party in the usa…

or maybe not so much today...

hi friends, here’s the deal, paragraph 1-4 is pretty much to keep my parents updated on the details of my travel, so I’d skip down to paragraph 5 world cup stuff, the scene starts in a bar here with the song “party in the USA” by miley cirus playing…

Why do we toast bread? This morning we came down for breakfast: bread, tea and fried eggs, pretty standard. I toasted my bread, spread on some butter and jam and started to eat just as a man across the table, Father Thomas from New Orleans, asks me why I toasted my bread. What would you say? I went with “because I like the crunch”...? Thu said because it’s nice to have warm bread…? He wanted to know if it changed how easy the toast is to digest. All of us decided it did not, but no one could really explain our motivation behind toasting bread. He opted against toasting, and the next morning, so did I.

On to more pressing matters: we pretty much did Arusha by foot today with Roger as our guide. We walked around from about 10a.m. to 2p.m. learning the ins and outs of the city. Shoe and clothing outdoor markets, food markets with many unfamiliar fruits and vegetables, and fabric stores galore! Also, unique to Africa compared to other places I’ve traveled, lots of dried sardines, seriously infinite dried little fishes that stink, and beans of every color in different sized bags that made for some pretty sweet pics. Also, spent a good amount of time being pestered at the outdoor craft market where you can find pretty much every souvenir you could ever want, and many that you definitely do not want (full sized maasai spears – I guess some people might want those – and knives and animal hide shields and huge statues – which would be cool to bring home but impossible to pack). So many beaded things and carvings and kelli, you would be in paradise, the giraffe everything is amazing!
I’m getting a little tired of being called “white person” – mzungu in Swahili, a word that greets us far more frequently than the “rafiki” hello I prefer (meaning friend : ) Oh, and also, got called Barbie today, so that pretty much sums up a low point in my life. In other news we saw our first dogs today, we’ve been surprised not to see dogs running around and the two we saw today were, gasp, on leashes! Seemed very unusual for an area like this. We also found out when we returned late tonight that there are apparently dogs that live here at the hostel. Four big, but quite emaciated looking, dogs who greeted us with wagging tails when we were let in through the front gate. Leashes and wagging tails are not something I associate with dogs in places like arusha, but I’m ok with it. If anything the dogs here are just little too friendly (amy may or may not have gotten a love nibble right on her ass) and as much as I want to pet them (or bring one home) I promise, for my parent’s peace of mind, that I won’t : ) I think…

We figured out we can run here today! There’s a nice loop just outside the hostel, part dirt road past these huge fields with soccer goals, except no nets, and not really lines or grass to run on but there were some serious soccer matches going on there yesterday and I think we were grounds for calling a time out as we walked by. The loop we ran today is probably about a mile and it’s a quiet road in terms of cars but with loads of foot traffic, which means lots of staring, like “is there something in my teeth? because everyone’s looking at me funny” staring… or actually more like “did I remember to put pants on? because everyone’s looking at me very confused” kind of staring. As if we don’t draw enough attention with our winter-lasted-until-summer pale Oregon skin, running definitely makes us even more of a spectacle. Glad we can entertain the locals.

I’ve just been rambling, wasting time because we got home and there is apparently a wedding across the small river from our hostel that is still going on (after midnight) and the music is so loud for a moment we were convinced the party was in our room. It’s way too loud to sleep, the karaoke or drunk guy who took over the microphone, is incredibly obnoxious, and you’ll soon learn I can sleep in some noisy situations, so yes, this is quite bad. So I’ve saved the best for last, and the best goes like this – we were picked up by dr lee today at 5 and he took us to a sports bar not far from the hostel. Pretty empty, but lots of tv’s and the world cup playing on every one. We went to support N. Korea as they lost to Uruguay. Poor dr lee, from S. Korea, but sad about the loss just the same... It was a decent game to watch, nothing like the US playing Algeria during our flight here, where every passenger had their individual TV on ESPN and the plane was cheering for the US’s win 1-0 in stoppage time. I’ve never been on a plane that sounded so much like a bar… but back to tonight... The game ends and we find out (yes, we’re very out of touch with everything), that the US plays Ghana at 8:30!! So we hang out for an hour or so and as we do people start trickling into this place. By the start of the game the bar is packed and there are more Americans than I’d like to admit. A group of UN interns or something (I didn’t hear exactly what the girl said) were gathering near us in a mass so obnoxious it took me about 2 second after their arrival to figure out they were American, givin’ us US citizens a bad name with their strapless tops and drunken dance moves and loud voices… they were entertaining to watch, but it’s a little embarrassing to know you’re associated with that, and also, a handful of them were chain smoking <- not awesome. It’s been so long since I’ve been in a place where smoking is allowed and Thu, Amy and I all got home complaining of raw throats and watering eyes. Not sure why anyone would electively inhale that carcinogen… So aside from the annoying Americans (I’m only kidding… mostly), the other half was a combo of foreigners from other places and locals, so the celebration when either team would score was equally boisterous. Great game, incredible game… sad loss… but edge-of-your-seat kind of game!! (did I mention I slept through the first half?), yeah, I think jet lag finally caught up with me and there was nothing I could do to keep my eyes open. We were on a couch dead center in front of the big screen and as soon as I slouched down it was all over. Luckily I woke up for the important stuff… Thu’s pretty much in lust with #10, and Donovan did score the only US goal, so you’ve got to give him that. Amy’s claimed 3, and I’m a little jealous because Bocanegra is a babe. So I’m at a toss-up over Dempsey and Feilhaber, what’d you think? 22 or 8? I’m open to suggestion, unless you’re crushing another player, in which case we’d like to hear from you too : ) It was pretty sweet watching the game, which is taking place at night, when we’re here in the dark too, it’s seems, well it is, so much closer and real. And the energy in the bar tonight was insane!!

Alright, joy to the world, the music has finally stopped, and it’s just after 1a.m. so I guess that’s not bad. I need some shut eye. More adventures tomorrow I hope! Bye for now!