I fully acknowledge that I am not a morning person, but there is something refreshing and self-fulfilling about being awake when the day begins. Today was my second attempt at rowing in the Bay of Natal. First of all, I am not a “sport person”. Rather, the competitiveness that was alive in me as a child slowly began to recede with age, and while it comes back everyone now and again, for the most part it remains dormant. Second of all, this is a sport that requires coordination and strength, both of which I often struggle with. Either way, I did not result in the boat capsizing and was able to maintain an even stroke for the majority of the time.
Really, the whole experience, from the moment we get picked up at 4:45am to the time we get back home around 7:30, is worth mentioning. Barry, a fellow student at UKZN, has offered to give the six of us Americans that it takes to complete and eight person boat (that’s right, they would basically be down a female team if it were not for us Michigan State Spartans). The only problem is that Barry drives a truck, so one lucky person gets shotgun and the rest get to ride in the bed of the truck through the streets of Durban. Going there isn’t that bad, except for maybe the wind when his speed gets up to 50 mph, but by the time we head home, everyone is on their way to work, school, or whatever else it is people here do, and it’s just a little unsettling being the center of other driver’s attention. However, when else will I get to ride in the back of a truck through a large metropolitan city and not worry about getting reprimanded by the police?
The bay that we row in is the antithesis of cleanliness. The first morning I knew I was in for a treat when a jet-black (as if it was consumed by disease and foreign substances) fish was washed up on the bank where we put the boat in. The water leaves a brown, frothy substance on my calves after one minute that I’m pretty sure is the cause of my skin feeling as if it is bubbling. But, by far the most pleasant thing to observe are the pools of oil/gasoline/chemicals that pool on the surface of the water all throughout the bay. And, to top it all off, Barry informed us that it isn’t uncommon for sharks to venture into the bay so it would be advisable that we keep the boat afloat at all times.
Overall though, it’s not that bad. They host a ton of social activities that might be fun, and I feel like I’m being physically active for once in my life. I’m not so sure how I feel about the whole competing thing, but maybe I’ll just pull out the “international card” and turn it into more of a game and a serious event. One thing though, once you go to one sporting practice at this university, it is just assumed that you are the new member of the team. They suck you in so fast that you have no way to get out, so even if I wanted to back out of rowing now, I’m pretty sure I would be condemned by all of UKZN. Hypothetically speaking, of course.
We are celebrating the first of five birthday’s this coming weekend. Kate from Montana is turning 22 and a there was talk of getting a group together to go white water rafting, but that is sounding a little iffy now, at least for this weekend. In either case, she has requested that she wants to go to the revolving restaurant in the harbor for dinner. From what I’ve heard and read, this is a restaurant atop a building that rotates 360 degrees while you eat dinner so that you can have a view of the entire city of Durban.