Shame on me....

Happy New Year!!!

Well hope you´re all spending New Years Eve somewhere more exciting than me! I´m with my parents and I´m not going out! So yeah me for being boring and staying at home!

Ok I guess you want to know (or don´t you)how I spent the last 3 months?! Well first I went on the road trip in South Africa that I had planed with Babsi. And let me tell you it was AMAZING!!!! We had such a great time and oh my word South Africa is beautiful!!! I couldn´t stop smiling and yelling Oh my word its sooooooooo pretty!!!! Seriously if you ever get the chance do it!!!!!

We started in Johannesburg early (like 5am!!!) on a thursday morning. We flew down to Cape town. Where we got at around 8am. We went to the rental car place and picked up our VW chico which we already booked in Pretoria. It was a really old but that was good since we could park it everywhere without worrying about any robberys! We drove in to cape town looking for a hostel cause we hadn´t booked one. We found one real quick and it was quite nice and cheap! I mean you get to stay there for 15€ in a double bedroom with en suite! And it was quite central! Then we started to explore Cape town and oh my word its adorable! We had breakfast at the Alfred and Victoria Waterfront!

Then we walked around a little and bought some souveniers (gosh I bought tons, but really cute stuff and especially the pretty necklaces are sooooo inexpensive) then we took the car up to tabe mountain or as far up as you can get with the car. Than we took the cable car up and spent a couple of ours walking around and it was just breath-taking!!!

After that we went out for dinner!!! The food in the Cape was sooo delicous! If you can you should order sea food and that comes from me someone who doesn´t like it but there it was devine!

The next day we drove down to the Cape of Good Hope. It took us quite a while to get there because we discovered so many beautiful places along the road that we just had to stop and explore.

First we stopped at Camps Bay (one of the most famous beaches around cape town because from there you can see the twelve apostels (mountains) ) to have a nice breakfast!

After that we went to the botanical gardens in Kirstenbosch where you can see the back of table mountain!But the whole drive down your driving along the ocean it was breath taking!!!

Then we stopped at a cliff a long the road cause I saw WHALES jumping in the ocean. It was incredible. Have you ever heard them sing??? I had goosebumps cause it was so amazing to stand there and watch all these whales jumping in and out the ocean and making these beautiful noises!!!

We got to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope quite late cause first we saw Boulders Beach where the only wild pinguins of SA live. So we had to checked that out after seeing that road sign!!

Then at around 3pm we finally made it to Cape Point!I think the pictures speak for themself!

After spending another 3 hours exploring the area we drove back and went to Stellenbosch! Which is quite famous all around the world for its wine. The next day we went on a wine tasting tour which took the whole day and was a lot of fun. But after tasting 20!!! different wines I was getting tipsy! So we didn´t do anything else that night!

The next day we drove a long the coast to Hermanus. Its a small down which is famous for the whales. Cause each year they get their babies there. Well we weren´t lucky cause the weather was really bad, it was raining cats and dogs and really windy! But we got to see at least one whale!!!! (I still can´t believe that I saw so many this summer) After a huge breakfast we went to Cape L´Agulhas which is Africas southern most point!!!!

It´s also the point where the Atlantic and Indian Ocean meet!!! We didn´t spend to much time there a) since there wasn´t much else to do and b) cause we still had a long drive a head of us to Wilderness. Yep thats the place where I stayed a few weeks earlier for my beach vacation and since the lady who owned the lodge where I stayed was so nice she said we should stay there again. Which we did and I also saw Jacques again (her son who drove us around the first time I was there). It was soooooo nice to see them again. I cried really badly when we left the next morning. Cause she said such nice things to me and was just so lovely that I couldn´t help it!

The next day we went to Knysna and Plettenberg Bay since I wanted to show Babsi all these beautiful places that I got to see a few weeks earlier. And she loved it as much as I did! But this time we finally went on that whale watching boat tour. And I have to say the best 50€ I ever spent in my whole live! We saw a lot of whales and dolphins and they came really close to our boat!!!!

AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!

The next two days we spent driving back up north to Pretoria. And it was a lot of fun and we saw quite a lot even snow!!!!

Then I had only 3 days left before I had to go back home. I was really sad but my last days were filled with great activities. And we went to see the Black Eyed Peas perform in Johannesburg!!!!!!!!!!! It was awesome!!! I danced sooooooo much and they were amazing!!!!! Best time ever!!!!

