Birthdayyy

     So today has been pretty awesome.  I even skyped Julia this morning before church.  The only non-awesome part was the driving to and from church.  Due to the fact that it is winter here the wind is INSANE.  We were like being pulled from side to side.  Pretty scary. I taught the lesson in YW today and it was on supporting our Priesthood holders.  It went pretty well.  Tyler said they talked about Marriage and Divorce in Sunday School and said it was a really good lesson.  The Bishop gave me candy for my birthday too. =]

I don't know if this kind of chocolate is in the states, but if it is then y'all need to try it!  It's pretty much a big deal.

     When I got home Tyler make me little baby pizzas for lunch and then I took a nap while he watched the Sound of Music (my request lol).  He actually admitted that it was a good movie.  Look at Tyler gettin all cultured. 

Pizzas on hamburger buns.  Our staple lunch meal.

     When I woke up from my nap (which was like 3 hours-I know pretty long right?) Tyler started making dinner.  While he was making dinner I was looking for apartments because we are wanting to find one closer to UNCG than the one we are looking at right now.  He made Garlic Shrimp Pasta, garlic bread, and a salad which was delicious.  He also got an Appletiser for me yesterday and also a Cinnabon to heat up instead of cake.  I also got to skype Mom for awhile which was super cool. 

Tyler's cookin!

Readin the recipe

Dinner!!!  It was so good.

My Cinnabon =]

     We continued to look for apartments after dinner and found a few that we emailed.  After we found a few Tyler skyped Chris for awhile and now we are just hanging out watching Big Bang Theory.  That's about it for now.  Hamba Kakuhle.

Girls Day!

     I had a girls day with Vanessa today!  We found two recipes on Pinterest and made them.  The first was banana pieces topped with peanut butter and covered with chocolate.  The second one was kind of like a brownie cupcake with cookie dough icing.  They were really good.  Tyler went shopping for my birthday dinner groceries and now we are just hanging out at home.  I know it's not much in writing, but it was SO MUCH FUN!!!  That's about all for today.  Hamba Kakuhle.

2 in one day??

     I know I am posting two in one day, but I just realized I didn't post what we got in Cape Town.  I'm not going to post all of them, but here are some of them. =]

Xhosa warrior mask

Drum.

Statue.

Doll.

The Big 5 carved into a carving of Africa.

That's all.  Hamba Kakuhle.

Friday outing

     We went to grab some lunch and go to the market today.  I took some pictures, so I am just going to post them and explain them.

This spider was pretty big.  It was about the size of a silver dollar-pretty cool lookin too.  Tyler wanted to kill it, but since it wasn't doing anything I asked him not to. 

This is about as close as it comes to American pizza.  The meal is actually really cheap though.  for a small pizza and drink it's about 3 dollars.

MARTHA!!!  This is the lady I have mentioned before.  She is really nice and the best person to shop from in Stellenbosch market.

Top of Christopher's cane.

Tyler with Christopher's cane.

Funny story...the cane is too big for our bag, so we have to cut a piece off and then glue it back on when we get back home.  It is insanely hard to cut which makes it all the more amazing because the man who made it is 53 years old.

This is my adorable keychain!

      Ok, that's about it y'all.  Hamba Kakuhle.

A lot of information

     We actually covered a lot of information in class today.  I normally leave class feeling like we could have done at least another 20 minutes.  Since we learned about drinks yesterday, we learned about meat today.  But, before I talk about that I will mention that Tyler took his test today!!  This is what he said about his test, "Today's test was again pretty difficult but not as bad as the first one. I did study for 3 days straight leading up to the exam so it helped a little bit. It just doesn't make it easier when there are 7 different chapters of formulas to remember. Overall I think I did better." That's all he has to say about it.  Also, we had a super unhealthy dinner.  We made guacamole burgers with sauteed mushrooms.  Tyler's had sauteed onions and chiles as well.  Anyways, on to Xhosa!

Oh ya, we also made french fries.  =]

-Ubisi lwetshokholethi= Chocolate milk (I know I said this part was about food, but I have to include this little story.  Pumlani asked us what we drank this morning and I had a bottle of chocolate milk in class, so when he asked I just said Nidsela bisi which means milk.  He kept looking at me like I was supposed to say something else.  So, instead of torturing me very long he told me how to say it.)

