Insanity

I just did what I'm pretty sure is the craziest and most spontaneous thing I've ever done. Before I tell you what it is, though, I want to give some context. I was sitting at my friend Lynn's house with her and my other friend Kylie. All three of us are in circus together, and Kylie wants to go to Senegal for study abroad next year. Last night, I hosted a Senegal reunion/informational dinner, for which I made ceebu jen (the fish and rice dish that everyone eats about three times per week for lunch). Eating Senegalese food and telling stories and knowing that Alyssa got a grant to go back over the upcoming break made me really nostalgic and made me miss Senegal even more than I already do, which is a ton.

So I was sitting there with Lynn and Kylie, and I said, "Man, I feel silly, but I found these tickets to Dakar for pretty cheap, and I keep just staring at them. I really want to go back."

Kylie asked me, "So why don't you?"

"I don't want to travel alone."

"I'll go with you!" she said.

So we both called our families to make sure we weren't totally insane, and we booked tickets. Just like that.

I've decided not to tell anyone (not Alyssa, not my friend Ellen who's studying abroad there right now, not anyone at the Baobab Center or at SenCirk', not any of the neighborhood boys...). I want to just show up and surprise them all.

Also, my housemates pointed out, "That's really soon." I leave in less than a month. Just like that!

My heart won't stop pounding, I'm antsy and excited, and I'm pretty sure I won't be able to sleep tonight. I keep formulating more and more plans.

It's going to happen!

Nostalgia

I'm in Peer Leader training these days, which means I'm spending the majority of every day (no, we don't get weekends off) around other similarly self-motivated, overly helpful, crazy enthusiastic students. We're going through training to be the best possible resources for incoming freshmen. I'm having a blast! The group of Peer Leaders this year is phenomenal. They accepted fewer applicants, so some freshmen seminars will have only one Peer Leader, rather than the usual two. The result is that the more experienced Peer Leaders (who are generally the ones leading seminars alone [like me]) won't be held back by a less-qualified Peer Leader, and the less experienced Peer Leaders have partners to help them out. The less experienced Peer Leaders are better fits for the program than a lot of people who Peer Led my sophomore year, so I think things will go very well this year.

In our social time, I often find myself talking to others about my time in Senegal. ALL THE TIME. It makes me miss Senegal pretty terribly. In particular, I find myself describing how welcoming Senegalese people were to us, and how we were immediately invited to birthday parties, weddings, and baptisms--even by people we'd just met. I miss the way people were so eager to get to know others. Networking is so important there that everyone wants to be friends with everyone else. The networks people form open up all kinds of opportunities for them, and everyone helps out everyone else in their network. Looking at it that way, it's easier to understand why there's so much corruption in Senegalese government--politicians have to bestow favors upon people in their networks.

On a different note, there are lots of exciting and stressful things coming up for me. I move houses in four days, I need to turn in a new draft of my SIP ASAP, Orientation starts in three days, and I need to come up with a silks routine in the next week and a half. I'm halfway through ordering my own aerial silk (I'm waiting on some information from the woman I'm ordering through), and I started a Cafe Press store selling items with the Cirque Du K logo on them. Things are moving right along.

Tonight some people at my house are hanging out and dressing up and drinking cocktails. I'm looking forward to doing that and then getting to sleep in tomorrow morning, finally. I hope everyone has a great Labor Day!

...and sorry this post was sort of all over the place.

A little off

I'm feeling a little off today. I've been mentally prepared all day to work on my SIP, and I think I've been working pretty much since I woke up. But rather than feeling at all accomplished, I'm just feeling pretty depressed. Part of it is probably that the people I've been hanging out with lately all just left town for a few days. And my bed is the only place in my house where I can get reliable internet, which means that's where I have to do my SIP work. Sitting in bed all day is pretty lame.

I'm at 22 pages (out of 30, I think) of my SIP. I still have some sections to write that I'm not especially prepared for, which is why progress is slow right now. I'm gathering information and sources, which is time-consuming and doesn't produce writing. I need to be finished writing by Friday night. That will be challenging. Actually, if I can just write two pages a day for the next four days, I'd be done. It just seems impossible at the moment.

I also feel a little bit like I'm getting sick, but I'm hoping that's just a function of feeling depressed and overwhelmed. In general lately, I've been the happiest I can ever remember being. It's weird when I have periods of depression lately, because it's such a contrast to my normal state.

Anyways, I WILL finish my SIP, I WILL feel better mentally and physically, and life is going to rock next weekend and beyond. I just need to keep my head up and push on through this week. Here we go!

What? I still have a blog?

Sorry, Mom, that I haven't been posting lately.

Life is moving right along here. I'm up to 12ish pages written of my SIP, and I'm planning to work from home tomorrow to get maximum writing done then. I'm hoping to get up to 20 by the time I leave town tomorrow afternoon/evening for the Traverse City Film Fest.

Things have been far more interesting this week than they had been. I suddenly have people to hang out with all over the place! It's great. The weather has cooled down, so now I can actually handle cooking, working out, and eating real food. Not to mention sleeping.

We've been getting a bunch of intense summer thunder storms, which I love. Since my new room has windows on three sides, it feels like being in a tree house when it storms. It's so loud and airy. I love it.

I have two and a half weeks left of work, which is pretty exciting. Tonight I'm heading up north to the Traverse City Film Fest, which should be fun. I think we're also going to take a slackline and possibly some aerial equipment and see if we can get some playtime in.

Life is exciting!

Moving

Today is a joyous day. Why? Because even though I still haven't gotten over this nasty cold, even though I have work today and will probably have to make dozens of phone calls, even though I didn't sleep well last night, even though I can't take out my smelly trash because we don't have trash removal services...THIS IS MY LAST DAY IN THIS HOUSE! I'm packing things up to move even as I type this post.

Tomorrow morning, all my stuff will be packed away, and I will head to California for a glorious two-week vacation. Meanwhile, my housemate (sort of a misnomer, since I've been living alone here the past couple weeks) will move all my stuff to her (and my) new house. The new house will have the things I have been so lacking here, including:

• garbage removal services
• laundry
• working windows
• neighbors

I suppose I could update this...

Sorry for the long lapse in posts. I had a few crazy busy weeks, then a depressing one or two. Now that things are back under control...here I am! My internship has started, I'm about to leave for the annual RESULTS conference in DC, I get to see my friend Joe for the first time in about a year, I'm living alone, and things are pretty good overall.

