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Lill and I went to Durban this weekend and had a marvelous time. Rather than go through the expense and hassle of driving again, this time we took the bus. There are a few busses that go around South Africa, the SA Roadlink, the nicest but most dangerous of the lines (they kill people on occasion), the SA version of Greyhound, the fabled Baz Bus, which is the backpacker's line but is also maaaad expensive, and the Translux City to City. We took the Translux because it was the first office we went into at the bus station. We got a pretty decent deal on the tickets, R396 which is about $55, much less expensive than the gas we spent on the first trip. Unfortunately, the bus ride is also about 9 1/2 hours. :-/ Oh well, we charged up our laptops and iPods, threw on some comfy clothes and loaded up for a looong ride and fabulous weekend.
Last time we went to Durban we didn't really get to see the city because we went straight to the safari. So, this time we took five days (although two were spent traveling) and gave ourselves time to see a little more. On Friday, while everyone was working, we went to Africare, a fabulous salon, where Lill got her hair done for the first time since I've known her! It was like seeing a unicorn, I had to take pictures so people would believe me. Sadly, I can't upload those or any others because I've been trying for two hours and they won't load! Sorry folks. I'll put up a slide show when I get home.
Then we walked (bad idea) through some mad sketchy parts of town until we got to West Street, one of the main downtown streets where they have a lot of shopping and such, and which is also near the workplaces of the Durban crew. West Street is crowded and dirty and nothing like Fifth Ave or Oxford Street but it is an amazing place to people watch. We sat in McDonald's for a while looking out of the windows at the variety of folks walking by in big wigs, loud clothes, and uniforms of various description. Durban is so interesting compared to East London because it is incredibly diverse and cosmopolitan. All weekend I realized that I was actually surprised to see so many Indians and Coloureds as well as a very large Muslim population. East London is pretty much black/white but KwaZulu-Natal (the province) and especially Durban have always been home to a very large Indian population. Ghandi lived in Durban so there you go. It was really nice to be in such a diverse setting again after getting used to the segregation of EL. It was also nice to have INDIAN FOOD again!!! I missed it so much!
On Saturday there is an awesome flea market a couple of blocks from my friend's apartment. The day was gorgeous so we made the most of it and walked around looking at the artwork, the beaded jewelry, the handmade clothing and everything else that was on display. This was actually the first time that I had seen the handmade African-type goods one comes to expect when touring since I've been in the country and I was glad to see that there is a place where I can get souvenirs! More importantly, however, was the delicious food for sale. I had the most delicious samoosas and Greek doughnuty things that were basically fried dough and honey. Yum. Later on we went to the beach and made a big pasta dinner for everyone. And by we I mean Rob, who is an amazing chef. After dinner we headed out to a club and then a lounge and basically made a night of it. By the time we came in we all just crashed.
Sunday was rainy which was perfect for us as all we wanted to do was chill. We went to Oscar's, a fabulous cafe/video rental store across the street from the apartment. They have an amazing Greek lamb salad and really yummy French toast. Then we pretty much stayed in and watched movies and slept for most of the day. Eventually we roused ourselves and headed out for Indian food for dinner and then went to see Inglorious Basterds. Blood and gore aside, Tarantino is a master storyteller and this was a phenomenal movie. He is the king of dragging out suspense until you can't take it anymore and then taking it a few extra miles, then adding the terrifying music to such a degree that when the moment finally comes, you're so terrified nothing even has to happen and you want to pee in your pants. It was painful to watch but absolutely genius. Plus, Brad Pitt was in it so I was automatically a fan.
After our great weekend, we were sad to leave. We were even sadder to leave at 6am, but that's when the bus was heading out. :-( So, we said our goodbyes and hopped on the Translux for another day of rainy traveling. By the time we got home a typhoon (not really) had headed in and all night the house was beat upon by massive winds and rain. They say summer is supposed to be here soon but I don't believe it.
I'm not slowly making it to the end of my term. I have two weeks until I get to spend a week in Cape Town (yaay!!!) and then two or three weeks until we're done. I'm sad but I'm definitely looking forward to getting back to America. However, luckily after work ends I still have a few weeks of hanging out to do. Everyone is staying later so we'll get to see more of Durban and Cape Town, I have to make it to Joburg before I leave, and, depending on money and time (mostly money), I may even leave the country a bit. We shall see.
For now though, back to work!
ciao,
kat
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Best day of the year (after July 4th)
It’s my birthday!!
Yaay! I’m 26! Four years to 30, woohoo!
