The City That Never Stops Having Fun

85 degrees. Blue skies. 30 second walk to the beach. Guess how my weekend went? J

It all began on Friday night. Since Durban has the slogan of “the city that never stops having fun,” naturally there is quite the night life. We have done a fairly decent job of hitting up a few of the safe dance clubs in large groups. So on Friday night we went to a club called “The Lounge” and danced the night away. As some of you know, I like to dance away the week’s load of stress and baggage.

The next morning I woke up early and headed to a farmer-market-style street fair. This market had an interesting compilation of both boutique-esque artwork and traditional zulu artwork. I managed to drop a few hundred Rand on some wonderful souvenirs and gifts to bring home. Here’s hoping that they will all fit in two suitcases! After the market I went to my first South African soccer match with a few friends and brothers from Cato Manor. It was amazing. I have never experienced such a sporting event. It was a relatively important match between two professional soccer teams—one of them being the “Golden Arrows” from Durban. People were dressed up in choir robes blowing on “vuvuselas,” or horns, and banging drums. We knew this coming in, but myself and the two other girls I was with were the only white people at the game. I felt totally comfortable there because we have lived with black families and whatnot, but you could tell that people were staring at us because they expected us to be uncomfortable. South Africans remind us frequently that “rugby is a white man’s sport and soccer is a black man’s sport.” I guess it’s true.

Sunday was a relaxed beach day. The weather was absolutely gorgeous so the beaches were packed. My friend Rainey and I rented boogie boards and body surfed for a few hours. It was so much fun to ride the warm Indian Ocean waves. We didn’t let the fact that we were the only ones over the age of 8 riding boogie boards stop us from having a good time. I came back to my flat and hand washed some clothing for the first time in my life. I discovered that I actually really enjoy hand washing clothes. I was planning on only washing the bare necessities (socks and underwear), but I found myself having so much fun that I washed just about everything that could possibly need washing. I think I even washed a scarf that I have only worn once. After my escapade of washing I realized that our small drying rack could not accommodate all of my hand washed clothes. Luckily for me I found out that my flat mates do not mind if I hang my underwear from the ceiling fan.