October 15th

Guess what. Classes have actually started, I've registered for classes (I think?) and I have a set schedule for lectures! I'm taking African Theater, Intermediate Kiswahili, African Political Thought, and African International Relations. I'm really excited about all of them, and I know at least one Tanzanian in all of them (except Kiswahili, obviously). I'm the only white person in my African Theater class, and I really think the Fine/Performing Arts kids are more outgoing than others, so I think that will be really fun.

Other than that, nothing too exciting is going on. Ida took Siri and I shopping on Saturday, which was fun. She and I get along really well so far. She likes to joke around with me, and her boyfriend makes fun of me a lot, so don't worry someone is still trying to keep me in my place, haha.

I finally got sick this week, though. Boo. It was just the normal stomach crap, but I basically stayed in bed all day for two days. However, after that it was over, so it wasn't so bad. One of the girls in my group is a nursing student, so I asked her if I really needed to go to the doctor because I knew my mom would freak out if she knew I was sick and didn't do anything about it. But, she said I could wait to see if I got better on my own, so I did. And now I'm fine! See Mom? I'm not totally irresponsible.

Anyway, other than that, I'm enjoying playing my friends in pool because I had never really played much before, but I don't completely suck. A lot of the time I'm just really lucky, but we don't tell them that. Girls don't really play here, so I'm kind of a spectacle, but really what else is new. I think they're also pretty amused at my competitive attitude, haha, and I definitely have the Moen family to thank for that ;-)

October 5th

This past week was the first week of classes, though I didn’t attend any because everyone is just dealing with registration, so none of the Tanzanian students attended either. There is only one girl in our group that had class, and that was a biology class. Others tried, but I decided just to start fresh this week. So, on Monday, I will be attempting to find Intro to African Theater at 7am, Government and Politics in TZ at 8am, and African Political Thought at 10. My backup PS course in case the other courses don’t work out is African Politics. My other course will be Intermediate Kiswahili, which is going to be incredibly difficult, but I’m excited. My roommate said she’ll help me 

Oh yeah, my roommate moved in!! Her name is Ida (EE-dah), she’s 21, and in her 2nd year here. She’s a political science major as well, and she’s learning French, so that’s cool. Her family is from Mbeya, which you may remember we visited briefly, but they are now living near the University.

She was quite surprised at the way I was living, which was pretty funny. I didn’t think it was that bad; my bed was unmade, and my desk was messy, but there was nothing on the floor! Haha. When I came back to the room after lunch, she had made my bed for me and swept the room (we never knew where to find a broom, so the floor was a little dirty). I’ll try a little harder for her (I tied up my mosquito net this morning), but I refuse to make my bed, haha. So don’t feel too bad, Mom 