Ngemepelasonto eThekwini (Weekend in Durban)

After class on Friday, we were dropped off at the Windemere holiday flats. The location is amazing: the flats are across the street from the Indian Ocean. It takes literally 5 minutes to walk to the beach. All of our rooms had balconies facing the beach. The rooms were nice too! I have a feeling I'll be living in the Windemere flats during ISP time since I doubt I'll do a rural ISP. If so, it will be an amazing experience to live beachfront for a month!!!

So Friday night we went out to eat at a local Indian/Pakistani restaurant across the street from Windemere. After that all of us met up at Joe Cools, a local hangout on the beach. The music was mostly American Pop and the occasional rock song from the 80s. We had a blast dancing the night away.

On Saturday after sleeping in (for the 2nd time this semester) I went for a run on the boardwalk. It felt so good to be on the beach!!! A bunch of my friends and I took the peoplemover (a touristy bus that we used for our drop offs) to Victoria market. Victoria market is a variety of shops with all sorts of touristy goods. I didn't buy a ton of stuff this visit to the market, but next time I'll have to get all sorts of South African stuff to bring home! I did buy some awesome skirts that I'll be using for the rural homestays. After an hour or so, we decided to head over to another market that is only open on Saturdays. Unfortunately, by the time we got a taxi the market was closing. We did manage to get some Bunny Chow for lunch. As you read this you may wonder what exactly Bunny Chow is. Well, I wondered the same thing when my host sisi mentioned it to me my first week in Cato. It's a thick slice of bread that is hollowed out and filled with an South African/Indian curry. Although it was a bit much with all the bread, the dish was pretty good. I got a bean curry although there was a mutton curry as well. After eating our bunny chow we visited a local coffee shop then took a taxi back home. Saturday night we decided to go out to Florida Road to check out the scene there.

Sunday was awesome! After another luxurious morning of sleeping in late we went to the Sunday market across the street from the flats. They had all sorts of cool stuff including some USA vuvuzelas that were pretty patriotic (camp kids take notice, i might buy one for 4th of July festivities next summer). After the market we spent the whole day at the beach. The water was pretty cold and the waves were surprisingly powerful. Despite our fear of the infamous sharks off the coast of Durban (courtesy of Shark Week on Discovery Channel), we went knee deep in the water! Luckily, there weren't any shark attacks. We figured the surfers would act like a buffer anyways. All afternoon we played some volleyball with the lifeguards and studied isiZulu on the beach. Sunday night we went out to dinner at Cape Town Fish Market, a yummy seafood restaurant at UShaka Marine World.

Over all it was a pretty awesome weekend. This week is filled with interesting lectures and our last few Zulu lessons! On Saturday we'll be going to a traditional Reed Dance. It's about a 3 hour drive from here and we'll be staying in St. Lucia on Saturday night. Should be a fantastic cultural experiences.

Sala Kahle!

Leah