-yimalini= How much money?

-imali= money

-Utya ntoni?= What are you eating now?

-Utye ntoni ekusini?= What did you eat this morning?

-Andityanga= I did not eat a thing.

-isonka= bread

-esimhlophe= that is white (as in isonka esimhlophe-bread that is white)

-daka= brown or dirty

-Wena umdaka= You are dirty.

-bhotolo= butter

-Isanka esinejem nebhotolo= Bread that has. jam and butter

-Qaba isonka ngebhotolo= Spread the bread with butter.

-esine= prefix that means "that has"

-esime=that is
-bilisa= boil
-iqanda= egg
-igembiza= pot
-iqanda elinye= 1 egg
-na= prefix meaning "and"
-Isonka neqanda elinye= bread and one egg

I know I said to say and the prefix is na and I know that I wrote neqanda instead of naqanda.  The reason is the word for egg is iqanda and because it starts with a vowel I can't add "na" to the beginning of it (remember: vowels never go next to each other in Xhosa).  So, what happens is when the a adds to the i it becomes an e.  Why?  I don't know, it just does.

-amaqanda amabini= 2 eggs
-ama= prefix meaning plural
-imifuna= vegetables (referring to the green vegetables, not carrots or anything like that)
-Ndtya imifuna kuphela= I eat vegetables only.
-inyama= meat
-Ndiyayithanda=I am going to break this word down.
---Ndi= I
---ya= am
---yi= it (the "it" will be referring to what the person is like)
---thanda= liking
-----So, Ndiyayithanda means I am liking it, but it's more of an extreme liking.
-Nidyayithanda inyama= I am liking (like, really really really really liking) the meat.
-Andiyithandi= I don't like it (as in extreme dislike)
-Inyama yantoni?= Meat from what?
-Inyama yenkukhu= the meat of a chicken
-Inyama yehagu= meat of a pig (pork)
-inyama yenkomo= the meat of a cow (steak)
-inyama yegusha= the meat of a sheep.
The Xhosa people do not eat lamb, or calves for that matter.  They do not believe in eating a younger animal because their theory is that if you eat the younger ones, then when the older ones die all the cows will be gone.  They also don't eat their animals with horns like deer, or I guess for them gazelle.  That is not specific to Xhosa culture that's apparently a law in South Africa.
-intlanzi= fish
-Yimalini iyama yegusha eSpar?= How much is the meat at the Spar?
-imingathe= carrots
-Ndipheka imingathe, imifuno, neyama yenkomo.= I cooks carrots, vegetables, and the meat of a cow.

BORINGGGG.

     As the title says, today has been super boring.  Tyler has been studying at the library all day and I have been just working on my photobooks.  Tomorrow I have Xhosa and then we have a 5 day weekend, so we may go to Table Mountain depending on the weather.  But, for now, I am just sitting here waiting for Tyler to come home.  Hamba Kakuhle.

Drinky Drinks

     We learned about drinks in Xhosa and how to order them and at restaurant.  Not super exciting, but it is what it is. =]

