- NEW FAQ! What in South Africa is the same as America? What is different?
- Is it super hot?
- What and where do you eat?
- What time is it?
- Where do you shop?
- What does your house look like?
- Where do you go to school?
- Have you met any friends yet?
- How do you talk to people?
- What is your town like?
- Do people drive cars?
- What do you do every day?
NEW FAQ! What in South Africa is the same as in America? What is different?
A lot of things in South Africa are the same as in America, but there are a lot of differences, too. Here is a Venn Diagram I made to show what is the same and what is different.
There are many foods and restaurants that are really similar to the ones in America. They have KFC and McDonald’s here just like in the USA, and there are lots of restaurants that have similar foods to the ones in the USA. (I have noticed a lot of avocado, which they call avo, and surprise eggs, which they call eggs in a nest on the menus here.) I have tried 1 new South African food here. It is called pop. It’s sort of like grits and is pretty yummy. The 4 best restaurants I have been to are: Koekela, which has really cute decorations; Company Gardens, with cool swings and squirrels that you can feed; The Elephant Lodge, which is in a really awesome elephant park, is the place where I tried pop, and has delicious food; and Jack and Jill, which has the best food. They have a lot of the same dishes as American restaurants do.
It is 7 hours ahead in South Africa. We don’t do daylight savings time here, so in daylight savings time it will be 8 hours ahead! When you start school at 8:00am, it is 3:00pm here and the kids are ending school! It’s strange- if you get on a 7 hour flight from South Africa to Memphis and you take off at 10:00am South Africa time, you will land at 10:00am Memphis time!
There are a bunch of stores here in South Africa that are a lot like the ones in Memphis. A lot of people think that in South Africa there are just a lot of little outdoor markets with people in little booths selling things. They are wrong. There are malls, restaurants, grocery stores, and department stores. Here are some of the stores that are like the ones in Memphis.
Pick ‘n’ Pay- like Kroger (Pick ‘n’ Pay is fun because it gives you little sticky toys whenever you spend 150 rand there- that’s a little less than 15 dollars!)
Woolworths- like Whole Foods
Clicks- like Walgreens
Sweets from Heaven- like Sweet Noshings
I am living in a cute cottage called Goodale Cottage. (Goodale is the name of my street.) Just like my house at home, I have a bedroom with a nice, cozy twin bed, a bathroom with plumbing, a kitchen with a stove and microwave, a living room with a TV, a nice courtyard, patio, garden, and dusty hidden yard, and electricity. My house is painted coral with a rust-colored tin roof. We park our Chevy car in a matching garage. Some people think houses in South Africa are just teeny little shacks with no plumbing, electricity, or nice furniture. Actually, some houses are like that. Not ours, though. We have a good little cottage with everything we need in it here in South Africa.
I am homeschooled. My parents are my teachers, and Ben, my brother is in my class! I go to school at my own house! It can be really fun because we can start school whenever we need to, I can be with my family, I can get a lot more attention because there are only 2 of us in my class, and other such things, but it can also be pretty annoying. I don’t get to see as many kids my age, and I am sort of stuck with my family all the time. These things can sometimes be nice, but other times be pretty frustrating. Over all, though, I think homeschool is going pretty well.
Here in South Africa, I have made many friends. I have 2 best friends. One’s name is Anshia. She lives on a farm with bulls, sheep with cute lambs, chickens with teenage chicks, and horses. Anshia is an expert horse rider, and she is sometimes in horse shows. Once I went to meet Anshia at her farm. We wanted to ride horses, but something crazy happened! Anshia and I were brushing Lassie the pony’s hair. Anshia had just untied Lassie’s safety-knot when Anshia’s brother, Arant, and some other boys came running in zooming a toy car. Lassie went crazy, and she ran! She was running so fast that she pulled a fence out of the ground and dragged it along with her! Bang, bang! The fence banged against Lassie’s leg and cut her! Oh no! We would not be riding horses today. We went into the sheep pen instead. Baaah! Buuuh! Beeeeeeh! Burp! The sheep made such funny sounds! The cute baby lambs made a high pitched “Behhh!” sound and the old grandpa sheep made a sound like a burp! It was absolutely hilarious! We laughed and laughed! Anshia is a great friend because she is fun and funny. Once she even put lipstick all over her face!
