Catching Up

Below is a list of all the major things that have happened since I last posted (while on my flight home for Christmas). In my attempt to be less verbose, I have only allowed myself one sentence of commenting for each item on the list!

1.     Lori is engaged! – very difficult to be away for this milestone, set my alarm for 3:30am so I could Skype with her minutes after Brandon proposed – (a must do in Brandon’s proposal plans) He’s definitely the one!

2.     Thanksgiving in Durban – first Thanksgiving away from home, big house with 11 other people, big pool and weather warm enough to use it, first time in the Indian ocean, football on the beach, missed Mum’s incredible dinner, and wasn’t with Lori when she bought her wedding dress L  

3.     Hawker’s Christmas Swap – good friends and I gathered for dinner to celebrate the holiday with a South African style Yankee Swap: limit 100Rand (just over $12) and must be bought on the side of the street from a hawker. Contributions included: 3 wooden toy snakes, 2 enormous blow up soccer balls, 12 ears of corn, a wire Christmas tree, among other “fine quality” trinkets. H.I.L.A.R.I.O.U.S!!

4.     Christmas songs sung in several different languages in my classroom – with the sun shining and outside temperatures reaching nearly 80 degrees Fahrenheit.

5.     Flying home for the first time in my life! I’ve never lived in a place I have had to fly from to get home. I felt special, missed, and incredibly loved upon my return!

6.     First night in my old bed – slept better than I had since I moved overseas! It really hit me, as I laid my head down and fell asleep without thinking of an escape route, just how different life in Johannesburg is than New Hampshire. I knew in that moment that living in Johannesburg would never be a permanent thing.

7.     First day in New Hampshire – booked Lori’s wedding venue J, drank a Starbucks latte, enjoyed the cold weather, felt right at home!

8.     Loved every second of my 12 days back home for Christmas. LOVED spending so much time with Lori, Scott, and my parents. Seeing all my friends filled my heart and reminded me again and again of how lucky I am.

9.     December 29^th – flew back to Johannesburg. Spilled tears as I said goodbye to Mum and Dad and the crew, BUT – took Lori and Brandon with me!

10.  Stood at the airport and waited to pick up my other half and future brother-in-law. Couldn’t stop smiling as they appeared through the glass doors – it was my chance to share my new life with them!

   11.  December 30 – January 1^st safari at Madikwe Game Reserve. Two morning game drives and two night drives produced sightings of nearly all the Big 5 – including a pride of lions as the sun rose for the first time in 2012. Happy New Year!

   12.  January 2^nd – January 7^th visited Cape Town (for the second time). Shark cage diving, watched Lori and Bdon jump from a plane, hiked Table Mountain, tasted incredible wines in Franschhoek, admired penguins, ate incredibly well, and loved every minute of it!

13.  January 11^th – said g’bye to Lori and Brandon. HATED every minute of it.

14.  Began seriously training for Two Oceans Half Marathon. Lucky to have the support of a group of friends at school training as well – made long runs over the weekends more bearable.

15.  Chelsea met a 23-year-old South African named Matthew (he is one day younger than her!). She is very happy; therefore, so am I! It’s great to see her get what she deserves!

16.  Presented on Responsive Classroom (Community Building in the Classroom) to two groups of around 20 teachers during a professional development day at school. Felt ALIVE – it was hard to contain my passion for this subject! Began connecting with a fellow teacher (Heather – Kindergarten teacher from South Africa) and found we make an incredible team!

17.  Presented again to a group of Middle School teachers (and the principal) – very successful. I am feeling quite confident in my presenting skills as well as the subject matter!

18.  February 15^th – stood at O.R. Tambo again awaiting familiar faces to walk through the doors. Scott, Jeremy, and Busa flew in for a two week vacation. My apartment was alive…felt so great to fill it with people!

19.  February 18^th – Katie arrived!! - the first person to book a ticket upon my acceptance of this job! Off we went to Kruger National Park for two nights of safari – yielding sightings of all the Big 5! Points game in the car made seeing impala less boring and the prize of a feline sighting more enticing!  

20.  My visitors left for a short stay in Cape Town, while I continued working – thrilled each morning to wake with an apartment full of life – in the form of unmade beds and open suitcases. A welcomed sight compared to my typical silence and order. 

    21.   Valentine’s Day 10K with Faze and Chelsea – night run through the streets of Randburg. Chelsea and I stayed at about the same pace, and it felt so good to run with someone again!