-sela= drink (the verb)
-Usela ntoni?= You drink what?
-Ndisela amanzi= I drink water.
-Usele ntoni ekuseni?= What did you drink in the morning?
-Ndisele ubisi.= I drank milk.
- ijusi= juice.
-Ndicela= I ask for....[This is the polite way to ask for something; it is their version of please]
-Ndifuna= I want....[This is seen more of a command than Ndicela]
-Ndicela iti emnyama.= I ask for my tea (iti) black (emnyama).  [This means they want their tea without milk.  You can use the same wording when talking about ikofu (coffee).]
-Ndicela ikofu enobisi.= I ask for coffee with milk.
-Ndisela ubisi olubandayo.= I drink the milk that is cold. [A lot of the people here drink warm milk.  I noticed it at the sleepover when a lot of the girls were taking glasses of milk to the microwave before they drank it.]
-olushushu= ....that is hot. [This is what you say when you want something hot instead of olubandayo (cold).]
-iwayini ebomvu= wine that is read
-iwayini emhlophe= whine that is white
-iglasi yewayini= glass of wine [ye means of]
-ibhotile= bottle
-Ndicela ibhotile yamanzi.= I ask for a bottle of water.
-ahlwahlwazayo= sparkling [First of all, this word is incredibly difficult to say.  the "hl" sound is like a "sh" sound in the back of your throat.  They got this word because the Xhosa people didn't know what sparkling water was, so they didn't have a word for it.  They solved this problem by naming it after the sound it makes when you open a bottle of sparkling water.]
-kanonkala= the water of the crab. [This pretty much means the water from the river or still water.  Traditionally in the tribe if you wanted water then you went to the river (where the crabs are) and got the water.]
-esweti= sweet [such as iwayini esweti (sweet wine).]
-edrayi= dry [such as iwayini edrayi (dry wine).  You can't use the literal Xhosa word for dry to describe a wine, because they will tell you that it's impossible for a liquid to be dry.]
-For beer, you would say "ye        " and put the specific type of beer in the blank. [ex- yebluemoon]
-Uthanda ukusela ntoni?= What would you like to drink?
-Ndithanda ukusela ijusi.= I would like to drink juice.

     Other than Xhosa we haven't really done a whole lot today.  We made mini pizzas, so there was nothing special for dinner.  Tyler and I were planning our after school trip down the Garden Route, but now he is studying for this massive test he has on Thursday.  Apparently there is some big soccer game on tonight that he is watching, but unfortunately I am not very into it so I have been napping.  Well, that's about it for today.  Hamba Kakuhle.

2nd to last lesson

     I can't believe we are almost done at Lynedoch.  We only have one more lesson with the kids and then (I think maybe/I hope) we have a day to have a party with them.  I think we only have 3 weeks left of school in general.  We have a lot of stuff due coming up soon.  We have our project report due on Friday, our key concepts paper due on Monday, I have a presentation due the next Friday, and we have to make a 30 minute documentary.  We are going to be very busy until school ends, so I feel that time is going to go by so fast which is good because I am kinda ready to go home, but bad because I know that once we go home we probably won't come back.
     Today with the girls we talked about substance abuse because on previous lessons they mentioned drugs a lot.  We discussed tik (crystal meth), dujah (I think that's how you spell it-weed), cocaine, cigarettes, and alcohol because those are the most prevalent here.  They were acting a little weird today, but I think it's because they felt a little bit awkward.  We ended up splitting into groups and discussing with them on a more personal level.  What we learned is that most of the girls have tried stuff.  Two of my girls smoke a pack a week which surprised me because I didn't think they would be able to get a hold of a whole pack.  I figured they would be sneaking some from their parents, but they are getting whole packs. 
     We discussed music with the boys and the girls together.  Vanessa talked to them about lyrics and how songs have meanings and messages in them and how we can find those messages in the lyrics.  We discussed a song at the end of Honey called "I believe I can" or something like that which is a really cool message to teach the kids.  After we talked about lyrics for a bit I taught them about really basic beat notes like eighth, quarter, half, dotted half, and whole notes.  After that the kids wrote down their own beats.  Some of them really got into it while others just wanted to drum on their desks.  After they did their own beats we let them dance a little bit.  The boys were being really funny and dancing like girls after awhile. 

Vanessa and the girls dancing =]

     Here is Tyler describing his classes today.  "Today in class we taught them about respect. It is a big issue with the kids here showing respect to others. They acted out skits of being disrespectful and respectful. Hopefully they learned a few things. After the first part we continued the paper mache globe we are making and added the second layer of paper. Next time we will paint them."
      When class was over our documentary group got together to film some interviews for our documentary.  Tyler tried to improvise in the middle of the interview which was a really bad idea, but it was still pretty funny.  While we were doing it this little boy Tyler calls Big Dawg sprints over to him and gives him a really big hug.  It was the cutest thing I had seen all day.  At the end of the interviews Tyler was asking the kids if they were taking the train back home.  They looked at him really confused which means they probably didn't know English well.  I did notice he was speaking Xhosa though, so I asked him where he lived and he answered in Xhosa and we had a little Xhosa conversation.  I felt so legit.

