New year, time to tell you about my summer

Hello everyone !

So as usual, this blog was a little bit died down during the summer - pretty much like school, huh ?
But now I'm back home, and almost back at school, and I feel the need to tell you all about my amazing summer, with three destinations : South Africa, Belgium, and Hungary (I actually wanted to write this article right after South Africa but I didn't get round to do it until now, but I'm still going to talk only about that because it totally deserves it).

The beginning of my adventure was on the 16th of July. I woke up early, then went to Marseille to take a train with Agathe, so we could go to Paris CDG and meet up with the group that signed up for the same trip as we did.
Flash-forward of a few hours, because even though I really want to describe it all, I think you are not interested by all the details of my flights.

The view from the wifi spot (and the hair of someone)

Once we had settled down in the different families of the township we would live in for a week, we went for a tour of it, to visit the different creches we were going to be working at. I ended up in the one furthest from my home, with Agathe and three boys that we became really good friends with.

Whenever we went somewhere kids would just come up to us and accompany us

From then on, the days of the week went by quickly : we went to the creches at 9 and stayed there helping the teachers take care of the kids until 1, then usually the five of us went down to the city and hung out there. I really loved that week, because we were really free to do what we wanted and I had found a solid group of friends (funny how quickly the feeling passed between us, funny but great).

I would've put a picture of the kids but I can't get their approval so this is the view from the creche instead

Two of the days, the entire group of volunteers (10 Italians, 7 French and 2 Belgian, even though it was usually said 8 French and 1 Belgian) worked at my creche, not to take care of the kids (though it would've helped too, they were impossible, and even being 5 for 20-25 of them we could all end up on the floor surrounded by them sometimes), but to repaint it.

Once again, no approval so this is just a kind of bad picture that I took during the painting

I learnt a lot during that week : that the prejudice against townships is not really justified, I mean sure, you have to follow certain safety rules, but generally I just felt really good there, and I know I was not the only one. That I can't survive without water, because orange juice/tea/milk for a week still kept me thirsty. That people can always surprise you, especially if they're from a culture you don't know at all. And the click song.

Eventually, we left on a seven-day-long trip from west to east. In spite of bad weather, we saw some absolutely beautiful things. For me, the most memorable one was on the first day, where we did a two-hour hike up Table Mountain which exhausted us (we fell asleep after, on the bus tour of Robben Island, shame), but the view was definitely worth it. 

 As I said, worth it.

And lastly, we had a week in a natural reserve. It was good but to be honest, not at all what we expected. We saw many beautiful animals and had a lot of fun, saw the sun rise and set on the African plains.

I mostly took pictures when there wasn't necessarily much to see, because just as last summer I was too busy admiring the view, and I don't want to use other people's. So in this article you only see my average ones, sorry !

To conclude, this was a really amazing three weeks, where I saw amazing things, learnt so much, and met amazing people.

Welcome to the new secondes,

Judith

South Africa

Dear Charlie,
  It's been 12 days since I arrived in South Africa. I am having an amazing time here. I went to the university of Pretoria for 3 days with my host to discover more about engineering, I'll be able to tell you more about studies in South Africa when we go back to school. Then, my host family took me to Afriski, a ski resort in the kingdom of Lesotho. It was amazing, even if it is winter here, I'd never have imagined that there could be any snow in Africa. I also discovered South African food such as stywe pap or biltong which is a dry stick made out of the game they hunt. I am even learning a new language: Afrikaans!
In the next weeks I'll be going to school with my host and then I'll leave for a 9 days safari in the Krüger National Park.
Hope you are having a "laker" holidays.
Loïc

Afriski

Biltong

My Summer Break: A short postcard

Hello Charlie!

         I hope everyone is enjoying their summer holidays as much as I am. This year, our class got out of school quite early, so we had quite a long time to do our own things without worrying about school. I spent the beginning of the summer at home, going to the beach often and hanging out with my friends that live in the area. But the very exciting part of My summer came July 17th. I finally had the chance to fly back to the US for one whole month. I was so excited to go because to me, going back to Maryland is a reward for the whole school year I've just done. Anyway, I had to wake quite early the day of the flight but truthfully, it didn't bother me much. I absolutely love flying and this time, I got to fly alone, visit the cockpit of the famous Airbus A380 and I met the pilots. It was definitely a very neat experience to sit in the front of the biggest commercial plane in the world. What a great way to start my trip! I landed safely 8 hours later and my friend came to pick me up. Since I traveled alone I had to stay at my friend's house in Columbia, MD witch was not the worst thing ever :) While I was there, I hung out with my friends a lot, went to Washington D.C, New York City with some of my friends, I went to concerts and some county fairs. I got to feel at home again for some time and visit some places I had not been to in awhile. Overall I had a great time in Columbia and the 32 days passed by way too quickly. I really hope I get to go back sometime soon to see my best friends again. It is now almost time to go back to school, and I am not ready at all. This summer passed way too fast. Anyhow, Summer 2K14 I'm going to miss you, but it is now time to prepare for a whole new school year!
I hope you all enjoyed your summer holidays,
Goodbye :)

Over the Atlantic Ocean

IAD

Washington DC

Washington DC

Washington D.C

The Washington Monument

The Liberty Tower, NYC

The Empire State Building, NYC

Times Square, NYC