Gej naa la gis, blog! That's Wolof for, "long time no see." Naka tang bi? That's Wolof for "How about this heat!?" and it is now how everyone greets each other. BECAUSE IT IS SO HOT. LIKE LIVING IN A CONVECTION OVEN. And it is only February. Sources say that May is positively volcanic. Back-of-the-leg-sweat has become a very significant problem. Yesterday, there was also no water. I generally don't have water in my room between 8am and 10pm because I live on the second floor, but yesterday there was no water anywhere on campus. Like not even water that you could buy. Considering the blazing, 100° heat, I am impressed that I lived to tell the tale.

But what of the happy, exciting things that have developped over the weeks since I last wrote? Well, I am now entrenched in extracurriculars, and the prospect of scheduled meetings and rehearsals fills me with unimaginable joy. Especially considering the fact that my classes don't start until mid-March. I have joined the Catholic choir, the members of which are super nice and very happy to have me join them. In fact, they were so happy to have me that they gave me a solo to perform at this special thing they were going to! Unfortunately, I was so excited at this opportunity I did not stop to ask what the special thing was or where it might be. The next day I found myself on a bus heading for the bush and realized about an hour later that I had signed myself up for an all-day church retreat. Oops! Ten hours later, after much Jesus, juice, drumming, and rejoicing, I returned home with the following life lessons in my pocket: Always ask clarifying questions; when you don't understand what people are saying, don't just say yes.

I have also joined a theater group on campus. At our first meeting they cast me very appropriately as the aging Senegalese actress Awa who is ostracized by her friends and family when she tells them she has AIDS. Probably the part I was born to play. The people involved are really nice, except there is this one guy who apparently thinks that I have no reading comprehension skills because at every rehearsal he explains how the scene goes despite the fact that I have already demonstrated that I have it memorized. It gets really annoying. It is also annoying when he asks me to marry him and take him to New York. Hahaha, I say "Ndank ndank mooy japp golo ci naay!" Translation: slowly, slowly you catch the monkey in the brush; read: back off buddy.

Coming up! Saint Louisiane nightlife: can it still be called nightlife when it's 6 in the morning?

Happy one month anniversary of me being in Senegal! I have VERY little to do here in Saint Louis, and I'm beginning to feel the old ennui. Probably because I have no real classes yet, no extracurricular activities, no travel plans, not that many friends, and just generally not a lot of direction right now. I am looking to join the choir here, and I've heard tell that there is a theater group looking for participants, so hopefully things will pick up soon. Maybe I will be the first musical theater ambassador to Senegal.

In the mean time! I will give you a sense of what it is like here at the university and in the city;

PROFILE: UNIVERSITE GASTON BERGER

LOCATION: SAINT LOUIS, SENEGAL

CLIMATE: Morning-Pleasantly cool with a gentle breeze; Afternoon-Hot; Late Afternoon- HOT AS ALL GET OUT; Evening-Pleasantly cool with a gentle breeze.

FEATURES OF GEOGRAPHICAL NOTE: The Senegal River, Some trees but not very many, lots and lots and lots of sand.

FAUNA: So many goats, donkeys, cows, and cats that hang around everywhere. Goats are the funniest slash most awesome animals ever to exist. They are so dumb and eat so many things that are inedible but they are also the country's only form of large scale waste management. ANECDOTE: The other day I was running and there was a cow in my path and I kept my course and the cow ran away from me! How crazy is that?

ARCHITECTURE: Strangely futuristic, makes me feel like I go to the University of Mars which is fun and exciting (apparently it is supposed to look like Mecca rising out of the desert but really it looks like the 1965 version of UofMars); residences are low, trapezoidal buildings of sandy colored stucco arranged in little pods called Villages; classrooms are all in big square buildings on a separate part of campus that seems to be a Mobius strip because regardless of how I try to get to or from there I get lost or end up somewhere I wasn't suspecting; there is a giant, rhombus-inspired tower that houses who knows what kind of wonders inside its walls.

STUDENT BODY: Mostly West African, a handful of Americans, three Canadians, two Austrians; mostly muslim, those who aren't muslim are probably Catholic; extremely attractive and well-dressed, like I feel completely inadequate every time I leave my room; popular majors are informatique (computer science), geography (not just ready maps, agronomy and agro-business, population and migration stuff, environmental studies and more!), and of course English and Anglophone Studies. ANECDOTE: Yesterday was Mardi Gras and the Catholic contingent on campus organized what appears to be an annual pageant of what they call "deguisements." What it actually means is that everyone cross dresses and puts on little skits for student judges who pick the best cross dressers and the best skits and give out prizes. I was witness to the Muslim celebration of Tamxarit in Dakar, which was pretty much the same thing except instead of doing skits, the cross-dressers make a lot of noise and "steal" food that people leave out for them. Odd, or maybe not odd, that such a gender-normative culture has such a penchant for cross-dressing.

TRANSPORTATION: Walking; dubiously beat up taxis; Kaar-rapides (which I amstilltoo timid to take); carts drawn by horses

CITY LIFE: Beautiful but in a really sad way-all the buildings are brightly colored, 18th century French colonial relics that are now either crumbling or being rebuilt because the city was recently made a UNESCO World Heritage Site; the bridge going from the mainland to the city is called Pont Faidherbe, named after the French governor who institutionalized and mobilized the French colonial project which is kind of weird (but not as weird as the fact that the most beautiful/expensive hotel in the city is a former slave house); crawling with sort of creepy and really obvious French and otherwise European tourists; really nice French Cultural Center paid for by the French government that has a library and hosts assorted cultural events like movies and concerts and book readings; many many nightclubs and many delicious restaurants; a cool but crazy market place where you can buy literally anything.

That's all for now, next up: Attaya! the three hour long cup of tea you wish you could have four times a day