Big Dawg is the one in the middle...the other kid actually came out of nowhere and just wanted his picture taken.  He is the one I spoke Xhosa with.

     On the way home I got white hot chocolate and then we did our journal entries.  After the journals we took a very long nap.  While we were napping someone knocked on the door, but we weren't completely dressed so we pretended like we didn't hear.  The weird thing is that Tyler asked Hennie (house owner) if we had a visitor and he said no.  Oh well.  Tyler went out to grab a few groceries and then came home.  We have just been hanging out since then.  Well, that's about it for today.  Hamba Kakuhle.

Garrett is 15!!!

     First of all, I want to wish my baby brother a happy 15th birthday!  It's so weird that he is so old!!  I remember when he was born!!  I don't know what he did today because the lame-o hasn't been able to skype me, but I hope it was awesome.  We love you Gare Bear. =]

     Church today was ok.  Driving the scooter was a little difficult because of the wind and such, but we made it there just fine.  With winter coming it's going to be harder to drive the scooter on the highway due to the wind and rain.  On a brighter note, I made something pretty good for dinner.
     I have this amazing teriyaki marinade (low-fat as well) that I make all the time, but this time I decided I was going to do a stir fry with it.  I don't think what I created was a stir fry, but it was still really good.  I also made brown sugar glazed carrots which Tyler really liked.

     Ya, the pictures aren't very pretty, but they are what they are.  After dinner we played Gin for a really long time, haha.  I don't even know how long we were playing.  I skyped Julia for a bit.  We are now just hangin out.  Tyler found a basketball game on the TV, so we are gonna watch that after Big Bang Theory goes off.  That's about it for now.  Hamba Kakuhle.

Stellenbosch Market =]

     We went to Stellenbosch Market today because I wanted to get something I saw a while back for Mom.  Before we went to the market we stopped at Mugg and Bean to grab some food.  I got a sloppy joe and it was really good, but it had something sweet in it that I couldn't figure out.  A lot of things here have random sweet stuff in them such as salsa.  I know there are salsas back home that are sweet, but ALL the salsas here have something sweet in them.  It's not bad, but I can only eat so much of it.
     As Tyler was paying, I walked over to the market (it was literally right next to it).  One of the women who I spoke to last time I was there, Martha, actually remembered me.  I was pretty surprised.  We talked for awhile before Tyler came over.  She has two kids, a boy who is 7 and a girl who is 4.  Apparently the boy is quite a trouble maker.  She even gave us a really good price on a big painting because, as she told Tyler, "Your wife is a very nice woman."  Ya, who said nice guys finish last?  Before we left she says, "You must come see me before you leave.  You don't have to buy anything, but you should come back and say bye."  Next time I go there I will take a picture with her so y'all can see who I am talking about.

This is our painting =]  It is about 18" by 40" and it was made by a man in Mozambique.  We got it for about 13 dollars because Martha is so awesome.

This was actually made by a 14 year old girl.  There were ones with more panels, but they were super expensive.

      Other than that today has been pretty relaxed.  I have been reading a book and Tyler watched a movie.  Tyler made a really good dinner tonight!  He decided it was time to have some Mexican food so he made sinchronizadas again.  He even found some guacamole at the store AND it was surprisingly pretty good.  It obviously isn't as good as Laura's, but what is really?  The limes here are yellow, by the way.  At first I thought they weren't ripe or something, but Tyler said that in Mexico they are yellow too.  Side note: I have been swatting at this "fly" on the side of my neck for about 5 minutes only to find out it was my ponytail. 
     Now I am just hanging out waiting to skype Julia and Tyler is reading some sports thing as usual.  That's about it for now though.  Hamba Kakuhle.

Tyler's presentation

     Today was a little boring.  There were some highlights though, so I will mention them.  Tyler and his grade group did their presentation today and it was good.  Another good part of today is this thing we are doing with our entire class called discusses each others "golds".  Gold is what makes the person special or unique or what you love about a person.  So we got to say good things about people the last half of class which is always fun.  Unfortunately that's all I have to post about.  Hamba Kakuhle.