I also have a friend named Luca. I stayed in Luca’s guest house when I visited Cape Town. She has 2 cute dogs named Frida and Jasper. Luca is very kind and friendly. She lets me come to play in her house (which most guests do not get to do), and we play with her fun Lego Friends and jump on her cool trampoline and play family (I’m the mom)! Sometimes Luca comes to the guest house. We like to play school together. We teach 1st grade, and Luca likes to help me make posters for the class. It’s lots of fun! Some days, Luca will even teach me a word or two in her language, Afrikaans! Here is what I know so far:
Hello: Allo
Thank You: Danke
The: Die
Thirty: Dardoch
Tantrum: Fluremure
Mummy: Mummy
Letter Z: Zed
How to tell the dogs to come in Afrikaans: (Whistle) Come-Jasper! Come-Frida! (Clap) X-X!
Luca and I plan to be pen pals! How exciting! I’ve always hoped to have a pen pal! We have exchanged addresses and cannot wait to write! I just hope that when I get back to the USA our letters will still get to each other!
Luca is a good friend because she is kind, caring, and fun. She gives us gifts, brings us supplies from
the main house, teaches us Afrikaans, and lets us play with her cool toys.
Did you know that there are 11 languages in South Africa? Hardly anybody speaks English as their first language. The problem is that because there are so many languages, people who don’t speak the same language cannot talk to each other. That’s why a lot of people learn English. English is most people’s 2nd language. Fortunately, it is the language that people who don’t speak the same language use to speak to each other, so I am usually able to talk to people.
My town is called Bloemfontein. That’s an Afrikaans name. In lots of ways, it’s a lot like Memphis. There are shopping malls, restaurants, stores, grocery stores, exercise gyms, and neighborhoods just like in Memphis. It’s a medium-sized city, and it’s the capital of our province (state), Free State. There’s the city part and the country part. I live in the city part, with the grocery stores and malls and shops and houses all near each other, and Anshia lives in the country part with lots of big farms and not so many stores. The 2 parts are not too far away from each other, so I like that I can visit both without having to drive so far. One thing different here is that there is a game(animals) reserve. It’s called Naval Hill. It has giraffes, zebras, wildebeests, ostriches, and blesbok antelope. We enjoy going there and seeing if we can find any animals. We always see ostriches. It’s pretty fun because unlike the zoo, you get to find the animals on your own!
A lot of people think South Africa has just small villages where people just walk to get everywhere. Actually, most people drive cars here. There are lots of the same kinds of cars here, like Chevy, but some kinds of cars are different, like Peugeot.
Every day, it’s a lot like Memphis in South Africa. We go to homeschool, play in free time, eat at restaurants, go swimming, and do many other normal things. One thing different is that we get to go on safaris some days. The animals aren’t just running wild everywhere, so we have to go to a National Park or a Game Reserve. (Game is another word for animal.) The thing is, though, that the animals are everywhere in the reserve. Sometimes, you’ll see a baboon, and sometimes the baboon will even climb on your car and press its nose against your window! Safaris are something different that we like to do, but only some days. It’s not just animals everywhere, you know. We live in a town where we shop, eat, play, and sometimes just hang around at our cottage house. In South Africa, some things in our schedule are different, like safaris, but some things are the same as America, like hanging out at our house.
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A lot of people hear South Africa and think, “Oh, it must be
really hot.” That’s not actually true. You know, they have winter, too. The
interesting thing is that it is winter right now! The seasons are opposite here
in the southern hemisphere! That means that while back in the USA when it turns
to autumn, it’s becoming spring over here! It’s strange- July is in the winter
and January is in the summer! As far as temperature, though, it still does get
hot in the summer here and is a bit warmer than Memphis, but it’s not always
really, really hot in South Africa.
There are many foods and restaurants that are really similar to the ones in America. They have KFC and McDonald’s here just like in the USA, and there are lots of restaurants that have similar foods to the ones in the USA. (I have noticed a lot of avocado, which they call avo, and surprise eggs, which they call eggs in a nest on the menus here.) I have tried 1 new South African food here. It is called pop. It’s sort of like grits and is pretty yummy. The 4 best restaurants I have been to are: Koekela, which has really cute decorations; Company Gardens, with cool swings and squirrels that you can feed; The Elephant Lodge, which is in a really awesome elephant park, is the place where I tried pop, and has delicious food; and Jack and Jill, which has the best food. They have a lot of the same dishes as American restaurants do.
