I am supposedly studying for my finals right now or researching netball, but since that is absolutely no fun at all I decided to procrastinate and write a blog entry. Things here are going great still, time is flying by, it feels like just yesterday it was the beginning of March! But now I am done with classes, except for two finals on Friday! I'm not too worried about the finals, despite not having listened for the last two months or so of class (which would be all but about the first week). I probably will start studying soonish, as in Thursday evening after netball practice.
Speaking of netball, it's going pretty well. Still a bit strange, but fun to learn something new. Although I don't think you'll ever hear me ask if anyone wants to throw the netball around back at home. It's probably the least fun sport I've ever played, no contact and all I get to play is defense (maybe this will make me appreciate being a forward more in soccer) But that's okay, at least it's some form of exercise. I guess the team is getting ready for this tournament that we're going too (I still never really know what's going on because nothing is said in english, and my swahili is not getting any better because they speak way too fast and I can't tell the difference between names and words.
In other news, this past weekend I went to a waterpark that was a lot of fun. I haven't been to a waterpark since I was about 5 and got run over by a fat lady in the pool at the bottom of the slide (this would be at Manteca waterslides, a bit of a traumatizing experience). So I found it pretty exciting. It was also a nice role-reversal, instead of me getting run-over by big people, I got to run over little kids (don't worry, it only happened once or twice). I don't really know how they have a water park when there is a huge water shortage in a lot of the surrounding areas, and I probably shouldn't support something like that, but it was a whole lot of fun.
Last Friday night some friends and I went to a really good Ethiopian restaurant called Addis in Dar. It was amazing food, and I had a great time despite it taking 2 hours to get there when it only should have taken 15 min. People here don't seem to like obeying traffic laws. On a two lane road, people were going about 5 different directions and a bunch more people were walking down the middle of the road. The taxi I was in tried to go the wrong direction side of the road, which only got us yelled at and stuck further back. It was a bit exciting though, but the music reminded me of elevator music and it was on repeat the whole time which was not fun. But the restaurant was great, and I am going to go back sometime. After the restaurant a couple of us went to a local bar called Maayda. Jasmine and I showed up and we were supposed to be meeting friends there, but we were the first ones to arrive. Anyway, we sat down at a table and about two minutes later some guy came up and asked us a question, having no idea what he said, we nodded and said nzuri (which is the response to most greetings), he nodded and disappeared only to return with about ten other guys who added three tables to ours and all sat down. They were pretty nice guys, and some were real sketchy. The guy next got off to a good start by telling me he loved Americans and he really liked George Bush. He also hoped we could be friends and wondered where I lived. I of course played stupid, saying I didn't know where my house was and no I wouldn't let him take me home. Luckily one of his friends steered him away at about this point. But during all of this, there were some performers doing cool break dancing and fun tricks. One guy pretended to eat the cigarette he was smoking, and another guy kept doing the splits between two chairs. The performers also liked to dance with the chairs, meaning they would put their legs through the arm holes and gyrate their hips a lot. It was pretty funny to watch, and these guys really thought they were hot shit. All in all it was a pretty good night!
Okay, I think that's enough for one post, next time I write I think will be in a couple weeks after my trip to Arusha and NgoroNgoro crater and possibly the Serengeti! Hope everyone is doing well!
Speaking of netball, it's going pretty well. Still a bit strange, but fun to learn something new. Although I don't think you'll ever hear me ask if anyone wants to throw the netball around back at home. It's probably the least fun sport I've ever played, no contact and all I get to play is defense (maybe this will make me appreciate being a forward more in soccer) But that's okay, at least it's some form of exercise. I guess the team is getting ready for this tournament that we're going too (I still never really know what's going on because nothing is said in english, and my swahili is not getting any better because they speak way too fast and I can't tell the difference between names and words.
In other news, this past weekend I went to a waterpark that was a lot of fun. I haven't been to a waterpark since I was about 5 and got run over by a fat lady in the pool at the bottom of the slide (this would be at Manteca waterslides, a bit of a traumatizing experience). So I found it pretty exciting. It was also a nice role-reversal, instead of me getting run-over by big people, I got to run over little kids (don't worry, it only happened once or twice). I don't really know how they have a water park when there is a huge water shortage in a lot of the surrounding areas, and I probably shouldn't support something like that, but it was a whole lot of fun.
Last Friday night some friends and I went to a really good Ethiopian restaurant called Addis in Dar. It was amazing food, and I had a great time despite it taking 2 hours to get there when it only should have taken 15 min. People here don't seem to like obeying traffic laws. On a two lane road, people were going about 5 different directions and a bunch more people were walking down the middle of the road. The taxi I was in tried to go the wrong direction side of the road, which only got us yelled at and stuck further back. It was a bit exciting though, but the music reminded me of elevator music and it was on repeat the whole time which was not fun. But the restaurant was great, and I am going to go back sometime. After the restaurant a couple of us went to a local bar called Maayda. Jasmine and I showed up and we were supposed to be meeting friends there, but we were the first ones to arrive. Anyway, we sat down at a table and about two minutes later some guy came up and asked us a question, having no idea what he said, we nodded and said nzuri (which is the response to most greetings), he nodded and disappeared only to return with about ten other guys who added three tables to ours and all sat down. They were pretty nice guys, and some were real sketchy. The guy next got off to a good start by telling me he loved Americans and he really liked George Bush. He also hoped we could be friends and wondered where I lived. I of course played stupid, saying I didn't know where my house was and no I wouldn't let him take me home. Luckily one of his friends steered him away at about this point. But during all of this, there were some performers doing cool break dancing and fun tricks. One guy pretended to eat the cigarette he was smoking, and another guy kept doing the splits between two chairs. The performers also liked to dance with the chairs, meaning they would put their legs through the arm holes and gyrate their hips a lot. It was pretty funny to watch, and these guys really thought they were hot shit. All in all it was a pretty good night!
Okay, I think that's enough for one post, next time I write I think will be in a couple weeks after my trip to Arusha and NgoroNgoro crater and possibly the Serengeti! Hope everyone is doing well!
posted by Annie B at 10:59 PM
2 Comments:
annie borton what are you doing!? using up all the water. i'm jealous of your adventures. can't wait to see you
katie
buddy, come back. i miss you. i can't even drink without you. buddyyyyyyyyyyyy
love, buddy
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