Past, Present, and Future

     Xhosa was a little bit more complicated than just vocab today.  We talked about turning verbs into past and future and how to make them negative.  It actually wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be.  Hopefully my notes will make sense to everyone.

Present

-Verb: funda (study/read)

-Ndifunda isiXhosa means I study Xhosa.  Ndi pretty much just means I or recognizes that you are talking about yourself.

-If we want to say I do not study Xhosa we have to negate it by replacing the "a" at the end with an "i" and adding an a to the beginning of the word.

-Andifundi isiXhosa --> I do not study Xhosa.

-Thina sifunda isiXhosa means We study Xhosa.  Si obviously is the prefix for we.

-We do the same thing to it in order to make it negative.  Thina asifundi ixi Xhosa --> We do not study Xhosa.

Past

-Verb: babhala (write)

-We will start with the sentence Abafunda (students) babhala(writes) uviwo (exam).

-To take something from the present and turn it into the past all you do is replace the last letter of the verb (I think it's always "a") with an "e".

-Abafunda babhale uviwo --> Students wrote exam.

-To make it negative we still add an "a" to the beginning of the word, but instead of ending with an "i" we end the verb with an "anga".

-Abafunda ababhalanga uviwo --> Students did not write exam.

Future

-Verb: thetha (speak)

-Thina sithetha isiXhosa means We speak Xhosa.

-For the future tense it's a little more complicated.  We add an "oz" after the part of the word that shows who/whom the verb is about such as I, you, we, she...etc.

-In this sentence "si" means we, so we would put "oz" after it.

-Thina sizothetha isiXhosa --> We will speak Xhosa.

-To make it negative we replace the "zo" with "zu" and add an "a" to the beginning.

-Thina asizuthetha isiXhosa --> We will not speak Xhosa.

Third Person

-Third person is the only exception to these rules because the prefix for third person is "u".

-This is a problem because in the Xhosa language vowels do not go next to each other.  They change the spelling if they are ever found next to each other.

-This is a problem because as you have noticed we put an "a" at the beginning of the verbs to make it negative.

-The way they get past this problem is by changing "au" to "aka"

-I am going to do a present, past, and future negative example of this exception.

Present:

-uJulia uhlala eUtah (Julia lives in Utah)

-The negative form of this would be, "uJulia akahlali eUtah" which obviously means Julia does not live in Utah. (I personally like the negative form better..sorry Jules =])

Past:

-uGarrett utya isidudu. (Garrett eats the porridge)

-First, we change this to the past tense: uGarrett utye isidudu. (Garrett ate the porridge)

-The negative form of this is going to be, "uGarrett akatyanga isidudu" which means Garrett did not eat the porridge which is far more likely because our professor says that porridge is super gross.

Future:

-uAndrew uhamba eNorth Carolina. (Andrew goes/take a trip to North Carolina)

-Once again, we have to make this in future tense: uAndrew uzohamba eNorth Carolina. (Andrew is going to go to North Carolina)

-The negative form of this is going to be, "uAndrew akazuhamba eNorth Carolina" which means Andrew will not go to North Carolina which better not be true.

     If it's hard to understand, you can comment and I can try to explain it better.  After Xhosa my group met today to discuss what we are going to do in class on Monday and how we are going to do thank you cards for the people who helped us out with our project.  We got some posters and are going to have the kids sign them and put a big class picture on it.  After this class we only have one more class with the kids. =[  We are going to divide the students among us and write them each a goodbye letter.  We also have a presentation next week and two papers due pretty soon, but after that there really isn't a lot left to do for the class.

     When I got home I started the reading for our presentation, but it was so boring I had to stop after 5 pages.  I guess I will have to read it a little at a time.  Tyler went to class and I forgot to ask him to write something about it, but I am sure he doesn't mind.  He did tell me that he has another test Thursday which is good and bad.  It's bad because they JUST had a test, so now he gets to stress for another week, but it's good because it's a difficult class and more grades means more opportunities to improve the final grade.

