Photos from Cape Town

1) Leaving Cape Town on August 4th, 2010.

2) My complicated trip back home! We had to take 4 flights that lasted over 30 hours!

3) Me outside of our B&B (hotel) in Cape Town. Isn't the mountain in the background beautiful?

4) Ms. Ade and Ntosh at the Mama Africa restaurant in Cape Town.

5) Me at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town.

6) Ms. Ade and I in front of the V&A Waterfront.

7) High school students at LEAP Maths & Science Academy in Langa. These students have a weekly meeting where they discuss important events and issues with each other.

8) This is a technology/computers class at the LEAP school in Langa (near Cape Town).

9) LEAP students playing soccer during a break.

10) One of the BEST meals I had in South Africa! This was a chicken sandwich from the Hussar Grill in Rondebosch.

11) Me talking and hanging out with an 11th grade student at LEAP.

12) This is the Nelson Mandela flower.

13) We visited Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden in Cape Town. It was so beautiful.

14) This is a photo showing what Cape Town is like. It doesn't look all that different from any other big city except that it has gorgeous Table Mountain in the background.

15) This is a photo of one of the booths where you could buy jewelry at Green Market Square. I loved shopping in South Africa. There's so much beautiful jewelry to choose from!

16) This silly photo shows me and Ms. Ade after we returned from a boat trip to Robben Island. If you look at this photo closely you can see Table Mountain in the background.

17)This photo was taken when our boat was coming back to shore. We had to take a 20 minute boat ride out to Robben Island. I think the boat ride (it was very bumpy!) was one of my favorite parts of the whoel trip! I love waves.

18)Visiting Robben Island was truly depressing. This is the prison where Nelson Mandela was a prisoner for 27 years.

19)This is a jail cell at Robben Island.

20) Our tour guide was a former prisoner. He was kept in jail for 20 years because he was fighting the apartheid government.

21)This photo shows the V&A Waterfront in the background but I'm actually on boat! This was the boat we took out to Robben Island.

22) One of the places that we visisted while in Cape Town was a wine farm. Behind me you see tons and tons of grapes being grown.

23) We saw penguins!!!

24) More penguins!!!

26) All of us at the Cape of Good Hope. This is the southwestern most point in Africa.

27)This was Camps Bay near Cape Town.

28) This is a view of Cape Town. Even with the clouds, isn't this city so beautiful?

I'm sorry for the delay in posting pictures. Right after I got back from South Africa I actually traveled to South Dakota for a week so I've been out of town a lot this summer. I'm happy to be back home finally and I hope you enjoy the photos.

I'm looking forward to school starting in a couple of weeks. If you are one of my sixth graders from the 2009-2010 school year and you want to know more about my trip then just stop by my room one afternoon or morning and we can chat! I hope everyone is having a great summer.

Playing catch up!

Hey everyone, we are back from South Africa and I have a lot of catching up to do! I really enjoyed my trip and learned a lot from it. I visited seven schools total and I have a lot to share with you. Over the next few days look for all kinds of photos and videos from our trip. Please share your thoughts and let me know what you think!

Bad News

I am having trouble posting pictures from our trip on Blogger. I need to figure out a fix!

We have seen lots of cool stuff that I'd love to share with you. I am really tired but hopefully the place we are traveling to tomorrow will have better Internet so I'll try to catch up with things then. Hope everyone is well!

Day 2 in South Africa

Pictures from yesterday.
1) The sign that welcomes you into Soweto.
2) A woman selling stuff in a marketplace in Soweto.
3) Ms. Ade in front of the Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg.

First day here!

Wow, so after a very long trip, Ms. Ade and I have arrived in South Africa. We left New York at 10:30am on Thursday and arrived in South Africa Friday morning at 9am. Because of the time difference we ended up traveling for almost 24 hours!!! When we arrived it took another hour and a half to finally get to where we are staying, a bed & breakfast in a neighborhood of Johannesburg (the biggest city in South Africa) called Melville.

Here are some pictures from yesterday. The first picture shows our group arriving at the b&b in Melville. Once we arrived we went to lunch and ate delicious chicken at a restaurant called Nando's. After that we went to an African history museum, which was very cool. I have a lot of great photos from the museum but the internet connection here is not great so it is taking me 5 minutes to upload each picture and we are going to leave soon so I'll have to post the rest of the pictures later.

The last three pictures are from dinner last night. We went to Gramadoela's, a somewhat famous restaurant by the Market Theater in downtown Johannesburg. There are photos of me and Ms. Ade outside of the restaurant and then, since it was my birthday yesterday, the group surprised me with a birthday cake and they sang the birthday song to me! This is what you see in the final picture.









