Internet! I can hardly believe it! I have so much to say!!! So, I guess here I go with my journal entries again. Hope this format works for all of you.

"Yesterday was probably one of the most amazing days of my life. Really. And it was so simple. :D We got to SLEEP IN! Jess and I woke up around 09h15 and were talking for too long, so when Mel and Rita came to get us, we were still in our beds, so we met them a bit later. Another delicious breakfast wher'e I was reminded by the cute server that it was Valentine's Day... and that even if you wake up alone, you can go to bed with someone. We were invited to the discothèque near our hotel. We hung around the pool for awhile,a nd then went for a walk in hopes of finding lunch. We went to a very cute restaurant with great food and great service. We had decided to speak French the whole time among ourselves. It was great. Everyone is improving sooo much. It's quitre impressive. We came back around 4h and met Dr. Barry and his assistant, Ibrahima. He is sooo sweet and very gentle, talks very quietly, and is extremely intelligent... really intense. We talked with them for awhile, asked some questions about the culture, and then we were met by Campal and Georges from D'Almeida's house. We went down without Dr. Barry to get out cell phones and our BITCHIN' AFRICAN RINGTONES (BARs). 20000FCFA. We exchanged numbers and then went on a big walk around the city. I spent almost the whole time talking with Campal. He's such a good guy. We were talking about deeper things... which was great... because so often, when you're just getting to know people here, you don't actually get to say anything. I asked about the Christian-Muslim relations, and he said that everyone here really lives in "parfaite harmonie"... perfect harmony. It's been interesting to see that as I develope relationships with different people, they're willing to disclose different types of things. Yes, this is pretty obvious, but I also asked about the conflict that had been in Casamance, the southern region of Senegal. Normally, no one answers too completely... but after you get to know someone, they're willing to talk about it... Interesting. [...] I'm so excited to meet my host family! And I start wolof on Tuesday!!!!" 15 fev 2008, 08h45

As I only have 13 minutes left to write this... I'll just tell you a bit about my family. They're great. Everyone is really friendly and very welcoming. They treat me like I'm really part of the family. The mother, Madame as I call her, works at a library... was a teacher for years. Pape Fall, the father, is a geography teacher at the university. The eldest daughter, Aida, is 20 and is working on her bac. She's a lot of fun. I share a room with her. Loud, sometimes fun-obnoxious. Babaka is my 18-year-old brother. I never really get to see him because he's ALWAYS at school or doing something for school, etc. Seri is my 16 year old brother. He's very quiet, but really nice once I was able to warm up to him. A real sweetie. Mamy is my 15 year old sister. She's got a lot of spunk... always smiling, always laughing at my jokes. She's definitely got the 15 year old attitude sometimes, but it's fun. And Fatoubinetou (fah-to-bin-to) is my 14 year old sister. The kids here have this interesting mix, especially the last one, between having to take care of sooo many house chores, etc, and they have this certain type of maturity, but then again, they also have their really immature points, too... it almost seems like they're refusing to grow up in a way. Very interesting. They're all a lot of fun. I've spent a lot of time with the younger girls. Sooo much fun. Love them dearly.

And one of the most exciting things so far is that my research project is going to be feasible!!!! I'm soooooooooooo excited. I'll write more later when we have time. I'm at the University right now, and we just found out that classes don't even start until the 13 of March!!! Unbelievable!!! I don't know if I can handle all this unstructured time for that long... so we'll see. I think we'll go into town tomorrow. :D

Love Senegal. Miss you all.