     I am going to talk about cooking again, so for the people who don't really care about it can skip this part.  I have this weird obsession with talking about the stuff I make, so sorry, haha.  A while back I made chik-fil-a sandwiches and they were fine, but it was really difficult to fry them because they took a very long time and didn't fry evenly.  Tyler asked me to make them again, so this time I pounded the chicken to about 1/2 of an inch so that it would cook faster and more evenly.  I double breaded it so it wouldn't be so thin and popped it in the hot oil.  It worked SO MUCH BETTER!!!  Yes, I did take pictures of it because I am weird like that. =]

Right out of the oil.  They ended up being a lot thicker than when I put them in.  The little pieces are parts that I cut off because they made the chicken too big.

I was pretty happy that they were about the same thickness because when I made them before one end was super thick and the other was super thin.

     Tyler is at his group meeting right now which is super lame.  They had to start the meeting at 7pm because one of his group members was doing something all day er something like that.  He probably wont' be home for awhile because he said they have to plan their class on Monday and create their presentation that they are doing tomorrow.  This means I am just chillin' by myself....kinda bored...really bored.  Well, that's about it for today.  Hamba Kakuhle.

Ndidlamkile

     If you read/if you remember from yesterday's post you know what the title means!  For those who are like me and struggle to remember anything that has to do with language, this means I am energized.  I can't remember if I posted this earlier, but I got really sick over spring break and had my first (and hopefully last) experience with a South African doctor.  I have been exhausted recently and have been sleeping entirely too much (one day I slept 16 hours).  The reason I am mentioning this is because today is probably the first day that I feel that all my energy is back which means I cooked today!  I even made a dessert I found on pinterest. =]

Ooook, so this is what I did.  I carved out the center of the apples (a little bit difficult not to break the apples) and mixed the center up with some cinnamon, sugar, and brown sugar (as I would normally for making an apple pie) and then refilled the apples.  Then I just popped them in the oven.

First two.

Second two.  These were really good.  I just wish I had added a little bit more of the sugars.  The bottom got so mushy it was almost like eating really fresh applesauce.

Nom Nom Nom.

There isn't really anything special about the pasta except the mushrooms that I sauteed.  I did make the croutons though!

     Other than eating today has been boring.  I am just waiting for the voice to come on as is Tyler so he can watch a dude movie that he knows I wouldn't want to watch.  We may play some gin, but other than that it's just a boring night.  Hamba Kakuhle.

Ndonwabile

We learned some happy words in Xhosa today!

Ndidlamkile- I am energized.

Ndinovuyo- I have joy

Sinovuyo- We have joy

Ndonwabile- I am happy

Sonwabile- We are happy

*To make things plural replace the Nd with S*

Ndinebhongo ngawe- I am proud of you/I have pride in you.

Ndinebhongo ngo             wam.- I am proud of my            .

Ndinovelwano- I have sympathy for you.

Ndiyakuthanda- I love you.

Siyakuthanda- We love you

Ndiyakuzonda- I hate you 

Ndiyakwa- I understand you.

Kodwa- but

Namhlanje ndilusizi kodwa izolo bendonwabile.- Today I am sad, but yesterday I was happy.

*the prefix "be" goes in front of feeling words to indicate that the feeling was in the past*

(I am not really sad today...just for the record)

Uhleka ntoni?- You laugh at what?

Uhlilela ntoni?- You cry at what?

Song:

Khanikhangele                                    Just look

ezi ntokana,                                        at the little birds

ziphaphazela                                       they fly

ngamaphikwana                                  with little wings

zithi tsiyoyo (say tsiyoyo twice)           they say chirp chirp

ngemilonyama                                     with little mouths

     Other than that we learned how to play gin today.  I think we are playing it right, but even if we aren't it's still pretty fun.  Tyler has finally found a game he can beat me at. ;]  Just kidding.  We skyped Julia for awhile and learned that Diesel has been a little bad recently.  She also told us Garrett started in a varsity lacrosse game.  Get it Gare Bear!!  That's about it for now.  Hamba Kakuhle.

