Benefits of Talking to Strangers

Okay, so to clear things up in the beginning, the title of this blog is not meant to scare my mom or anyone else about me talking to random people I meet here in South Africa. I am very safe and conscientious about who I converse with, where and when. We, as international students, have come to terms with (or at least have been brought to full attention of) the dangers of being with the wrong people at the wrong times in the wrong places.

However, my very loud personality and the need for constant social stimulation has lead to many beneficial, social encounters.


I would also like to apologize in advance, again, for a very long post. This weekend has been very full of new experiences.

This long weekend, Catherine, Lena, and I rented a car and headed off to St. Lucia. The drive was about 3 hours from Pietermaritzburg and it went very smoothly. Catherine was in charge of car rentals, so she was designated driver. She said it took maybe one minute to get adjusted to driving on the left side of the road with the steering wheel on the right. In Germany, their driving is like America (with driving on the right side of the road), however, I think it would have taken me longer than a minute to get me orientated on the roads here. Driving at night was very nerve-wracking, but we made it safe and sound.

For this weekend, I was in charge of booking our safari. When looking at the different options, we decided to go with the full day safari at Hluhluwe game reserve which included a breakfast and traditional braai lunch. When we got to St. Lucia, we were told to pay for the safari the day before, so we drove an extra 45 minutes or so to Hluhluwe, not knowing that they had an office in St. Lucia. Although we went way out of our way, we were rewarded with seeing our first elephant on the side of the road! We left in good spirits, excited for the next day.

Arriving at our hostel, we were very disappointed with the living situation. The people were unfriendly, the beds did not feel clean, and the cooking utensils and stoves were sub-par, but we are an easy going group so we shrugged it off.

The morning of our safari we woke up at 430 to the sound of heavy rain, thunder and lightening. To say the least, we were very disappointed. The plan was to meet our safari guide at 5 am outside of our hostel, so we got dressed and did just that. Despite the rain, we went ahead on our safari with a nice Indian couple joining us. By the time we reached the park, the rain had stopped.

We had a wonderful safari guide named Paul.

Entering the park, the first animal we happened to see was a giraffe! Giraffes are very inquisitive and they apparently do not mind the safari jeeps rumbling through.

Then some zebras.

Paul is not a fan of the zebras. He says they are mean and nasty. 

After about an hour and a half of driving around we went to a sort of camp ground that is in the middle of the game reserve. It was very nice, but very expensive to stay in over night. They only have one fence surrounding the area and it is meant for elephants only. Apparently some of the big cats or hyenas can wander in and have wandered in. All of the trash bins are "hyena proof". In that camp ground we had our breakfast.

After breakfast, we spent the next few hours touring around the other side of the park. We saw elephants, impala, wildebeests, warthogs, monkeys, rhinos, baboons, and a variety of birds. We did not, however, manage to see any leopards or lions. Although we seemed to have seen a lot, Paul was very disappointed and said that this was one of the least active safaris he has ever given. We had a great time though and did not mind.  

Around 1 we stopped for lunch. Paul started to cook some meat on the outdoor grill while Catherine, the Indian man (whose name I cannot remember for the life of me), and I hiked down to, what I assume was, the Umfolozi River. 

Fighting off thorns and elephant poop, we made it to the bottom. 

 

And then walked across to the other side (Catherine video taped, but she came across as well later).

After that small adventure, we feasted on some grilled sausage, steak, and wonderful pasta salad. 

After talking with this couple the whole trip, we exchanged emails to share pictures that I took and they, in return, are going to email me a list of fun things they suggest to do in my area. Also, we exchanged emails with Paul because of the picture I took below. Paul's a bird watcher and apparently this bird is really rare to see outside of the dense bush and he was impressed with my picture.

Heading back to St. Lucia, we decided that we no longer wanted to stay at our hostel a second night. So, on Paul's recommendation, we headed over to a different one. There, we were very happy. The accommodations were a lot nicer and the facility was cleaner (plus the same price!).

In addition, while walking outside, I ran into a guy that I met at a different hostel (about three hours away) a few weeks back! This was an absolutely crazy happenstance. His name is Dayle and he owns a hostel in Mozambique. Last time we met, Dayle and a few others wrote a huge list of places for us to visit when we have long weekends. He is actually the reason we picked Hluhluwe!

That evening, Catherine, Lena, Dayle, Gugu the receptionist and I played cards. I taught them Matt's Game and we had a blast. It was especially fun because Gugu had never played any card games before. After the card games, Dayle mapped out a suggested route for Catherine and I on a map on where we should go on our summer holiday. Catherine's boyfriend is flying into Cape Town around the same day that my mom, Scott, and Ian are coming, so we decided that we wanted to take a trip to experience more of Africa. 

