Last update...

Yesterday I arrived back at Schiphol airport. I made it, 4 1/2 months in South Africa. It's been a time that has been both rewarding as well as challenging. I'm glad it's over, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy my time there - I'm just happy to be home again. I have my own room, don't have to worry about kosher food and I have my pets and my family around. It's lovely to be here in this cold, cold country!

The last two weeks have been both long and short. Some days I've been incredibly bored, others were more exciting. I've said goodbye to lots of people; the Nano group (well... just Michelle and Alison because no one else showed up at our "TGIO" party (thank god it's over). Friends, people at the synagogue, my colleagues at Japari.

Japari... Our Christmas/end-of-year party was lovely. Good food, nice atmosphere... A bit sad, too. For our secret Santa I got a scarf and hand cream. The best thing was the letter Andrea (miss Bozolli) wrote for me about my time there. So positive! It really motivates me even more (and I'll be sure to add it to my portfolio as well as taking it along to any job interviews in the future ;) they were very happy with me at Japari, it seems!)
And while we're on the topic of 'job interviews', today I went to Eefde (zmok school Rentray) to talk about my teacher training for this year. Very nice people there and the school looks like a good environment, too. I'm really looking forward to starting there on Tuesdays and Wednesday in February.

... I don't really know what else to write. South Africa is over and a new phase in both my life as well as in my education is starting. But first... some time to relax (and complete my portfolios - it's mostly just 'putting things together' and writing some final summaries... so that shouldn't be too bad). I've already made quite some plans - going to the House event on Thursday (and meeting up with Sebas, Mariette and possibly Mariska for some coffee/tea/hot chocolate). Next week I'll go to Jena, Germany to visit a friend from my time in London and this weekend I'm going to see a movie etc. (excited about that, haha). Sascha (my sister's boyfriend from Berlin) is coming over this Friday and... well... it's December and I'm really enjoying the holiday season for a change!

Thanks for reading this blog!

Holidays?

Yesterday I decided it would be better if I think of my final two weeks here as 'holidays'. (Because if I don't I'll feel that much more bored, unfortunately.)

Last week we went to Doron's sports awards and his valedictory service. It's summer holidays for Doron now! (He has made lots of arrangements so he isn't actually home most of the time.)

I also went to my last write in of the year; not a lot of writing happened but we did meet a new girl (she managed to talk without a break for 2 1/2 hours straight. Amazing.) On Sunday we had Joshua's birthday party (soccer party + art ... it was kind of boring, to be honest... I have pictures but not with me in them so I won't bother posting those...)

Yesterday I went to Jenny to grab some books to read (she has an amazing collection). I couldn't choose so I took 7(!) books... now, I'm not going to finish reading all of them, I'm sure... but at least it gives me something to do when I'm incredibly bored.
I also got this wonderful headache yesterday night - it was still there when I woke up this morning. The joy. Anyway, it seems to be gone now (Panadol did the trick) but I really hope it won't come back! Ugh.

This week I have several more 'events' planned; tomorrow evening is Ariella's valedictory (some schools start high school in grade seven, others in grade eight... So even though the kids aren't the same age they're both leaving primary school this year.) Friday is the Japari staff lunch (and my final goodbye to the awesome Japari people :(). Then on Sunday it's the 'TGIO' (Thank God It's Over) party for Nano... and ... that's it. No plans as of yet for next week, but I'm sure things will come up - they always do.

I can't wait for the flight (even if I wouldn't actually go home - I just love flying!) and I can't wait to see my parents and sister again. It's been long enough now.

End of Nanowrimo, my time at Japari and new plans

Nanowrimo 2010 - Temerity
As you can see on my word-counter I reached the 50,000+ mark on my story. What's even better though is... for the first time ever I've completed a story! While The Obsidian Shifters is still incomplete Temerity is (as far as first drafts go) complete! It desperately needs a rewrite, though. I'm planning on making it into a short story (my best guess at the moment is that it might go down to about 35-40k words, but it might end up being slightly more or less than that estimate) for now.

I reached the magical fifty thousand during Sunday's write in. To be honest it didn't even feel so great... I'm just happy it's over! Even though the emotional part seems to be missing I'm still pretty proud of my achievement.

Japari
Monday I went to work at Japari for the last time ever. (Although I'm still going to the staff lunch Friday next week) I had hoped for an exciting day but in the end I just sat around in the staffroom for most of the day - they didn't need my help at all. Oh well, we had a nice brunch made by the team of therapists which included anything from pancakes, sausages to crackers + cheese and hummus to strawberries and samoosas. Pretty good! I wasn't very emotional, not as I had expected to be, but it's a strange idea that my Japari days are now officially over!


