Kaylor McCracken, Exchange to Cape Town, South Africa

Arrival:

          After an 11-hour plane ride from London, England to Cape Town, South Africa, Conner Griffin and I finally arrived to our exchange destination at 9:00am on July 14th. Being 7 hours ahead from our usual time zone in Nashville, it is needless to say that we were both jet lagged and did not even notice leaving each other to find our hosts. Nevertheless, I was excited to meet my host family, the Steingaszners and to begin the adventure that I had looked forward to for months on end. Upon leaving the airport with my host student, Sevi, and his father, Geza, I was immediately astonished by the beauty of the land around me.

(View of the mountain range)

(Field of yellow flowers)

(Rolling hills into valleys)

(View of the mountains covered with clouds and connecting to the beach)

(View of a beach along coast)

          Mountains, beaches, oceans, valleys; it was all there, and I had truly never seen anything like it. If no one had reminded me about the effects of jetlag, I honestly would have thought that I had died and gone to heaven.

Host Family:

          When we reached my host’s estate, I began to realize just how lucky I was to be staying with a family of such vast culture and experience. My host mother, Ghenwa Steingazsner, was an accomplished, Lebanese woman who found her passion not only in cooking, but in brightening the lives of everyone around her. Having a perfessional chef as a host mother, I never once went hungry and ate like a king. My host father, Geza Steingazsner, originated from Romania and had thrived in music, living all over the world, including California and Saudi Arabia. After learning about the lives of my host family members and spending the weekend with them, I was slightly disappointed when I was reminded that the majority of my stay would be in a boarding house 45min away at the Bishops School. However, when I arrived there, my excitement for the experience before me nearly doubled!

(View of the sanctuary and school from the rugby field)

(View of the rugby field and the home stands)

(Table mountain behind the rugby field)

          The campus of Bishops consists of a large Chapel, several school buildings, athletic fields, and seven different boarding houses. I stayed in the School House with my host and his friends, who were immediately welcoming with the usual South African hospitality. 

(School House)

             Though many days consisted of attending classes playing rugby, the school organized several trip for myself, Conner, and the 15 other exchange students that were attending the school from all over the world. One of my most favorite adventures included a hike to the top of the notorious Table Mountain. Little known fact, Table Mountain is in the process of becoming the 8^th wonder of the world, for its astonishing reputation of being the most ancient solid rock mountain in all of the world. 

(View of Table Mountain from the Bishops)

(Views of Waterfront from Table Mountain, mid-hike)

 

(Less than encouraging sign on the hike down the mountain)

However, quite possibly the best week of my life was spent on the Garden Route, which is a tour of the South Western cape of Africa. The trip consisted of 5 days of pure adventure, each of which we made the most of. Besides visiting the various towns along the way, we were fortunate enough to do the following activities:

visit the most-southern tip of Africa,

go bungee jumping off the world highest bungee jump course,

 visit the famous suspension bridges of near Hermanos (whale-watching central), 

play with ostriches, 

and see the big five, the most famous of African wildlife, as well as many other animals indigenous to the land.

(Me with Cheeta)

(Zebra)

(Far-away view of lion....can never get too close)

(Antelope) 

(Hippo)

(Ostrich sitting on eggs at sunrise)

(Giraff) 

(Elephants)

(Pesky Baboon...most common and clever house thieves in South Africa)

           Upon our return from the Garden Route, we resumed our usual school activities until we took our final trip of tourism; a ferry ride to Robin Island where the national hero Nelson Mandela was kept prisoner for 27 years.

(Air view of island with Capetown and Table Mountain in background)

(Nelson Mandela's prison cell)

By the end of my trip, though I was excited to return home to Nashville and see my family and friends, I knew that I would be nostalgic of my home in South Africa and the family that housed me there. I established a permanent relationship with my hosts as well as with the guys that became very good friends of mine. I still keep in touch with them and look forward to visiting them all again some day. I am so thankful for this experience and for the positive impact it has had on my life. I highly recommend the exchange to every student at Montgomery Bell Academy and I encourage each of them to work diligently and apply to be selected as an ambassador for the school in a foreign country such as South Africa. I owe my upmost gratitude to Headmaster Gioia and the Warner family for providing me with such an amazing opportunity. I support the process of foreign exchange offered at MBA, as it has truly changed my life and view on the world in which I live, and I hope that the program has the same impact on others who are fortunate enough to receive exchange.

South African Dialoge:

Bru  =  Bro

Howzit?  =  How are you?

Proper  =  very/real

Joll   =  party

yawhh!!  =  wow!!