Demoon naa... partout

I went... everywhere

That's sort of how I feel about the last month or so. I've been traveling, traveling, traveling, and having an incredible time. I got back from spring break last Monday night, and had the most incredible two weeks of my life. But before I get into that, here's a little update on my life in Saint-Louis:

Life in Saint-Louis is good. It is really, really slow; Senegalese time usually implies be between 5 minutes and 2 hours late. It was frustrating to adjust to at first, but now, I love it. I feel very much at home at this pace. In the states, where I'm guaranteed to have to run around like hell in the morning to be ready and I'm still running into class just as the door is being closed... that just isn't an issue here. When it takes me 25 minutes to get out of bed, 30 to walk back from lunch, and an extra 30 minutes to get to a friend's room for tea, it's just not a big deal. I wonder how that's going to fly when I get home... just kidding. Anyways, I think what I love most about the pace of life here is that there's time to think. I've found that in the states, I'm flying through life, gathering experiences and attempts and successes and sights and sounds, then leaving them comfortably as memories. But here, it's very different. "Experiences" (whether they be trips and adventures or just eating, talking, doing the laundry) are fewer and farther between, but in those in-betweens I have so much time to digest everything that happens. Every time something happens that I consider really significant, I am able to spend days just reflecting... sitting and thinking, journaling, or just subconsciously digesting what happened while I go about my comfortably relaxed day. It makes for incredible learning and growing experiences. And it does not feel like "wasting time" at all. As a Senegalese friend articulated so well, "in America, time is money. Here, time is... time is taking time."

Other news? Well, I'm still taking this dance class, and I think I have a love-hate relationship with it. I love the people in it; they're loud and fun, and we share a love of dancing. But it can be really hard, too. They speak amongst themselves in verryyy fast French, which I have a really hard time understanding (especially with the horrible acoustics in our dance room), so I'm pretty marginalized to begin with. But I'm also really clearly "the white girl." In fact, yesterday, the teacher (a good friend of mine) told me to stop hiding in the back (I'm tired of being in the front), it's only aesthetically pleasing if the one who stands out is in the middle. That would be the white one, me. They don't mean it to be insulting, I know... it's just not something that I'm comfortable with. In the states, race is such a taboo topic. Skin color is just not something that I've been taught to take into account, aesthetically or otherwise. Here, they do.

Anyways, the point about dance is, we have three recitals coming up... and one is going to be in the city, at the cultural center, with a professional dance troupe from Gabon! How awesome. I absolutely cannot wait.

Other news... academically, things are going. Sort of. Ish. In fact, I came back from break and went to ask a prof what I missed on Monday (I was stuck on the island so I missed class), and he responded "no nothing, we had no class." Oh, wonderful! Why? "They're all studying for your midterm tomorrow morning." Ummmm... excuse me? Apparently, exams are posted on the bulletin board that I was not informed existed. Surprise! So I spent the afternoon studying. We'll see how that turns out.

I'm also getting really close with a lot of people. The tubaabs (Americans, specifically) are getting closer all the time, and I've got some pretty good friends from dance and from my dorm. One is about to start teaching me traditional dance in exchange for English lessons. Sweeeeeet

Let's see, what else... the weather has been great, not too hot still (knock on wood). My Wolof is really improving, I can understand pretty decently complex conversations, although the speaking is still coming slowly. My French, on the other hand, seems to be getting worse. I just never, ever think in French. English with the Americans, Wolof whenever I can with Senegalese. Bummer for French, but cool overall.

Also, I spent today volunteering at a free clinic to screen women for cervical and breast cancer. It was really interesting, although at the beginning I felt a little uncomfortable being an unqualified foreigner asking women these really personal questions (we were helping them fill out their forms, since many couldn't speak French, or couldn't read/write, or both). And, almost the whole time we spoke with them in Wolof. Woo!

You know what, I'm actually really tired right now, so I'm going to go to sleep. I'll update about spring break tomorrow, assuming there's internet.

Goodnight everyone :)
Morg