Saying goodbye was really tough!!! We all cried soooo much and the kept asking me to come back!!!!

My flight back was terrible since I wasn´t even close to a window and that kind of creeps me out sitting in th e middle!But I made it back to HD and started my 4th semester of univesity a day later! Well university still isn´t my favorite thing in the world but my internship which we are doing every wednesday in a 2nd grade is sooooooooooo much fun. And both the teacher and the supervisor from university told me that I´m doing a great job teaching and that it really is the right job for me!!! =) Which made me really happy!!!

I went back to Weimar to see my parents and my grandma two weeks after I got back from SA. Cause we had a high school reunion that weekend. It was so great to see everyone again. And I was happy to show my grandma the pictures and calenders I got her at Table Mountain cause she said her whole life she wanted to see table mountain and she was glad that I got to see it!!!

A month later my mom called me at 5 am and told me that my grandma had passed away!!! =( I was really sad and I still miss her a lot! The weeks that followed are a blur. I cried a lot cause I grew up with her cause she lived in the same house with us!!!I stayed with my parents for 2 weeks cause I couldn´t go to university! It is still difficult to be at home and not have her around cause I think that she will come and ask me what I want for lunch any minute! Christmas was tough too! But we made it and still tried to have a good time. And I know that wherever she is now she is fine!

After christmas we wents skiing for the first time in my life! And I really enjoyed it and I didn´t break any bones =)

But anyways the best for last!!! I´m going back to my family in Pretoria!!! They asked me if I want to come again in my semester break and of course I said yes. But I will take a semester off and stay for 6 months cause Babsi is still there and I´m sure we will have a great time together!!!!and I still want to see sooooo much more in Africa!!!! So I will leave in march and come back in september!!!! I´m soooooooo excited!!!!!!

Hugs and Kisses and thanks for being such great friends!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Only 11 days left...

  Oh my word can you believe it how fast time went by! It´s amazing when I compare it to last year in Korea! Here I really don´t want to leave and I start crying the second I think about it! But I need to go back because even though I love it here I want my independence back! Living with a family 24/7 and being dependent on them and their car is really difficult for me after living alone for such a long time! I´m looking forward to certain things in Germany but I know that I will miss a lot of the South African things (like Chilli Bites and Savanna) and the one thing I will miss most is that everything is soooooo cheap here! In restaurants even in really really good ones you never pay more than 6€ for a (big) meal!And drinks are always around 1€! Ah I could go on and on about it but I guess you want to know how my trip was!

WOW!!!!!! I don´t even know where to start!! It was the best vacation I ever had!!! And the place was the most beautiful place on earth I´ve ever seen!!! It was just stunning!!!

I left Pretoria Friday (09/14) afternoon and after 17h in the bus  I got to George at 7.20am! A friend of my hostdad picked me up and brought me to the Guest House in Wilderness where I was staying the whole week! The Lodge as they call it here was beautiful and just 10m away from the beach! The view was absolutly stunning!

After I got there I took a nice long shower and slept a bit! At 11am we picked up the french girl (Lili) and went back to the Lodge! We then went out for lunch and afterwards we went to the beach and just walked for a bit! But we were both so tired that we fell asleep at 4pm and didn´t wake up until 9am the next morning! Then the lovely owner of the guest house welcomed us and we had a great breakfast! The next couple of days we didn´t do much expect for swimming (I´ve never seen such clear and warm water because it is afterall winter down here but the water was about 24C!) and walking along the beach because we didn´t have a car and weren´t able to rent one cause I don´t have a credit card! But on Tuesday the owners son offered to drive us and to show us some nice places! And he did! WOW that was as I would say the perfect day! We started early in the morning and drove 50km to Knysna (if you are bored you have to google it) We stopped at the waterfront because Knysna has this huuuuuuge Lagoon inside it! Or well the whole city is build around that Lagoon! Absolutly beautiful!

Then we went to Plettenberg Bay!!!All the South Africans love that beach and spend there summer vacation there! And it is really stunning!

