Last nights sleep was so wonderful. The bed is memory foam and my room is very comfortable. I also want to point out that when we got into our rooms late last night there was food tin and a coke sitting on the little table in our room. The people here left us Americans a burger and fries as snack upon our arrival. It's really quite funny when you think about it. Unfortunately the meal had been sitting in our room for some time and had gone cold. Though I did not eat the 'snack', it just goes to show the kindness that is here in Ethiopia.
When I did wake up there was music playing and singing. I was extremely confused especially because it was only 6 am here. I eventually fell back asleep after chatting with some friends who were still up back home.
When I did officially get out of bed, around 8 am, I started into my normal morning routine. There was still music playing outside though. Halfway through my applying makeup process the lights in the bathroom had shutoff. Hannah came to my room and she had the same problem. Our first power outage! I wonder if it's a common thing or not. Once I had dressed, Hannah and I made our way to the housing office where we checked in and got our cards for breakfast that morning.
Breakfast was a combination of food I knew and food I did not know. This morning, I stuck with what I knew: toast, sausage, scrambled eggs, and large grapes. There was cereal but I was a tad leery about the milk. Hannah had cereal and she thought the milk may have been goat milk, which I don't doubt!
Sundays seem to be leisure days around here due to it being the holy day. Most Ethiopians here are Ethiopian Orthodox. Hannah and I took the morning to walk around campus and start getting to know our 'homes' for the next 2 months. Everyone is very nice, although it is very hard to understand the very heavily accented english they speak. I'm looking forward to see what lunch will contain and see all the other people we will meet.
Pictures of the Last Few Days + Today
(Over Saudi Arabia)
(The view from outside my door)
UPDATE:
Lunch was very interesting combination. The meal was a buffet. I took a little bit of spaghetti, breaded Tilapia, potato wedges, a bread roll, watermelon and some water to top it off. I really enjoyed the little bit of spaghetti and the Tilapia. I was not a real fan of the potato wedges mainly because they were quite dry and lacked in much other taste than starch. The bread here seems to be a safe choice. I also love the availability of fruit at each meal. In total the meal was to cost 150 birr. Which that amount translates into about $6.46. Pretty nuts to think about. After lunch, Hannah and I returned to our rooms to just relax. I ended up taking a nap to stop battling with the wifi. In our rooms the wifi likes to turn on and off quite frequently. At 6 pm or so, Hannah and I went to the Zebu Club for dinner. She ordered a hamburger with fries and I ordered chicken wings with fries. The chicken was a little tough and the sauce honestly tasted like marinara. But, it was actually pretty decent. A little bland, could of used some salt. Also, the ketchup is like a sweet kind. I always thought that ketchup in the U.S. was sweet but Ethiopians must like the sweeter sauce. The wings and fries with a water cost 57 birr. In U.S. that is under $3.00. It's just crazy to me that the exchange rate is so very different. $1 U.S. dollar is equal to 22.76 birr.
The sun started to go down around 6:30 and by 7:00 pm it was completely dark. We used the flashlights on our phones to see the ground back to our Hostel. The Zebu Club and cafeteria are not far from the hostel which is quite convenient. Back in my room, the wifi was steady enough to where I could call my family and friends through 'Whatsapp' with the wifi disconnecting only a few times. I called my mother first at work but after the wifi cutout she became busy with customers so I called my dad and was able to wish him a happy fathers day and talk to both my brother and sister as well. They updated me on the cattle, the enjoyable weather for June, and even took the phone to see some of the pets, Socks the cat and Pistol/Pup the dogs. It was nice to be able to talk to my family and see how they are all doing. After that, I called my best friend Kylee. We chatted a little bit about Ethiopia and the campus as well as how the lake was that day. My last call of the night was to my other best friend Annika. We talked about Ethiopia, college, and some of our other good friends. I am so glad that I still am able to talk with my friends and family while I am here. It keeps me grounded in a sense.
More Pictures from the day
(This was my dinner, I had (This is the exchange rate for USD and Birr)
forgotten to get a picture of
lunch)
(This is just outside the windows of my room)
(Just one of the walkways on campus. This picture really does not do justice!)
No comments:
Post a Comment