Lions, and Giraffes, and McDonalds Oh My!

It’s come to my notice that anyone reading my blog would have a very difficult time working out what my daily existence is like. So today’s blog post is all about the recent five day holiday, which was fairly typical going for my life at ALA. Heh.


Saturday
On Saturday, I did not go off campus. I stayed at school, vegetating and basking in the glory that is a non-class Saturday. In the US we like to say, “Thank God it’s Friday" (there’s an entire restaurant chain named after the phrase). But only the most pious of students would ever thank The Almighty for an ALA Friday. Here, Fridays are just glorified Thursdays.

We rounded off the day with ALA’s first all-night movie marathon, which fizzled out at about 4am, when all of the exhausted zombies in attendance finally got their priorities straight. It’s a miracle the whole thing happened at all though; Mr. Peter had to dig deep within himself to find the trust to allow teenagers to watch a late-night movie unsupervised. I think his thought process went something like this:

ALA students have hormones
At 3am, they will be sleepy. They don’t sleep enough anyway.
They will also be in closed, dark rooms.
Sleepy teenagers with hormones in closed, dark rooms.
AHHHHHHH!!!!!

Fair point actually.

Before we could leave the dorm, the teachers made us line up and walk out in single file. I thought we were going to have to remove our shoes and go through a backscatter x-ray machine, but we were just scowled at. Anyway, thank you for allowing the movie night Mr. Peter, because I was given free popcorn and watched the new Karate Kid. Twas awesome.


Sunday
On Sunday, the Gap Years partook in another staple of ALA life: The Lion Park. With Ms. Laura as our intrepid guide, we saw ostriches, zebras, wildebeest, and lions eating cows’ legs. The three of us covered a whole spectrum of reactions. At one end of the scale was Julia. Julia could not have been more excited if the lions had been Disney cartoons, dancing to an Elton John soundtrack, and handing out McFlurries. She was bouncing. Then there was me. I like animals a lot (my dad is biologist), and I thought watching lions up close was fun. And lastly, Gaciru was not chuffed. She did not enjoy the sight of giant carnivores ripping apart a mangled and bloody limb, complete with hooves and hair.

After that we got to pet lion cubs, and Gaciru’s mood didn’t pick up much, especially when Julia asked her for a favour:



I took the pictures instead; baby lions are really cute, and very similar to household cats. Then Julia petted a giraffe and her heart almost gave in. She looked like a mother whose child had just won a spelling bee.

In the afternoon, we went to the mall, ate lunch, and found ice-skating! The man at the skate hire place was determined to be Gaciru’s gardener in America, and very kindly offered her his services in return for just a plane ticket and $300 a month. Strangely, she declined.

The ice reminded me of sandpaper, but it was really fun nonetheless.

Thank you so much Ms. Laura!


Monday
By Monday, Mr. Peter was pretty sure that I’d had more off campus fun than any ALA student should be allowed, but he was kind enough to drive the gap years to the mall to buy phones (I sat on my previous one). It was unexpectedly simple:

“What is the cheapest phone you sell?”
“This one.”
“Ooo, that looks Spartan and unadorned. How much?”
“259 Rand.”
“Excellent!”

My new phone is the Nokia Unsophisticator. It takes 40 minutes to charge, and has a flashlight, a battery that lasts a week, and a screen with seven pixels. It’s perfect.

At some point during the return journey, the two girls convinced Mr. Peter to take us to McDonalds. I have no idea how it happened, but it was probably juju.

I thought wildlife made Julia happy, but she was McDelusional when we arrived. Her eyes widened, her heartbeat tripled, and she began salivating like a St. Bernard. I think she needs to see the life coach for her acute case of “Americawithdrawal Syndrome”.

Luckily, McDonalds provided her with much needed medication: a double quarter pounder, fries, and coke. Julia was McDelighted.

And then there was Mr. Peter. Mr. Peter had never really been to McDonalds before, so we got him a McFlurry, with extra caramel and chocolate. Unfortunately, it turned out he was not used to that much sugar, and he started shaking. He could barely contain himself, and claimed that we tried to murder him; he was McSugar High*. It was one scary return drive to campus.


Tuesday
On Tuesday, I went swimming and then to my advisor’s house for burgers with the rest of the advisee family. All in a good day’s work.


Wednesday
On Wednesday, I stayed on campus and caught up on all the work I had left until the last minute. Now that's typically ALA.



*Ms. Chemeli was the first person to say this. Credits to her.