This week at my internship, I've been learning about poverty simulations. They seem really cool and interesting. I get to witness my first one next Friday. The simulations run about three hours long, and they simulate a month in the life of someone living in poverty. Participants are randomly assigned roles, and volunteers play the parts of people working at services these people will need (mortgage company, school, community action agency, etc). Each week is 15 minutes, separated by 5-minute "weekends". Each week, families have to take care of basic things like going to work, paying bills, feeding their families--all while dealing with crime in their neighborhood, lack of money, long lines at service agencies, job loss, lack of funds to get to the places they need to go, etc.

I met with my supervisor, Kelcie, this morning. We had a great talk about what kind of experience I have and what I can do at PRI. I'm really excited now about how I'm spending my summer. There's a chance that PRI may need to make their own unique simulation model; I'm hoping I can help with that if it comes up. If not, I'll be working on grant-writing, volunteer recruitment and management, research, etc. It should all be great experience for me.

I may be taking a sort of last-minute road trip out to New York with my friend Evan who I met freshman year at K (He was a senior at the time. Now he's in a PhD program at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor getting paid to do what he loves [chemistry]). So I'll be in DC this weekend, New York next weekend, and California the weekend after that. It also looks like I'll be back in California at the end of August; I think I'll be taking the train out there.

I didn't get the straight A's I was hoping for this last quarter, thanks to B+ in African Studies, but I think I'll survive. I'm looking forward to taking a seriously fun course load in the fall (Intro to African Studies, Photography II, and Intro to Creative Writing), leading the circus club, and seriously squeezing every drop of value and fun out of my senior year of college.

Maybe I'll even post again semi-regularly. We'll see. :)

Life

Here's what's new with me:

I may not get the grant I was offered for my internship, because my internship will be a 10ish-week part-time ordeal, rather than a 6-week, full-time one. I'm meeting with someone tomorrow to see what we can do, because the grant would pay for my rent for the summer. That would be fantastic.

I bought a beautiful yellow bike a few weeks ago. A vintage Schwinn. Now the person who sold it to me wants to buy it back. I'm irritated, but giving it back is the right thing to do. So that's what I'm doing.

I've been sick for the last few days. I don't feel particularly bad--my throat hurts and I'm mildly congested--but I've been so foggy-headed and sluggish and exhausted that I've been completely unable to get anything done. I'm hoping to work double-time tomorrow. I have lots to do.

Tomorrow we're planning to set up our NEW PORTABLE AERIAL RIG for the first time! This is a four-legged, 18' tall rig that can be used for any and all of our aerial equipment. I'm really excited about it.

Yesterday my throat was feeling icky, so I made some lentil soup. Today, I made fried rice. I also bought stuff to make sesame noodles, so I'm hoping to do that this week. I managed to spend very little on groceries this week because I'm only in town until Thursday morning, when I'll be starting my voyage to New York to convene with my family and hopefully watch my brother graduate.

The quarter is wrapping up, and there's a lot still to do. Here's hoping it all goes smoothly.

Inspiration

My life is inspiring. I live fully, take risks, and end up doing things that amaze me and that I never imagined I'd do. It's great. I want to tell you all about it.

This blog isn't cutting it right now because it's totally unfocused. I don't have a topic to write about. Can you give me some ideas? I'd love to keep posting.

When I was in Senegal, every time something strange or un-American happened, I'd think, "I can't wait to blog about this!" Those things don't tend to happen here, and I don't have any specific kind of event here that makes me think about blogging. So what kinds of things would you like to hear about?

Let me know.

A little stress doesn't hurt

But it does make it hard to get enough sleep. I've barely had enough downtime this week to feed myself. I'll skip a lot of that, but this has been maybe the most productive week of my life, and it's only half over. I'm also officially president of the circus club now, I'm working on organizing our gigs for this spring, I went with Claire and got $258.35 wired to SenCirk as a donation. They're planning to use that money to buy safety equipment.

I'm looking forward to a lot of things, and I feel like I'm constantly working just to mark pace and not get behind. I love being busy.

Also, last night I cooked the best thing I've ever made so far: chicken curry. I consulted several recipes, but I didn't have all the ingredients for any of them, so I mostly just winged it. It turned out so well, just thinking about it makes my mouth water. I even managed to get 5 different vegetables in it, so I feel great about eating it!

Like I said...

In my last post, I wrote about sun and snow. Today, we got sun, hail, and lightning--all simultaneously! Hooray for springtime in Kalamazoo.

Last weekend I had quite the adventure. I went to a Senegal reunion dinner with the girls who went last year plus my group. We told stories and laughed, and we realized that most of them, at the time, were not so funny. Things like the incompetent doctor who didn't give me a malaria test when I had classic malaria symptoms, like one of the girls last year having a HUGE cockroach end up in her dress--and then in her underwear,  like boys "falling in love" with us everywhere we went... It was a great evening.

Partway through, I got a call from Allison, the woman who runs the Aerial Angels circus troupe in Kalamazoo. She said that she was looking for a last-minute replacement for a circus gig at a high school prom on Saturday night, and was I available? I said yes, of course, and spent all of Saturday sort of freaking out, wondering what I had just gotten myself into.

The gig went pretty well; there were about 100 kids there at the most, and they were pretty impressed by everything we did. Our portable rig was too tall for the ceiling of the ballroom, so we had to set it up in the recess in the ceiling where a chandelier was hung. Naturally, that meant that the ballroom manager was breathing down Allison's neck the whole night, freaking out that we would break her chandelier. I did a little silks routine, which was very well received. I also did a little bit of partner acrobatics with Allison, which went pretty well.

There was one point when I was supposed to fall backwards and Allison was supposed to catch me...and she didn't. I was overly confident in her ability to catch me (she does this for a living, after all), and she was overly confident in my ability to catch myself (it was clear from pretty early in the fall that I was toppling, but I didn't try to catch myself because I was being too trusting). The result was that I was suddenly on the floor, disoriented, and I landed pretty hard on the heels of my hands. My right wrist has been hurting ever since. I think it might be very minorly sprained, but it's not bad.

Today, I had two interviews for campus leadership positions. It turns out that for one of them--Peer Health Advocate--I'll only need to commit about a half hour per week. I can do that! That's nothing! Also, the issue I want to tackle on campus, caffeine abuse, hasn't been addressed at all by peer health advocates in the past. I feel so creative!

The other interview was for the chapel program, which I loved being involved with last year. If I could get paid to do that again, that would be phenomenal. If not...we'll see. Tonight in circus, we're voting on officers for next year. I'm hoping to be president, but we'll find out soon enough what will happened. I'm happy just to be involved, so I'm not concerned at all.

