Durban

Wow. What an incredible weekend. I can honestly say that today was one of the most outrageous, yet liberating days of my life. I'll start at the beginning though.

I arrived in Durban with a group of American friends on Friday night and we stayed through today. While there we stayed at a hostel right off of Florida Road, one of the most popular places for bars, clubs and restaurants (also one of the safer places in Durban). The hostel was incredible. The atmosphere was fantastic and I met people from all over the world! There were people from England, Australia, Holland, Ireland, France, Germany... the list goes on. There was a bar inside of the hostel so people would hang out, watch rugby and mingle, which made it super easy to make new friends. The people there were so interesting too! Some were volunteering with street children, some were teaching, some were traveling around South Africa for 5 weeks, and there were even some going on a world tour (next stop: Argentina). It was so awesome to be in such a global environment and to meet such fascinating people!

During the day we headed to the Golden Mile beaches - something that Durban is famous for. It looks a bit like LA: huge stretches of sand, water and palm trees. It was so cool to jump in the Indian Ocean! I can't believe that it's winter - I spent the whole weekend in shorts and a tank top! I can't imagine what summer's going to be like if it's already warm enough for that!

We also spent time at some traditional markets, which was really interesting. There were many women walking around with baskets and items on their heads, which was so cool. It was just like all of the pictures that I've seen of Africa. I just can't figure out how they do it... I just find it so impressive.

Today was a bit crazy. Two of my American friends decided to get dreadlocks, so they found these two guys on a random street corner in downtown Durban to do it for them. The guys said that it would take 4 hours, but it ended up taking 8 (crazy, right?!). So, the two of them had to stay there until it was getting pretty late, and the other three people and I needed to head back to campus. Because it is a national holiday today (happy women's day!!) the taxis here were scheduled to stop earlier than usual, so by the time we realized that the other two weren't going to be done getting dreads, we were really down to the wire for grabbing a taxi.

Before I move on, I need to describe the taxis here. South African taxis aren't anything like what you see in New York (those are referred to as cabs). Taxis basically rule the public transportation system. They are 15-passenger vans that pick up and drop people off all over the city for very cheap prices. Strangely, they're really only used by the Black population here, so me and my friends really stood out. There are "taxi stations" where there are hundreds of vans, all of which going to different places, and you somehow have to figure out which one is the right one.

Moving on. So, basically me and my 3 friends race out of the hostel and begin charging down the road to the taxi station. We book it a good 2 miles or so, stopping taxis that we see to ask where we can find one to Pietermaritzburg. Eventually, we find a taxi that will take us to another taxi that will take us to PMB. There's all sorts of screaming and yelling (much of it in Zulu, which is highly unhelpful when you already have no idea what you're doing) both on our part and on the driver's part, but somehow, after running around the whole city, taking crazy taxi rides and being 100% confused, we eventually make it onto a taxi back to PMB.

At the beginning of the day, I was super nervous because I had no idea how we'd get home, how the taxi would work (we had a friend drive us down), where we'd get on, when we'd leave, etc. etc. But, in the end, that ended up being the best part of the day. While racing down the street in this crazy, overcrowded taxi where multiple languages are being spoken and money is being bartered, I couldn't help but laugh. All of the walls and barriers that I have been so good at holding up all these years were forced to come down. Schedules, routine and order are just not possible here, and for the first time I feel so liberated by it. Getting completely lost and being totally confused made the whole experience even more fun and exciting... and just look! I made it back to PMB safe and in one piece. I can already tell that studying abroad is going to mold me and change me in ways that I never knew were possible... and I'm so excited about it!