Weekendness

I had a fun and productive weekend. Friday after class, I hung with Emma at her house for a bit then I went back home to hang with Mama. Siyanda was getting ready for prom which was fun! He already graduated but they get asked back the year after. Watched Generations, ate, worked on my ISP (independent study project) proposal then went to bed.

Saturday we went into Durban to the soccer game at the Moses Mabhida Stadium (World Cup Stadium) it was AmaZulu, who are from Durban, against Supersport United, from Pretoria. AmaZulu won 3-0! The stadium is awesome! I’m gonna visit the one in Cape Town when I go there after the program as well. Oh ya I’m staying an extra week now so I’m not leaving till May 13th! So anyway, the stadium is awesome. They have this gondola thingy that you can go up on to the top of the stadium to see all of Durban which Emma and I plan to do with our Mama’s next weekend. My Mama expressed that she really wanted to do that. So story..Emma and I (by the way Emma isn’t my only friend she just happened to be with me a lot this weekend haha..I do have other friends) went to the concession stand at the stadium and it was chaos. Apparently it’s not important to create lines for the concessions. It reminded me of like the paparazzi or something everyone was just crowded around shoving money everywhere. Emma and I realized we had to be aggressive to get our food. So I was in there pushing with the rest of them and once a person moved from the counter I threw my elbow at a very tall man and wiggled myself into the space. I think I’ve become very citiyfied if that’s a word. It’s going to be interesting though at the World Cup..I wonder if the South Africans will be budding in and pushing to get to the front whereas the international peeps will be trying to create lines. Anywho, we made local friends at the game and photographers that will be covering the World Cup.

Then I got us a taxi…I do that too now. New York City has nothing on me! We went back to Happy Hippo where we were staying. Happy Hippo was happening there were a lot of young people from the UK and Germany and Australia so we chatted with them a bit. The UK people were here on a project that like has to do with soccer or something I don’t know. Then we went to a Thai restaurant on Florida Rd, which Florida Rd is like the bar/restaurant strip but mainly where white South Africans and tourists go..so that was quite a new scene for us haha. Then we went back to the Happy Hippo and drank the Bafana Bafana wine we found..since we are obsessed with Bafana Bafana.

Sunday Emma and I took Julia to the hospital because the bite she got during the last rural homestay got worse and the pain shooting up her leg got worse. So going to the hospital there was fun. The hospital was in a very nice part of town so the services were much like what we have but the facilities are a little different. Generally we didn’t wait as long as I have in the U.S. Oh but they did ask her how tall and how much she weighed and we were like uhhh we know it in feet and inches and pounds. That didn’t really help them. So then she weighed herself and found out what the kilograms were and we were trying to make up what we thought that was in pounds. Then we ate..I like feta cheese now a lot. Also we’ve learned not to order when it says Ice Tea or Lemonade on the menu because we get lipton out of the can ice tea and schwapps or whatever it is lemonade out of the can which is carbonated…we’ve made that mistake numerous times now. Also I have a theory that they don’t use beef in their hamburgers here. I think it is all mutton. I’m starting to think that’s a known thing and we are just not aware. I seemed to be the only critic of this though…perhaps the others don’t taste the very interesting different taste of the hamburger patties here. Anyway maybe it’s cheaper or maybe it’s because a lot of people are Indian and then don’t eat beef.

Then we basically worked on ISP proposal and chilled out for the rest of Sunday. Now for the rest of the week I will be in a media program. Half of us are going to the Red Cross and learning about home based care while the other half which I am in are staying at the SIT house and we have people coming in to teach us about media in South Africa and their efforts to educate the public on health and such. So that’s what I’m doing all week.

Mama’s birthday is today. I’m making spaghetti again with salad and bread and bringing her flowers and a cake.

I got Gma’s card by the way last week!!!!