Everyone who sees me lately tells me that I look great. I look happy. It's true; I can't remember another time in my life when I felt so on top of my game, in my element, comfortable in myself. I'm loving how it feels. Walking across campus today and admiring the view of the city from the hill, enjoying the "warm" weather and brick buildings and well-fed squirrels, seeing all the smiling people, I thought, "I'm going to treasure these days for the rest of my life."

I'd say adjusting to being here is going pretty well.

Sun and Snow

Nothing like Kalamazoo in April. Last Sunday was a beautiful day. I spent all afternoon in a tank top out on the quad in the sunshine doing reading. Last week was chilly, but not cold. I wore jeans and short-sleeved tops with sweaters. This morning I woke up and looked out my window, and there was snow on the ground. It wasn't just snowing and melting when the snowflakes landed--there was already at least an inch. By the time I finished my 8:30 class, there were about three inches and more was coming. By the time my 10:00 class was over, it had stopped snowing and all the snow was melting. At 4, when my last class ended, there was no snow and hardly any puddles. Michigan is confused.

On the bright side, it's been so long since I've been around snow that it's pretty exciting for me.

I love my college. I love that no matter where I am on campus, I will probably run into someone I know, we will be thrilled to see each other, and we will try to catch up. I feel like I always have things to do and people to see. I'm just so happy here. That feeling I had freshman year, when I would walk down Academy street and look up at the trees and brick buildings and just grin? It's still there, just as fresh as ever.

The circus performance last weekend went really well. The audiences loved it, and we collected over $250 in donations, which is going to SenCirk (the circus group I worked with in Senegal)! They were so welcoming and wonderful to me, I'm thrilled that I can do something to support them. I feel like they're deserving of the money because they let anyone join the troupe. They teach people skills and allow them to earn money in an economy with a 50% unemployment rate. It's pretty amazing, and they're a remarkably talented group. To top it all, they're warm-hearted, generous, funny, welcoming, and enthusiastic.

I'm loving my classes. I've gotten to a point in my studies of Africa where I understand enough that I feel like I'm looking at a jigsaw puzzle. I can see the pieces, and I feel like they should fit together, but everyone is so set on jamming the pieces in that they've gotten warped and broken. Thinking about what makes government fail in Africa literally keeps me up at night. It's sort of a cool feeling, to have developed a passion like that for my studies.

I'm so content with my life. Hopefully spring will come soon and make it even better.

Sorry for the long delay

Life has been gratifyingly busy here. I haven't been very inspired to post, because life at K seems too relatable and easy compared to life in Senegal. In Senegal I was always inspired to write because I wanted to paint a picture of what was happening with me for my friends and family. Here, I think people can already imagine pretty well.

Here's a brief life update though:

Classes are going really well. So far, I'm enjoying each of them a lot. Even the homework I've had has been fun for me. I think I should be able to get some good grades this quarter, which would be nice.

Circus is in full swing. We have a show next weekend, so this week is tech week. Monday is a two-hour tech rehearsal, and Tues, Wed, Thurs are each 4-hr rehearsals. I'm loving spending so much time with people I adore, doing things I love. I'm kicking myself into shape as quickly as possible right now, hoping that using the blue silk rather than the white one (super elastic vs inelastic) won't be too hard.

My summer is slowly getting scheduled. It looks like I'll be working for the Poverty Reduction Initiative in Kalamazoo, which should be a great experience. I'm hoping to use what I learn at PRI as my senior thesis research. I'm also hoping that I can do my senior thesis in the summer, so I won't have to worry about it during the school year.

Overall, things are going very well. I'm hoping to have time this summer to go camping with my family and to visit Caleb in the lovely Caribbean, and it looks like both will be possible. I'm loving life and having a great time. This week will be a challenge, but I'm looking forward to it.

Changes

You may have noticed some changes to my blog. The name, for example (Thanks for the suggestion, Jeff!). At Mom's request, I'll continue posting on here from time to time. I'll try to focus mostly on my re-integration, culture shock, and processing my study abroad experience. Of course, that will also involve a lot of talking about what's going on in my life now.

To start, I'm back in Kalamazoo. I am moved in to a house right next to campus (yay!) in a cozy room on the first floor. I'm living with three other girls, two of whom I didn't know before moving in. My room is the only one on the first floor, so I have the downstairs bathroom to myself. My room is already feeling very home-y, which has made me excited about living there this quarter.

One challenge I'm facing now: I'm always cold. The cold of Kalamazoo (should be freezing or below all week) is compounded by the fact that one of my housemates wants to keep our thermostat at 65 or below, plus the fact that I'm still accustomed to warm weather! My feet haven't been warm since I stepped off the plane in Detroit, I'm pretty sure. Just to make things more interesting, I'm missing two of my blankets. NO idea where they are.

Another thing that has been getting to me is how much stuff I have. Clothes and school supplies and bedding and all kinds of STUFF that I just don't need. As I was unpacking, my friend Caity got to hear me say over and over again, "Why do I have so much clothing?" "I don't even remember this shirt!" "What am I doing with all this stuff?" Needless to say, she was amused.

This quarter, all my classes are on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Most of my housemates have 8:30 am classes MWF like me, so we can carpool the one block to campus (It's not far, but it is cold!). I'll have my Tuesdays and Thursdays free to study--my challenge will be utilizing that time well.

All in all, I'm really excited to start this quarter. It's my fourth to last quarter at K, and my classes shouldn't be too hard. It's so wonderful to see my classmates who have been missing from my life for almost a year. I'm looking forward to lots of story exchanges, a fabulous circus show in three weeks, maybe some swing dance festivals, and cool shows on campus.

Adjustment

I've been home just over a week now. Or rather, in the US. I got home to California last Wednesday night, after a long travel day. I still get weirded out all the time when I realize just how few black people live around here. I never see them, and when I do, they're so light-skinned! It's just not the same as being in Africa. I know. Duh.

As I tell stories about study abroad, I've noticed that I talk about my "other" life in the present tense. I'll say, "Whenever I go to this boutique, I talk to this one jaaykat..." and then realize that I don't go there anymore, and no one knows what a jaaykat is. (It's a vendor, by the way.) I've been pretty good about not speaking French to people who don't understand it, and I've been not speaking Wolof in general (sadly). I don't want to annoy people by saying things to them that they don't understand, but sometimes English just doesn't express exactly what I want to say. It's like trying to talk to someone who doesn't understand a particular vocabulary word. You can rework your sentence to use another word, but it's not the same.

In general, I've been enjoying my almost excessively comfortable bed, my pretty room, hot showers, clean feet, and family. It's nice to be back around people who understand me so well, but I miss my Senegal friends a lot.

Back in the Zoo

I got to Kalamazoo early this afternoon, thanks to the time sacrifice of my fabulous friend Colleen. It was such a relief to have her come pick me up at the airport and to have a little rest before going to campus. Thanks, Colleen!

