kekere kekere jo ja jo ja ja ja ja

Things are starting to get a little more exciting around here. Or at least I feel like I've been much more active in the past couple days than in the entire first week. Instead of our usual lectures we've had to sit through every day, on Friday we went to the dance studio at the university to go to a traditional African dance workshop. Even though dancing is not exactly my thing, I had a really great time! I looked like a fool of course, because I have no coordination, but so did everyone else and we all had a really good time. We did some singing as well, and learned about the significance of some of the songs and dances the guy was teaching us about. It was pretty great.

Then later in the day we went to have soccer practice game for our CIEE olympics.  My team lost, thanks to my lack of goalie-ing skills. But even though I normally hate soccer, to my surprise I had fun doing that as well.

Then later in the evening we went back to the dance studio to learn a dance that one of the Upals, Atsu, choreographed for us, so we can perform it at the international students' welcome dinner, which could be potentially embarrassing...  Afterwards, some of his friends came in to perform some music for us, and they were really talented. At one point, one of the guys started playing this wooden flute through his nose. Which was impressive, but also kind of gross.

Then, it was time for Keith's 30th birthday party! None of us knew who Keith was before we went (except for the fact that he sat near some of us at the orientation lectures and was making side comments about everything, and he may very well be the oldest student in ISH). But he posted signs all around both of the ISH buildings saying that everyone was invited and there would be free drinks for ladies from 10-12, so we figured why not? It was a good time. And I met Keith and told him happy birthday. Getting there was kind of a hassle though, because when you tell cab drivers where you are going and they don't know where it is, they'll act like they know anyway. Long story short, we got lost because we didn't know the way and neither did the driver, so we took a second cab, and the same thing happened again. We got there eventually, but that was a little annoying.

On Saturday we took a bus tour of Accra, which was interesting and nice to finally see most of the city, but we didn't get to get out and walk around much. We stopped for lunch in Osu, and then went to the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum. It was really cool. Nkrumah was the first president of Ghana, and he's revered here as a great leader who brought lots of improvements to the country after declaring Ghana's independence from British colonialism. I guess toward the end of his reign he got to be pretty autocratic and he was taken out by a military coup, but in Ghana I feel like they kind of choose to ignore that part, so he's mostly remembered for the good things he did that helped improve the country. The mausoleum is shaped like a tree stump to symbolize how he died too soon and still had the potential to do more great things, or something like that. They explained it better than that, obviously. Then there was a museum with lots of pictures of him with other world leaders, and lots of things on display, like his possessions and stuff.

We were given a tour of the place, but I didn't hear a lot of the stuff that was said because I stepped away for a second to take a picture of something and I was ambushed by a group of like 10 little Ghanaian kids on a field trip that just started touching my arms and my hair and whenever I tried to ask them questions they all just started laughing hysterically. Eventually their teacher came over and made me pose for a picture with them. They were so adorable and funny. I wish I had gotten a picture on my camera too.

We went back to ISH and I made myself dinner, and sat in on the Ghana Black Stars game against Mali that was playing in the TV room. I found that watching soccer's a pretty good way to make new Ghanaian friends. I met a ton of new people yesterday just by watching the game for a little bit. I didn't stay for the whole game because my friend and I left to go to the market, but Ghana won 2-0. We were at the market when we heard on the radio they scored their second goal, and all of the vendors just went nuts while we were trying to buy fruit.

And yesterday, since we finally had a day off with no CIEE activities, a group of us went to the beach near Accra. I finally rode my first trotro to get there, which went alright. It's just like a really, really cramped bus. And I finally started to get some color in my skin. Mostly red, actually. I reapplied sunscreen a bunch but i guess SPF 50 still doesn't quite cut it here. The water was really nice and warm, and the waves were pretty big compared to what I'm used to seeing at the beach. I was trying to body surf for a while, but then I got saltwater up my nose and in my eyes, which was painful. But I want to go back again soon, because I had a really relaxing day.

And then classes started today. I went to my first lecture this morning only to find out that my professor is already on strike. Nice start to the semester.

Also, I start my internship tomorrow! Pretty nervous about that.

That's all I really have for now, but I will leave you all with this: it's called Azonto, and it seems to be huge in Ghana right now. I feel like I can't go a day without hearing it at least like 4 or 5 times on the radio or wherever. But I like the video for it. It's kind of cute. Here you go!