Women's Day

Happy Women’s Day!  Today is a national holiday in South Africa celebrating Women’s Day.  Here is a description of the day from Wikipedia:   

The day commemorates the 1956 march of approximately 20,000 women to the Union Building in Pretoria to petition against the country’s pass laws that required South Africans defined as “black” under The Population Registration Act to carry an internal passport, known as a pass, that served to maintain population segregation, control urbanization, and manage migrant labour during the apartheid era. The first National Women’s Day was celebrated on 9 August 1994. In 2006, a reenactment of the march was staged for its 50th anniversary, with many of the 1956 march veterans.

Although women's day was yesterday, it is also a three day weekend for most. So, we had Monday off school. I always have Monday off school, but it was awesome because I got to hang out with Laura. We had breakfast together: she had coffee, I had tea, and we both had mashed avocado on toast with lemon, black pepper, and fresh rocket. 

*Rocket* = A new vocabulary word for the blog, meaning: salad or lettuce 

Laura and I rode our bikes around, and we found a trail that went by a stream, through the woods, and out to a HUGE soccer field that gave you a view of the surrounding mountains like you would not believe. It felt like we were the only people who knew about this place. We sat there for two hours talking and looking at the mountains. As it got a bit later in the afternoon people started coming with chairs, blankets, picnics, soccer balls, rugby balls, dogs, and everything else. We were definitely not the first to discover the place.

We had an awesome day. Laura went home and I just finished helping my friend Laurin with his paper. He is presenting his paper tomorrow, and he wanted me to check it for English grammar. It took a few hours between checking, small chit chat, and tea...but I think it sounds great and he is ready. He even practiced reading it to me! I loved the whole experience. Now time for me to do MY WORK. Ahhhhhh!!!! 

Me. Laura.
Celebrating women's day on the huge field in the valley with mountains around us. Weather was perfect today.