The staff room


The Japari magazine - it was lot of fun (and a challenge) to get the whole school into the picture and everyone looking cheery ;)


Because I'm not allowed to show pictures of random students without permission I could only take pictures of my cousin - so lucky he goes to school at Japari!



New plans
With less than 20 days to go before I fly back home I need to start making some plans! My diary is filled with 'words+10' 'blog post' 'work on religion assignment' and other such notes. I'm trying hard to complete my portfolios before going back home (mainly because I'm actually really lazy and like to relax during test weeks and whenever it's possible... although 'relax' means 'being busy with my own projects' more often than not). But other than that I'm already thinking of new projects for next year!

I love writing, somehow I manage to forget that in between events such as Julnowrimo and Nanowrimo. So for 2011 I want to do things differently. Instead of aiming for huge projects I'm going to do what I call my 'short story challenge'. 12 months in the year... so let's write 12 short stories (5,000 - 15,000 words each). My rules? The stories have to be written during the actual month - so if I end up writing two stories in March, it won't count for April. This means that no matter how much I do, I still have to write something every month of the year.
Why five thousand as my minimum? Well, in two days of writing I can easily get to the 5k if I need/want to. So even during a really busy month I can manage to get to my goal - without neglecting other responsibilities. It also means I can safely try to do Julno and Nano, too (finish in 20~25 days and there's enough time in the month left to write a short story).

I want this challenge to be as much fun as possible so I'm leaving the themes and other 'rules' open for now. Mostly.

Of the 12 stories:
- 1 has to be in Dutch
- 1 has to be sci-fi/fantasy/horror so that I can submit it to a contest (in October) (sadly, also needs to be in Dutch)
- one will be written using code-switching whenever it feels natural (English/Dutch). (I guess that counts as experimental writing, hm?)
- 1 will be a fanfic
- 1 needs to be realistic fiction

If I end up writing realistic fiction in Dutch that counts for two of my goals, though...

I'm already looking forward to January! I might attempt my code-switching short story first, it sounds like a challenge but also like a lot of fun! (Finally I'll be 'allowed' to write freely mixing languages as I do in my thoughts and in conversations with family/friends :))
(I love code-switching now, although I used to hate it when I was younger...)

Busy times

And another week gone by! Less than four weeks left in South Africa.

Writing Temerity has been a bit easier and more fun during the last week. I went to two more write-ins (not as productive as the ones after week one, but I'm one of the luckier participants who don't really have to worry about their word count so I'm not complaining) and even went to see a movie with some girls from shul (the synagogue).

About the movie (because I think people understand what write ins are like by now), last Wednesday (or Thursday, or Tuesday? My memory isn't too great it seems) I went to Ster Kinekor in Rosebank together with Sarit, Tova and Nadine. I hadn't met Tova before, but she's awesome. She's studying to be a primary school teacher so we had a nice teacher-y chat (oh and she's just crazy - in a good way - so it was a lot of fun to talk to her anyway). Initially Sarit had picked a different movie to see (didn't quite catch the title of that one) but we ended up seeing 'Life as we know it' instead. Drama comedy.

Now, I don't usually do comedies, at all. But this one was actually quite good. I didn't get bored and while the story was pretty predictable it was still more than entertaining. On our way back we had to stop at a petrol station and wait for the worst of the rains to stop because Nadine has an old, old car (no seatbelts in the back! Scary!) and her windscreen got very, very greasy/blurry once the pouring rain started. So we chatted some more before finally going home.
We usually go to bed around 9~10 pm here. That night I only got home about 11.30 pm so it was quite late... The next morning, however, I woke up before the alarm (at 6) and had lots of energy. So, good times!

Japari
I went to Japari on Thursday and Friday last week. The Friday wasn't according to plan, but hey sometimes you have to help out, yah? One of the teacher's father was in hospital and she couldn't teach the grade fours for the day. So I did. English, maths and Afrikaans. My very favourite subjects *insert sarcasm for the last two in the list*. Maths wasn't too bad (they're grade four after all!) but Afrikaans got tricky when the instructions told the kids to draw a 'Sambreel' (die tegen die boom leun). I really, really had no clue as to what a Sambreel could be. Eventually I allowed one of the kids to go ask the teacher next door ;) Turns out it's an umbrella.

So I wasn't just taking some lessons, no I was a proper class teacher for the day :)

Grade 4 is very, very different from the grade sevens. You actually have to, you know... teach. (Sure, that happens with the grade sevens, too... but about 30 % of the time, if not more, you're just trying to get them to BE QUIET OKAY?!?!?). Grade fours will just stare at you "So, what happens next?". They were more challenging than I had expected, but it was a good day nonetheless.