I love my birthday. Mostly because when we were kids my mom made birthdays such a big deal that I now have a positive Pavlovian response to anything birthday related. I always wake up super early in anticipation of my early morning birthday phone calls (which were not forthcoming with my being in Africa, sadly). And I always play Stevie Wonder’s “Happy Birthday”, even though it’s about Martin Luther King Jr. and not me. But still, I could have a holiday! And then I check my email and open my Hallmark E-Cards from my mom and aunt (they sent me awesome ones this year. Did you know Alvin Ailey has e-cards?). And then I check Facebook throughout the day to see who’s sending birthday greetings on my wall.
As a girl, I feel incredibly lucky that my birthday is in October. Not only because it’s the best month ever, and totally beautiful, but because it’s Breast Cancer Awareness month. Long ago I instituted a policy that anything I buy for myself in the entire month of October is a birthday gift. Note: This is a dangerous policy. Especially in October, when everything is pink and you can buy anything and 10% goes to a charity that is near and dear to my heart (my Grandmother had breast cancer but she DETECTED IT EARLY and is amazing and strong and now she’s fine). So the policy quickly became “Anything-I-buy-in-October-is-a-birthday-present-plus-if-it’s-pink-it’s-for-a-good-cause-too” and that is why I never have any money in October. Sadly, I’m traveling and broke so I couldn’t buy anything for myself. Well, I couldn’t buy much for myself. ;-) But I’m also having a birthday in Africa so I figured that made up for it.
So anyways, today I woke up, listened to my birthday song, and jammed to “I Gotta Feeling” while I got dressed. Then I drove to work (it’s a beautiful sunny day btw) and Mzu had gotten me a beautiful birthday cake! One of his friends made it and it’s the most delicious and chocolatey cake that I have had in a long time. In fact, I had two slices for breakfast and I’ll probably have it for lunch too. And then I’m going to buy vanilla ice cream and have it for dinner. :-/ Yum!
Lill’s birthday is on the 27th so we were already planning on having a joint “do” (last year we went to Orlando with a big group of friends) so this weekend we’re taking Thursday and Friday off of work and going to Durban to party with our friends! We are sooo excited and I think it’s really going to be a great weekend. Yaay!
Anyways, happy birthday to me!
Ciao,
k
Yaay! I’m 26! Four years to 30, woohoo!
I love my birthday. Mostly because when we were kids my mom made birthdays such a big deal that I now have a positive Pavlovian response to anything birthday related. I always wake up super early in anticipation of my early morning birthday phone calls (which were not forthcoming with my being in Africa, sadly). And I always play Stevie Wonder’s “Happy Birthday”, even though it’s about Martin Luther King Jr. and not me. But still, I could have a holiday! And then I check my email and open my Hallmark E-Cards from my mom and aunt (they sent me awesome ones this year. Did you know Alvin Ailey has e-cards?). And then I check Facebook throughout the day to see who’s sending birthday greetings on my wall.
As a girl, I feel incredibly lucky that my birthday is in October. Not only because it’s the best month ever, and totally beautiful, but because it’s Breast Cancer Awareness month. Long ago I instituted a policy that anything I buy for myself in the entire month of October is a birthday gift. Note: This is a dangerous policy. Especially in October, when everything is pink and you can buy anything and 10% goes to a charity that is near and dear to my heart (my Grandmother had breast cancer but she DETECTED IT EARLY and is amazing and strong and now she’s fine). So the policy quickly became “Anything-I-buy-in-October-is-a-birthday-present-plus-if-it’s-pink-it’s-for-a-good-cause-too” and that is why I never have any money in October. Sadly, I’m traveling and broke so I couldn’t buy anything for myself. Well, I couldn’t buy much for myself. ;-) But I’m also having a birthday in Africa so I figured that made up for it.
So anyways, today I woke up, listened to my birthday song, and jammed to “I Gotta Feeling” while I got dressed. Then I drove to work (it’s a beautiful sunny day btw) and Mzu had gotten me a beautiful birthday cake! One of his friends made it and it’s the most delicious and chocolatey cake that I have had in a long time. In fact, I had two slices for breakfast and I’ll probably have it for lunch too. And then I’m going to buy vanilla ice cream and have it for dinner. :-/ Yum!
Lill’s birthday is on the 27th so we were already planning on having a joint “do” (last year we went to Orlando with a big group of friends) so this weekend we’re taking Thursday and Friday off of work and going to Durban to party with our friends! We are sooo excited and I think it’s really going to be a great weekend. Yaay!
Anyways, happy birthday to me!
