Missing Home );

We will be working at a hospital called King Edwards for two weeks; one week will be spent in the pediatric ward, and one in surgery. This hospital is on the same grounds as the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and because of this, we are able to be ‘enrolled’ students to have access to their medical library and facilities. We had to go finish our temporary enrollment process today, so we did that first thing this morning. We got to see some of the grounds of the university and got a tour of the medical library and related facilities. We will have regular access to computers, which will also be great; it is quite difficult to get internet access because our home stays do not have it, and by the time we get home, there is only half an hour left until the internet café’s close, and it would take us that long to get our things together and get out there. So, this will most certainly be nice. Our driver, Uncle Roy, had an appointment on the North side of Durban, and didn’t have time to drive us all the way to St. Mary’s, which is located on the South side of Durban. He dropped us off at a very large downtown mall called the Gateway Mall, to explore and get to an internet café, while we waited for him to return. The mall was enormous! It has four floors, and each is so big you wonder when the hallways are going to come to an end. We only got through two floors, and then decided to look for an internet café, with success! We were so excited because it had been a while since we had each gotten to get on and update our friends and family, handle some school business, and just feel like we were back at home. Uncle Roy then took us to see the brand new Durban stadium, which is going to be used for the World Cup in June! (Here, they call traffic lights robots, just on a side note.) It is amazingly built and very astounding. It’s stature is extremely large, and has two enormous beams coming from the ground all the way to the middle of the building that you can apparently pay to go up (it’s an escalator/elevator type lift) and view the whole city. I imagine it would be beautiful. The stadium is in a part of town that we haven’t explored yet. It is right by the beach, the Indian Ocean, and lots of neat little shops, hotels, and touristy things to do. There is also a very famous casino and entertainment building in one that is vast and right on the beach that he wanted us to see. We went inside, and it was indeed nothing like I have ever seen before. There was an extremely huge casino, about 20 large restaurants, jewelry shops, clothing stores, clubs, arcade type venues, a playing venue for children, and then of course, out the back of the building, the Indian Ocean beach. We took a look through the huge building, and then Roy wanted us to venture into the casino for a bit. We agreed, and walked around to see it all. We got hungry and decided to try out one of the nice restaurants, which happened to be semi attached to the casino. We drove by Ushaka, which is a very famous marine park and aquarium, where you can do such things as swim with the sharks! I don’t think I am brave enough for anything like that; it will ruin my beach experience for good.

Although I know it’s good for me to have different experiences, I cannot help but be slightly home sick still. I miss my family and friends, and today, I realized how much I missed ‘comfort’ food. Here, they eat a lot of curries (not Indian curries), and everything is good, but it’s not food from home. When we were walking through the big entertainment building, I just wanted to see a restaurant that was familiar, or that had familiar food that would remind me of home; there was nothing. We also got the opportunity to walk through a grocery store today, and we were looking for ‘American’ food that would remind us of home and make us feel more comfortable (when there is absolutely nothing similar in a culture that you’ve immersed yourself in, anything that is reminiscent of your home is fabulous), but there was nothing! Fruit doesn’t do it, because you can find fruit anywhere. They even have Doritos and Frito chips, but in odd flavors that we don’t have. We left kind of disappointed and missing home, but I guess that’s a part of the adventure. There are things that are similar in restaurants, but nothing is the same, and it makes me sad sometimes. I just miss my familiar comfort zone still. The other night, my family ordered pizza, but it wasn’t the same; they didn’t make any of the kinds that are familiar from home, the company wasn’t familiar, and it just didn’t taste the same. I think that’s why I have been calling so much in the early stages of my time away; hearing familiar voices is very comforting and has helped me adjust better, when everything around me is so foreign. But, we had a lovely time today, and tomorrow, it is back to the hospital.