even to speak with the 12 grades students or their dates, though it happened anyway, because they started talking to us. We were wearing black clothes and we had flower crowns in our hair. It was quite tiring but I enjoyed it very much.
Especially the beginning was so special, when the girls arrived in their beautiful dresses and with their dates. One couple arrived in a red Ferrari, while others came in a tuk-tuk or a couch or even an ice cream car! They were beautiful and looked so happy. This was a "once in life time" event for the 12 grades students. It was a wonderful experience for me to be there .

Matric Dance