School continues

Cape Town, February, 2010

First term was a busy, bust most of all a very interesting term. I found myself involved with many different activities and events going on in and around the school. This made the time very worthwhile and showed me a lot of aspects the school has to offer to its pupils and for me emphasised again the great difference between the Dutch and South-African (or should I say British?) school system. The number of extra-mural activities that is being organised at Wynberg is countless. Of course Wynberg is big in its sports and every single boy spends hours on practice, training and matches after school. I have been involved with tennis and assisted during practice sessions and accompanied teams to their games at all the different schools. This was a great opportunity for me to visit many of the neighbouring schools like Rondebosch, Pinelands, Bergvliet and Bishops. Bishops might be worth mentioning as it is the richest school in the area. I had a look around at Bishops’ grounds and it is incredible. I have never seen anything like that. It could be compared to a small village, as it has beautiful majestic buildings, huge sport fields, a library, a private church (what would expect with such a name), a medical centre and old boy residences.

Next to the sport, Wynberg offers its learners, plenty of clubs to join. A few examples: Capstone (religious), African society (specialised in gumboot dancing), Capoeira (defensive dancing technique) and the Gaming society. Personally I’m involved and assisting with chess and debating, where I also accompany teams to their matches, the hiking club which climbed the back of Table Mountain lately and a biology club, which is currently busy assembling the skeleton of a pelican.

During school hours I have been working on several projects. One of them is the Careers Evening, which took place on the 4th of March. This event is annually organised by the school and serves as an orientation for the matrics to explore the possibilities after high school. In this project I’ve been assisting as contact person and did most of the admin. Many different schools, universities and academies needed to be invited and all the necessary facilities organised. In the night itself a big market had been set-up in the hall where all the institutions could advertise the courses they had to offer. The night was a good success.

Another thing I’m spending a lot of time on is they school’s play: The Insect Play. I’ve been named Production Secretary (I’m not joking) and take care of the admin and assist with rehearsals. The premiere is planned for the 18th of March. I look forward to the result as a lot of effort is put into the preparation by both the director and the actors.

During one of the weekends I stayed with my host family Sharon (my host mom) has brought me into contact with four Dutch “Pabo” students which are finalising their study in Cape Town. It was quite nice to spend some time with some fellow country(wo)men and to be able to speak my native language again. With one of the teachers they work with we climbed the front side of Table Mountain. It was a tough, but beautiful walk with stunning views over Cape Town. And I must add that reaching the top of the mountain is just much more rewarding when you didn’t use the cable car.

Last thing I’d like to mention is that the 5th of February I started a maths course at UCT (University of Cape Town). I really wanted to experience a South African university and I also wanted to do something different for a while at my own academic level. One of the teachers organised that I could attend a maths lecture every morning for one term for free (if I had to officially register it would have cost a fortune). UCT is a huge university and has a beautiful campus that looks very classical. The only problem was how to get up there every morning. I didn’t have a car and using the public transport is quite a mission. Therefore, as Dutch as I am, I managed to borrow a nice bicycle from the headmaster and every morning I’ve been cycling up the hills to uni. UCT has a great vibe and even though I’ve only been to maths lectures I really enjoyed the experience (yes, I know, nerd). I would have loved to follow a full-time study there for a while. South Africa has one of the best large telescopes though. So, perhaps, once I started my astronomy study in Utrecht, I might just need to come back again.