Ce Degg Degg

Since I've now finished a full week of classes (plus today, Monday) I think its best if I describe a typical week day for me in Dakar.

My classes start at either 9AM or 11AM, which means I need to catch the bus before 8:30 or 10:30. So I wake up later than I should, drag my butt to the shower, which is always cold, after which I am actually awake. My sister puts out hot water, Nescafe, bread, and Chocolion for me every morning. The bread here is fabulous, and we have it at every meal. Kind of my dream, just a little bit. Chocolion is one brand of chocolate spread here, its all over. Sort of like Nutella. Which I am totally down with eating on my bread chaque matin (every morning).

After wolfing down my chocopain and Nescafe (sometimes I burn my tongue, because I am toujours en retard), because my family gets confused/hurt if I don't eat my petit dejeuner"Il faut bien manger" and all that, I walk about 3 minutes to the bus stop (le terminus). Apparently, the buses run on the half-hour, but my experience is that they run every 10, 15, or 30 minutes. Or whenever they feel like it. The bus costs 150CFA one way (about 20 cents American), and it takes about 10-15 minutes to get to school. Its always super packed in the mornings, so you really get to know the people next to you. The bus rides to and from school have been really great -- public transportation gives you such a great perspective of the people and the infrastructure of a city. Here, the bus goes places buses would never dare go in the States. Like sandy alleys lined with cars and shops.

Classes here are two hours long, and we pretty much have class all day until 4:30 or 6:30. Lunch is from 1 to 2:30 (or 4:30 if you don't have class), so a lot of students that live in nearby neighborhoods like Mermoz go home for lunch. I can only make it home on Tuesdays for le dejeuner, so its extra exciting. Last Tuesday my dad's mom and his sisters were over, so we spent lunch laughing about how much Wolof I don't know. Well, really, they spent lunch laughing at me, which was fun too.

Instead of going home, I generally buy my lunch at the super cool little red shack next to the school. They make awesome sandwiches for little more than $1American, plus these samosa-type things called Fataya for only 100CFA (about 20 cents). Excellent.

Its beginning to get dark here on campus, so I'll probably head back to Ouakam on the bus pretty soon. More coming soon!