8 days to go

So at the moment we have no power or water at our house. Why? Because one of our neighbors didn't pay their electric bill so they literally cut our cable yesterday morning. But I do have battery on my laptop and the neighbor I am stealing internet from has power as well apparently. Needless to say I am ready to make my way to Europe.

Other than bathing in my own sweat, I have been relatively busy finishing up work for my classes, which will be done with by next week. Every Saturday the guys in our house have been playing pickup rugby, which is surely a good time. We play at Marathon Oil's compound with a mixture of expatriates from all over the world. That being said, I am surprised at how much I have learned about other white, English-speaking countries while being here. I have never met so many English, Australian, and South African people in my life. Definitely provides cultural perspective that I wasn't expecting to find whilst living in Africa.

One thing I am going to miss about this place is the food. Since time is running short I have been eating out a lot, which here, isn't really that expensive if you know where to go. I am surely going to try and recreate some of this cuisine when I return home. My favorite dish is likely fried plantains with spicy rice and mayonnaise. Sounds crazy but its delicious.

Here is an interesting anecdote that I have been wanting to share but have been forgetting to mention: About a month ago, we ran into a Nigerian friend who exchanges money for us. Whilst exchanging pleasantries he told us that his wife had recently given birth to a baby girl. When we asked how she was doing, he responded by saying "She has 2 days. Maybe she will die. We don't know, this is Africa," and started chuckling. Interesting...

We have also been experiencing people coming to our door and trying to instigate altercations. Notably a mute guy who lives across the street and tried to mug our resident director over the weekend. Other than that one of the girls was pick pocketed on the way home from school last week.

I think thats all the interesting stories I have for now. I am hoping to have some pictures up of some of our social events, rugby games, etc. pretty soon because that kind of stuff makes up the bulk of what I am doing over here. In the meantime enjoy this picture of the city and its cathedral.