I got to see all my K circus friends! I went to a circus practice and teared up a little just watching them practice moving into formations for an act for a show. Something about the facilities we were in and the cold and the people was just emotionally overwhelming to me.

I hear myself talking about Senegal almost any time I open my mouth to speak. Every time someone talks about something, it reminds me, "In Dakar, _______." I'm trying not to say too too much about it, but it's hard not to.

Tomorrow there is another circus rehearsal and then swing rehearsal, and Tuesday there will be more circus (playtime!) and then we're celebrating my 21st birthday! I'm so touched that my friends are taking time out of their last week of the quarter (always a stressful time) to go out with me and celebrate. I'm so lucky to have such fabulous friends in my life.

I'm staying with Nolan, which means good food and company. I'm looking forward to the next few days, and to going home on Wednesday.

Re-entry

I am in New York, at the airport. I'll post when I have more battery on my computer and am less overwhelmed, but I'm back in the country safely.

It's been a crazy week, and I can't wait to share about it.

Goodbyes

I had been feeling pretty ready to leave here, until Thursday night. We had a dinner in our honor at the Baobab Center. All of our teachers were invited, plus other Baobab staff we've gotten close to. Our group has been here longer than any others, because no other program at the center lasts more than 4 months. Because of that, and the strong personalities in our group, we've become favorites with everyone from the guardians to the maids to the teachers.

Each of us talked about some memories or feelings about our time in Dakar, and each of our teachers talked about us. Rama spoke last, and kept looking at me as she was talking about the personal moments she'd shared with our group and how she's gotten so close with us. Finally she just said "Especially Erica. I'll miss that one." That and our other professors ("All I can say is, I adore these girls." "They've become children to me." "I've never had such a conscientious, enthusiastic class before.") made me realize that the relationships we've developed with our professors and the staff here is a completely uniquely Senegalese thing. The candidness of our conversations with our professors is not something I can even picture at school in the US.

That dinner made me feel truly sad for the first time about leaving. Then, on Friday night, Katy and Christine left for Europe. Katy will be back in Dakar for five hours next Friday night before we leave again for the US. Christine will get back to Dakar after the rest of us have left, and she'll be here until May. I hung out at Katy's house for a short time before we took her to the airport. When we were all saying goodbye to her family, her host dad told us about how we've become part of his family, especially after a few of us went to his son's baptism (remember that, way back in September?). He said that the fact that we'd gone meant the world to him, and he would never forget it. Naturally, we all cried, especially Katy.

I'm not all that close with my host family. Still, I have a lot of love and affection for my family members, and I appreciate them. It will be hard to say goodbye, and I am dreading that moment. I'm sure I will be back, and I'm sure I will see them again. But I doubt I'll live with them again, and I doubt I'll stay in close touch.

I've also been realizing lately that leaving Dakar means much more than just that. I'm not just leaving this place, I'm leaving this whole experience. I'm going to be saying goodbye to the people I've met and come to care for deeply, but I'll also be saying goodbye to this phase of my life. This is the only time I'll be on a study abroad, where I arrive in a place with a built-in support network and a family waiting for me and field trips provided. This is the one time I'll travel around the world with friends from school and spend six months doing just about whatever strikes my fancy.

In the time I've been here, I've done things that never would have occurred to me before, and I don't know how many of those things I'll ever have the opportunity to do again. For example, how many times will I be in a family that will slaughter two sheep and a goat for a Muslim holiday? How often can I go to a Muslim naming ceremony, or a wedding where the bride and groom aren't present? When will I be able to go on a 10km barefoot walk through mud and rice paddies, or dip my finger in freshly pressed mangrove honey?

I have had such a rich, eye-opening, welcoming experience. It's going to be hard to say goodbye to it all.

I love this place, and these people.

So little time.

It just struck me how soon I leave. Tomorrow morning we have re-entry session, and Thursday night is our farewell dinner at the Baobab Center. Friday night Christine and Katy go to Europe because our program will be over. I have one weekend left.

I want to put together a mini-performance (I guess more of a showcase?) of the circus stuff I've been doing. I'd been planning on doing it some weekend...but then there weren't any practices last week, and now I'm almost out the door. I think I can make it work, but wow! Down to the wire here.

I'm still waiting for some things at the tailor, I have souvenirs to buy at the markets, I want to travel down south to the Casamance and Ziguinchor and the Gambia. I want to get a tan (it's been too cold for that lately!), finish Guns, Germs, and Steel (which will be harder since I just started Flatland), work out more, cook with Remy, hang out with my Senegalese friends, and so much more.

On top of all that, I have to do a ton more work on my ICRP, which is due a week from tomorrow. There's still plenty of time, so I'm taking my time and not stressing over the paper, but I know that at the last minute I will end up with more to do than I was hoping. At this point I've written about four pages out of fifteen.

Some things I miss from home today (I think I'll start listing these things more so I remember what this is like and to get me more excited about re-entry):

• Cheese! So many varieties, so many uses, so inexpensive!
• Kitchens with all the luxurious implements I'm accustomed to. We all freaked out when we saw that Remy has a salad spinner--that's the most high-tech I've seen here
• Electricity. I know that it's a big deal in the US when the power goes out, because everyone depends on it. The fact that it CAN be depended on is really nice. We've been getting more and more outages lately, and everyone is in a bad mood because of it.
• Nutrition Facts. This is really silly, I know, but sometimes I'll buy a packet of cookies or something and want to know what's in them! Are they super high calorie? Do they have any iron?
• Running. I'm not much of a runner, but I love being able to just put on some running shoes and head out when I want to work out. Here, the pollution, uneven roads, lack of sidewalks, piles of trash, and insane drivers make it not worthwhile to me.
• Being a racial majority. It's hard being a minority (duh)! Kids constantly dare each other to touch the toubab, or make fun of the toubab, or ask the toubab for a gift. Almost every kid I make eye contact with asks me for money or a gift. And most guys I talk to eventually ask me to go out with them or to marry them. In general I can be in good humor about it, but some days it really wears me down.
• My family and friends. I'm not one to miss people much. It surprises me how much I miss being around people who won't judge me based on individual actions, but on my character which, they already know. There's something so freeing in being around people who have already decided they love you no matter what, so you never really need your guard up. Since all my friends here are recent acquaintances, I've had times with all of them when I feel like I'm being misjudged based on something insignificant I've done or said.

I'm having a great time, by the way. Today I did acro-yoga in the morning, and Remy joined me. Then we went back to his house and met up with Christine and Meredith. We played in the ocean, did a workout on the beach, rinsed off, and made lunch. The weather today has been gorgeous--it's the first time in a long while when I've been slightly too warm in yoga pants.