It is 7 hours ahead in South Africa. We don’t do daylight savings time here, so in daylight savings time it will be 8 hours ahead! When you start school at 8:00am, it is 3:00pm here and the kids are ending school! It’s strange- if you get on a 7 hour flight from South Africa to Memphis and you take off at 10:00am South Africa time, you will land at 10:00am Memphis time!
There are a bunch of stores here in South Africa that are a lot like the ones in Memphis. A lot of people think that in South Africa there are just a lot of little outdoor markets with people in little booths selling things. They are wrong. There are malls, restaurants, grocery stores, and department stores. Here are some of the stores that are like the ones in Memphis.
Game- like Target
Pick ‘n’ Pay- like Kroger (Pick ‘n’ Pay is fun because it gives you little sticky toys whenever you spend 150 rand there- that’s a little less than 15 dollars!)
Woolworths- like Whole Foods
Clicks- like Walgreens
Sweets from Heaven- like Sweet Noshings
I am living in a cute cottage called Goodale Cottage. (Goodale is the name of my street.) Just like my house at home, I have a bedroom with a nice, cozy twin bed, a bathroom with plumbing, a kitchen with a stove and microwave, a living room with a TV, a nice courtyard, patio, garden, and dusty hidden yard, and electricity. My house is painted coral with a rust-colored tin roof. We park our Chevy car in a matching garage. Some people think houses in South Africa are just teeny little shacks with no plumbing, electricity, or nice furniture. Actually, some houses are like that. Not ours, though. We have a good little cottage with everything we need in it here in South Africa.
I am homeschooled. My parents are my teachers, and Ben, my brother is in my class! I go to school at my own house! It can be really fun because we can start school whenever we need to, I can be with my family, I can get a lot more attention because there are only 2 of us in my class, and other such things, but it can also be pretty annoying. I don’t get to see as many kids my age, and I am sort of stuck with my family all the time. These things can sometimes be nice, but other times be pretty frustrating. Over all, though, I think homeschool is going pretty well.
Here in South Africa, I have made many friends. I have 2 best friends. One’s name is Anshia. She lives on a farm with bulls, sheep with cute lambs, chickens with teenage chicks, and horses. Anshia is an expert horse rider, and she is sometimes in horse shows. Once I went to meet Anshia at her farm. We wanted to ride horses, but something crazy happened! Anshia and I were brushing Lassie the pony’s hair. Anshia had just untied Lassie’s safety-knot when Anshia’s brother, Arant, and some other boys came running in zooming a toy car. Lassie went crazy, and she ran! She was running so fast that she pulled a fence out of the ground and dragged it along with her! Bang, bang! The fence banged against Lassie’s leg and cut her! Oh no! We would not be riding horses today. We went into the sheep pen instead. Baaah! Buuuh! Beeeeeeh! Burp! The sheep made such funny sounds! The cute baby lambs made a high pitched “Behhh!” sound and the old grandpa sheep made a sound like a burp! It was absolutely hilarious! We laughed and laughed! Anshia is a great friend because she is fun and funny. Once she even put lipstick all over her face!
I also have a friend named Luca. I stayed in Luca’s guest house when I visited Cape Town. She has 2 cute dogs named Frida and Jasper. Luca is very kind and friendly. She lets me come to play in her house (which most guests do not get to do), and we play with her fun Lego Friends and jump on her cool trampoline and play family (I’m the mom)! Sometimes Luca comes to the guest house. We like to play school together. We teach 1st grade, and Luca likes to help me make posters for the class. It’s lots of fun! Some days, Luca will even teach me a word or two in her language, Afrikaans! Here is what I know so far:
Hello: Allo
Thank You: Danke
The: Die
Thirty: Dardoch
Tantrum: Fluremure
Mummy: Mummy
Letter Z: Zed
How to tell the dogs to come in Afrikaans: (Whistle) Come-Jasper! Come-Frida! (Clap) X-X!
