Travels to Durban

So last night was our last night in Johannesburg and our program director who has been with us the entire time Zed, who is from Zimbobwe, and is completely awesome...decided we needed a little fun time. So last night he took us to see a movie at the mall if we wanted to go so some of us did. We saw Couples Retreat and it only costed us R27. Anywho, so Zed is like a 40 year old guy who has like almost an Australian accent but we think thats how white people from Zimbobwe talk but we don't know. Anyway he is sooo cool!

But today we woke up and learned a little Zulu like Sawubona and Unjani and Ubani ikama lakho. Just the basics no real clicks yet although we did try some words and I'm doomed. You have to clicked almost simultaneously as you say the word which is nearly impossible. They also have ways of pronouncing certain parts of words that are really hard that you have to conjure up from the back of you throat but its almost like a lisp..very interesting.

By they way this program is 28 girls from all over the U.S. we ahve met our program director Zed and two guys that help out with Zulu but mainly transporting us Thula and S'du who are young Zulu guys. Anyway today we got in our vans and traveled 6 hours to Durban. The scenery on the way was magnificent it was like in The Lion King when all the stuff is green and I saw like that cirlce of life tree or whatever it is like 80 billion times. For future reference yes I will indeed relate everything to The Lion King. Anyway we got pulled over on the way for a random tag check I suppose but it was just like a guy in the middle of the road waving us over... very different.

Once we got into Durban it was very city like..mainly related it to L.A. which is ehh. But it was really cool and really modernized. We are staying in the Happy Hippo backpackers lodge which is so urban and cool looking. Dad, it looks like that Bean Bag Bohemian thing you sent me. So we are staying here for two days.

Zed left us today so we were on our own for dinner. We went to the uShaka marine park thingy and went to the beach for a bit. It was soo humid and hot. The water was really nice though. The Indian ocean is much like the Atlantic. Then we ate at this seafood restaurant.

So Happy Hippo lets us have internet access for an hour for R20 which is is like three dollars so I will probably be on tomorrow maybe around 8pm or 9pm my time which is 1 or 2 pm everyone elses time. I will not have this much internet access once the program actually begins.

Some words I will be bringing back to the U.S.:
- tots (pronounced toots) which are drinks
- jolly good - just something Zed says all the time
- stylin' - also Zed
- eskoko - Zulu word for baller
- sorted