On Friday night I experienced a little bit of what Durban has to offer for night life. I went with Bex and Jo, sisters that I have met who are also teachers. We went to dinner at a Thai restaurant and had a great meal. We then went to the Harvey Wallbangerz in Durban North where we had a couple drinks and danced a little. The drinks were actually very cheap, it was about $2.20 for a mixed drink and it was happy hour (or something similar) so we got 2 for the price of 1. The club was very similar to bars we have in Denver, but maybe a little smaller. It had a patio on the edges that looked out to the city and a dance floor on the inside. We didn’t stay very long, but we did get to dance to Michael Jackson’s ‘Billie Jean.’
Most of our conversation that night was spent talking about the different words that we use. Here is what I found:
Word/phrase in SA—American translation
Just now—in a little bit
Now now—right now
Vodka and lemonade—vodka and sprite
Biscuits—cookies
Scones—biscuits
Shame—sheesh, darn, dang…
Mince—ground beef
Robots—stoplights
Math book—math notebook, paper, spiral (but they don’t have spiral notebooks here)
Booklet—packet of stapled papers
Text book—math book
Manual car—standard or stick shift (there aren’t very many automatics over here)
Cheers—goodbye
Pudding—dessert
Jelly—jello
Jam—jelly
Brown bread—wheat bread
Vest—tank top
Short coat—vest
I know that there are a ton more, I’ll try and remember them for later…
On Saturday I went to the mall (twice) and did some shopping. There are some of the same stores in that we have in the states, like Mac, Payless Shoes, Cinnabon, Aldo, Quicksilver, McDonalds, and Trade Secret. There are also some that are similar to Macy’s and Old Navy and some others as well. The girls showed me some cheaper stores to buy some clothes—I needed to buy some skirts to wear to school, as pants/capris are too hot to wear. I got two skirts and a tank top for about $15, a purse for about $6 and a couple dresses for about $20 each. I needed to get some dresses to wear when I got out—it seems that everyone dresses up a little! I also got a beach towel, so hopefully I can head to the beach sometime this weekend!
On Saturday night I went to the Suncoast, a casino/hotel type place. We saw a movie, Bride Wars, which was very cute. The price of the movie was about $2 and a drink was about $1.80. I think that I might be seeing a lot of movies while I am here. Generally, the movies come out a little later than they do in the States. Four Christmases, with Vince Vaughan and Reese Witherspoon just came out over here but they changed the name to something different (since it is past the holidays.) I wonder if they changed part of the movie? I didn’t get to do any gambling while at the Suncoast, but I am not sure what would happen if a foreigner won…would I get to keep the money?
On Sunday I went to church twice. The churches here are very similar to the ones that we have. In the morning I went with Glenda’s parents, Len and Elaine, and then we went to breakfast afterwards. The three of our meals came to about $8 with tip! What a deal! After breakfast we drove to Kloof and stopped at the Kloof Country Club for a stamp collectors fair. The golf course there was beautiful! There were also a lot of huge houses in the area, definitely a wealthier part of town. From there we drove to Botha’s Hill where at the top you can see the Valley of 1000 Hills. It was kind of hazy/misty on Sunday, so we couldn’t see too far. But, from what I could see it was gorgeous! Along the way we also past Drummond, which is the halfway point for the Comrades Marathon. The marathon takes place yearly and the course is from Durban to Pietermaritzburg (alternating ways each year) which is about 80 km (I think). Runners have to make it to Drummond after 5 ½ hours time otherwise they are disqualified. I guess that some of the runners finish the race is 6 hours! Along the road there was a brick wall signifying runners that have finished the race 10 or more times. I couldn’t believe all of the bricks!
This weekend was very busy and I was quite tired by the time I got home on Sunday night. I made it through the weekend without driving the car—which proved to be a good idea since I didn’t stall it at all on Monday! I just might be getting the hang of it!
I realized over the weekend that I use the internet a lot! I am hooked on email and skype, and I am still teaching on online course which does account for some of the use. I exceeded the internet limit for the account, since they don’t have unlimited usage over here, and they locked me out. I will be able to use it again next Sunday when the billing cycle starts over. So, in the mean time I purchased a ‘pay as you go’ plan that I can use when I go over the limit. I think that I just needed a lot of personal contact when I first moved here—I needed some reminders of home.