Dear World

     Today was really cool.  I felt that both of the grade 8 lessons went really well.  Tyler is going to type about his when he is finished with his homework.  Until he finishes I will talk about my lessons.  The girls in our class are very quiet when it comes to answering questions and sharing ideas in class, so we thought it would be a good idea to do a public speaking lesson for class.  We started off by sharing some embarrassing stories about times when we or people we knew messed up whiles speaking.  I did mention the story about Julia hitting her head on the microphone that one time.  The girls thought it was pretty funny. =] Anyways, we gave them some basic tips about public speaking and what are the important things to do.  We talked about it together for awhile and then gave them an assignment.  We gave them really easy and broad topics such as friends, family, future plans, Lynedoch, etc.. and asked them to prepare a 1 minute "speech" on the topic they received.  They seemed really nervous to talk in front of their teacher, so we took them outside to do their speeches just for us.  I was actually really surprised at how well the girls did once they were out of their room.  They spoke up loud enough for us to hear and went into pretty good detail about their topics.  At the end of the class we let the girls give us one topic each to talk about the same way they did.  Their topics were pretty funny.  My topic was my husband, Vanessa's was her love life, and Maureen's was her parents.

This is Hannelie.  She was really nervous, so I was just talking to her about it for a bit before she spoke.

Celestia

Simonay

Bianca

       Mr Williams was a total jerk today.  First, he started looking at our tables and was making faces at them as if he had an issue with them which was pretty rude.  Then, he was smoking in the classroom again.  He also asked us if we minded if he borrowed one of the girls for a minute, so we said yes because we didn't see anything wrong with it.  We assumed that he needed her to do something for the school or something of that nature, but as it turns out he made her go out, make his coffee, and then bring it to him.  I was shocked.  To top it all off, for this lesson, when we were leaving he was being super passive aggressive saying things like, "Oh, are you done yet?" and all this crap.  I am pretty much over him but there are only 3 weeks left, so it's not worth bringing it up to him.
     The second class was pretty awesome.  We discussed personal motto's today and showed the videos of people back home which they really enjoyed.  I don't know if anyone reading this has heard about it, but there is this thing called Dear World (you can google it) that we did today.  This program (I guess that's what to call it) is where you write the one thing you could say to the world on your arms/palms/hands/body and send it into this website.  It is really cool and the kids enjoyed doing it a lot.  Some of them surprised me as to what they put.  A lot of them put things like "Stop drinking" which surprised me because I have never viewed drinking as the one thing I would say to the world.  I think it speaks more to the specific issues of the community that they live in.  It's a really big problem here and it's obvious that they wish it was different.

Luciano

Celestia

Jermaine

Ruben

Kusanda

Lorenzo

Bianca

Simonay

Our group..minus Vanessa because she was taking the picture.

Vanessa

Meeee.

Maureen.

      After we did this lesson and sent them back to Mr. Williams and then they came back to us with all their stuff.  I asked them if anything was wrong and they told me that Mr. Williams sent them back with a message to tell us to "keep them until 1:20" which was about another hour.  I was confused, so I asked Grant if there was a staff meeting or anything and he said no and sent the kids downstairs and told them to tell Mr. Williams that he said it was his responsibility to teach them.  Grant wasn't very happy with Mr. Williams.  He said there is a thick binder filled with complaints about him.  He said that if he wasn't two years from getting his retirement pension that he would be fired.  The ironic thing is that grade 8 will no longer be at Lynedoch next year because it's becoming part of High School, so he has to find another job.  I can't even imagine how hard it's going to be for him to find another job, but I don't feel bad about that.  People like that shouldn't be teaching children.
     Here is Tyler's day!  "Today in class we talked about peer pressure and they did not know what it was. Which was kind of surprising considering they are 10 to 14 year olds. After the first part we started to make our paper mache project with them. We blew up balloons and put the first coat of newspaper on it. We are making globes and they seemed to really enjoy it.  We also talked about Australia and New Zealand."
     We got home and did our homework and now we are just hanging out.  I don't think I have mentioned this, but we have been watching seasons of "How I Met Your Mother" and we are on the last dvd! =[  We have gone from season 1 to now the end of season 6.  I don't know what we are going to do when after this one.  Anyways.  That's about it for today.  Hamba Kakuhle.