Riotcarrot Runs a Race.: January 2016

I'm a little frazzled here in Jozi. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but things are definitely a little more hectic than I am used to.

I'm at the half way point in my rotation, with only 3 months left- I'm in full scramble mode both professionally and personally.

My projects, which started a bit slow while I caught up and was trained in my new role are now full speed ahead. So I essentially, have 3 months to do 4 different projects. Challenge Accepted. I'm having a great experience working well out of my comfort zone. I'm learning a whole new way of working, that I'm not used to. In my nutrition role, I'm global. I'm the only one on my team in my office. I spend all day pretty much alone emailing and listening in to meetings on the phone. Here, my days are 90% interaction- face to face meetings, one on ones, people stopping by all day long. I didn't think I would enjoy it, all this relationship building, but I really am. I think I'm going to be lonely when I go back home. At least Mary will be there and I can bug her all the time.

On the personal side, I'm running around trying to get to every corner of Joburg that I can, meet as many people as I can and experience as much as I possibly can. Meetup.com and Inter-nations have been my best friends- Meetup a little more than the Inter-nations. My list of places I need to go and things I need to see is pages long- and that is just for Joburg!! That doesn't include the 3 weekend trip T and I have left or the travel with Phil and Dil. HA! I just realized that sort of rhymes.

Meet-up led me to Science and Cocktails on Tuesday. It was pretty fabulous.... a bonus, it was at a Jozi hotspot that I wanted to check out- The Orbit. The bartenders were all wearing lab coats, the bar was decorated with smoking flasks and the drinks were themed for the occasion- I had a Fire and Ice, which was literally served on fire. The highlight was the talk- set up in the style of a TED talk a Professor gave a lecture on climate change and how it relates to South African weather. A little over my head at times (it was 9pm at night), but very interesting, especially the lively Q&A session after. I learned a lot about El Ninos. I didn't stay for the Jazz part of the evening- early meetings on Wednesday, but I plan to next time. Like usual, I made some new friends and I picked up a couple of travel tips for Phil and I's Cape Town trip. Looking forward to next month's talk on Eyes and Visual perception. Woot Science!

To combat some of the stress, I've started a home yoga program, Yoga Camp with Adriene. I highly recommend it. It's for all levels, it's stretchy and relaxing and Adriene is funny. I hate yoga and I'm enjoying this.

There's also been a whole lot of doodling... I guess it's my version of adult coloring.

All this craziness is resulting in me losing my mind... I spent the last two months working on a surprise Valentine's Day gift for Phil...when I was finally ready to buy it today, I was trying to beat the clock on the sale price and didn't notice that Phil's credit card was saved in the account and not mine. So he bought his own present and I ruined the surprise. :(

I have several things planned for the weekend- lots of reviews and pictures anticipated, so I thought I'd break it up a little this week. :) Have a great rest of the week everyone!

What a great week!

After a productive week at work, learning some new skills and not burning myself with the fryer it was off to Durban for a beach week getaway. Durban is a popular holiday destination for South Africans. This is currently off season so a little slower, but nothing like Ibiza off season which was like a ghost town.

We had a bit of slow start on Friday after the restaurant that was recommended by coworkers was closed. Some parts of Durban can be a little rough so we were hesitant to explore

In the dark. It improved exponentially after dinner and through the rest of the
weekend. I will go back if I have time, there are a few tours of traditional African villages I would like to do and I'd love to explore the nightlife properly. I'm struggling to find a U.S. Or international town to compare it to. It's not Maimi, it's not as rich and glamorous. I guess it would be more like Jamaica, but less port-crazy and a little less sketchy.

This weekend is best described in pictures:

First stop after dinner, Florida Road where all the night life is.... when at least the night life that is safe for 2 white girl tourists.

So, so not Miami

Oi! Oi! Oi!

Cheers from Club Cubana!

Club Cubana

Up bright and early on Saturday....

Hello Durban! View of ocean and sketch amusement park from the window.

Off to Ushaka Marine world - a marine entertainment center a couple miles down the beach. I found it interesting how different parenting is here from the US. Kids were running around unsupervised like it was 1981 and there was little scolding... and guess what, there were no disasters that I saw. There also really wasn't many life guards or rules or safety in general...but that is a whole other train of thought.

Wet n' Wild Waterpark

I decided that there were far too few regulations for me to try the tallest water slide in Africa. The little bumpy one was enough.

Sea World- Dolphin Show

Jumping Dolphins

I noticed the "not appropriate for those older than 10 years" sigh a little too late. I really wanted to be a tortuga.

Interesting session on African penguins, including a feeding. Penguins wear bracelets that have a color code. The trainer uses that to identify the birds and make sure every one gets the right number of fishes.

I'm not food!

Long Horned Cowfish..moooo

uShaka Beach

Ushaka beach

I only put my feet in the water because...

Blue Bottle Jelly Fish!

Dinner at Moyo was next. Moyo is a fun African chain where there's traditional African food from all around Africa...including fried worms! There's also face painting and traditional decorations.

Here's a pic of me in a replica of a large prehistoric shark mouth. Because dinosaur shark.

There was a creepy Amusement Park across the street from our hotel that was open almost all the time but there was never anyone really there. It reminded me of Kiddie Kingdom.

Here's some pics of the beach at night:

Here's some morning pics of the beach:

There were so many baptisms.

So the water was a little poopy on Sunday.

yo dude in speedo, why you photo booming the baptism??

I don't care how pretty the beach is...i have my priorities

Hawkers putting out their wares

Here's me on the super sketch beach where we may or may not have been almost kidnapped and sold (I'm actually not really kidding). For some reason we ignored like 5 different people who said "DO NOT GO TO SOUTH BEACH!"

My "I'm grossed out because there's crap and glass in the sand look"

My "I'm trying to make the best of it, but yikes!!" look

Nothing to see here, just a lost weave.

Here's the nice, clean beach with families and cute boys playing volleyball I relocated to after being told by the police I was in a crime area and asked by random people if I was lost:

Yea... this is more like it #beachlife indeed

Clean enough that I actually touched it!

Here's some vervet monkey's that live in the more mature sand dunes and who are apparently a big issue in the area due to the lack of natural predators and people feeding them. They steal shit and ruin the environment. For realz, I wikipedia'd it. Sand dunes have a life span. And Vervet monkeys are assholes. Things I learned on this trip.

Hey Monkeys

You. Stay there. I do not trust you.

Dune lesson.

All together now... "awwwweeeee"

very cute, little baby, but I trust you even less.

Here's Moses Mabhida Stadium stadium. If I had known that I could climb up the stairs and swing down on a rope, I would have worn pants. Damn it missed opportunity.