{"id":143,"date":"2012-07-30T19:53:45","date_gmt":"2012-07-30T19:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/?p=143"},"modified":"2012-07-30T20:10:03","modified_gmt":"2012-07-30T20:10:03","slug":"the-hills-far-afield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/2012\/07\/30\/the-hills-far-afield\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hills, Far Afield"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/files\/2012\/07\/UK-and-Africa-Summer-2012-375.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-146\" title=\"UK and Africa Summer 2012 375\" src=\"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/files\/2012\/07\/UK-and-Africa-Summer-2012-375-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/files\/2012\/07\/UK-and-Africa-Summer-2012-375-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/files\/2012\/07\/UK-and-Africa-Summer-2012-375.jpg 320w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>It was great to come home to Williston following a vacation that took the Hills far afield to visit family in both the UK and South Africa. As is so often the case after such an experience, one cannot help but\u00a0return with fresh perspectives.<\/p>\n<p>I recalled the diverse beauty of South Africa from a previous visit, and so that viewpoint was not new or changed from the impression I gleaned over 20 years ago.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/files\/2012\/07\/UK-and-Africa-Summer-2012-343.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-147\" title=\"UK and Africa Summer 2012 343\" src=\"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/files\/2012\/07\/UK-and-Africa-Summer-2012-343-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/files\/2012\/07\/UK-and-Africa-Summer-2012-343-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/files\/2012\/07\/UK-and-Africa-Summer-2012-343.jpg 320w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>But what seemed different to me was the human landscape, epitomized by the recent\u00a0celebration for Nelson Mandela&#8217;s birthday, or the colossal World Cup stadium that marks one view into Cape Town and carries its memories of &#8220;Bafana Bafana.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Cape Town is a city made for tourists, much like San Francisco or Boston, and even though we were there during their cold and wet winter months, there were no <a href=\"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/files\/2012\/07\/UK-and-Africa-Summer-2012-377.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-145\" title=\"UK and Africa Summer 2012 377\" src=\"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/files\/2012\/07\/UK-and-Africa-Summer-2012-377-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/files\/2012\/07\/UK-and-Africa-Summer-2012-377-199x300.jpg 199w, https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/files\/2012\/07\/UK-and-Africa-Summer-2012-377.jpg 213w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px\" \/><\/a>shortage of families like ourselves, from China, Europe, and South America queuing in lines at major attractions.<\/p>\n<p>Viewing Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope (the other side of False Bay, Cape Agulhas, is actually the furthest southern point on the continent)\u00a0with its\u00a0dramatic coastline is a must-see for anyone making the trip.\u00a0 The Cape Town waterfront reminds one of Boston\u2019s Faneuil Hall, the waves which attract surfers to the beaches of Kommetjie could be in southern California, but animals in the Kalahari are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/sui%20generis\"><em>sui generis<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>We delighted in learning about the various\u00a0types of antelope, from springbok to roan.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/files\/2012\/07\/UK-and-Africa-Summer-2012-909.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-144\" title=\"UK and Africa Summer 2012 Hill Family\" src=\"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/files\/2012\/07\/UK-and-Africa-Summer-2012-909-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"Black Rhino spotted by Hill family in South Africa\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/files\/2012\/07\/UK-and-Africa-Summer-2012-909-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/files\/2012\/07\/UK-and-Africa-Summer-2012-909.jpg 320w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>And spotting the elusive Black Rhino, an endangered species, was a present reminder of the fragility of animal life and the need for worldwide conservation efforts.\u00a0 All in all it was a remarkable trip and I am looking forward to sharing stories and pictures with Williston students at our first open house of the academic year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was great to come home to Williston following a vacation that took the Hills far afield to visit family in both the UK and South Africa. As is so often the case after such an experience, one cannot help but\u00a0return with fresh perspectives. I recalled the diverse beauty of South Africa from a previous &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/2012\/07\/30\/the-hills-far-afield\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Hills, Far Afield<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[36,34,35],"class_list":["post-143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global-view","tag-global-travel","tag-south-africa","tag-williston-stories"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":157,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions\/157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}