Next destination, Port Elizabeth, a place which people in South Africa have been rather unforgiving about. I however, can dispel this myth as I think it is a lovely place which I would recommend and where I could have stayed for a very long time. Anyway Dad and I drove back along the coast from the Karoo to get there. It was pretty amazing, every hill/mountain we drove over you were presented with another incredible view of the wild bays and coastline. We stopped at the highest bungy jump in the world, think it was about 243m or there about, no way on this earth was I going to be jumping, not even for some Jimmy Choos!

By the time we arrived in Port Elizabeth it was dark, Dad was driving and apparently knew exactly where we were. I on the other hand only knew we were in the wrong place and driving around it what i would consider to be circles. It all got rather heated, first argument was on the horizon, then thankfully George called and it went from. "I don't know where we are and you are not helping me find it..." to "Hello George yes everything's just fine see you in 5!" Was very funny and defused all tension, along with the glass of wine on arrival!

We were then spending just over a week in P.E. Dad was giving some talks in The Grey High School and I was to observe some teaching the the Collegiate Junior School. We were once again being hosted by George and Barbara in the school hostel, which as I write this now I already miss! So the weekend began with a history tour of P.E by Barbs and George, probably lasted the grand total of half an hour finishing with a delightful lunch.

We finished a lovely Saturday night driving along the beach for some Sundowners, a friend of the family Brett joined us and taught me the wonderful game of rock jenga, which I sucked at! It was also at this time I realised how bad I am at skimming stones on water, think the maximum skips was two, awful! Anyway we enjoyed nibbles and wine on the beach front and then headed into a restaurant for a Don Pedro, yummy! One the way home the night sky was filled with fireworks, a great end to a lovely evening.

Monday morning, I was woken rather early by George knocking on my door. Brett had called and asked if I wanted to go to the cricket. As a complete novice at the whole day out at the cricket, I said yes and was then given a complete lesson and filling in on the details of players etc. I would like to think that this helped me look knowledgeable at the game throughout the day, but after a few beers in Castel Corner I didn't do that well. The day was wonderful, I met lots of eally interesting people, drank beer, waved flags did the mexican wave and generally had a fantastic time. South Africa won, everyone was happy. I can still remember some of the player too which will please George, Wayne Parnell, Albie Mockel being the main ones! We finished off having a huge dinner. Tuesday, day before the early starts and school. I had my hair done, now blonde again, I was very happy.

The rest of the week I went into school. It was a great experience. I was introduced to the whole school in assembly, then headed off to observe lots of different classes in the school. Won't go into the ins and outs of it, but very different in may ways to teaching back home. On Friday afternoon Dad and I booked ourselves onto a Town Ship tour with a guy called Peter. He had arranged to go and see a number of schools. The whole trip was excellent, we met locals, I met a teacher who's class had 65 children in it, we went to a nursery school where the children had nothing, it was a real eye opener. The thing i found the hardest is that all of the children I met were so happy and friendly and had what appeared to be no notion of how distressing I was finding their situations. We also met an owner of a bar, called shebeens in the townships, Dad was again in his element making friends with everyone, including this huge man who was a lawyer. We then headed to a VW museum, I thought it would be rubbish, until I found a video driving game to play on and could have stayed the rest of the day.

Saturday, another early start. We went off on a walk along the coast with all of the girl from the hostel to Sardinia Bay about a 4km walk. The coast was very impressive and i got to see a school of bottle nosed dolphins. The girls played games and had ice cream. We headed back at lunch time to get ready for some afternoon Rugby at Greys school. A great game, followed by drinks and snacks at the Principals, known as the Rector, awesome pad. After spending a while talking to the oldies, George took me over to the group of young male teacher introducing me and leaving me. Well lets say my glass was never empty and I ended up out with the guys until the early hours, awesome fun!