Kruger Park

Went to Kruger National Park this weekend and we saw all of Africa's Big 5. That means we saw the most dangerous, highest valued animals in a hunt. We saw lions, rhinos, hippos, zebras, giraffes, wild dogs, hyenas, impala (everywhere), leopards, buffalos, chameleons, etc. We stayed in two different camps at night in rondawel-style huts, which were surprisingly warm! Our guide speculates that it was hovering around 0 degrees celsius the first day and it was FREEZING! But the afternoons warm up quite nicely. It's a very confusing climate! The rondavels kept us warm, but the wooden cabin wouldn't heat up past 15 degrees indoors with a heater on. We spent last night in Nelspruit as well, and woke up in a 13-degree celsius room. And there was no hot water tap in the sink lol. Beautiful afternoon, though. Go figure!

Waking up at 3:30am for our first day was difficult! We drove from Nelspruit to the park, which takes about an hour, and the gates open at 6am and we were the first inside. Our night drives went from around 4:30/5pm until 8:30pm, then we would eat dinner and wash the dishes and head to bed. There hasn't been much time for rest.

Today we got up at 6am (which was sleeping in), since the hostel was driving us to meet our bus to the airport in Johannesburg at 7:30. It was by far the least comfortable van/mini bus EVER! But after over 4 hours (we must have taken the milk run because it's a 3.5 hour drive), we arrived and realized it would cost too much to visit Jo'burg and Soweto and come back for our 7pm flight. So we hopped on a  free airport shuttle to a hotel and ate by the pool outdoors (the wind was chilly, so we were the only ones crazy enough to go outside). We even got our nails done and RUSHED back to catch our flight back to Durban just in time!

More to come later! Just been super busy and so tired!

The minibus! 5 Rand to ride!

Victoria Street Market

People on street corners come to collect garbage from the people in cars for money.

The sunset on the street we're living on

Me trying Zulu beer in the Westridge township

Good sweet potato and root vegetable.

Me and my 15-year old boyfriend and friend :) haha

Funny face photo!

Baboons on our hike

Bushman cave paintings

The little farm where we ate lunch

We saw eland

Sunset over the Drakensberg Mountains

I found African Milo!

Our room at the hostel

Exhausted

Firstly and most importantly, I SAW MONKEYS on our drive to school today!!!! We passed too quickly to take a photo, though!!! SOOO amazing!!! (And what a hilly ride it is...sort of like a rollercoaster)

Today we went to class and had our first lecture on AIDS. It was okay, but I was so tired that I concentrated on finishing the presentation without falling asleep instead. It gets so hot and stuffy in the classroom that you can easily slip into a doze. That’s the bizarre thing about the weather here: It gets warm during the day, to 32 degrees Celsius with humidex, and it still feels too cool to remove your sweater. Then at sundown, the temperature drops dramatically to sweater and long pant weather. It never stops being damp, to the point where none of the bathing suits or towels ever dry no matter where we have hung them. The night is very cool because the covers and bed and pyjamas are damp and cool. While people in the group dorm experience this problem, I would imagine that it is much worse for Marion and I since our cabin is partway underground.

We had chicken roti on campus for lunch, but there were bones cooked in it! Then we did a tour of the library, and we got free water bottles with the UKZN logo on it and pens. It was really nice to get free souvenirs of our time there. The librarian told us that people here are miserable in the winter because though it never gets below 10 degrees Celsius, there is around one week where a cold wind from the Drakensberg mountain range blows through and their doors and windows are not sealed, nor are their homes equipped with heating.

Tonight we went out for dinner again at the House of Curries on Florida Road with Susanne and had a few drinks. It was delicious, but I couldn’t finish my meal, nor did I have the energy to dress to the nines. We had a great time, though! Then we came back and tried pronouncing “Xhosa”, which involves a tongue click, which is extremely difficult to master as someone who has never made that sound previously.

Gotta get my readings done and try calling home again in a bit!

The Workshop and Natural Science Museum

Today we visited The Workshop for the Sunday Market, and it was mostly men's jerseys and shoes. So we didn't buy much! In the mall, we stopped for mutton curry which was so hot that we had to go and buy ice cream. A popular souvenir is a decal-ed ostrich egg here, as we noticed.

Then we visited the Natural Science Museum, and it was in City Hall downtown and FREE! The mounted animals were so neat and gave so much more insight as to the real life size of all the things we read about. It was like The Museum of Nature in Ottawa, but showed animals killing others and had fake blood and all. A more harsh realistic version here! But they had an amazing part which showed the history of homo erectus and homo habilis and actually had artifact skulls and all since South Africa has some of the oldest remains. I am hoping we'll stop at the Cradle of Humankind just outside of Johannesburg on the way to Kruger Park.

Downtown seemed perfectly safe, and we came across very few white people. But it's busy there and there are so many people that nobody really noticed us. No stupidly-dressed "gangsters" here at all! :) Love it!

Market Day in Durbs

Today we hit up the market in Berea Park, about a 10-minute walk from the hostel (don't be fooled, it's hard work coming home all uphill...very steep!). It's a Saturday market with a musician performing, games for the kids and vendors selling food, crafts, clothes and art. I bought the most gorgeous painting! It cost just under $40, which is about right apparently, but framing it might pose a problem!