Today we are going to Soweto, the neighborhood where a lot of students started protesting for the right to better education in 1976. We'll be visiting the Hector Pieterson Museum (he was the first child to die in the Soweto Uprising). We'll also visit the Apartheid Museum. And we'll be eating lunch in Soweto. I'm excited but I know today is going to be more of a sad, reflective day because of all of the depressing stuff we will be seeing and reliving.

If you have any questions, please post a comment and I'll try to respond when I can. Hope everyone is well!

Some of the books we are bringing with us to South Africa!

We leave tomorrow morning!!! :)

I am really looking forward to sharing the letters that you guys wrote about these books. Check frequently for updates while we are in South Africa. I'll try to post pictures every night. Hope everyone is doing well!

Updated Itinerary

I got a copy of the final itinerary (plan) of our trip! Here's a summary that tells you exactly what we'll be doing when and includes links to the B&Bs (bed & breakfast hotels) where we'll be staying. It sounds so cool! I'm very excited.

Wednesday, 21 July

11:00AM Depart Chicago, Arrive in Washington D.C. @ 1:46 pm
4:45 PM Depart Washington D.C., Arrive in New York @ 6:26pm
We'll be spending the night in NYC, which is awesome because I love New York. But it is kind of crazy that we will be traveling all over the country before we take off for South Africa. :)

Thursday, 22 July New York

11:15 AM Depart New York for South Africa! The flight will be FIFTEEN HOURS long. Ahhh! I am bringing plenty of books including audiobooks on my ipod.

Friday, 23 July Johannesburg

8:40 AM Arrive in Johannesburg
Keep in mind, South Africa is SEVEN hours ahead of the U.S. So even though it will be 8:40 AM in South Africa, it will be 1:40 AM in Chicago (so most of you will be sleeping when our plane lands).
While in Johannesburg, we'll be staying at a bed & breakfast called Life on 3rd. You can check out their website lifeon3rd.co.za to see what it's like! It looks nice in the photos.
1:00 PM Lunch & Orientation in Melville (we are staying in a suburb called Melville)
3:00 PM Tour of Origins Centre at the University of the Witwatersrand
7:00 PM Group Dinner at Gramadoela’s

Saturday, 24 July: Johannesburg

9:00 AM Depart B&B
Tour of Soweto
Visit to Hector Pieterson Museum
1:00 PM Lunch at Nambitha’s
3:00 PM Visit Apartheid Museum
7:00 PM Dinner in Melville

Sunday, 25 July Johannesburg

9:00 AM Depart B&B
Shopping, African Market, Rosebank
11:30 PM Lunch in Rosebank
3:15 PM Market Theatre Performance, “Hello and Goodbye”
6:00 PM Dinner at Moyo’s

Monday, 26 July Johannesburg

9:00 AM Depart B&B
10:00 AM Tour of Johannesburg, Constitutional Hill & Old Fort/Women’s Prison Museum
12:00 PM Lunch at Old Fort Coffee Shop!
2:00 PM Afternoon Visit to Kliptown Youth Program (We'll be visiting a school!!!)
7:00 PM Dinner at Lekgotla

Tuesday, 27 July Johannesburg/East London

7:30 AM Depart for Johannesburg Airport
10:00 AM Depart Johannesburg
11:30 AM Arrive East London
We'll be staying at the Leisure Lodge (leisurelodge.za.net)
1:00 PM Lunch at Nando’s
3:00 PM Tour East London
Visit Natural History Museum
7:00 PM Dinner at Grazia

Wednesday, 28 July East London

8:00 AM Depart B&B
8:30 AM Visit Local School – AW Barnes (this is the school that we will be working with on the Library Project)
1:00 PM Lunch at AW Barnes
5:00 PM Shopping and Dinner at Hemingway’s Mall

Thursday, 29 July East London

7:45 AM Depart B&B
8:00 AM Visit Local Schools – Stirling High School
11:30 AM Lunch at Vincent Park Mall
1:00 PM Visit Local Schools – John Bissker Secondary
7:00 PM Group Dinner

Friday, 30 July East London/ Cape Town

8:00 AM Depart B&B
10:00 AM Visit Local Schools – University of Ft. Hare and Melani School Cluster
1:00 PM Lunch
8:25 PM Depart for Cape Town (we are flying there!)
10:05 PM Arrive Cape Town
We'll be staying at Little Scotia (http://www.scotia.co.za/)

Saturday, 31 July Cape Town

8:30 AM Depart B&B
9:00 AM Tour Cape Town
Visit District Six Museum & Table Mountain
1:00 PM Lunch on Table Mountain
2:00 PM Visit to Cape Point Peninsula, Boulders Beach Penguin Colony
7:00 PM Dinner on Kloof St.

