Hello again from beautiful South Africa. I say “beautiful” because it is astoundingly beautiful. I cannot get used to the beauty of the place. It makes me stop in my tracks and a dozen times a day, I have the urge to take out my- especially-bought-for-this-trip-camera. I don’t of course, partly because I’m lazy like that, and partly because I know that there is no way I can hope to reproduce in a picture what I see.
So I’m off to public school. Rickus and I have attended the welcoming tea for students and parents. We are the only two in uniform, and I hope that this is not a sign. People at the school are, extremely welcoming. We sit outside, and it looks more like botanical gardens than a school. I think I’m going to like it here.
I ‘m not going to lie. I’m a little nervous. Benjamin, exercising his right as older brother to torture me, has insisted that I watch, before my departure, every movie ever made about life in boarding school. I have watched them, a little like one watches horror movies, with a sick fascination. So really, I’m just a little apprehensive about this next stage of my South African experience. I really have wasted my time worrying however. Boarding school is so much better than I even hoped for. I hate calling it an experience (which of course it is), because it is so much more enjoyable than what the word “experience ”brings to mind.
In boarding school, there is not a moment in the day that is wasted. Lights are out at 9:30 but the day is so full that I don’t even mind. Of course, we are also woken up at what is for me the crack of dawn (6 am by a bell that makes me feel that I am in the army and that scares me every single time. It is nothing like the army (at least, what I imagine army life is).
Life at St. Stithians is structured, which I love, but it is also warm and relaxed, and I feel at home. There are two boarding houses. Mine is Mount Stephens, and I surprisingly feel an immediate propriety pride. There are sports in the afternoon, and a full 1.75 hours for prep, which just means that for a full hour and forty-five minutes, I have to do homework. No Facebook minutes allowed, no emails, no phones. It’s amazing what one can do with a little less than two hours of concentrated work. I have finished, in less than a week of school, six French and English books. In other words, I realize that back home, I am totally inefficient and less focused than I claim to be.
I am put in several grade 10 AP classes, which fills me with totally undeserved pride. I mean, I am taking AP Afrikaans and AP Accounting, as well as AP Physics, of course only courtesy of my overachiever friend, Rickus. I definitely feel some pressure to keep LCC’s side up. It’s enough that as a somewhat short Canadian in a land of giant and unbelievably athletic South Africans; I will have to work doubly hard on any athletic field. I really don’t want to embarrass LCC in the academic fields. I hold my own in math (thanks Ms. Saunders and Mr. George), but I am going to have to switch out of accounting. I have to choose between IT and French: either another class where I will once again be faced with my ignorance and a class which will no doubt be too easy, but where I can raise my stock a little. OK then, French it is.
Being in a foreign country really means feeling ignorant a dozen times a day. I know very little about SA history or geography. On the other hand, I have just realized that Canadian history is NOT the history of the world, as I had somewhat vaguely thought. Here, no one “se souvient de la conquête,” and no one is familiar with the PQ, the language police, or even –imagine that- our 10 day war with the US back in 1812. It is all very humbling.
St. Stithians is FUN. There are competitions between houses, and games, war cries, and “kidnappings” of lowly grade 8s. There are friends, lots of friends, and St. Stithians is more diverse than I had thought. I made friends with two Columbian students.
Friday afternoon, Rickus and I go back home- and yes, that was a slip of the tongue, but really, it says it all. On Saturday, January 19, we visit the Maropeng and Sterfontein caves in Gauteng, which are called the cradle of Humankind and which are classified as World Heritage Sites. There are hominid and animal fossils, which date back more than 4-million years. I feel totally insignificant, and young. They force me to rethink my importance in the world. (I will have to call my parents very soon to restore my feeling that I matter tremendously). It is all very wonderful. Unfortunately, there will be no pictures to document my visit for posterity. Hannelie’s pictures got erased when uploading, and I, well, I did not take pictures.
Sunday. January 20. Rainy, and homework. Lots and lots and lots of homework. LCC and Saints homework. More homework. I have to tell you that homework in any country is just homework.
And so ends my first week at Saints. –David Elbaz ’15