"Come join us! We're snuggling!" ... "Houskeeping?"

Day 11 (6/28):

So not a lot has been going on since Sunday; however, some of you have confessed to me that you keep up on my blog every day. I promise from here on out to update every day or every other day just so you know that I’m safe and doing ok.

Alright, so like I said, Monday dawned and we were SORE. My legs and butt and other areas were not happy that I was putting those muscles to use. For real. Walking to class was a sordid affair. We were all slow and acting like old women on the way. I decided to wear black leggings and my long blue shirt so as nice to have to deal with chaffing jeans. Not fun.

Class was fine, boring, but we had some good conversations. It’s interesting how all of us in the class are similar in a lot of ways. Meaning that we are all strong-minded females who think we know everything there is to know about whatever it is we’ve chosen to talk about. It can get tense. It’s stimulating, though, which is nice.

After class, I went back to the hotel to check email and Libby went to order the cake with another girl in our group for a separate girls whose birthday was the next day.

After she got back from doing errands, Libby, Emily and I decided to head back to the market for more shopping. You definitely have to be in the zone when you go to the market, otherwise they will literally swindle the hell out of you. I didn’t too bad. The things I bought I got for good prices, but I probably could have gotten them for better prices had I been on my game. Ah well, such is life. If it means a little more in their pockets for ugali for their children, what do I care?

After getting back from the market, Libby and I decided to watch 10 Things I Hate About You on her computer. That was a fun, short movie to watch before soccer came on at 5. Her and I really stick to our routine. I think it gives us both comfort to have something set to do every day, especially something we do together. We get a little anxious when things shake up our routine, but we roll with it no matter what.

After dinner, I skyped with my floor partner from last year, Jennie. It was nice to talk to someone not my family. Not that I don’t enjoy talking to my family on skype or email, that’s not the case at all, it’s just nice to have a diversity of people to talk to. Sometimes I feel like I say the same things over and over again with my family and I feel like I get boring.

Once again, after skype, Libby and I watched soccer and then crashed. We were both still pretty tired from camels the day before.


Day 12 (6/29):

Despite those first two nights, I have literally slept like a baby since then, which is amazing. This experience would be SO much harder to deal with if I didn’t get regular sleep and laid awake the whole night. It would suck (sorry for my language, mom). We also have awesome sleeping weather here. It’s a little chilly at night, so its perfect to snuggle under the covers.

Anyway, I was less sore this morning than yesterday, but I definitely think it will take me most of the week not to feel tight, or like I need to stretch frequently.

As I mentioned earlier, it was one of the girl’s 21st birthday in our group, so after class we had the hotel make us lunch instead of dinner because we were going out to dinner later. We had the cake that had been ordered the day before, which was delicious, but not candles unfortunately. I don’t know if its traditional to blow out candles on your birthday cake here in Tanzania. Who knows. Either way, it was really nice.

We all split up and did separate things for the afternoon. Libby, Emily, and I went back to the room and hung out on Emily’s huge bed. Libby and I share a room so we each get a separate twin bed. Emily, however, has the room to herself, and has this huge queen-sized bed. Em was sewing a book cover out of cloth she had bought at the market, to make her boring journal look nicer. Libby and I just laid on the bed and listened to music while she worked on it. At some point we decided we wanted to watch UP, so we called another girl to join us. She said she’s be over soon, so when the door to our apartment opened, we figured it was her. Emily called out, “Come join us! We’re snuggling on the bed!” We then heard a meek voice say, “housekeeping?” and we realized that it wasn’t our friend who’d come in, but the housekeeper to drop of toilet paper and towels, and we’d just invited her to snuggle. We were all pretty embarrassed, which of course made of crack up laughing. I went to face the nice woman, Flora, and accepted what she had brought. As she left, she said “no problems” which only made us laugh harder. We then continued to bring it up and make fun of Emily for it for the rest of the afternoon.

Through a series of strange miscommunications, our friend never actually ended up coming, until we called her, asking what the deal was. By the time she came over and explained what happened, it was ten after six and we had to meet downstairs to catch the taxi-bus to dinner.

The birthday girl, Jami, decided on a Chinese restaurant nearby, called Dragon Pearl. It was a beautiful restaurant. The manager clearly knew how to deal with big groups of Americans and served us personally, making sure we got enough food for everyone without overordering. We ended up taking four take-away boxes back with us, one with rice, one with noodles, and two with dinner-food. I’d say we did pretty well.

Dinner was delicious, and needless the say, the birthday girl got rightfully tipsy. It was her 21st, after all, and she was in Africa. We had the taxi-bus come pick us up and bring us back to the hotel. I am safe and sound in my apartment, writing this blog entry, watching the soccer game with Libby, and getting ready for bed. Tomorrow will be my first day volunteering with one of the Human Rights organizations. I’m excited to see how that goes. I’ll be sure to keep you all updated.

Also! I’ve heard from some people about postcards, which is amazingly fast considering how long I thought it’d take for them to get to everyone. If you already told me you got it, please disregard, if you got it and haven’t told me, however, please let me know! I’d love to hear from you all on what you think of them, and if I should send more.

That’s all for now. Love and miss you all!

Colleen