Luca and I plan to be pen pals! How exciting! I’ve always hoped to have a pen pal! We have exchanged addresses and cannot wait to write! I just hope that when I get back to the USA our letters will still get to each other!
Luca is a good friend because she is kind, caring, and fun. She gives us gifts, brings us supplies from
the main house, teaches us Afrikaans, and lets us play with her cool toys.
I love my new friends in South Africa, but I do miss my good
friends back home, too.
Did you know that there are 11 languages in South Africa? Hardly anybody speaks English as their first language. The problem is that because there are so many languages, people who don’t speak the same language cannot talk to each other. That’s why a lot of people learn English. English is most people’s 2nd language. Fortunately, it is the language that people who don’t speak the same language use to speak to each other, so I am usually able to talk to people.
My town is called Bloemfontein. That’s an Afrikaans name. In lots of ways, it’s a lot like Memphis. There are shopping malls, restaurants, stores, grocery stores, exercise gyms, and neighborhoods just like in Memphis. It’s a medium-sized city, and it’s the capital of our province (state), Free State. There’s the city part and the country part. I live in the city part, with the grocery stores and malls and shops and houses all near each other, and Anshia lives in the country part with lots of big farms and not so many stores. The 2 parts are not too far away from each other, so I like that I can visit both without having to drive so far. One thing different here is that there is a game(animals) reserve. It’s called Naval Hill. It has giraffes, zebras, wildebeests, ostriches, and blesbok antelope. We enjoy going there and seeing if we can find any animals. We always see ostriches. It’s pretty fun because unlike the zoo, you get to find the animals on your own!
Since it’s a lot like
Memphis, I think I’m pretty used to Bloemfontein, and I like it here very much.
A lot of people think South Africa has just small villages where people just walk to get everywhere. Actually, most people drive cars here. There are lots of the same kinds of cars here, like Chevy, but some kinds of cars are different, like Peugeot.
Every day, it’s a lot like Memphis in South Africa. We go to homeschool, play in free time, eat at restaurants, go swimming, and do many other normal things. One thing different is that we get to go on safaris some days. The animals aren’t just running wild everywhere, so we have to go to a National Park or a Game Reserve. (Game is another word for animal.) The thing is, though, that the animals are everywhere in the reserve. Sometimes, you’ll see a baboon, and sometimes the baboon will even climb on your car and press its nose against your window! Safaris are something different that we like to do, but only some days. It’s not just animals everywhere, you know. We live in a town where we shop, eat, play, and sometimes just hang around at our cottage house. In South Africa, some things in our schedule are different, like safaris, but some things are the same as America, like hanging out at our house.
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Hi Sadie my name is Caroline I am one of the new girls I will be in your class!
ReplyDeleteAnyway I hope your having a awesome time!
Hi Caroline! I am having a great time here! I can't wait to meet you when I get back!
DeleteLove, Sadie
Hi, Sadie. It's Sophie. Are there tall buildings there like in Memphis?
ReplyDeleteDear Sophie,
DeleteHere in Bloemfontein, there are a few tall buildings, just like Memphis. Johannesburg is a big city in South Africa, and there are lots of tall buildings there, just like any big city. I hope you are enjoying the blog!
Love, Sadie
Hi, Sadie-bug!! It's Ms. Wilson (aka, Mrs. Garavelli ;)
ReplyDeleteWhat do you miss most about Memphis? Also, when do you return to the states?!
We MISS YOU!! Love you much. Xoxo, Mrs. Garavelli
Dear Ms. Wilson (Mrs. Garavelli)
DeleteThe thing I miss most about Memphis is my friends and family that are there. I will return on December 17. The time is coming up soon! I will be sad to leave South Africa but happy to come back to the states! I hope you like the blog! I really miss you, too! Love, Sadie
Hey Saidie it's Laurel and Chloie we'd like to tell you that we miss you very much, we're so excited to face time you,and we're looking forward to seeing you in our class!
ReplyDeleteHi Sadie,
ReplyDeleteThis is Josie.
What have you been doing latley? We can't wait to see you again at school!
See You in December!
Love,
Josie
Sadie I can't wait to FaceTime tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteHi Sadie its me Sophie have a great cristmas are there animals in your yard if so what kind
ReplyDelete