Sunday, 1 August Cape Town

8:30 AM Depart B&B
10:00 AM Tour of Solms-Delta Wine Estate in Franschhoek Valley
12:00 PM Lunch at Solms-Delta Wine Estate
2:00 PM Free afternoon at the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront
7:00 PM Dinner at Waterfront

Monday, 2 August Cape Town

8:00 AM Depart B&B
9:00 AM Ferry to Robben Island & Tour
12:00 PM Lunch at Waterfront
2:00 PM Visit to Kristenbosch Botanical Gardens
6:00 PM Dinner, Camps Bay

Tuesday, 3 August Cape Town

9:00 AM Depart B&B
10:00 AM Visit Local Schools - LEAP Maths & Science School
1:00 PM Lunch at LEAP
7:00 PM Dinner on Long St.

Wednesday, 4 August Cape Town

9:00 AM Free Time
12:00 PM Depart for Airport
3:10 PM Depart Cape Town, arrive in Jo’burg at 5:10pm
8:00 PM Depart Johannesburg (this is an EIGHTEEN HOUR flight with a stop in Dakar, Senegal!)

Thursday, 5 August

7:40 AM Arrive New York
10:09 AM Depart New York, Arrive in Washington D.C @ 11:40 am
12:35 PM Depart Washington D.C., Arrive in Chicago @ 1:42 pm

2020 Olympics in South Africa?!?

Today South Africa announced that it will bid for the 2020 Olympics! That doesn't mean that they will get them (remember, Chicago lost out to Brazil for the 2016 Olympics) but I'm very excited about the idea of bringing the Olympics to Africa for the first time. No African nation has ever hosted the Olympic Games so it would be really cool if South Africa was the first!

Interestingly, 2016 will also be a first -- it'll be the first time the Games have been held in South America. It's hard to believe that given the number of skilled athletes from South America, the continent has never actually hosted the Olympic Games. That will all change in 2016 when Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, hosts! Very exciting!

Spain Wins!

Source: BBC News

Spain has won the World Cup! The game was absolutely CRAZY! I don't even know how many yellow cards were given to the Netherlands but I know they broke a World Cup record for sure. It was major nail-biter of a game and it was very stressful to watch because it just didn't feel smooth. There were interruptions every few seconds and both teams played well. But in the end Spain won!

Source: BBC News

The winning goal was scored by Andres Iniesta and it didn't come until the 116th minute of the game! Whew. Very cool!

Today's the day!

Today is the final day of the 2010 FIFA World Cup and it'll be very exciting because Spain and the Netherlands are both really great teams. I'm sure the game will be awesome. I'm actually getting ready to head out and watch the game at my parents' house shortly. I'm rooting for Spain but overall I am just hoping for a good, exciting match!

After yesterday's game, I attended "Art in the Park," which is basically an art show in downtown Northbrook. I saw some really cool art -- sculptures, paintings, photography, jewelry, you name it! One artist that I really liked was this guy who made these glass sculpture things. He calls them "glass relief images" but to me they are just glass sculptures.

Cool, huh? The artist's name is James J. Connolly. I like that he made a lot of different faces with different emotions and expressions. Very cool stuff!

The other artist I really liked was an Israeli woman named Smadar Livne. I saw her at the same art fest a year ago and I could not stop staring at her work because it was so interesting! She does all kinds of stuff but mostly she paints on canvas and what I like about her art is that she includes other elements, like buttons or lace or anything else that will enhance the image. You can't tell in this photo but her paintings might include photographs and lace and paper cut-outs and stuff. It's all very cool to me. I've never been artistic myself but in the last few years I've started to appreciate art a lot more.

Then yesterday evening I went to see a film about Bogota, the capital of Columbia. I don't think we actually have any students from Columbia but I have to tell you all -- the movie was really cool. It was all about how Bogota became more artistic and caring and reduced crime and violence when regular people like you and me started to care and felt more responsible for making the city a great place. They also made major improvements to the public transportation system and added bike lanes and the whole city became a much better place to live. The movie was very inspiring because, basically, regular people just decided that the city mattered and they began to act differently. Bogota is now on my list of cities that I plan to visit.

Well, I hope everyone is enjoying the summer and the World Cup, even though it's coming to an end!