Laura's Piece - From bad bloggers to bloggin' all over the place

Hiking through the nature reserve
Originally uploaded by axlinafrica.

Well, hope some of you are still checking this thing now that it's finally been updated! And I hope you know how to figure out the photo albums, 'cause I sure don't. But I think Alli will be posting instructions for the blog-impaired some time soon. The pics are worth hunting down, that's for sure!

Christina's entry did a GREAT job at capturing some of the first impressions we experienced in this crazy country. One so different that you have no choice but to completely revamp your sense of reality in order to make things seem less strange. Although I must admit to driving on the wrong side of the street until informed of such by Christina. Thank goodness for backseat driving. I have yet to try driving in Durban proper because people are maniacs on the road and my instincts tell me to do everything backwards. But we just got insurance, so I have no excuses anymore ...

So at this point in the blog's development (does anyone else think they could have come up with a better word for this thing than "blog"?), I thought I'd fill you all in on a few stories from the first couple of weeks in more detail than the other ladies got to.

With the jet lag behind us and Allison finally staying up past 8 pm, we were ready to get into the groove. And not a moment too soon either, because at our orientation we found out that we are expected to start classes at 7:45 AM. But that just means that surf's up at 6 AM! I'm almost totally outfitted for it, and am determined to get Christina in there with me. Allison's pretty much there, but Christina needs to be eased in with some bodyboarding. But she'll come around, right Cgod? I also intend to look into kite-boarding, kayaking, African drumming and capoeira at school. I guess getting up for 7:45 classes will be a good thing cause I'll need the other hours of the day to fit in all the playing I intend to do. I must say that after living on the freezing cold Pacific Ocean for 2.5 years, it's pretty sweet to take a plunge into the Indian Ocean in just a mere bathing suit! Or, in my case, a bathing suit, surf shorts, and an SPF 50 long sleeve shirt. You can't be too careful out here! And as for the sunburn pics, regardless of WHAT Alli claims to have, I know that I've got the best one on my own personal disposable camera. For posterity (props to Xtina for that pun).

On the school front, although nothing can yet be said about classes, our campus is absolutely beautiful. Durban is super hilly, which makes for beautiful views, and our school is located on top of one of those hills. And, luckily for us, the law school is super rad (see the pic for proof). The equivalent of the lounge is an outdoor courtyard and I can't wait to chill and read there. Speaking of reading, the library is also really nice, and smells exactly like the library at UVic. Go figure. Some things never change, I guess.

With school totally explored (or at least a few of the buildings thoroughly explored. We ditched the rest of the tour cause it was WAY too hot to deal with), we ventured into downtown Durban. What a rush! It throbs to a whole different beat than the 'burbs, that's for sure. It's bustling and busy and pretty muh entirely black African. But strangely enough, none of us felt out of place. It was just so fun to be a part of! You're walking around like you've got somewhere to be to avoid looking like a tourist, but really you have no idea where you're going and you're totally gawking at the whole scene behind your sunglasses.

One of the best parts of going downtown was getting there and back. We rode on these things called kombis, which are these little mini buses that are packed full of people with blaring music that rip all over town. The routes are known only to those who have found out what they are from others who know. No joke. We were directed onto the one we wanted by our tour guide dude and then this pretty lady helped us get to where we were going. When you get on, you need to pay the driver for your ride, and to do so each row of passengers passes their money to the person at the end of the row, and that person sends it up to the driver and arranges the people in the row's change if they need any. And then you hopefuly get your money back. I'm not sure about that yet cause none of us ladies have ever needed change.

What with the temperature going above 40 degrees with a "discomfort factor" of 80 (your guess is as good as mine, although I would place the discomfort factor closer to 1,000,000 between the hours of 11 and 3), we have spent a lot of time in various malls. They sure do malls well around here! In fact, we were so overwhelmed on our first day here that we spent the whole day in the mall. And we had a great time, thank you very much. And we're all looking much cuter for it

OK, this is getting pretty long, and what with mine, Christina's and Allison's entries to read, you're all probably wishing we'd go back to being terrible bloggers! We'll stagger these a bit more from now on. Promise.

Much love to all!
LL