Sunday, 31 January 2010

  • Arrival - Jo'burg, South Africa

    Jan 11, 2010 (Mon) - Salon day for the girls

    AFter waking up at 2am, I couldn't go back to sleep. And I talked to Lap, asked him to help me to refund the airticket from Virgin Airline. I waited until 7am to go into the house for breakfast.. and I just knew that there was a key to get into the kitchen door of the house (that's the entrance that we go in/out the house to our apt). We went to the salon with the girls after 9am and they are getting a new hair style! .. I found that they don't really take shower and wash their hair, they call it "wash" instead of shower/bath. Their hair is fixed so that it doesn't have to be washed and they wash it the next time when they get the hair done.. which is around 6 weeks later. So I went home to play with Saiye (the eldest son, age 7). We did French and Mandarin on computer and piano theory. While I was tidying up the playroom, Saiye played by himself.

    Saiye had lunch at 12noon, took a nap at 1pm and woke up at 4pm. Rufaro went to buy beef for dinner and I stayed home and had a little nice chat with Auntie Po while she was ironing (Ponani is another maid who does the cleaning in the house, she's leaving the family and will start to work in Cape Town very soon!). Then I went back to my room for a little nap and was waken by Auntie Annie (the nanny of the kids) and Rona (the baby of the family, age 2). The girls had totally different hairstyle now! They got extension and their hair is long now!

    I played trampoline with the girls, they loved to play it! We went to the playground as the kids had to do their laps, especially the eldest son Saiye. Saiye's friend, Steven, came to the playground and punched Saiye because Saiye was saying somthing bad to him. And Saiye went to his mom and cried!! That's how I notice and experience the problem in his social skills... it's a lil bit like the kid I tutored in Canada.. social problem. Rufaro asked/almost forced Saiye to play with Steven and not to cry/scream. Saiye refused to play Karate kicks with Steven and insisted on playing "rock, paper, scissors".. after all the crying and coming back to his mom for several times, Saiye and Steven started to get along a lil bit better. Many other kids came to the playground to play soccer.. and they all didn't wear shoes!

    After playground, we went home and washed. Then it's dinner time, we had beef stew and pap or the Zimbabweian called it Sadza (a corn meal porridge, looks like mashed potato).

    So tired.. went back to my room, failed to load "珠光寶氣" fell asleep.

    Jan 10, 2010 (Sun) - First arrival in Jo'burg

    It was a 10-hour direct flight! I slept most of the time and I read some info about the Johannesburg before arrival. The plane arrived on time and I just waited awhile for my baggage. And I saw direct flights coming from HK and Singapore! Maybe I could go back to hk the time I leave Jo'burg.. but it's too early to say that now!

    When I came out, I kept looking for Rufaro and she didn't seem to be there. I had to walked to the other the terminal to find a pay phone.. and I didn't have any coins or Rant with me. A lady at a reception desk lent me her phone so I could call Rufaro. She was on her way... and I waited her beside the police booth, she arrived in 45mins. Jo'burg is a nice place! The scenery is really nice!! I took some picture on the way to the house. There were lots of green fields and the sky was so blue and clear! After being in Toronto and London that were covered in snow, I really enjoyed seeing this scenery! The traffic was clear since it was a Sunday and many people were still out for the new year vacation. That was their summer holiday. After half an hour drive, we arrived the house and Rufaro showed me around. The house was pretty big, very spacios and the ceiling was high. I had my own room but it's in a separate place, it's for the maids. And they were thinking of moving to a house with 5 bedroom so I could also stay in the house (au pair is supposed to stay in the house with the family). But I am not sure when that is gonna happen.

    The kids woke up with some confuse on their face and they went to church, while I stayed to unpack my stuffs. Rufaro came back to pick me up for lunch at Cafe Frappe, that's where they always have lunch after church. Then Rufaro did some grocery shopping at Woolworth supermarket next door and we also went to a mall to see whether we could get a sim card.. but everything was close, so we went home. I was so tired! I fell asleep at 6pm and woke up @2am..>.<

Wednesday, 06 January 2010

  •   Pearson Airport - 在多倫多準備起程  :                           

     

    英國倫敦 - Canary Wharf..還有旁邊的O2, 原本MJ 開演唱會的地方:

    0106

Tuesday, 08 December 2009

  • 非洲之旅終於落實

    剛剛買了去南非的機票, 這個想了差不多兩個月的非洲旅程終於可以實行了..

    其實並沒有認真的計劃過, 每次上網都是搜集一大堆的資料, 真的有太多選擇.. 有要洗錢而又辛苦的: 去做義工... 很奇怪, 做義工可算是去非洲最花錢的一個項目.. 那當然比不上去非洲嘆世界, 入住酒店那樣昂貴, 不過這樣的豪華團不是我選擇範圍之一, 所以不計在內.

    Backpack 旅行雖然比義工團便宜, 卻十分危險.. 身邊backpacker不多,甚至可以說是沒有.. 大部分人都不太認同backpack旅行, 認為是危險萬分又辛苦的旅行方式, 我卻覺得這樣的旅行, 除了可以省錢遊歷, 仲可以體驗生活, 認識朋友. 只少, 我現在還這樣覺得.. 可能五年後, 十年後, 收入穩定, 習慣享受, 想法改變後, 就不能再作這樣修練式的旅行.

    非洲之旅最終, 選擇了家人朋友都會認同的方法..: Au Pair - 就是到一個非洲的家庭, 當褓姆跟家庭教師, 既有收入, 又可以到當地和鄰近地區旅行. 唯一令我有點兒卻步的, 就是那邊的家庭提出一年的任期, 所以要留在那邊一整年時間, 要擱置其他的計劃. 這比我預定的六個月旅行時間長了一倍! 不過這是難得的機會, 可以旅行, 可以賺錢(雖然不多), 又可以學習照顧小朋友, 得到Lap得認許後, 跟那邊的家庭通了e-mail, 電話, 達成了協議.

    今天.. 買了機票, 真的落實了. 第一站: 倫敦, 英國; 第二站: 約翰內斯堡, 南非.

arachmichel

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    • Name: Michelle
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    • Member Since: 6/22/2005

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