Wednesday, August 24, 2005 3:49 PM

Hey you guys,

I am still not really homesick, but I am still in the phase the Rotary calls the Honeymoon Stage where everything is different. They also believe it is because I don't have to go to school like everyone else. But I can't believe that I hav almost been here for a month; most exchange students don't notice this until the end of there six months.

...here is my update.

and Kyle. They are a really strange family and it seems like the parents have no control over there children; they are allowed to drink, smoke and do drugs. I am abit iffy about living with them, but I have talked to Don and he says since they are my last family it wont be hard for me to find a new family or choose my best family. Then I met the family that I will be staying during the christmas; the Antony. They have two children which is scary because they are the same age range as me and Lisa. There names are Staci and Shalyn. They made me feel a bit homesick thinking about how much fun this summer was biking to soccer and having Lance Armstrong races home. Both families live in Henley which is very convient.

The next day I was invited to go watch a local sport called Net ball which is a sport similar to basketball but you can't dribble the ball. You must stop when you catch the ball. It is like that chicken in the coop game. It seems like an interesting game because it is suitable for all types of fitness levels.

On Friday I had a chance to go to the local Amusement park called Gold Reef City; which was build on a recent dump site for the rubbish from the mines. There weren't many people for the fact that only the private schools didn't have schools. This park is like a runt toe Canada's Wonderland; many of the rides were closed for maintance. The ride Anaconda was open and it is a longer version of the Top Gun Ride. It was the only decent ride so it got a bit boring after trial number 4. Everyone that came was like way aren't you screaming on the ride; so the next time we went on I had to sort of pretend to be scared. It was nice though and I enjoyed the huge ferris wheel ride that let you see all Of Johannesburg when you went up one side and when you went down you could see Soweto. It was incrediable!

For the weekend I spent time with friends of Don and Arthur. They are students that go to Witswatersrand; which is one of the three unversities in Johannesburg. The first night we had a huge Monty Python Marathon which was hilarious. The second nigh we went to the bar. Since I am under the legal age the person stopped me and Ryan the person I was staying with was like she is a Canadian she doesnt have SA id. The bouncer goes and askes me for my passport of drivers license so I give him my licenses. He looks at it and completely looks clueless and just hands it back to me as though he doesnt want to deal with me. It was funny because the only reason why people go to this bar is because the serve the best chicken wings and the best karokie bar; no one drinks because the bar counters look like there had been muliple deaths.

On Saturday, Ryan had to go to Wits for a class so he dropped me off at a Rotex Braai. Rotex is a program runned by rebound students that have been on an exchange in recent years and arent old enough to be part of the Rotary exchange committee. It was a nice Braai. The host of the Braai was actually an exchange student that came to Canada. The scary thing is that she is from 7080 in the Woodstock Club. SO most of the time we just talked about Canada.

On Sunday I got picked up by Traci Hodcoft the district placement officer for North America. She was taking me to the orientation is Bruma where the 3 other late comers where meeting. There is actually another exchange student from Canada. She is from the district that is based on the American and Canadaian side. I also got some bad news to; someone from Beligum was actall gang raped in Soweto the night before, we still don't know if she is part of Rotary or just another exchange student from another program. All we know is that the student is ot from 9300.

Well back to soe nice stuff; I had the most amazing hot chocolate in the world. It is called Leonards which is a coffee host that selld things from Beligum. The waiter comes out with this cup and I look in and it is pure chocolate and I was like okay. Then came the hot milk. This hot chocolate does not compare to Timmy's; it was like having a milk chocolate bar in liquid form. Oh was it good.

I did not do much for the rest of the week until today. The other two days where my days to catch up on my sleep.

A lady I met from church the first week I was in SA invited me to a Wits orchesta. So I decied to go and have a look. Boy was it amazing; these where university students that were performing in such a degree of professionalism. It was amazing withe the Opera too.

That is all I have to tll you for now,

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Bounmy Inthavong