I'm looking forward to our re-entry session tomorrow: lunch is provided, and we'll get to talk about what we're looking forward to at home and our reflections on the program.

Feeling quite content, though pressed for time.

Weekend Number...who knows.

It's a Sunday! Katy slept over last night and we slept in late. I've been making some good progress on my paper, and when I can't think about it anymore I take a break and read. I'm about three-fourths through with Sense and Sensibility and about the same in Guns, Germs, and Steel. It's nice to be reading more again, and it keeps me from feeling lonely more than most things.

Last night I went out to a bar and found myself chatting with a bunch of cool people. Notably, I met a guy who's a drummer from Philadelphia who has been living in Dakar for three years now. He happens to be close friends with my friend Chloe's older brother--Chloe and I went to Hebrew school together. It was pretty crazy to discover that some random guy I met in a bar has a common acquaintance with me. Apparently he and Chloe and her brother hung out in Dakar together for about a week last year and had a blast.

Tonight there's apparently a Peace Corps party, which I'm considering going to. Still, I don't really like dancing, and I do really like being well-rested. Why do I bother going out?

I'm on to the third page of my paper, and the still on the first page of my (5-page) outline. This bodes well for a 15-20 page paper. I just wish I was as eloquent in French as I am in English. Ah well, "ca va arriver". It'll come.

I leave now in just under two weeks. I feel like I've already plateaued, and I'm in a good place to go home. Especially with my stomach still not quite up to snuff, with the weather getting chilly, and actually having significant schoolwork to do, I'm looking forward to getting home. I'm looking forward to re-entry sessions, getting on a plane (this is the longest I've gone without being on a plane in years), and hot showers. Not to mention family, friends, and clean feet (okay, that last one probably sounds really silly, but you don't know how frustrating it is to NEVER have clean feet unless you've experienced it for an extended period of time).

Overall, feeling pretty content.

Oh, and an anecdote. Apparently Youssou got a job as a coiffeur (barber), even though he's never learned the trade. Rowan told Papa this over lunch (maffe! Delicious!), and Papa had been taking a swig of water. Papa lost it, spit water all over, and couldn't stop laughing. Everyone cracked up, and throughout the meal Papa would say, "Youssou, coiffeur?!" and lose it all over again. Papa has finally regained an appetite, plus about 10 lbs. He's looking great, and it's wonderful that he's back to his old humor.

Research and Counting Down

I've been working on a research project on tontines in Senegal. I've interviewed a few women and read a bunch of scholarly articles, organized the information I've gathered into an outline, and am about ready to start writing. I'm hoping to do all my writing in the next week or so, and then be DONE.

I only have two weeks (and one day) left in Senegal. I'm hoping to spend a little bit of the time I have left in the south of Senegal and maybe in the Gambia. There's a boat that goes down overnight, which is supposed to be a lot of fun (plus it means not having to go over the horrible road to Ziguinchor).

I think my stomach illness is finally easing up. I'm still not feeling 100%, but I'm also not completely exhausted or in pain. Hopefully I'll be able to go to circus tomorrow and actually do some fun stuff.

As Promised

Here's a non-angsty anecdote:

At lunch a few minutes ago Papa was telling me that I had to eat a lot, and then he shoved the whole communal bowl of food over right in front of me. Everyone else who was eating out of the bowl (five people) either protested that they couldn't reach any more or lost it laughing.

Cute.

More Illness!

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I've been really busy and then wound up with another bout of illness.

I've had a stomach issue for a while, but it sort of blew up on Friday, combined with a major hypoglycemic attack. It all happened in a social forum in Dakar, while I was sitting alone somewhere where no one noticed me. It was a scary hour or so before my friend got me home safely, and the whole weekend I was pretty much stuck in bed.

I'm feeling sort of hopeless about being ill, since I don't feel like I'm getting better. I do have energy again, but my stomach issues don't seem to be resolving at all. Plus, being cooped up in my house so much has put all my pet peeves on high alert--TVs on all the time, people yelling to each other in the same room, people coming into my room without knocking, chewing and popping gum with mouths open, etc.

I feel so isolated! Like I can't really do anything useful, but I also can't do anything fun. Everyone is busy, so no one is going to come and hang out with me all day, so I just end up alone for the most part. This sucks! It needs to end ASAP!

Anyways. Stuff here will be better soon, and then I'll write a less angsty post. I only have two and a half weeks left here, so I'll be sure to post as much as possible before I leave.

Sympathy and well-wishes welcome, in the meantime.

A Birthday Weekend

I'd say my birthday weekend started on Friday night. Theresa, Meredith, Christine, Aya, and I all went to New Africa for dinner and salsa dancing. The food took an hour and a half to show up (?!?!) but it was quite tasty. It was great to finally do some partner dancing again, though I have a lot more experience with swing dance than with salsa.

On Saturday, I went to circus in the morning (though I was too tired to get a lot done). I'm FINALLY making some good progress with the straddle climb, which looks good and is more efficient than most climbing methods. Right now I can do about four climbs, but I'm still not gaining as much elevation as I ought to be. Still, it's getting better each time I try it.

After lunch, I went to school, then went to the supermarket to buy ingredients for sushi and birthday cake. We also bought some frozen quiche and frozen pizza, just to be sure we'd have enough food. After that, we headed back to the Baobab Center and cooked! Aya (with help from Meredith and our new friend Remi) made no fewer than seven sushi rolls, filled with various combinations of crab, cream cheese, cucumber, carrot, and avocado. I (with help from Theresa) made my Deep Dark Chocolate Cake--the chocolate cake recipe that I've memorized and use any time I need to whip out a cake.

After the cake went into the oven, I realized we'd forgotten the eggs! We added them in, and waited over an hour (usually takes 30-45 mins) for the cakes to bake. The oven just didn't get hot enough, so we finally gave up. They were definitely cakes, but they were so moist and sticky that they were sort of like fudgy, fluffy brownies.

While we were waiting for the cakes, I made some cheese sauce for mac and cheese, which we ate from the pot while sitting on cushions on the floor and watching Fantastic Mr. Fox. It was pretty great.

After cleaning up the kitchen and classroom where cooking had happened, we bought some wine and headed to the huge monument (just bigger than the Statue of Liberty). Turns out you can't go up to the monument that late at night, so we gave up and went to MyShop, a convenience store that is a happening place on weekend nights. We drank our wine and chatted, and then I headed home and everyone else went out dancing.