Ciao,
k
Monday, October 12, 2009
Update
Wow, I can't believe how long it's been since I've written!!
This is not for lack of trying, some days the internet is just too slow or not working at all and it's impossible to get on. Other days I've been out of the office at meetings (or in the office in meetings) that last for houuurrs. African meetings never start on time, and then once they do they go for hours and hours while every person repeatedly tells their life story. They always start, "In the interest of time, I'll keep this brief.." and then, twenty minutes later, actually start talking about the matter at hand. After a three hour meeting or so, they stop in time for lunch. This is the good part, as usually the host organization provides a really delicious meal of several kinds of meat, vegetables, potatoes, and rice or something. I always have to ask for a knife as I just can't bring myself to eat with my hands in the middle of a business meeting...
So anyways, I've had lots of meetings. After a month of not having much to do we're finally getting busy. I've gotten a couple of big projects that are exciting, working on things like educational outreach about Ukuthwala (I think I wrote about that in a previous post) and helping villagers get fair treatment from a coal mine that just opened and things like that.
Other than that, not much else happening. It's a pretty slow life in the small town, we go to work (which I really enjoy, I spend a lot of time hanging out with the other people in the office and they're hilarious), go home, I walk on the beach every night, and then we have dinner and watch TV and go to bed. We haven't gone anywhere since Port Elizabeth, we probably won't until our big trip to Cape Town and the vineyard for our Michigan retreat in November. Planning trips on the weekends is difficult when you have to work. So we'll probably postpone our birthday trips (mine is on the 20th and Lill's is on the 27th so we were going to do something) for another time. We'll have more time after we stop working.
On weekends we most watch TV or go to the mall. We often braai on Sundays if it's nice out. Well, yesterday we braaid (braaied? not sure about the past tense on that one) through the sprinkles because we really wanted bbq! That's about it. We're sort of like two little old women but without cats or polyester sweatsuits. But it's fun and relaxing and I'm getting a lot of reading done and it's infinitely better than being in law school. Realistically, I could be being a lot more productive than I am, I have two papers to write and some other things to get done but the problem with having nothing to do is that it's so hard to get yourself to do anything.
So yeah, that's all. I'll try to update more frequently, even if there isn't anything to say. I was trying to add pictures of the new house but it's taking hours to load so I'll try again later.
Ciao!
kat
This is not for lack of trying, some days the internet is just too slow or not working at all and it's impossible to get on. Other days I've been out of the office at meetings (or in the office in meetings) that last for houuurrs. African meetings never start on time, and then once they do they go for hours and hours while every person repeatedly tells their life story. They always start, "In the interest of time, I'll keep this brief.." and then, twenty minutes later, actually start talking about the matter at hand. After a three hour meeting or so, they stop in time for lunch. This is the good part, as usually the host organization provides a really delicious meal of several kinds of meat, vegetables, potatoes, and rice or something. I always have to ask for a knife as I just can't bring myself to eat with my hands in the middle of a business meeting...
So anyways, I've had lots of meetings. After a month of not having much to do we're finally getting busy. I've gotten a couple of big projects that are exciting, working on things like educational outreach about Ukuthwala (I think I wrote about that in a previous post) and helping villagers get fair treatment from a coal mine that just opened and things like that.
Other than that, not much else happening. It's a pretty slow life in the small town, we go to work (which I really enjoy, I spend a lot of time hanging out with the other people in the office and they're hilarious), go home, I walk on the beach every night, and then we have dinner and watch TV and go to bed. We haven't gone anywhere since Port Elizabeth, we probably won't until our big trip to Cape Town and the vineyard for our Michigan retreat in November. Planning trips on the weekends is difficult when you have to work. So we'll probably postpone our birthday trips (mine is on the 20th and Lill's is on the 27th so we were going to do something) for another time. We'll have more time after we stop working.
On weekends we most watch TV or go to the mall. We often braai on Sundays if it's nice out. Well, yesterday we braaid (braaied? not sure about the past tense on that one) through the sprinkles because we really wanted bbq! That's about it. We're sort of like two little old women but without cats or polyester sweatsuits. But it's fun and relaxing and I'm getting a lot of reading done and it's infinitely better than being in law school. Realistically, I could be being a lot more productive than I am, I have two papers to write and some other things to get done but the problem with having nothing to do is that it's so hard to get yourself to do anything.
So yeah, that's all. I'll try to update more frequently, even if there isn't anything to say. I was trying to add pictures of the new house but it's taking hours to load so I'll try again later.
Ciao!
kat
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