Alxumdulilay!

So much has happened since my post a few days ago. Today was the last day of orientation, which means classes start on Monday. I can't get over this, because I feel like I've already been here for weeks, not days. I wish I could write forever and go into intense detail about everything that I've done so far, but then this blog post would go on for pages and no one has time for that. So I'll try to do some highlights.

One big one is the Senegalese food. We've eaten a couple of traditional dishes so far, all of which are really heavy and spiced. Senegalese dishes are traditionally eaten with your hands, with everyone sitting around a large bowl or platter. We had some hilarious results the first time we tried...Fish is really popular, which makes me happy since I fell like I never eat enough of it at home. Unfortunately, vegetables not so much. But! Mango is in season and you can buy it off the street for less than 50 cents. I say that's a pretty sweet deal.

Hmm...what else. Well, we've begun wolof classes and I can spend 5 min greeting someone...but not much else. I really need to learn more because my family speaks mostly wolof at home, unless I ask them a question or they're explaining something to me. Speaking of my host family, I spent my first night there last night. They have a dome in the middle of their house! Oh, and sattelite tv, and a chauffeur. What? They watch "Pimp My Ride" dubbed in French and the French version of Survivor. I gave them a book about Philadelphia Murals, a frisbee and the game "Set". I taught set to my host sister Bineta and she's starting to get the hang of it.

So right now it's Ramadam and my family is fasting. So I found out last night that they eat two meals- one to break the fast and THEN dinner. So I was really confused at first when around 7PM we started having eggs and bread and then 3 hours later (when I was ready to pass out) they bring out dinner! So I didn't eat a lot and now family thinks I'm anorexic. My sister kept asking me if I ate enough and didn't believe me when I said, "oui, j'ai bien mangé" and kept putting rice on my plate.

I think yesterday was the best so far. We had a Senegalese band come in and play beautiful music and dance for us. I have a recording on my camera that maybe I can put up here? Yea, still getting used to this blogging thing. Even though I used to do it all of middle school. Anyways. After the music we got a great lunch at a place called Les Ambasseds that had european fair and ICE CREAM and the place where I'll be getting my birthday cake, come november. BUT THEN, we went to the Village des Artistes and wow I think I found what I want to do for my ISP. Our prof Sarah said we could stay there and rent out a studio and just, do art. all day. I'm really interested in contemporary African art and it would be amazing to work with/learn from/write about the artists there.

Alright, it's almost 6 PM here and I have to get home by 7...and I'm not sure exactly where I live. I live in the quartier next to where SIT is, but the thing is that my host family's chauffeur (yes, they have a chauffeur) drove me there last night and here this morning. I sort of payed attention, but you know, I wasn't really awake.