The whole time I wanted to see whales cause I read that they will be there and the owner told me that you can see whales from our room! But I didn´t! So me, Lili and Jacques (the owners son) walk down the beach and all of sudden I see like 150m away water fountains and I start screaming "Aaaaaaah is that a whale?" and Jacques "Yes, it is!" I freaked out (not in a bad way) I was soooo excited to see one! It was absolutly amazing! I coulnd´t believe it and I couldn´t take my eyes off of it! The whole time we were at that beach I couldn´t stop smiling and saying wow I saw whales! There were quite a few and they jumped out of the water and everything! And it was sooo close! I wanted to do one of the whale watching tours but Lili said its to expensive and I didn´t want to go by myself so instead we went swimming! Which was much nicer in Plett than in Wilderness cause there were little to no waves! It was just WOW and I had so much fun! I haven´t smiled so much in ages!

After about 3h at the beach we went to look for a nice restaurant for lunch and we found a really amazing one! its called "The Lookout" (just in case you get to go to Plett) It is on Top of one of the Cliffs and you have a great view over the bay and the beach! I asked him for his best table and wohoo I got it! It was right on the corner and we had the best view! I said wow thats perfect but it would be even more perfect if we would see whales again and no kidding right in that moment a whale started jumping! And he stayed there for all of our lunch (which was delicious)! You can imagine how happy I was and my cheeks started to hurt from all the smiling! It was just like a dream come true! Absolutly amazing!!!

 The view from our table!!!

After lunch we went swimming again because the water looked to good to not go in!!! We had such a great time and we all got along really well!

But all good things come to an end so we left the beach at around 2pm and went back to Knysa because we wanted to see "The Heads". It is and I know I repeat myself but I´m at a loss for words cause it was so beautiful or no lets say breath taking!!!

We walked around there for a while and took millions of pics and just had a good time and enjoyed it! After that we went back to the waterfront because I wanted some souveniers! And after that it was time to say good bye to Knysna and go back to Wilderness but on the way back we stopped at a liquor store and bought a six pack of Savanna dry (it is the most popular south african drink- it is a cider and its really really good). We all showered and after that we met at the beach and sat there the rest of the night talking! Which was a lot of fun especially after the Savannas! =)

Wednesday and Thursday morning we spent at the beach again and walking around in Wilderness! Unfortunatly it was time to go back to Pretoria for me on Thursday afternoon! I was really sad to leave cause I had such an amazing time there and I just love being at the ocean! After some tears and lots a good bye hugs I took the bus home!

But it was also nice to be back here in Pretoria and to see everybody again! I missed Babsi a lot and was happy to have her back! Right after I got back we booked our flight to Cape Town! Wohoo we leave tomorrow at 6am and get there two hours later! We rented a car and we will spend 2 days in Cape Town and the Cape of Good Hope and after that we drive to Stellenbosch which is famous for its wines! So we will stay at a vineyard and we already booked a wine sampling tour! =) On Sunday we are of to Hermanus which is the best spot to see whales so we will do a whale watching tour there and then we drive to Mosselbay where we will spend the night! And on Monday we will go to Wilderness/Knysna/Plett because I want to say Hi again! =) And of course I want to show Babsi all these beautiful places! On Tuesday we start driving up tp Pretoria again but we will stop somewhere and spend the night! We should be back here on Wednesday around noon! And then I only have 3 days left until I go back to Germany!But on friday night we are going to see the Black Eyed Peas in Jo´burg! YEAH I can´t wait!Its going to be awesome!!!!!!!!!

So I guess I will write again when I´m back in Heidelberg!!!!Have a great time everyone!!!!Mwah

Haaaaaaaaaappy

 Shame, I´m behind again! But that means I´m busy and busy means I have a good time! =)

I still have the time of my life here! I never even imagined it would be that awesome! I have the best hostdad ever! Yesterday after dinner he said he has good and bad news for me! The bad news are they´re kicking me out, the good news only for a week! He rented me and the french girl a beach house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG can you believe it! I´m leaving today, not even 24h after he told me!!! I´m soooooo excited! I will stay in Wilderness! It is one of the most beautiful places in south africa! Our house is right on the indian ocean and right now its whale season! So wohoo I´m finally going to see whales! And they have lots of dolphins there as well!

This is it, isnt it beautiful????!!! I´m soooooooo happy right now!!! I will take the bus down so I get to see a bit more of the country! Its a 17h ride but I will get me a magazine and a good book so I should be fine and most of it is overnight so I will sleep! I will come back next friday!!!!!!!!!!!! And he paid for everything! I offered to pay but he refused! How freakin cool is that?!