Then on Monday I had to take Ingrid's grade six class for a full hour before their Afrikaans exam started. Ingrid had to be at a meeting and I just had to get them to study for their exams. Easier said than done when there is this wonderful, yet horrible, boy in this particular group. Oh, and we had to sign a card for one of the learners because... his dad died last Friday. The teachers also had to write something, so I did... It's always hard to find the right words for situations like those, if there are 'right words' to say. It really shows you that teaching is very diverse, you deal with all sorts situations.
Other than that, though, I also did two reading lessons with some grade fives. Reading lessons are real 'remedial' lessons. 1 teacher, 2 learners. Very different from teaching a class full of kids. I prepared a lesson (half hour) about the Netherlands with a short text, a list of 'Did you know that...'s and some questions the teacher can use. Mrs Dale (the usual reading teacher) actually asked me to do a follow up lesson on Thursday because one of the kids was so enthusiastic about it. It was a joy to teach these kids and challenge them by asking for synonyms for some words and just have a discussion about the topic. After that was over I had a short chat with Mrs Dale and she told me to 'never give up' and, to my surprise, that I'm a 'natural' at this kind of teaching (remedial, have the patience necessary (apparently!) and that she was very impressed with my lesson. Positive feedback is always nice to hear!

Some more on Nano:
Temerity current word count: 37k+
Goal for the day: Get to 40k
Plot complete: About 80~85 %
Percentage of 'random'/filler scenes in the last 37k: 5~10% (more than I would like but certainly still acceptable)
How much I'm in love with this story right now: 40% (try to stay positive, try to stay positive)

Funniest moment during Nano so far: I always thought people were joking when they said they accidentally used the name of one of their characters for someone in real life. Friday with the grade fours I called Emma 'Tesza', I had to try very, very hard not to giggle out loud (because you know, teachers don't do giggling ;)). I managed but it was a close call. It felt so ridiculous, but I guess I'm more into the story than I thought I was, after all.

Nano continued

While my word count is certainly coming along nicely I have found myself struggling to get through this story. July (Julnowrimo) was so much easier! I blame the fact that I'm just that much more interested in the world of The Obsidian Shifters. By comparison Temerity seems like a rather drab world (and the characters aren't as fleshed out which only adds to the difficulty in writing about their adventures). But all that is perfectly acceptable because this is Nanowrimo – I'm not aiming to write the best novel ever, I'm just trying to get this story out of my head (to clear the way for the editing process for Obsidian Shifters) and have fun in the process.

I wish November was in September. My social life here in South Africa has gone in overdrive ever since Nano started – I've been to the kick-off party, two write-ins (so far) and more is on the way. It's sad to realise that now when I'm finally making friends I'll leave soon. Next weekend? Saturday write-in with the same bunch of wonderful people I've spent last weekend with and on Sunday it's time for the half-way party (together with the wrimos (Wrimo (n): A person participating in Nanowrimo) of Pretoria – we'll be meeting in a Mugg & Bean in Midrand). If it's good to be around people (roughly) my age ... it's even better to be around other writers. In fact, it's amazing. Write-ins work better than I had expected, too. Yes, you 'waste' quite a bit of time just chatting away and socialising... but even so both Saturday and Sunday have been days with the highest word count since starting Nano (almost 4000 words on those days). Word wars are partially to blame (Try to write as many words as possible in 15 minutes time! It's like a race (with the only prize being the words you write, so everyone wins!). Michelle (aka 'WinterWhite') has been amazing – because I don't have transport she agreed to take me to the write-ins! I'm so happy I don't have to miss all the meetings. Writing is a lot of fun as it is, but having the actual – real life – support to keep on going even when it's starting to get tough has added a whole new dimension to Nano.

So to share some more pictures:

Sunday group


Writer's fuel! (Halloumi + sweet red pepper wrap)


Saturday

To summarise some of the things my main character had to go through, so far:
* Buried a relative
* Was drugged and semi-abducted
* Joined a rebel force
* Saw a man die in front of her eyes
* Tried and failed to convince a friend-possibly-turning-lover to stay with her
*Had a very narrow escape and had to resort to ... drastic measures to dissuade a member of the religious order of the Idaites to follow her.
* Came very, very close to falling into a stream of human waste.
* Gave away food tickets to a bunch of pre-teens that mugged her party at the market
* Insulted a man in front of his mother's eyes – without realising the woman was his mother (and her friend)
* Found an excuse to leave a drunk guy and his son behind with a crazy barman
* Had to transcribe an old map (first from the Jirandean script to the New Idaite form of writing, then try some homophones to get the real message)
* Lost two beautiful and perfectly good Fire Prints in the process of stealing boring volumes of Idaite history and plans
* Contact another nation's leader (ok, her superiors did that, but still) to ask for some help in their fight against the Idaites
* Deal with declining numbers of their Freedom Army and try to fix this

