The Royal Hotel Durban

On Wednesday I managed to live through my 2 midterms... we shall see how they went but for now i think they went ok. I spent most of today with the biology students because they opened up their last field trip to treasure beach to others so I went along. It was pretty fun, we left at 8:30 and started out at the Bluff in Durban. I really liked this area of the coast because it reminded me of California ...

... on Cryws Road in Cardiff (Marc will know what I mean). So I ended up having an English breakfast, paid the bill but decided to go the loo before going. On the way to the toilets were a few freezers which is quite unusual and also a big cockroach on the floor - I think it was dead but at least they could have cleared it up to pretend it was clean!!


Anyway, back to the fact that I hardly see any white people around. The only other white people I saw were a ...

... we had Joshua from the Congo; he did not speak French but was saying that they have 450 different dialects there. Just before we set off every driver give us a little speech about the times and what's going to happen on the way. Joshua told us I quote "We have a 2 hour drive nonstop, I can stop for toilet but not for smoking unless it is weed!" Everyone sort of laughed but I think he was not joking at all. He ...

... outside the stadium. We didn't have much to say. Our team was the Rajasthan Royals because Shane Warne plays for them and he was the only guy I knew. The won that day but got knocked out in a later round. One must do if you ever go to Durb's is to have bunny chow for lunch/dinner. It comes from the big indian population in Durban and consists of a loaf of bread (or half-loaf) emptied out in the middle and filled full of curry. I can't recommend it highly enough.

... Elefanten) und Tala Game Park mit Zebras, Kudus etc. Leider keine Giraffen - lieber Dete ;-) Übrigens: Für alle, die mich neidisch machen wollen, weil in Deutschland dieses Jahr mal Schnee lag.... ICH HATTE WEISSE WEIHNACHTEN - JAWOLL. Na gut.... Es war sehr künstlich. Neil hat mal eben eine Tüte Mehl auf dem Rasen verteilt - gefreut hab ich mich trotzdem :-)))) Jo... Die drei Wochen sind viiiiel zu schnell vorbei gewesen - wie immer, wenn's schön ist.

Road trip South Africa style! Ray, Andre, and I packed up the car and headed off for our three day drive from the southern tip of Cape Town, to sunny Durban in the north where Andre's family lives. After a few hours of driving on day one, we stopped off to see Andre's grandparent's 'Oma and Opa', who fed us a nice dinner and gave us a warm place to ...

... The people seemed amazed to see a white person. The children would hide and then slowly come out to catch a glimpse of me. I've also been to several jazz concerts now at the University of KwaZulu-Natal Jazz Centre. I went to a marimba concert at the university after one of the jazz concerts. Interestingly, most of the music was composed by Americans. It was the first time that four marimbas were played together in ...

... documentary about the death of a polar bear as a result of his/her being forced to swim long distances to find food only to be fatally injured when trying to kill a walrus for survival. The bear actually dug a hole to lie down and die. It brought tears to my eyes. They also passed out a handbook prepared by an honors student in environmental science at the University of KwaZulu-Natal about global warming and climate ...

... catch anything. Morning of the 14 We wake up and everything is perfect. I am excited, ive got the bad day behind me and know what to expect and am ready to get fishing. We get to the beach even earlier this time and everything is absolutely perfect, the surf is down, the water is blue and the air is still. But right as we were getting ready to lauch a stiff wind from the southwest came out of no where, a southwest wind is impossible to paddle against and ...

... then insisted on singing for us as a gift. It is one thing to hear the beautiful voices of Xhosan children as they dance for "small change." It is another to have them give their gift of song and dance. For an hour we were blessed with our own personal display of Xhosan dance. As the night crept up, an oil lamp was lit and the children altered their activities between singing, finishing school work and playing. Our mats were laid out on the floor and shortly thereafter the ...