One day of South African high-school student
My name's Izak Ford. I go to Swanepoel Boys School in the suburbs of Cape Town, and this is my school's website. Here's a picture of one of our classrooms. There are 25 students in my class. Before 1994, when we had the apartheid system, black students and white students were educated separately, but my school is now a multi-racial. We go to school from Monday to Friday. Our school day starts at 7.40 am, so I get up at about 6 o'clock, but that's OK, because it's hot and sunny then. We have to wear a uniform. I hate it! We study the usual subjects - Science, History, Geography, etc., but we also study Afrikaans (which is our first language), English and Xhosa, a local African language. We have two short breaks, one at half past ten and one at half past twelve. The school day finishes at 2.15. After lessons we can do sports such as rugby, hockey and swimming, or artistic activities like music and photography. In the evening we do homework and watch TV. My favorite shows are ER and Friends. For dinner we always have meat or chicken with rice and vegetables such as sweet potato. At the weekends we go to Tyger Valley, which is a huge shopping mall in Cape Town, and we often have braais (barbecues). South Africans eat a lot of meat!
