Durbs

Sorry I haven’t written in so long!! First I went out of town for a week when we had a school break. Then this week was the most social week of my life, so I never was able to email or blog. It’s been madness!! I’m more social now than I was in college I think. In the Bu. Weird. Anyway I went to Durban, SA to visit my friend Sarah that I met in on a cruise in Greece in July. She’s super sweet and so are her parents. We really had a blast. We did some shopping (especially for good groceries since our grocery store in Piggs Peak has about 4 aisles and no choices), went to movies, went out for meals with her friends, went to the biggest aquarium in the Southern Hemisiphere (Ushaka), went for a bunny chow, went to a huge outdoor market, and hung out. Durban is really beautiful. There are loads of trees and flowers and it’s very hilly so you get some fantastic views. My favorite tree ever is called the Jacaranda tree which is covered with beautiful lavender colored flowers. They are all over South Africa and Swaziland.
Ushaka was super awesome and a bit like Sea World in that they have a dolphin show and a seal show. Sea World is WAY better though. But it was fun to see the little shows. The aquarium part was really cool. It is absolutely amazing to see all the different types of fish God made. He’s so creative! The whole aquarium is meant to be like you’re at the bottom of the ocean in a wrecked ship, so the way it’s set up and decorated is pretty neat.
The bus we took from Durban on Monday was 4 hours late which was really frustrating. So then we didn’t get back to Mbabane, Swaziland until too late for my housemate to come get us. Mbabane is still about 2 hours from Bulembu so we were stuck there and had to stay at a hostel. But interestingly enough, there were some girls from Plano there and one of them had gone to UNT!! Crazy. Then the next morning we got a kombi from Mbabane to Piggs Peak and our housemate picked us up in Piggs Peak. A kombi is like a taxi/bus thing. They CRAM the people in like none other. I’m not gonna lie, it was pretty uncomfortable. But we got it done.
A couple other things about my Durban trip. So one night we’re sitting there watching a movie in Sarah’s living room when I notice movement out of the corner of my eye. I look up on the wall and there’s a gecko crawling around. I was like, “um, there’s a lizard on your wall” and they said “yeah there are 2 and they live there and eat the moths.” Also, they are very territorial so they hiss at each other. Pretty funny. They are actually kinda cute. Better than lizards for sure. And I ate pumpkin ravioli with a creamy walnut sauce at a restaurant. It was really good. And Sarah and her mom kept saying that I have “movie star” hair. What’s up with that? I found that hilarious. My hair is anything but “movie star” hair. But I’ll take the compliment. Okay I think that’s about it for Durbs.