Monday, December 28, 2009

Pre-Departure Update

First of all, I'm typing this while on hold, trying to tell the bank not to worry if I come up with charges.... *sigh* oh, the challenges of trying to talk to an actual person.

Also? I got shot today. Five times. Immunizations. And got four prescriptions. wheeeeee! I can't lift my left arm. Dancing tonight should be FUN.

BUT most excitingly of all, I got my housing notification! Here's the email:

Famille Binta Dasylva Coulibaly: Liberté 3

It is a young couple. They have two children, Raïssa (1994) and Pascal
(2002) and both go to school. Maman Binta is a great cook, she is
making delicious donuts and fataya (be careful if you do not want to
put on weight). She sells them every evening at the entrance of the
house. Papa Anicet works at Cheikh Anta Diop University.






That's all they gave me. But I'm soooo exited! I was hoping to be in a house with small children-
hopefully that'll make it easier to learn the language.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Here we go....

Right. Here is the first, trial-run post for my blog that will, in theory, document "Johanna's crazy adventures in Africa". Or, more specifically, Senegal. I'm not sure if a) this blog will work ,or b) I will be able to post regularly, or c) I will want to post regularly once I'm there. But, should everything go according to plan (hahaha... that idea just cracks me up already) this is where you can tune in.


Just a sidebar: Google, I guess, bought blogspot a while ago, but kept all of the accounts the same, so even though I forgot my blogspot account name and password, I all of a sudden have access to all the blogs that I, as a middle schooler/high schooler, started and then promptly forgot about. There are six of them. It's kinda crazy. Such a blast from the past.

Another sidebar: The title! "Pays des Étrangers" is a song I felt was applicable, seeing as the first line is "demain on est parti dans le pays des étrangers" or "tomorrow I'm leaving for a strange land" It's french. There'll be a lot of french here. And, hopefully Wolof.

So, I guess since I don't have any stories yet, here's the pre-departure update:

1. Getting shots and pills on Monday. yaaaay.

2. I'm reading this book Mom gave me for Christmas: "Give with Gratitude: Lessons Learned Listening to West Africa" by Wisconsinite Katie Krueger. It's great- I'm already a third done. I think you should read it even if you never plan on going to Africa- it presents a really nice and honest point of view.

3. I am also about a third done with my "pre-departure readings" which is a big course packet of articles on globalization- homework, basically. It is not as exciting, in fact, it's very depressing.

4. I just got an update on my plane tickets- I'm leaving at SIX IN THE MORNING on Sunday, January 17th. Then I've got a one-hour layover in Chicago, and a SIX hour layover in D.C. So that should be fun. I'm leaving on the way back at 2am, though, and arriving in Minneapolis at about noon? that sounds right. On May 9th. Huzzah for airplanes.


Soooo yeah. That's it for the first post. Not exactly entertaining- they'll get better, I promise, I just haven't blogged since January 2006, as "blogger" now tells me.

Merry (day after) Christmas.