Im finally coming home...

We all went out for a last dinner to a resturaunt that sells wild game. Everyone ate ostrage, wild boar, warthog, crocodile and waterbuck... ew I had a salad but the whole table smelled like meat. We also went out dancing for the last time which was fun... we went to the art market for a few last minute gifts and then pretty much just packed. im leaving for the airport in what seems like an eternity! just thought i would update everyone since i will have no form of communication in a little while. Thank you for all of the thoughts and prayers- i will return home safetly :) I also heard that cousin Emily was having a sad day missing me so I just wanted to reassure her that i am coming home and I can't wait for a BIG hug from her. I miss everyone sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much. See you all soon!

I can not wait for Monday! of course our flight leaves Accra at like 11:30 pm so we have to wait alllllllllll day :( Most of my things are already packed :) Now we are all living off rice and whatever condiments are left over... ketchup mustard thousand island dressing lol... we are trying to get creative and we are all running out of money. I finished my exam which was super easy so now theres nothing but relaxing and tanning to do :) :) :) I think today we are going to a pool and then we are going to a club tonight for one last hoorah. Im counting down the seconds!!!!! Its really hot here omg- i cant wait for the snowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

This past weekend :)

This past weekend was really fun! A few of us traveled this weekend to some really nice beaches :) Im def going to miss swimming in the ocean waves. We also went to see a film that was made in Ghana called A Sting in the Tale... it was interesting to say the least lol. We had to keep asking ghanians what was going on in the film because it was really hard to follow but all in all it was a pretty good movie. We also went to a club and danced until 5 in the morning... my feet still hurt! On Sunday the Aya Center took us to get Chinese food for our goodbye dinner, and then we took Alicia to the airport. The dinner was really really good! but the good bye was sad :( It makes it seem so much more realistic that we are going home in 8 short days I am soooooooooo excited. We leave 1 week from today... My bags are pretty much packed... i am really ready to go home. See everyone soon! Ill prolly update after my exam on wednesday for the last time :)

12 days until I'm home :)

I finished all of my papers!!! :) I feel so relieved! Now I only have one exam to study for which is on Wednesday... and then school and everything is over. This weekend a few of us are going to travel a little and go to some beaches and just work on our tans before heading back to the freezing cold weather in MI lol. On Monday one of the girls (Alicia) is leaving so on Sunday the Aya Center is taking us all out for dinner and dancing which will be really fun! Other than that I really don't have any other plans set in stone. A couple of people are going to a voodoo market in Togo which sounds ind of interesting so I might put that on my adventure list?? Miss everyone and cant wait to see you in 12 short days :) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

Update! TWO WEEKS LEFT WOOOHOOOOOO

The past week was pretty interesting. There have been a ton of power outages… more than the usual one a day… it makes the heat unbearable because the fans don’t work. The heat has been CRAZY… I take like 4 showers a day just to cool down. Mosquitoes have been worse that usual too… but I think that’s just because we are forced to leave all the doors open for airflow in the house. Thanksgiving was quite interesting because we tried to cook a 5 course meal for 30 people in a short amount of time with a dinky stove and no normal tools. I now know that if I can make Thanksgiving dinner here I can definitely make it in the US no problem. The convenience of going to a store and it having all of the ingredients seems so crazy to me… just to get the ingredients to make green bean casserole took a couple of hours because we had to go to one place to get a pan, a few different places to get enough green beans, and everywhere to try and find cream of mushroom soup lol. Insane… let me tell you. And then there was the turkey crisis. The boys said that they found a store that had already cooked turkeys so we were just going to get one of those since it was almost impossible to cook one on our own with our little oven. A few hours before dinner the boys went to go get the turkey and they realized that it was actually like lunch meat in a box that they thought was shaped like a turkey… leave it to the boys to screw up thanksgiving. They got a frozen turkey… defrosted it in the microwave and cooked it at full heat in the oven for the three hours before out guests arrived. Apparently it turned out to all of our surprises lol… and everyone seemed to enjoy it. We had some fried veggies, a fruit bowl, green bean casserole, stuffing, turkey, gravy, garlic mashed potatoes, rolls, and apple pie. People chowed  I also found some ranch dressing which I have been searching for the entire time I have been here and have had no luck finding… so I also made myself a salad smothered in Ranch  People invited guests and friends from their internships and the Aya Center. We had about 30 people all together I think. Dinner was at 7, but everyone stayed really really late. One of the guys from the Aya center brought over all of his DJ equipment and blasted music the whole time and everyone danced, it was so much fun. We had all the kids make hand turkeys and pilgrim hats  I was really sad that I could not have Thanksgiving with my friends and family back home, but this was pretty ok.
That weekend we all made the trek to the cultural center. It’s like an art market where all the people go to sell their artwork. We toured there the first week that we were here but we weren’t allowed to buy anything, just look. It was really overwhelming then because all of the vendors were pulling at us and yelling obruni come buy from me. It wasn’t much different this time but it was less of a shock. I got to practice my bargaining skills which I am pretty impressed with- I got some good deals  My favorite quote that all of the vendors say is “Obruni… its nice to be nice” which basically means come buy my stuff for really expensive lol. Now we use that quote all the time at the house. The cultural center was pretty tiring so we all went home after a long day of shopping. Bringing back all of our stuff on the tro tro home was quite interesting. The tro tro home was also interesting because a preached decided that we would be his audience for the day and stood up in the front seat facing us and yelled bible verses in Twi the ENTIRE way home. I’m kind of used to this sort of thing by now, but this guy was kind of over the top.
We also went to a World AIDS day concert. Tom, a guy we live with, has spent his whole internship for the West African AIDS Foundation planning this one event. We got to meet a bunch of famous rappers and the whole event was a total blast! Everyone enjoyed themselves.
On Sunday I packed one of my suitcases with souvenirs to see how much room I had left lol… its sad that I am already packing… but I am SOOOOOOO excited to come home! I have two of my papers done, my twi test done, and my presentation done… so now I only have one more exam and a paper to do. I also finished my internship on Monday!!!! I corrected exams from 7am to 4pm with no breaks but got them all finished and recorded. This upcoming weekend we are all planning on doing a little exploring and def going to a beach so that we can look tan when we come home  Cant wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanksgiving and more waterfall pics :)

More birthday pics...and CAKE!