Yesterday, Sunday, I went to the Baobab Center early to heat up the quiches and pizza, and then everyone met up and we headed out to Ngor. We took a boat across to the island, found a cozy spot with mats to lay on and a nice stretch of beach, and set up camp. We made some good damage on the food we'd brought and then napped for a while.  The whole time, I was marveling over the fact that here it was, early February, and I was celebrating my birthday in a bikini on a beach. I've never gotten to do that before! It was lovely to be there.

It wasn't until about 5pm that the party finally arrived (I'd told everyone to come around noon, knowing it'd be another few hours no matter what I said.

Three of my circus friends showed up, and they showed off their stuff and helped us with handstands and fun stuff. Christine came with her mom, and Youssou and Sire and Aya's boyfriend El Hadj all showed up, too. We ate cake and polished off the rest of the food we'd brought, chatted, and hung out on the beach. We made a pyramid with everyone (except Christine's mom, who we excused). When pictures go up, I'll try to post one here. I was on top, standing on someone's shoulders.

When it started getting dark, we headed to some cliffs and watched the waves for a while and chatted. Then we moved over to a restaurant, and the non-American portion of the group headed home on the last ferry. The rest of us had dinner and wine and good conversation before heading home at around 10:30.

Overall, it was a great weekend. I felt loved and honored and was surrounded by wonderful people. It was amazing to me that I didn't know/wasn't friends with any of the people there 8 months ago, and now they're important parts of my life.

And today I actually turned 21! I loved celebrating here, and I'm looking forward to doing it over again at K and in California. Look at all these communities I have now! I feel so lucky.

Great Day!

Mom is complaining that I sound depressed all the time (okay, not really), so I thought I'd write a happy post to prove her wrong.

Yesterday I woke up at about 10, took my time getting up and to the Baobab Center, and then made myself some soup for lunch. It was chicken broth with noodles, sweet potato, chick peas, corn, carrots, onion, and scallions. Very tasty. Katy and her parents came and ate lunch with me, and then we all went to the market. It was a great day to be there--practically every vendor was there; I've never seen the market so full of goods.

I bought Zork a boubou (this has become my favorite phrase: Zork-a-boubou. Sounds like an exotic dish or something.)--Zork is my brother's freshman year roommate whose name is actually Dan, but who I named Zork to avoid confusing him with my brother. Surprisingly, the name stuck. Who knew I was so powerful?

In expressing interest in one vendor's boubous, we toubabs (white people) were suddenly swarmed with no fewer than 6 vendors with stacks of boubous in their arms shoving their goods in our faces. It was a little overwhelming for Katy's parents, but amusing for us.

After the market, we went to the tailor to get the fabric we'd just bought made into clothes. Katy's dad will soon have African fish pajamas, which I'm sure he'll treasure for a long time. It was nice to see Xal, my tailor. I go see him every chance I get because he's so wonderful.

After the tailor, Katy's parents wanted to sit somewhere and drink coffee (and they wanted real coffee, not Nescafe, so our options were limited). We went to a hotel near the ocean where we've had dinner a few times and drank coffee and hot cocoa at their rooftop restaurant, overlooking the fishing boats in the ocean.

By then it was pretty late (everything moves slowly here), so I went home for dinner. Dinner was pretty good last night: black eyed peas with some meat and potatoes and a tasty sauce, eaten with bread.

This morning I went to circus and had a fairly good workout. I was pretty ill on Tuesday with stomach problems and a migraine, so I was still weak and fatigued today and not able to do as much as usual. Still, I did get the hang of one move I've been working on for FAR too long. Maybe when I have my strength back I'll actually be able to do it well!

Sundays

I don't know what it is, but every Sunday, without fail, I end up depressed and alone in my room. Not all day, but it does happen each week. It's really frustrating. Dakar is fairly dead on Sundays, so there's not a lot to keep me busy and un-depressed. At least it's only Sundays, right?

Yesterday after falling apart for a little while, I went to a wedding at Meredith's house. In true Senegalese style, neither the bride nor the groom was present. The party was for the joining of the two families, not to celebrate the couple. Anyways, the bride was given a choice between two different men she could marry, so it's not like we would have been celebrating young love or anything.

I have 33 days left here before I head home. I'm getting more and more excited to go home, but I'm hoping I'll be able to come back here this summer to do research and play with the circus again.

My ICRP (research project) is coming along...slowly. But I have more direction now than I did last week, and I know what I have to do next, so I'm feeling okay about it. Now if only I wasn't constantly tired.

Thoughts

I'm going to try to make this post sensible, but since I couldn't sleep last night, that may not happen. Last night Caleb was scheduled to leave for Peace Corps training, but he wound up being delayed because of a snowstorm. I was excited for him and had a lot on my mind, and then there was a cat prancing around on the roof above me making little pitter-patter sounds, and then a mosquito started buzzing nearby... So I might have gotten to sleep around 4 or 5 in the morning.

This morning I forced myself out of bed to go to circus practice and had a fantastic workout with Modou and Valentina. I'm hoping we'll get to work on some partner stuff before we go, though Modou points out that he won't have a partner after Valentina and I leave. I also taught Modou Enligh yesterday, which was a lot of fun. He only recently learned to read and write, so it's challenging to teach him, but I feel like I'm learning about as much as I'm teaching.

It's getting chilly here. I had to stop on my way to school to put a sweater on because it was so cloudy and windy and cold. It gets harder every day to get myself to take a cold shower. I had both my pairs of jeans washed last week, and it was challenging to get through the week without them. I think it's finally turning into winter here.

I've been dreaming almost every night about going home to the States. I feel like I'm caught in a vicious cycle, where the more I dream of going home at night, the more I think of it during the day, which makes me dream of it more.

My birthday is coming up soon, and I'm excited to celebrate it here (and then at K, and then at home). I'm still not sure what I'm going to do for it, but I'm sure it'll be fun.

I was going to talk about my SIP (senior individualized project) ideas a bit, but maybe I'll do that tomorrow. It got late and my attention span is shrinking.

What's New?

My mom points out I haven't been blogging much lately. I feel like I've become so accustomed to life here that nothing I do seems very blog-worthy to me. The last few days I've spent very little time alone in my room, which is a step in the right direction.

I've been to the market, wandered downtown, eaten at the French Cultural Center (delicious!), had Thai food, been to a jazz club (there was no jazz happening, though), worked on Meredith's new dreadlocks, had a sleepover, made attaya, hung out with my host cousins, etc. I've kept busy, but still feel like I haven't done anything.

In the meantime, I feel like things are piling up. I'm stressing out about my ICRP, friends in unhealthy relationships, the fact that I still don't have housing for the spring, and the fact that Caleb is leaving the day after tomorrow.  Too much stuff is happening!