Some random observations I've noticed about my stories:
* Somehow my characters like to eat, a lot. And I enjoy writing about what they're having. In less than 25k words I've managed to mention porridge at least three times, soup or stew at least twice and... Did I mention my rebels have their home in a basement under a bakery?!
* Dye makers. If I need a random profession for someone, they turn out to be a dye maker. I have a family of them in Obsidian Shifters and now my main character's grandma was one, too.
* I like names starting with the letter T. I actually used the name 'Tera' in both Obsidian Shifters as well as Temerity. I had to rename Temerity's Tera to Denla (because I also have a Tesza and Tobi – too many two-syllable T-names, oops!)
* From my writing you can't tell I'm interested in languages. Just kidding, I've mentioned 'adenoidal' voices, have a character with a strong accent + 'strange' intonation, another character that sounds a bit off because of 'long disuse of the language that was once so familiar to her' (she left the country as a child, apparently – so she sounds outdated and a bit too formal). Oh, yes and I based the test to join the rebel force on useless language skills. That's just silly. Most 'See I'm a language student!!!"-thing I did though? Make a list of my character's names, country names etc. In IPA. (Because I might forget that Jirande is /dʒi:'rɑndə/ or Niroh /'ni:ro/ Idaie and Idaite are /i:'dajə/ and /i:də'ait/)
(And that's ignoring the fact that writers usually kind of like languages. It's your main tool, after all.)

School and other things
I'm going to Japari on Mondays and Thursdays now (to evade the long wait after school on Wednesday when my cousin plays his cricket matches – they last forever!). This also gives me some time on Wednesdays to work on another project I've started... (Lots of projects going on at the moment.)
This week I just try and keep the grade sevens quiet during exams.

I also finally managed to get my stamp (which turned out to be a sticker, oh well. How disappointing.) in my passport at Home Affairs. Another trip on Wednesday fixed the problem – I got lucky and arrived just as they were letting the people coming for collection inside. They then took our receipts (scary! Because that meant I had to stay there until... well, whenever they would decide to return my receipt or give me my sticker.). I got a fright when the security guard started to hand out receipts and called 'my name'. It turned out to be someone else (a guy, too) with a name like 'Charidza' ... Well, he had to go back home and wait another week or so because his application was still pending. Mine, however, was ready and after another hour or so I finally got my extended visitor's permit! The 'all clear'-sign. I can go home on December 13th without any problems. I'm looking forward to it.

Nanoing (should be a word)

Day two of Nanowrimo 2010 and so far I'm doing fine. I'm still sane and I'm still managing my daily word count so far. In fact I've gone over the minimum by quite a bit during day one and two. (My total is (or should be) displayed in the top left of this page.)



This Sunday I attended the Jo'burg Nanowrimo Halloween Hat Kick-off Party. I met some amazing people there and had lots of (insane writers) fun. I even managed to get transport on Saturdays - Michelle (aka WinterWhite) is going to take me to the write-ins! (What is a write-in? Well... Imagine a bunch of people sitting in Star Bucks (or the 'Mugg & Bean' here in SA - which is much better than Star Bucks anyway) with their laptops, trying to reach the word count they should have reached earlier during the week.) So I'll be going there every Saturday!


Besides meeting some other Nano participants from Jo'burg and the surrounding area we also got our 'nano toolkits' to keep us going when the writing gets a bit more challenging...


In a cup!

I think it's amazing what the organisers did for us!


The whole cup was made up out of (not counting the calender and bookmark) "Horribly bad puns" (quoting one of the people who made the things).

* A piece or rope to help you when you're at the end of yours.
* Inflatable origami bunnies* (*plotbunnies - With a plot!)
* A marble
* A straw (to suck the life back into you after nano)
* A stirring-stick(?) - to stir up ideas
* Hair elastics (to keep you from pulling out your hair) etc. etc.

Needless to say, I love my toolkit a lot.

After all the fun on Sunday it was time to start writing on Monday! Temerity was off to a good start with over 3500 words during the first day of the month. Today I managed to get to 6k+ (I'm aiming for at least 2500 a day - this will mean I'll reach the 50k early, but that's fine.).

Because it wouldn't be fun to keep all the good stuff to myself I'll share some of my favourite sentences/excerpts every update.

