We finally had decent African-wet season rain today, although it was pretty short lived (about an hour or two) but I did take advantage of it, running around and doing errands. The rain really cools the land down; I feel almost tempted to throw on a sweatshirt. Even now, several hours after coming out of the rain, the humidity has kept me from drying off. The rain here makes the dirt, which is like a burnt red anyway, look absolutely striking and colorful and it emphasizes how lush everything here really is. Its truly a beautiful sight. Its Monday right now [View Full Entry]

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Hellooooo! The strike finally ended Wednesday but that hasn't actually led to the resumption of classes. I got up early that day to trek to my class...and it is literally a trek. The building is on the other side of campus from us and is about a mile away; at least it gets the blood flowing in the morning. However, my professor didn't show up (supposedly it will take a couple of days to get things moving again). Hopefully, by next week things will be 'back to normal' of course none of us international students have really figured out what normal [View Full Entry]

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And I'm back... So Friday was our first free day on campus, which was spent registering for classes mainly. Here, you have to go department to department to sign up for your classes; it is a very time consuming process but not dissimilar from what they used to do in like the 70s for college. It made me think how Ghana is sort of slammed between two eras -- its like a bit of the present (some of the cars, the internet, cell phones, etc.) but with a hint of the 70s thrown in. Honestly though, any tropical place like this [View Full Entry]

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We finally went on our Accra city tour today. The city rocks but can be very overwhelming. We went to this place call the Ad Market downtown. It was cool cause I got a drum (sweet!) and an African shirt (cut low enough to have a little chest hair come through...its hot, i know). But this place was pretty intense; I've been in situations where I have had to haggle before but man was this different. I felt like I was three year old at a convention of priests with the way everyone was grabbing me! I held on to my [View Full Entry]

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Greeting from Ghana!! I am an internet cafe waiting to register for classes which is an incredibly painful process compared to the states. But besides that, everything is great! It is pretty unbelievable to be sitting in West Africa right now....although it is quite moist. My first interaction with a native Ghanian was a nice gentlemen at the airport who grabbed my armed, rubbed it, and exclaimed 'I like your bodeee' to which I replied, 'Who doesnt? Now take me!!'...well everything except for the last part. I found out that he was hitting on me for a tip...here's a tip, get [View Full Entry]

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I am officially one week away from departing for Ghana. This time next week, I'll be in a plane crossing the pond on my way to Accra. I have slowly begun my preparations for departure. I've got the malaria drugs at the ready, enough bug repellent to kill half the bugs in Africa, the mosquito net, the knives, first aid kit, etc. I feel more like I'm packing for a trip into the backcountry than for a semester abroad. Nonetheless, I'm already so excited that I can barely sleep at night, that nervous-anxious-excitement that you got as a kid when you [View Full Entry]

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