First day of school! (kind of)

In front of our hotel window. Me and Nathalie don't have a balcony like everyone else!!
This is our hotel! I'm writing this from the room off the balcony in the middle. (my friends' room, the lock on our door was getting fixed)
Sun setting over the ocean! (last night)
A thin layer of sand/dirt covers EVERYTHING. (this is out on the balcony)


To try to explain things more:
There are 14 US students in the SIT program in Senegal for this semester. Like I said, we're from all over the states, mostly from the coasts and then us 2 lucky ones from MN. Eventually we all made it here after delayed flights, closed highways, and lost luggage. We are staying in a hotel in Dakar for a few days for orientation. We've went over our program expectations, met the majority of staff, and are slowly working on cultural communication and avoiding cultural faux-pas. Our interactions with Senegalese have been limited to the hotel staff and a few experiences on the street. Our hotel is a few blocks from the ocean (which is SOO GORGEOUS!) and about a ten minute drive from our school. On Friday we will be leaving the hotel and going to our homestays, which we are all looking forward to! Our hotel has all the ammenities, for the most part within reason. Our group occupies all the rooms currently, but the small restaurant/bar is open downstairs to the public. (meaning around 2 or 3 people an evening)

I think the two biggest things so far are the food and the language. The language barrier is intense. I thought I was fairly well prepared in French, just kidding. We are also in the process of learning Wolof, a Senegalese ethnic group and native language that approx 80% of the population speak. Greetings are very important. One says "Saalemalekum" (peace be with you) and responds to this greeting "Maalekumsaalem." And it only gets better from there! I'm looking forward to a huge improvement in my conversational French and learning tons more Wolof! My English is definitely going downhill as it did in Paris, I am having some difficulties typing this, thank goodness for spell check!!

The food, oh Senegalese food. It has so much flavor! My mouth is watering thinking about supper, which we will go downstairs to eat sometime in the next half hour to an hour. Traditional meals are served in a big bowl, usually rice, meat, and vegetables, and everyone sits around, forms a little ball of the rice, etc, then eat it with your right hand. Messy, but oh so good! Our lunch today was less messy then yesterday, the rice did clump better however. We ate on mats spread out in the middle of our main classroom.

It is eye-opening to visit such a poverty-ridden country. The road (rue) that our hotel is on is just sand, uneven, no sidewalks, trash everywhere. There's so much contrast..a nice upperclass house with walls around it and a little green grass and then a pile of rubbish right next to it. The people here are so friendly!

So we live in Dakar, just south of the airport. We hear every plane that flies overhead, and its really not that often. But they fly really low and conversation has to stop momentarily whenever one flies over. I've never experienced this kind of thing before, but I think its kinda cool.

We visited our school today, went over a lot of things and took in a lot of information. Lots of french too! We also had our placement interviews, I could not remember the french words for my parent's professions (seamstress and accountant) But oh well! I need lots of work on my French anyways!

Last night a big group of us had a great experience..we went to a local bar that is popular with students from the universite. We took our first taxi ride (about ten minutes there) and used CFAs (west african currency). I also won my first game of pool ever, with the help of a very nice Senegalese man who became my self-appointed coach. It was great! Senegalese pool is a bit different from American pool, there are no stripes vs solids. There are yellow and red balls, and one black 8 ball. They are a little bit smaller, as is the table, and they don't roll as well. It was a great time though! Devin (American girl friend) thought she was going to win but I beat her! with help of course! good way to practice and learn more language skills!

Well, enough time spent on the computer, time to go eat some great food for supper! (around 8 pm!) I"m so hungry!!!

Au demain (til tomorrow!)