Plus, every day I feel more and more ready to go home. Which is great, except that I don't want to spend my last month counting down the days (there are 38 days left). My birthday (21!) is coming up in just under two weeks. I'm still not quite sure what to do for it, but I'm excited.

Katy is sick right now, so I brought her drugs earlier and I'm going to eat dinner with her family, hang out, and watch bad tv episodes on my computer with her tonight. I'm excited.

Modou told me his life story the other day, which was fascinating. It was really cool that he opened up to me like that, and I'm looking forward to helping him write down everything that happened.

I'm having trouble focusing on things today. I'm sort of assuming that I'll be a mess for the next week or so, while I'm getting used to the idea of an even more challenging relationship with Caleb and trying to catch up on everything else. When I really step back and think about it, I realize that I don't actually have that much to do. I'm sure I'll catch up and be just fine.

Family Drama

Yesterday was the first time I felt completely uncomfortable in my house. I was hanging out in my room, waiting for lunch, when I heard Youssou yell at Aida. Then I heard some slapping sounds, more yelling, Mama joining in, more hitting sounds, more people yelling...etc.

My room is off of the dining room, the central area of the house. All this was going on right outside my door, and all I could think was, "This would NEVER happen with my house, with my family."

Lunch afterwards was delicious, but I felt pretty uncomfortable. Mama tried to explain to me what happened. I didn't understand it all, but it was something to this effect:

Aida came home late from school, and Youssou demanded to know where she was. She said she'd just been at school, so he demanded to see her school schedule. She refused to show it to him, or something, and he started hitting her. She started screaming, so Mama came and started hitting Youssou. He restrained her, everyone yelled a lot.

Glad that's over. It left me shaken up all day. Hopefully that'll be the only time I have to hear that here.

Slacking

I feel like I'm not really taking advantage of the fact that I'm in Senegal lately.  The thing is, I don't know what to do!  My schedule lately goes something like this: wake up, say hi to the family, get breakfast, go to circus. Come home, take a nap, take a shower, eat lunch, go to the Baobab Center and do stuff online. Go back home, read and hang out with the family, have dinner, go to bed.

I've actually been enjoying it.  But I've been dreaming (not pining, just literally dreaming) about being back in the States, seeing friends and family, etc.  I feel like I'm here and going through daily life and being happy, but I'm not really here.  I just don't know what to do to fix that.

I just found some more articles I can use for research for my ICRP, so I'll be reading those later tonight. I think tomorrow some of us might have a picnic on an island off the coast of Dakar.  Otherwise? There's very little that distinguishes this weekend from last week, and I don't mind too much.  I don't want to go out dancing or drinking.  I'd be fine with going to a restaurant, but...is this what it looks like when I've settled in so completely that my life just seems totally normal because I'm used to it?  Or have I stopped doing the fun, exciting things that made me feel like my life was exotic a few months ago?  When I look back on these last two months, will I regret spending so much time relaxing?

This morning I had a great circus workout.  I finally did several moves smoothly that I'd struggled to do at all before today, and I'm making good progress on a few others.  I think once I get back into the regular swing of circus, I'll take off!  I hope.

Niodior

It's going to be really hard to remember everything I want to talk about regarding last weekend, so I've been putting it off a little.  Here we go.

We left at 8 am on Friday morning for Niodior, Prof (Pap) Sarr's village.  We took two taxis to the Garage Pompier to get a sept-place (seven-seat taxi, pronounced set plahss).  The seven of us took one sept-place to...some place whose name I can't remember. Something with a J.  The drive too about 5 hours and went by some stunning scenery.  In parts, we seemed to be in the middle of nowhere and not following a road.  At one point, we were passing through a village, and a woman asked to hitch a ride up the road with us.  She hopped up front, and suddenly our sept-place was a huit-place!  A few minutes later, three more people approached asking for rides, and the driver said, "Sure, but you'll have to sit on the roof."  Then there were six legs hanging down in front of our windows, and we were in an onze-place!  I swear, if that's not a new record, I don't want to be in whatever is.

At last, we got to the "dock", where we would be taking our pirogue (little fishing boat with a motor and a cool paint job, pronounced peh-ROGUE) to the island.  There are two pirogues per day, the second leaving at 1pm sharp.  We got there at 1:07.  The boat hadn't left yet, but it was waiting for...something.  It was unclear what.  In any case, we wound up waiting there until 3.  Then we got on, along with somewhere around 20 people, 1 sheep, and a heck of a lot of cargo.  There was no dock, just a beach, so we waded into the water to get in the boat.  I sat down, and then I was told to move.  I moved up with my friends, and discovered why I'd had to move: I would have been in the way of the man who bails out the water from the boat.

There was water leaking in--rather quickly, though not alarmingly so--from leaks all over the sides and bottom of the boat.  Bailer-man stood there behind me and bailed water out with his plastic jug until it got sufficiently low, and then waited for the bottom of the boat to fill again.  As we approached the island, we were sailing through a channel marked by tree branches sticking up from the water.  On either side were people wading in the water about waist-deep, each of them holding a long stick in one hand and a bucket in the other.  They were fishing for mollusks!

We finally got to the island about 45 minutes later, and we docked at a real dock!  The island's pathways were covered in mollusk shells (which are easier to walk on [and make a great crunching sound] than the deep sand that covers the island).  We were quickly served lunch in one of Pap Sarr's family's many houses on the island (I think this one was his brother's, right next to another brother, a sister, a cousin, an aunt, etc).  It was delicious!  Some sort of tomato-y sauce with fresh (but cooked) sea snails!  We all ate a ton and came alarmingly close to finishing the whole plate...but we fell short.  Then we had oranges, and then a nap.

After that we went and watched a wedding that was taking place between two of the villagers.  All of the village women were there, and a DJ played great tunes like "Beauty and the Beast".  The villagers ceremoniously gave gifts to the bride, and then they danced.

We then ate dinner (spaghetti with yassa onion sauce, potatoes, and bread) and crashed.  We had our own room, complete with a huge bed and a smaller mattress on the floor.  There were seven of us, and we could fit three comfortably on the bed, and two on the floor.  I wound up being kind of an odd one out, because I'm too light of a sleeper to be packed in with people like that.

I had awful insomnia, I wasn't used to the noises of the house, and I realized that I hadn't heard from Caleb in 36 hrs, even though he would normally have been texting with me pretty regularly.  I'd talked to him last when he was driving from MA to OH in the snow, so naturally I thought something terrible had happened.  It hadn't.

I survived the night by grabbing a hugely fluffy blanket and making a tent out of it, and then reading from my Kindle (I'm reading Guns, Germs, and Steel right now) by flashlight.  It was kind of nice once I relaxed.