22.   February 24th - had to say goodbye to Truc Lan. She was an incredibly motivated and intelligent student teacher from the College of New Jersey. I thoroughly enjoyed sharing the classroom with her for her short 8 week stay. LOVED the opportunity to be a cooperating teacher again- there is just nothing like the experience of sharing my classroom, mentoring, and learning from someone so fresh and new in the field of teaching! 

       23.   March break came before I knew it!   About 10 days after Scott and the crew left, Chris Blaudschun arrived! It was great to have another visitor and share my life with more of home. A couple days later, Chris and I were on our way to Cape Town where we met up with Ben, Dan, and Sara – more home.

 24.  Cape Town (3^rd trip down there for me) = sky diving again! Shark cage (we saw 11 different sharks!) Table Mountain (up a different, but equally beautiful route) Stellenbosch (great wine and a chance to pet a cheetah!) Cape of Good Hope (something new for me!). One surprise to the week – meeting Zara (old friend of Chris’ who lives in Cape Town) … she is a doll!!

25.  My 4^th set of visitors left – hard to say goodbye, but I felt so grateful to have had 11 visitors that spent the money and made the trek to South Africa to see my new world! People asked me if it got annoying to have so many people in my apartment – for someone like me, who has shared my entire world for my entire life, loved every minute of all 11 smiles!

26.  A couple of days post-final home visitors, a friend of a friend came through Johannesburg and crashed with me. She brought along a friend of hers and a girl she had met while bouncing around Africa. I had never met her before, but knowing she was a friend of Jeremy White’s meant she certainly could be a friend of mine. In total, Kendra and her friend David only stayed with me for about 5 nights. When they left, you’d never have known I hadn’t met them before! A new perk to living across the world – meeting some incredible people!

27.  For three nights (around this same exact time) I hosted a teacher from Cameroon visiting our school for a conference. I will be honest – it was the last thing I wanted to do, but I had volunteered back in September, so I was stuck! This woman was nice, and I am glad I had a chance to meet someone from another part of the world.

28.   March 31^st – after a 6:30am ten mile run (the last of the long training runs) I brought Kendra and David to the airport and officially closed Hotel Akerley for the school year. J As much as I loved all of my visitors, it was very nice to know that the apartment was back to being mine – all mine for awhile.

29.  Wednesday, April 4^th – Carbo Load potluck dinner at Dee’s. Several of the Two Ocean runners gathered at Dee’s for dinner. Sitting in her quaint living room, laughing and mentally preparing for the upcoming race, it felt like I was home! I have good people here – good friends. What did I do to deserve two “homes,” filled with incredible people, in this life?

    30.   Thursday, April 5^th – for the first time in my career I found myself working at a school with an Easter holiday break. After an early release, eight of us headed to Lanseria Airport and hopped a plane down to Cape Town – 5 of us  set for a 21.1k race (13miles) known as the Two Oceans Half Marathon. 
   Post-race plans - wine tasting in Franschhoek WInelands! 

the snowball effect

The first week I missed writing a post, I told myself - "It's ok. I'll write one next week." Then next week came and went, and I repeated the phrase "It's ok. I'll write one next week." But alas, next week came and went again, and still NO POSTS. Like a snowflake that quickly catches another flake and another, before finally sticking into a cold, solid ball of snow - my "It's ok. I'll write one next week." has turned into over three months of post-less blogging. Ooops!  I am grateful for the technology that eliminates 8000 miles of land and sea and allows me the chance to share my experiences with you all back home. It has been this connectivity that has made living so far away more comfortable. Upon first arriving in South Africa, writing about my experiences helped shrink the distance because I knew my words were being read and I was being missed.
 As time has marched on, I have continued to miss my life in New Hampshire, but I have also begun to create a temporary home here in Johannesburg. The nights have grown less lonely, and the days have filled with more distractions. My circle of friends has stretched and my social calendar remains full. Increased Internet capability allows me to see faces and hear voices.  Regular reflections on the highs and lows of my days and experiences have lined the once empty space left in my heart after leaving home. Each day that passes I grow up more and more – I become the woman I always wanted to be but never thought I’d see – the woman who stood on my own and pushed my comfort zone and left “home.” I have an overwhelming desire to be back home every day that I am here - but the difference is: I don’t need to be.
 

All that “sediment” (it’s a Grampa Anderson thing) aside, I return back to the problem at hand…I have become very neglectful to all my readers out there, and for that I apologize. There have been many times when I pulled my computer out to start writing, but each time, the snowball seemed too big. The task of recalling all that had happened since the last time I posted seemed too daunting, so I just gave up. As spring pushes away winter in New Hampshire and fall’s chill begins to settle here in Joburg, it’s time to melt the snowball. J