learning my A B ... D's!!

Sorry I haven't updated in such a long time. I haven't had much reliable Internet access in the past 5 days or so. Anyway, everything is going well in Ghana. We started our Twi classes last week and learned the Twi alphabet. They have most of the same letters, but it doesn't include c, j, q, x, z and some more but I can't remember. It's been fun practicing. Classes are going well. My Africana classes with the American teacher is going a lot better, which is great. She's figured out how to control the discussions so it's not just a free-for-all with everyone's opinions. In African Music and Dance on Friday we learned how to play on this bell thing. I can't remember what it was called, but we banged it with a stick and played different tunes. It was funny, the American girls in the class did a lot better than some of the Africans!! They can still dance better than us though. haha.
Everything is going great back at the hostel too. I can only take cold showers, but I'm getting used to that. I just run around the apt for a bit right after I wake up so I get all hot and sweaty and then jump in the shower. It wakes me up too. hahaha. Cooking is somewhat difficult here. We only have a gas stove, no oven, no microwave, no grill. I'm getting alright at cooking things in a skillet and one of my apt-mates has a rice cooker she said we could borrow so I may try to cook some rice tonight. Both of my roommates said they would teach me how to cook. One is Ghanaian, but was born and raised in the UK and the other is Nigerian. Thursday night a bunch of the CIEE girls got together and had a pasta dinner. It was fun.
Friday night was the all-school Akwaaba dance for the "freshers" (the freshmen. isn't that a fun word?). Before the dance, a bunch of us wanted to go shopping and find some cute going-out clothes. Well, that was an ordeal within itself. Kate, Holly, Montana and I shared a cab to the mall, but for some reason the cab driver didn't understand us or didn't know where it was so he took us to a big market place... 30 minutes away. He tried to drop us off instead of taking us to our destination so we finally got out, gave him half the money we told him we'd pay to take us to the mall and got in another cab. We paid that guy 5 cedi to take us 45 minutes back to the mall. He was really nice though and put in a mix CD that was perfect white girl music. Fun times.
Anyway, at the akwaaba dance here were some performances and a fashion show for us. There is a guy here that has a fashion line called noon moon. It pretty much consists of various t-shirts and polos that he's decorated himself, but they're actually good quality. I'm definitely wanting to buy a few to take home. After the dance, we went to this club called Cinderella's, but most of us weren't let in b/c there is a dress code - no flip-flops and no shorts. Instead we got cabs back to our regular bar that is affectionately called the hooker bar. The first time we went there, we saw a bunch of girls walking around in tight, skanky clothes and thought "hey, our clothes aren't bad at all! ghanaian women go out!" and were later told that they are hookers. It's technically called Purple Pub, but i like the term hooker bar better. Anyway, we went there with some other Ashesi guys that we've become friends with and just hung out for awhile.
On Saturday we had a field trip to the W.E.B. Dubois Center, Omanye House, and some museums. I ended up having my first trip to a Ghanaian hospital. Don't worry, I wasn't diseased. I just didn't eat enough with my malaria pill that morning and got sick. Aileen, one of our program directors, got really worried and made 2 of our U-Pals take me to the hospital where I saw the doctor and got some tests done. Again, DO NOT WORRY. When they took my blood, the guy took the STERILE needle out of a package. All of my blood tests came back clean so I'm going to look at it as a check-up to make sure I don't have malaria yet. Yay! The doctor said that my tonsils were large (I need to get those out btw) and I may be coming down with something so he prescribed me some antibiotics and painkillers. I've taken the antibiotics, but the painkillers were a bit excessive. It only cost a little over 60 cedi for the entire trip - doctor visit, blood tests, meds - which is AMAZING. If only healthcare in America was that cheap. :) Later that night I just hung out with a bunch of the girls. We got pizza since everyone was exhausted and didn't want to cook then watched Cruel Intentions.
Today was actually somewhat productive. I did my laundry (by hand! yay!!!) and some hw. I still have a ton more reading to do, but I finished one of the books that I needed read by this week. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is an amazing book. I read it freshmen year for class and really liked it. One of my apartment-mates has a book that includes three of his so I'm going to borrow that from her later.

I'll try to update again sometime soon!! Oh, and interesting tidbit about Ghana: they drink water out of bags here. It's much cheaper than water bottles and same quality. 90 pesewas for 30 bags vs. 50 pesewas for a small bottle. sweeeeeet. ALSO, the AIDS rate here is 3%, less than New York City. What an interesting little fact to chew on. :)

Love love love from Africa! If you have any questions or want more details on anything, don't hesitate to ask!