Aquariffic
Yesterday I found an excellent activity, and it is swimming. There is an athletic center about a 15 minute walk away from school, and it happens to have an Olympic size swimming pool (great for really long laps) as well as a diving pool with two 1-meter diving board (extra bouncy, wow), one 3.5 meter diving board (painful but awesome cannon balls!) as well as a platform of the same height, and 5, 7.5, and 10 meter diving platforms! Next time I'll try the higher platforms, but yesterday I spent a lot of time doing the 5 meter (it's so so high all by itself!) and diving off the boards. It was Kathleen, Matt and I, and we had the most fun I think I've ever had at a pool. We swam laps and then goofed off on the boards and platforms. Matt jumped off the 10 meter but said it hurt a lot so my goal is to figure out the best way to jump in without getting water slapped. Kathleen also brought her camera and took pictures of us jumping, diving, doing cannon balls, etc. We swam laps, we goofed off, we made the lifeguards laugh, we pressured a stranger to jump off high platforms, we laughed at another guy trying to dive but getting slapped. What a great day!!! Plus I had just finished my last mid-term that day, so it was even better!
Now for something completely different...Africa has made me addicted to a couple of things...one of these is tea. I now feel like some British namby-pamby because I drink tea all the time, but it's just so nice! Also, chili sauce. Food here is quite bland as I know I've mentioned, so often times you will be offered tomato sauce (a sad attempt at ketchup) and chili sauce (bring on the heat!!!!). I like the heat. I'm from Texas for heaven sakes. I need some spice in my life. Now that they are making us pay 5 shillings for tiny packets of heat at the cafeteria (grumble grumble), I have purchased my own bottle of Peptang chili sauce (it's my favorite). Therefore, I must now carry my mustard, pepper, honey (I like it more than sugar in my tea), AND chili sauce to meals. Weird, perhaps, but you might do it too if you were in my situation.
Today Kathleen and I went into town to get cash and bus food for our Uganda trip this weekend (have I mentioned how excited I am? Because I am.) First, though, we went to the Hilton Hotel next to which there was rumored to be two fixed-price curio shops with goodies that you can buy even cheaper than at the Maasai Market, no bargaining necessary! It's true! These stores made me so incredibly happy, let me tell you. Jewelry, carvings, shirts, kikoys, etc, and all with cheap, fixed prices. Thank you Bailey for that valuable info! Then at Nakumatt our mission was to find a normal cracker. They have a lot of biscuits here, but we don't want biscuits, we want crackers - salty goodness that you can put some cheese on and be happy (the cheese here is another story...it's a chore to find cheese that's not all processed and fake-looking. Also there was no turkey lunch meat :( ). I'll let you know how that turns out. After Nakumatt we went to Java, and I ate a bagel (because I miss them oh so much), but not to worry, we also split a piece of chocolate fudge cake. I'm sorry that this does not exist back home and so you cannot try it (see, you should all come to visit and I'll take you to see fun animals AND to eat chocolate fudge cake), but let's just say it's heavenly. Admittedly, it's not as good as Mom's chocolate sheet cake, but very few things are, and it comes pretty close. Yummy yum yum yum.
One other things on a completely different subject yet again - soccer or "football" is very big here of course, and of course we all know that here it is called "football." However, the guys who talk about it never say 'football' in front of us Americans; they say 'soccer' instead. I realize that this is for our benefit, but I think it's really interesting that they completely change the name of a favorite sport for some Americans who are in fact aware that it has a different name here. Thanks, I guess?
Now for something completely different...Africa has made me addicted to a couple of things...one of these is tea. I now feel like some British namby-pamby because I drink tea all the time, but it's just so nice! Also, chili sauce. Food here is quite bland as I know I've mentioned, so often times you will be offered tomato sauce (a sad attempt at ketchup) and chili sauce (bring on the heat!!!!). I like the heat. I'm from Texas for heaven sakes. I need some spice in my life. Now that they are making us pay 5 shillings for tiny packets of heat at the cafeteria (grumble grumble), I have purchased my own bottle of Peptang chili sauce (it's my favorite). Therefore, I must now carry my mustard, pepper, honey (I like it more than sugar in my tea), AND chili sauce to meals. Weird, perhaps, but you might do it too if you were in my situation.
Today Kathleen and I went into town to get cash and bus food for our Uganda trip this weekend (have I mentioned how excited I am? Because I am.) First, though, we went to the Hilton Hotel next to which there was rumored to be two fixed-price curio shops with goodies that you can buy even cheaper than at the Maasai Market, no bargaining necessary! It's true! These stores made me so incredibly happy, let me tell you. Jewelry, carvings, shirts, kikoys, etc, and all with cheap, fixed prices. Thank you Bailey for that valuable info! Then at Nakumatt our mission was to find a normal cracker. They have a lot of biscuits here, but we don't want biscuits, we want crackers - salty goodness that you can put some cheese on and be happy (the cheese here is another story...it's a chore to find cheese that's not all processed and fake-looking. Also there was no turkey lunch meat :( ). I'll let you know how that turns out. After Nakumatt we went to Java, and I ate a bagel (because I miss them oh so much), but not to worry, we also split a piece of chocolate fudge cake. I'm sorry that this does not exist back home and so you cannot try it (see, you should all come to visit and I'll take you to see fun animals AND to eat chocolate fudge cake), but let's just say it's heavenly. Admittedly, it's not as good as Mom's chocolate sheet cake, but very few things are, and it comes pretty close. Yummy yum yum yum.
One other things on a completely different subject yet again - soccer or "football" is very big here of course, and of course we all know that here it is called "football." However, the guys who talk about it never say 'football' in front of us Americans; they say 'soccer' instead. I realize that this is for our benefit, but I think it's really interesting that they completely change the name of a favorite sport for some Americans who are in fact aware that it has a different name here. Thanks, I guess?