Hall C or “foreigners block” is one of the best dorms on campus – although you probably wouldn’t know that unless you’ve been is some of the other dorms. Our group lives between the 6th and 8th floors, which is quite a hike when you don't have an elevator, but well worth it! The building was geniusly designed to get amazing breeze, and I wouldn’t move to a lower floor for anything!
My current room, is very similar in shape to the room I had in Larson sophomore year but smaller and with an entirely view. I eat I watch the sunrise as I eat my breakfast (and take my Malarone) every morning. The picture above is my bed – it was taken the day we moved in so you’ll have to excuse the mess…
Although it only works half of the time our hall does get wireless, which means that occasion I get to talk to you all for free! We also have western-style toilets, which makes me ridiculously happy. The water goes comes and goes, but has been pretty good lately, although I’ve been told that once school is in session it will be off more often than it is on. I also quickly discovered that the best time to shower is the late afternoon just before it cools down because the water sits in black containers on top of our building… and so is slightly less freezing at the end of the day.
My diet consists of rice, more rice, and beans. The cafeteria the we frequent most serves wali na maharage (rice and beans) for Tsh. 600. That’s the equivalent of about 55 cents, and is what I order for probably 75% of my meals. Another favorite is chipsi mayai (sounds like 'chips in my eye' but is really french fries and chips fried together in a sort of omlete... aka: greesy goodness).
Vegetables are hard to come by in the cafeteria but there's a great fruit and vegie vendor outside who will cut up and prepare anything you want to add to your meal or take back to the dorm.
Only one and half more weeks on Kiswahili and it's going fast! Because I now have a month long break I'm planning on traveling south and west of Dar for the first half with three of the other girls on the program (Wendy, Stacey and Liz). After our orrientation a family friend of another student (Chris) has invited all 10 of us to come stay at her home in Moshi for a week.
Apparently she lives in Moshi district, not town, which is just fine by me, becuase her house is literally on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro! Hopefully I will get some hiking in, even though I won't be summiting!
PS: I've added pictures to a couple of the previous posts as well, so have a look!
1 comment:
Siri,
Your trip seems like it's going amazing so far. You haven't missed much at Olaf, it's super weird being a senior, but still fun. Devin and I are running the Pause now, so maybe we can get rice and beans added to the menu for second semester to make your transition back that much smoother, though I don't know if we can match a price like 50 cents that's a pretty amazing deal.
Talk to you soon,
Charlie
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