Saturday, September 22, 2012

Saturday with Birds


Today we spent our early morning bird watching. It sounds silly but this may have been the one of the most interesting field trips we have had with our group. Unfortunately I do not remember all of the names and types of birds, but it was exciting to walk around and take a gander at the interesting looking birds. Not only did we get to walk around the exhibit, we got a bird show too. It was like being at the San Diego Wildlife Park, but waaay cooler. AND we got to see small owl gobble up a piece of meat in one bite! It's not every day we see that!


I seriously cannot get enough of how green it is here in South Africa. Every time we take a short drive to the mall or on a field trip with my art class, I always try to look out the window. It is so beautiful and I do hope that the folks back home can get a little taste of what I see every day. Maybe SoCal should invest in planting more trees? I think yes :)

Always, Allex

Monday, September 17, 2012

We Spotted Them


short hike to see giraffes, because we can. 

Always, Allex

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Elephants and Little Hippos


 Durban has been experiencing some rainfall these past few days so instead of our field trip to go watch some birds (ahhh...), we drove into town to go shopping at the markets and buy some goodies. The drive from Pietermaritzburg to Durban was about an hour, but with all the country music Baba Philip played in the bus, time seemed to fly by pretty fast. Unfortunately some people are not huge fans of country music, so they moaned and groaned the whole way there.. but that is besides the point.

The windows were a bit foggy for the most part, but from what I could see, Durban's market place looked similar to Downtown LA. I'm not too sure if that's a cool thing or not, but yes that is how it looked like. The only major difference between Downtown LA and Durban was the smell of spices. Not all the stores sold the spices, but the minute you stepped into the market place you can literally smell curry everywhere. I personally love curry so walking around all the stores and bargaining made me extremely hungry and drooling for some Indian cuisine. (Fun fact: Africa actually has the largest population of Indians besides India. Pretty interesting huh?) Perhaps one of these days we will get to have some Indian food with naan bread. YUM!

The market place was extremely fun though, my five senses definitely were going crazy. Bright colored tapestries. Smell of curry and other spices. The sound of people bargaining. Loud African music. All the beads and African wood work. The little shopaholic voice in my head kept telling me to buy everything! But ladies and gentlemen, I do have SOME patience.. so I saved some money and I am probably going to wait to buy more things at our next market visit.

AND we even packed lunches with our own personal lunch pails! Seriously, how cute can we get?
God is so good. Feeling blessed to be here, especially with wonderful people who are also so in love
with Africa. Now off to do homework... Have a wonderful weekend :)

Always, Allex

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

STUDYING abroad


"Once you have tasted the waters of Africa 
you will always be thirsty until you come back."

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Let's go to the Forgotten Falls and remember it


Being here, for some reason, the time just slows down. But speeds up at the same time. Does that make sense? It feels like you have forever to do everything and anything you want, but when you do go do everything you want, hours pass by so quick! Any opportunity we get, we are out there hiking around and exploring the campus. Being cooped up inside is not an option. You constantly want to be outside.. hiking, playing frisbee, having tea with friends, journaling by the waterfall.. hiking some more! I still can't wrap my head around the fact that I'm here in Africa. I'm in Africa!

Today's activity: Hiking to the Forgotten Falls. Allex hiking? YES, it happened! 
Duration: an hour and a half
Distance: uh.. a few miles?
Level of difficulty: semi-difficult.. especially when you have wet muddy shoes going down like a vertical slope to the waterfall. but who doesn't like semi-difficult hikes?


I can do this hike every day. I'm loving Africa.

Always, Allex

p.s. school starts tomorrow.. I completely forgot that I came here to study. oops.