03.11.07

well now i'm in saint-louis working on getting all this school stuff and figuring out classes. we were all supposed to meet with the head of the wisconsin-senegal program named baydalaye kane but as usual he wasn't there when we were all supposed to meet...i guess i shouldn't say as usual but man everything in senegal is slow and usually inaccessible. oh well, i think i am just going to take african literature this semester...a few classes, and then spice things up next semester with oh i don't know a women's study class or something. in anycase the first few weeks of class seem very laid back and unplanned. other than that we've had some islam classes and wolof for sure and i'm working on some way to take arabic...wolof is advancing but i had an oral exam in dakar with my teacher ismailah who is great but i started saying mi piace instead of begg naa for i like. haha i laughed and had to explain that i can't keep all my 5 languages straight in my head. let's just hope my grade didn't suffer too much because of that. at least i wasn't speaking english. besides that it is quite an experience of it's own that we are a group of 10 white girls and organization is ALWAYS an issue. people feel left out alot and my new philosophy is do what you want to do and don't wait for other people to do it for you. so since i have this research project to do and i think the sexploitation here is disgusting and i wanted to do a case study on three or four prostitutes/hired boyfriends or girlfriends (those are the worst, at least the guys that make it out to the clubs to pick up prostitutes are young and spunky enough to try to dance with them). the hired boyfriends/girlfriends are like escorts but their toubab counterparts are NASTY!!! oh well. i got a prostitute's phone number, she said we could meet for tea and talk but i haven't called her yet...i should do it. other than that we've made some friends in town which is fun. the people on campus are elite and almost stuck up...but that opinion might change, it's just what i think so far. i changed rooms already because my roommate apparently didn't want another american roommate and i could tell, she was NOT friendly and didn't want me there so i changed. well it is an egg sandwich for me tonight. i'm off.