The market was mostly all white people, with some black vendors. There were two men dressed up as miners, wearing rubber boots, and they would come to life and do dances when you dropped money into the hats. The children were fascinated/terrified! Apparently it has a historical context since it is a form of dance from the mines where you wear rubber boots like they did. One is dressed as a woman (has breasts and a longer wig) and the other is a man, but both have their faces painted with white and sunglasses on. They freeze after their bit is performed until the next coin is dropped for them. It apparently represents mine wives.

I bought some Greek food from a vendor and I was thoroughly disappointed! Gotta stick with the curries here, I guess! Also bought some rice spice, curry powder and meat spice (braai spice - specifically for bbq) and a super cute headband.

Then we hit the best part of the beach, according to our driver. It was a BEAUTIFUL day! Hot and sunny! The waves are icredible and every surfer's dream. Tons of surfers were further out, while we stuck to shallower water where the other people were. The undertow is incredible with waves that size. I am VERY glad that I wore a one-piece because the two-pieces were being displaced. (Don't worry, I wore sunscreen, Mom!)

But then the sun went behind the clouds and it got dramatically cooler. So I got back into the water since it is like a bath compared to the Atlantic!

Then we headed to a restaurant called Zack's, where the food definitely had tourist prices (almost the same as at home) and it was okay. I had a few girly drinks and a chicken, feta and jalapeno wrap. The service was slow. But the bill came to over 1000R and they don't split the bills here. So we each paid and then realized that there wasn't enough money... after panicking, we realized somebody else's food was on our bill, but we still didn't have enough. One girl got sick in the bathroom, and there was drama!! LOL. We will be sure to get separate bills next time because it gets wild with 9 girls (Khadija wasn't feeling well and stayed back).

Now we have readings to do for class next week, so I'm off to get those done! I realize that this is a Saturday night, but you gotta do what you gotta do!

Don't worry! Apparently, it's harmless! Just huge!

The Berea Park Saturday Market

The Golden Mile in Durban

Rickshaw driver

The beachfront after our drinks

First Day at School!

We got our first bug bites! They are itchy and get big the second you scratch them! We all sat out at the hostel on our first night together as a big group (we were supposed to have a group dinner with our prof. Susanne, but she was sick) and ate pizza (see photo). The bugs are barely noticeable compared to our summer in Canada, but the mosquitos are still hungry, it seems :).

Yesterday, we went back to Musgrave Mall and did groceries now that the other girls arrived and bought an internet stick with Vodacom, but the network was down, so we'll get our wireless sorted out ASAP. Until then, I am paying by the minute with the hostel and it's decently-priced, but it's still the equivalent of $5/hour, so it will be nice to have more leeway with the internet stick. Oh, and you have to tip at the grocery store!! The person packing your bags gets a tip.

We also saw our first African thunderstorm yesterday! The rain came down, but it never really poured like it does back home. The lightning and thunder went wild, and perhaps the storm passed us or maybe that's the way it goes in Africa!

For dinner, we went to "House of Curries on Florida Road", and I tried Bunny Chow! It's hollowed-out bread filled with curry. I ordered chicken and prawn and it was the best curry I have ever tasted. I suppose this is the place for Indian food with the biggest Indian population outside of India! That came to a total of $5 CAD! And bottled drinks were $2 each. I had a meal with a drink for a total of $7. Amazing. And when you order a single drink, they are VERY generous with the alcohol, so you have to be careful!

Then our waiter, Richard, told us the happening place to be is Rocca Bar, so we checked it out. The part of Florida Road was very safe and we walked down. There are men in reflective vests all up and down the street, and we thought they were security guards, but they are actually car guards. When you park your car, you pay them to keep a watchful eye over them. When we weren't coming across the bar, we hopped in cabs to the bar and it was fun! Filled with white people, a few Indians and a few black people. It seemed like the black guys either worked there of stuck to the perimeter, though. We're still getting used to the social customs here, but it seems like blacks and whites keep to themselves so far (group-wise, not a lot of mixing). But that's what I perceive right now, and it may change as we become more familiar. The music at the bar was pretty much the same as here with only a few unfamiliar tunes.

Then we cabbed home! I didn't end up getting a cell phone yet because we figure that we will never be anywhere all alone, and to call home with a cell phone will be super expensive. Even with a phone card, we would be paying for the minutes as well. We'll see what happens!

Today we got up bright and early and got a tour of the school. Campus is in a beautiful location!! At the top of the hill in Durban with an amazing view over the port. Everyone on campus stared and made comments, though. We're not quite sure about what it was about us, but everyone knew that we were foreign or different at least!

Then we went to the beach! But the day was sooooo beautiful until we went to the beach LOL. It became cloudy and chilly (they are selling fur-lined boots and pea coats here!), so Andrea, Marion, Khadija and I went to uShaka Aquarium where they have tons of sharks! We also saw a penguin feeding and learned about South African penguins. It was awesome.

So we finished there, dipped our feet in the Indian Ocean (fairly warm), played in the sand, and hopped on our ride back to the hostel. I actually made my own stir-fry dinner with peri-peri (African chili), and it was pretty hot!

This is the first day my throat hasn't hurt and I haven't taken Advil all day, which is a nice relief.

Tomorrow we are heading to the Saturday market near here and I'm really looking forward to seeing what they have for sale. This may be the place for souvenirs!

The hostel

A dung beetle visited us

Hanging out

Walking to Musgrave Mall

City view

Hostel communal spaces

Bunny chow!

At Rocca Bar

Me and Khadija

Memorial Tower at UKZN (University of KwaZulu Natal) where we will be studying

Gorgeous campus overlooking the city

The four of us at the aquarium

The beach!