"I can't tell you, I'm afraid. But a mutual acquaintance might be able to tell you more." The vague instruction fuelled Tesza's desire to do something to support one of Jirande's old leaders – well one of their offspring, at the very least – even more.
"As you wish, my ruler." The words were followed by a lousy mock curtsey and Leone smiled.
"Don't ever do that again, or I'll feed you to those Idaite dogs." The woman's intonation had nothing to do with the words she had spoken and Tesza finally burst out laughing.

My favourite sentence of day 1 (part of chapter 2):
A fire was blazing in the hearth, turning the place into a refuge from the cold - if you didn't mind your refuge smelling of stale beer and unwashed workmen, that is. - (Inns are smelly places.)

Day 2 (also chapter 2)
Careful as he was with information, this attentiveness did not seem to extend to carrying unconscious girls to places unbeknownst to them.

Needless to say I'm having way too much fun throwing my characters into impossible situations and letting them struggle their way out only to end up in the mess that is the next major plot point.

=============================
On to other things though, because while I would like to say that Nanowrimo IS my life at the moment, it isn't ... not completely.

No Japari this week. On Monday we were supposed to go to Home Affairs to collect my stamp in my passport that is supposed to be a visa. In the end we didn't because Mondays are the busiest days and it was already ten before we could even leave (we had to help my uncle moving the office).

Then today I actually went to Home Affairs... Usually they make a list with the names of the people trying to get into the office to collect or apply for some permit. Today however the list was nowhere to be seen. (After my aunt had dropped me off at the place and would only be back at 12/half past 12!) Eventually one of the other people waiting suggested I go inside to see if I could get my name on the list. (They keep the gate closed and only let 10 people in at a time... The security guard was nowhere to be seen and the gate was open, so upstairs I went.)
Upstairs there were more people waiting outside of the actual office. After about twenty minutes a female security guard came to us and... spoke in Zulu (or one of the other African languages) to everyone - ignoring me. After she closed the door again I asked the other people what she had said - apparently she would be with us 'soon'. Another 10 minutes later she told us to go outside again. I did. (Although no-one else made a move.) Back outside I decided to go back in because I needed to get on the list - if only I knew I wasn't waiting for nothing!

After more waiting and asking the security guard finally told us that there was a 'crisis' and they wouldn't be taking down any more names for the list today. We were to come back tomorrow. Such a waste of time, petrol and energy... But as my aunt says "This IS a third world country, after all." So I phoned Japari to let them know that I'm struggling with Home Affairs-issues and won't be coming in this week.

Luckily one of the other people there lent me their phone so I could ask my aunt to fetch me early...

Waiting at Home Affairs:

My NaNoWrimo Adventure.

Seeing as I will probably be rambling on and on about my story, word count and the whole NaNo experience during November I figured an introductory post would be a good thing.

In its most basic terms NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is just this; a challenge to write a novel (defined as 'lengthy work of fiction') of 50,000 words during the 30 days of November. It's what I'll be doing during November.

I first heard about NaNoWriMo several years ago, upon which I immediately signed up. I never even wrote a single word. In July 2010 (there are events like this year-round, but NaNo is the biggest) I tried once again for 'JulNoWriMo'. I wrote 50,427 words on a (still incomplete) fantasy novel titled The Obsidian Shifters. I loved it. Pushing yourself, going all-out in trying to come up with a decent plot, seeing your characters evolve and start to decide which way they want to take your novel (instead of what you, as their creator, had so carefully planned), the stress, the utter elation upon reaching the magical 50,000. I loved all of it.

This time, I wasn't planning on doing NaNo - I still need to finish 'The Obsidian Shifters'. (And for NanoWriMo you have to start a novel from scratch - finishing another manuscript isn't allowed). In the end though, I decided to write something new for Nano and try to finish The Obsidian Shifters in December/January.

So what will I be writing this time? Temerity is another fantasy story, but this one has less magic (and not enough technology to be called 'science fiction', although it might be closer to that than to fantasy). My 15-word summary (or less, mine is 14 words... It's a thing we do on the forums, minimalist summaries) is "Girl joins Freedom Army to send invading Idaites home, oh and solve personal grudge." More information, including a longer synopsis can be found at my profile page.

November is going to be a frantic, fun-filled month. The world in which Temerity is set is less complete than the one I created for The Obsidian Shifters. I have a basic plot and chapter summary... But only for 14 chapters and one POV (Obsidian Shifters has over 5 POV characters). I'm hoping this will enable me to get to the end of the story in 50,000~60,000 words, instead of leaving me with a story that's far from complete at the end of November.

Want to hear more about my story? Don't worry, I probably won't be able to talk about anything else starting this Monday.