On My Way

It has been a great weekend....for any of those that hasn't been able to talk to me or heard through the grape vine...I officially became a PCV (peace corps volunteer) on friday.  We went to the embasador's house in dakar and swore in.  Everyone wore thier complets and boubous; it felt very much like prom.  One of the senegalese tv channels even filmed it and my 1st family saw us on tv.  They were very excited about this, and it was so great they could see me because they are partly responsible i got there.
After swearing, a few hors d'ouvers (ie I at about 2-3 of each one) and some networking we went to the PC office to finish bank paperwork.  This doesn't sound exciting but it mean i finally got some real money...woo hoo I am rich!!!! Then we had time to go to the american club and have some PCV fun.  The american club is kinda of a country club of sorts for ex-pats.  Most people have to pay but since we are poor, dirty PCVs we get in for free.  It was a few fun hours for beers, ice cream, swimming, volleyball and cheese fries.  Yup cheese fries....I just might make it here.
That night, since it was david's birthday, we went to a boit de nuit (night club).  I was initially not too excited because I am not much of a dancer/night clubber. Plus we heard the Senegalese really like to dance while watchin themselves in mirrors that line the wall.  Needless, to say I was not expecting much, but it was our last night together as a group and david's b-day so i went.....Good thing too because it was a BLAST.  I walked in and it looked like a dark vegas club.  There were strobe lights, disco balls and fog. Also, we got there early (midnight) so they played American music in ther begginning.  Most of it was old rap (think high school and early college) and then a few random things like "the twist" and "Jail House Rock".  We basically danced like silly high schoolers all night, sweated entierly too much and went to bed to late. The last part was very Senegalese since they love to stay up till god awful hours.  This sorta things is definitely not going to be a common occurance but it was a blast. I even me a senegalese man how had lived in ohio and spoke wolof to some other senegalese...not too shabby.
The next two days I spent seeing everyone off. Everyone left the past few days to get installed into there permanent sites.  Jen, my neighbor and an awesome girl from bend, OR, are leaving tomorrow morning which make us the very last to leave. I also have had some luck with my computer so I was able to skype Moreland, so great, conference skype elise, laura and denise, and then to top it off (read in an english accent) I had a quite lovely  conversation with my good friend Diana Kichler. Also a suprise skype from the gralds....all of these were great and all but the conference was just good timing, so a nice suprise. As if that was already making me one happy girl, the small group of us left at the center made burritos for dinner and then popcorn.  (soooo good)   Also, I successfully haggeled in french and all by myself the price for a mattress ( a quite fancy one) and a oscelating fan.  They were kind of expensive but I am lucky enough to have lots of stuff left over from my ancien, so I was able to splurge with my install money. The funny thing with buying a mattress here is I wanted a Toubab one, since the foam just soak up sweat and smell. This means i need to pay a lot more money, ie 80,000 CFA, this was basically all of my move in money.  When I got serious about buying it the vender put it on the ground and started to jump on it....i guess that is how they test them out here.  Admitedly it is very bouncy, but that means very little to my sleeping comfort, so I proceded to lie on it.  This apparently is not how they do it bc they just laugh at me, but I am now the proud owner a lovely red rose print mattress.
All in all it has been a great weekend, I have some great friends here, and super cool PCV neighbors....and tomorrow I will be installing in Popenguine.  I know it will be rough, not all roses, (like my bed) but I am really excited to get to know my family, the community, explore and be an adult again. With luck my computer will continue to work everyonce in a while and I fill you in on Popenguine as I discover it.  Also I am currently trying to upload my pictures. They are on Facebook, but I also am putting them on Picasa, so I will leave a link on here for everyone to look at.