I feel like the hapiest person on earth right now! I love it here so much that it will be really hard to go back to germany next month! I´m seriously thinking about studying here! They have a great education programm at TUKS the university of pretoria!

Oh we went there yesterday! It was spring day (cause we have reversed seasons here) and there was a big festival on one of the rugby fields! We went there at 11am and stayed until 7pm!!! It was soooo much fun! We met lots of our friends there! Its so amazing it is completly different from korea last year where I was alone 100% of the time and here I know so many people! And oh the guys here.... Gosh they are soooooooo cute! They are differnt then our boys at home! Here they actually listen and ask you questions and in general you talk a lot more with them! I´m not really used to that! Because when you go out in Germany and a guy approaches you he is like "whoa chick what´s up you wanna come to my place!?". Ok ok not all of them are like that but a majority!

But here it really is different of course you get the jerks as well but mostly they´re really nice! I have a serious crush on a guy named Jonathan! I met him two weeks after I got here. And I´m usually quite shy and don´t talk much with new people especially with guys but with him I couldn´t stop talking! We talked for three hours straight and it was so much fun! We laughed a lot and we have sooo much in common! He likes excatly the same bands as I do and his birthday is one day after mine so of course we have to get along! =) And now we write on facebook and I saw him yesterday at the TUKS springfest! Where he came and sat next to meet and we talked again for ages! I really really like him but unfortunatly I´m going home in a month so there is no point in starting something now.... =(

That is Niekie (Jonathans best friend), Estelle (SA au pair), me and Jonathan! I loooooooove that picture!

The funny thing is Niekie will stay in Wilderness as well this weekend! But unfortunatly J is going to the Kruger National Park with is family! =( But Niekie is such a sweet person I´m sure I will have tons of fun with him!

Ok guys I go and pack my suitcase!!!! Have a great week! Mwah

P.S: I´m really sorry that I don´t comment or answer your Msg but there is always so much going on here that I have barely time to call my parents! So please don´t be mad!

Soooooooooooooooooooooo happy

   hey guys,

oh my word I´m totally behind with updating!But I´m sooooo busy here but in a good way. I´ve never been so happy in long time! This place is paradise! I have soooooo much fun!

I can´t really remember what happend when so I´m just gonna write what comes to my mind!

Since almost two weeks now we have another au pair living in the house! A chinese girl who does not speak a single word english! Honestly its quite annoying since now we kind of have double work because she can´t do anything on her own and she doesn´t understands the instructions we give her! She is not even capable of dressong the girl in the mornings and that after two weeks! She is really sweet but she is 23 and is so dependent! She doesn´t know how to do her laundry (she tought we are crazy that we seperate them by colour!) she doesn´t know how to put stuff in the dish washer! I mean she is a  sweet girl but sorry even if you don´t speak english after two weeks you should know the routine here! And she seriously asked me why I stopped at a stop sign on a very busy intersection!!!

Oh well but other then that I´m having the time of my life! My hostdad took me and Babsi the austrian girl with him on a business trip to NAMIBIA!!!! The trip was amazing even though we spend 4 of the 5 days in the car and drove 5000km!!! it was still great to see soooo much! On the way back he even decided that we shoukd go trough Botswana! There we went to the Okanvango Delta! It is an enormous wild life reservat!  We drove a long and of all of sudden there were elephants crossing the street right in front of us and a giraffe standing next to us! It was amazing!!!

One day we went to the Atlantic and just enjoyed ourselves! I was soo happy to finally be at the ocean again! His friends had a Ouad so we drove a little trough the dunes! It was just so amazing!

The thick black line shows the way we drove!! Oh my and Botswana is the land of the donkeys! They have millions of donkeys standing right next to the road or in the middle of the road! I´m not kidding it was sooo dangerous to drive there!But they are soooooo cute!!!!!

Oh they just called me that I need to work now so I will just post some more pictures and update later!

YEAH!!!!!!!!

 long time no see =)

I´m in South Africa!!! Wohoo!!! But let´s start with my last days in Germany.

I had my exams on thursday (math- which I failed ) and English on friday (dunno the results yet). So I took the train home on friday at 11am! Couldn´t wait to finally be home and be ove with the stupid studying!