The next day we took a tour of the island, led by Pap Sarr's first son (who was actually given to him by his brother).  The tour was great, introducing us to the village's only doctor, the prize that the village women won by reducing poverty through sustainable agricultural practices, the local radio station, and much much more.  By the end, having not slept the night before, I was about ready to fall over.  We were served a lunch of ceeb bu jen (fish and rice), and then we took a long nap.

Later, we ate coconuts picked for us straight off the tree (by a 10-year-old boy), drank locally produced baobab juice, and hung out.  I cut Rachel's hair for her (I'm trying to develop that skill, and it's really coming along) and we all drank cafe Touba (a spiced coffee) and listened to the radio and talked.

Dinner was delicious--lettuce, green peppers, tomato, and fish, eaten with bread.  After that I went to bed, with the help of a Benadryl, while everyone else watched a lutte (Senegalese wrestling match).

We were up at about 5:30 the next morning to catch the boat back at 6.  The boat actually left at about 7:30, of course, but we were on time.  Then another sept-place, then we switched to a new one in Mbour (thankfully, because the first one leaked a ton of exhaust into the back seat where I was sitting).  We got back to Dakar at about 1pm on Sunday.  I spent the rest of the day with Rachel, who left late that night.  It was nice to spend some time with her and eat food prepared in a French style (with my own plate, and water I could drink during the meal!).

I hope you'll all look at my Niodior pictures on Facebook, because I don't feel like I did a great job of letting you know what the village was like. In any case, there were no dolphins, but I had a fabulous time.

Improvement

Things got much better last night.  I was sitting around wanting to talk to someone and starting to cry and feeling lousy and depressed, and then Anja (the Swiss-German woman living in Sweden who trained Modou, who started SenCirk) called me and said she and her husband Maksim were heading to the Radisson to get drinks and watch the sun set over the ocean.

I went to meet up with them, said hi, and started crying.  They bought me tea and told me that what I was feeling was good because it would make me stronger and more mature, etc, and then we kept talking and I started feeling a lot better.  When it got dark, we went out to dinner at a restaurant where my family had lunch their first day in Dakar.  We shared a bottle of red wine over dinner, and I got slightly tipsy.  I went to bed feeling much better about life in general.

Today I have a few Skype dates, which should be nice.  I'm going out of town for the weekend to a village on an island down south.  It's called Niordior (nyoor-dyoor), and it has dolphins and manatees.  Our Wolof professor is taking us (it's where he grew up, I believe), so we'll have a Wolof class either en route or when we get there.  Should be a fun time--I'm looking forward to it.

Tense

I'm not sure what it is today, but I'm feeling really tense.  I feel like I'm behind (in my studies, in life, in finding a job for the summer, etc) and like I'm too tired to catch up.  It's really dumb, because yesterday I sent my resume out to two people with whom I'd love to intern this summer--one in Dakar, one in Kalamazoo.  I just went to the place I'll probably be interning for my research project here and explained what I want to do.

Caleb is officially doing Peace Corps, which is fabulous.  It's frustrating that we met at such an inconvenient time in our lives, but I guess it'll be good to see where we stand at the end of all this.  By the time he finishes his tour, I'll be out of college, so from there we can do what we want.  Just have to see what happens in these next two years first.

I'm really glad that my family came to visit, but for the last few days I've been struggling against listlessness and homesickness.  I only have two months left here (to the day! Happy four months in Senegal), and I don't want to spend them counting down to go home.  My birthday is in a month, which will be great.  Circus practices are starting up again.  I have research to do and people to see and tea to make.  It's just hard being sick at this stage in my study abroad.  And right now, practically everyone on my program is sick.  We're all feeling about the same way right now, I think.  It'll probably pass soon.

Family Time

As you probably know, my family came to visit last week.  I'm still recovering, but I had a fabulous time.

I'm not going to try to recount everything we did, because that would take far too long. I'll go through some highlights, though.

• We went to the market HLM to buy fabric and clothes.  We got lots of fabric and took it to my tailor, and the menfolk got boubous.  We found outfits for my grandma.  Mom got grazed by a taxi
• We made breakfast in the apartment every morning--some variation of eggs, bread, jam, cheese, and coffee
• We went to the resort at Toubab Dialaw and had a relaxing 36 or so hours by the ocean
• We ate lots of fabulous Senegalese meals.  Lunch on Friday was prepared by the maid at the apartment.  She cooked and we watched, took notes, and then ate our best lunch of the week.
• We ate a cheb bu jen lunch at my host family house. It was my family's first experience eating out of a communal bowl and having the hostess eat with her hands and distribute food to everyone
• We threw a dinner party at the apartment for all my friends.  We made fish and cheese enchilada casserole, a salad, and green beans
• We took tons of taxis, cramming all five of us into them
• I got some holiday presents! New headphones to replace the ones my host sister broke, a Kindle to read on, lots of baked goods, fuzzy pajamas, etc.  Good stuff!

I think my favorite part of my family's visit was just how much they appreciated Dakar.  Dakar is not a pretty city aesthetically, but it is gorgeously rich in tradition and culture.  The people are incredible and the atmosphere is completely unique.  I had been afraid that my family would only see skin-deep, but that wasn't the case at all.  We had innumerable discussions about culture, tradition, development, and meanings of things we saw in Dakar.  I got to say aloud all the things I'd been thinking about Dakar for the last few months, and I feel like I got a deeper appreciation and understanding of all I'd been seeing.  It meant a lot to me to see that my family was willing and able to see the city through my eyes and love it like I do.

I also learned a lot from their visit.  I hadn't realized how much I rely on my French skills.  When Mom first heard me yell at our landlord in French, she was blown away by how fluently I speak now.  I truly have improved a ton.  But it wasn't so apparent to me before I had to translate everything for my parents (and a little for Dan and Becca, but they did exceedingly well with their high school French).  Particularly at the end of market visits, I found myself thoroughly exhausted.  Bargaining for everything for everyone in my family was a lot more work than I'd expected.

On a less warm and fuzzy note, I think I'm coming down with a little something.  I wonder if the season is changing, because I'm suddenly feeling tingly in my sinuses.  My head has also been hurting almost constantly for the last two weeks, and I've been having stomach issues on and off.  Hopefully it'll all pass soon; for now I'm rationing out my drugs.

On the agenda for this week: I need to call Prof Thioub (choob) to let him know that my internship site does not exist at the address he gave me.  Wolof classes resume for a while.  Circus practices resume.  I need to start getting out more and still getting a lot of sleep, get over my current ickiness, and get over the homesickness that showed up right after my family left.