November 17-23: Durban

The Intl Studs on one of our last nights. I miss them already!

Hello Lovelies!

It's been a while, and there are many (mis)adventures to report. But first, a word on final exams. Final exams here (and pretty much everywhere else except the US) are spanned over the course of a month, and that is because it is worth A WHOLE LOAD OF YOUR GRADE. So, naturally, I barely studied. results are posted on Dec 19th; we'll see if I passed anything.

After my final final on Nov 14, I headed off for a week in Durban with the ladies. My goodbye to Grahamstown was bittersweet. On one hand, I successfully finished two Jam Jars (among other libations), spent my last night in Friar's (good riddance!), and tipsy-snuggled with my good pals late into the night, but on the other, somebody stole my leather jacket. Thankfully, my money, phone, and knife were in my boots (best investment ever), but the bastards got my lipstick. I still miss that lipstick. There's a special level of hell for people like that.

In the morning (4 hours later), I blearily carried all of my stuff (ALL OF IT) out of Res, held back tears to say goodbye to sweet, dear Gemma, met up with Deike, and schlepped my sorry still-drunk ass to the bus station. Deike and I were pretty sure that the world was about to end when the bus showed up TEN MINUTES EARLY and we left ON TIME. IT'S A MIRACLE, HALLELUJAH! Or a sign of the apocalypse. Either way, we gleefully got on the bus for a 14-hour ride, most of which I spent sleeping off my hangover.

This is what Durban should look like. However, while we were there, it was raining most the time and a little sad-looking.

We arrived in Durban at close to midnight, scoped out our hostel, and chatted with some locals before collapsing exhausted into the most uncomfortable beds ever. The next day… Oh the next day. We had been invited by the local people living in the hostel to attend the German Bierfest in town. Since Deike is German, and I have a slutty German barmaid dress, we hopped onto one of the local taxis with them. The local taxi system is all over South Africa and consists of minivans that will take you and 13 other random passengers to a certain common area in the city for 5 Rand. Very cheap, and if you know where you're going, very safe (except in JoBurg though). We got to the tacky tent, got ourselves liters of beer, tasted all and proceeded to have a grand ol' time. The pictures prove it, oh boy, they sure do.

Celine arrived the next day, and we hit the town. We went to the Victoria Market, where colorful vendors hawk even more colourful spices and beaded jewelry. Then, we took a taxi to Ushaka, the touristy Water World by the ocean, and scoped out the attractions. We had some of the delicious local fair: bunny chow.

Fun Fact: Durban is home to a large percent of ethnically Indians and is famous for the extra spicy food that has it's own South African twist.

Bunny chow is a South African, specifically Durban, dish which involves hollowing out a loaf of bread, dumping hotter than Heidi Klum curry into it, then setting the fluff from the middle of the bread on top, mimicking a bunny's tail. It was a gloriously sunny day, and Durban's sun is notoriously as hot as it's cuisine, so we cooled down with a walk on the beach. We walked the entire length of the beach in Durban and marveled at how warm the Indian Ocean is.

We had decided we had enough of our stuffy, slightly dirty hostel so we switched to another one that was right next to Florida road, a nice hub of nightlife. This one had free wifi and a hot Scottish man working at the counter who starting playing and singing beautifully along with Michael Bublé. Hot Damn. As Teresa and Siina joined us, we continued exploring the city. We were also planning on partying hearty, but after a long day of walking around in the sun, we ended up just coming home and crashing every night. Like the cool people we are. But never fear! We had fun as well. We spent a whole day at Ushaka going on the water slides, floating along on tubes, gaping at giant fish in the aquarium, watching schticky seal and dolphin shows, and adding to our sun burns. There were also very good-looking Aussies (as always), Thanksgiving Hookah, and your average shenanigans. After relaxing for a week together, I said goodbye to my dear Europeans and headed to the Durban Airport for a flight to JoBurg to meet up with the Sis. More on our adventures later! I am now in a Starbucks (!) in Heidelberg, Germany, so obviously, I have quite a bit to catch up on, but I promise I will... just now :P