I didn´t do much on friday except talking to my mom and  grandma and watching Ghost Whisperer! =)

On Saturday my Mom and I went shopping because I still hadn´t any gifts for my hostfamily! But I found really nice things and also some things that I still needed! When we came home my grandma told us she wasn´t feeling well so we called a doctor (my grandma is 78 so we wanted to be on the safe site) They came and gave her a shot and then she was fine again!

Saturday night I went out with Anne and Birgit to a drum´n´bass party which was really lame and no one we knew was there! =(

Sunday I slept in and just enjoyed the day! Monday I finally started packing and got everything ready in time! My mom brought me to the train station at 2pm and my train to FRA left at 3pm! For some reason I wasn´t even sad when we said goodbye, maybe I´m used to all this by now =)

In FRA I met with my best friend Nicole who came from Wiesbaden! First I checked all my luggage in and I was fine. You´re allowed to take 20kg with you but I asked and they say nothing until 28kg! So I know that I can go shopping here! =)

Then Nicole and I had dinner at a mexican restaurant and at 8pm I went to the security check in´s! I called my mom to tell her that Nicole left and that I will be boarding soon when she told me that my grandma had a heart attack! Luckily my mom had called the ambulance before that because my grandmother still wasn´t feeling well so she had the heart attack on the way to the hospital and they took really good care of her. But of course I was really scared! I didn´t know if it was the right thing to get on the plane or just go back! But I thought that I couldn´t do anything for her and I know that she wants me to go see the world so I went on the plane! I was crying the whole time because I was soooo afraid that she might die. So when I was in Dubai I looked for the first phone that I could find and called home. Phew, she was fine or well as fine as someone can be after a heart attack. I was still worried though and couldn´t help starting to cry from time to time.  I had eight hours to kill in Dubai! So I went and had coffee at starbucks and dunkin donuts ( oh how I missed it) and then I just sat around and waited! I will get all my souvenirs on the way back to germany!

I couldn´t really enjoy my flight to Johannesburg because I was still worried if my mom had told me the truth or not...But I tried to relax and I had a double seat at the window in the last row all by myself! And Emirates shows tons of movies so I watched like 5 !!!They also have the best food ever!!!

We were on time and my suitcase made it, too! So I went out and saw my hostdad and Babsi (the austrian au pair) right away! It was already 9.30pm on tuesday (remember I left monday at 2pm!!!) and I was soooo tired. Of course I had called my mom the second we landed from my cell phone and my grandma was still fine even my dad who came all the way from the netherlands had already left again so I knew she must be ok because its his mom and he wouldnt leave her if she wasnt ok!

My hostdad took a little detour to show me Pretoria at night and its just gorgous!Then I just fell into bed and slept!

I couldn´t sleep to long because I had to get up at 6am the next day cause the girl had school and needed to get ready! At 7am came Estelle (the south african au pair) and we all got the girl ready! I´m so glad to have the other girls here cause we get along sooo well and its never boring!!!

After we drove her to school we went to the mall because the two other au pairs wanted to get piercings! Well stupid me watched and of course fainted!!! Oh well I was fine after a couple of minutes sitting down and a glass of water!

Then we picked her up from school and played in the backyard!

I don´t really remember what we did each and every day! But I know that I loooooooooove it here. I felt so welcome and happy the second I got here! Its an amazing country and the people are sooooo nice! I met so many south africans my age already and we all have fun!

It took me two days to get used to the driving on the left side of the road but now I´m fine and looove driving here! In September me and Babsi will go to Cape Town for a couple of days!!! I can´t wait! And tomorrow we will go on a Safari!!!! This is all soooo exciting!!!! Everyday we are going somewhere else and so great things because the little girl has winter vacation until september! Yup winter vacation! Right now the weather is fine its about 25C but the first days here it was about 10C and now I´m having a terrible cold!

Ok I will leave you with some pictures! Cause I need to get dressed!!!!Have a great week!!!

this is the outside of my room! I can see beautiful sunrises from there!!!!

that is Pretoria´s Union Building where the Government is!!!

One day we went to Rietvleidam its a nature reserve with a great lake and there were horses walking around on the road!!!!

Me, Babsi and the girl at the natural history museum!!!!