He also gave us more information on his hostel in Mozambique (http://www.mangobeach.co.za/) 

The next morning we drove the car back to Durban and walked over to our new hostel. This hostel, http://www.bananabackpackers.co.za/, was very nice and accommodating and about a 15 minute walk from "The Golden Mile" which is a beautiful boardwalk along the beach.

We laid around on the beach, walked the board walk, ate some Indian 'bunny chow', and watched cute surfers for about a good hour. 

That night, Catherine and I visited Joe Cools, a bar that is situated right on the boardwalk. We met a very nice group of girls from Howard Campus (where I will be next semester) and had a great time laughing and dancing.

Sunday we spent the day at new, sort of ritzy beach called Umhlanga with two friends we met from JoBurg. We spent the whole time taking fun pictures and climbing out onto the rocks.

Here, the guys are eating the famous Indian Bunny Chow and we are eating some yummy Thai.

In the evening we met up with Emily and Li from UKZN and went back to campus.

All in all it was a great weekend. 

Funny story though, turns out ISA (the program Saint Mary's utilizes for the study abroad here) is taking us on a safari again next weekend! To the same place!
I hope to have better luck with the animal sightings then.

Finally,  a shout out to my Dad  because it was his birthday Saturday! Next year I will make up for not being there this year. 

But, for now, 

Hamba Kahle! (Stay well!)

Getting Into Routine

Friday was officially the 2 week mark here in South Africa. For some reason, it feels like so much longer than that. Things are beginning to settle into a routine now which is very helpful for stress and time management.

When it came time for classes to start, I realized that I forgot that this was not just some big vacation. I actually had work to do. Classes (or here they are called Modules) started our first Wednesday here, but, for the first week, many professors didn't hold their lectures or just had them for about 10 minutes to explain the scheduling and course outlines. There are three types of modules that I have: lectures, tuts (tutorials), and practs (practicals). Lectures have been the hardest thing for me to get used to because UKZN is  a bit different than Saint Mary's (and not just because there are guys every where). UKZN is a larger university than I am used to; my largest lecture holds close to 300 students. Tuts and practs are smaller and the class size is broken down and used by professors to get more students personal attention and help. These are more what I am used to. While lectures are a bit more lenient with attendance, usually all tuts and practs are mandatory.

Originally, my four modules were: French, Anthropology, Ethics, and History. Entering my first history class, I realized it was not something I was interested in doing here since it was not Africa-centered as I had hoped. So, instead, I joined ceramics! Ceramics is run by a sweet and slightly eccentric, older lady who doesn't mind telling you how it is.  We already completed our first ceramics project which was combining three things on a tile: Something organic, something hard and man-made, and something soft. I did a pear core, my ukulele, and an avocado. Now, we are working on flower vases. I am slightly disappointed that I will probably be unable to take it home, but I'm sure it will find a nice home here.

Friday, some of the ceramics master and honor students invited our class to a braai. A braai, if I didn't explain it before, is an African barbecue. So my friend Catherine (from Germany) and I walked over to Checkers, the closest grocery store, and picked some things up to take over there. We bought hamburger, chicken, and asparagus, broccoli, and potatoes to wrap in foil and season with oil, salt, and garlic. Catherine also bought feta and tomatoes to wrap in foil as well. The other students had chicken legs, beef and chicken sausage, and corn on the cob. It was a lot of fun and it was great to meet a different group of people. I also got a list of some South African bands to check out later.

On Saturday, me and a few other girls were invited to a birthday party at the local botanical gardens. It was nice meeting new and interesting people. Li and I had the opportunity to play frisbee with a fun group of guys and then we spent a good while of that time walking the grounds of the garden and taking pictures. The gardens were so beautiful and definitely a "go again" kind of spot.

That night we introduced our two German friends to the movie The Breakfast Club and went to get sushi for dinner. Afterwards, we found out it was Indian night at a club next door, so we went to check that out as well and had a blast. (South Africa, specifically the Kwa-Zulu Natal region, we were told, has the largest Indian population outside of actual India).  

Next weekend, Lena, Catherine, and I have planned a trip to Hluhluwe (try pronouncing that!) Game reserve which is 3 hours away in the town of St. Lucia. We plan to rent a car and drive down there on Thursday. We do not have any classes on Friday because it is National Women's Day. We will drive up Thursday, stay in a hostel down there called BiB, and have the full day safari on Friday. Saturday we will drive back to Durban to return our car and spend the night in a hostel there. Sunday we will hang out on the beach and then head back to Pietermaritzburg that evening. I like to think of it as an early birthday celebration :)

Will share (hopefully good) pictures!

Hope everyone is doing well

Cheers!