settling in

hello again,

so I apparently won't be writing as often as I thought, because our internet is not as reliable as I thought. We have pretty reliable internet at the nyu academic center, but during the free time when I'd want to be writing long emails or these updates would be at the end of the day, and yesterday our power was out. That shouldn't be a problem, except our new generator apparently isn't working. Even when the power is working, our wireless box(?) doesn't always send out a good signal. So I'll update when I can. I'm also pretty tired still, so I don't have that much energy, and just want to sleep when we get back. The real problem with the power outages is that we don't get running water though, and that is pretty gross.

But, since I can write now, how about I tell you about the fun things going on. It seems like our schedule is always busy, and we're always running late to things. I've decided it is a hurry up and wait system we're operating on this week, because we always seem to have lectures or programs go too long, and then we're just late all day, but even when we arrive late to things, we just end up waiting around for things to get started. But it's generally ok. The most frustrating thing has been registering at the University of Ghana, because they allotted 3 hours for it on the schedule, and on the first day we didn't even finish half of the general registration process. AND THEN you have to go and register again separately at each department where you might want to take classes. So today we went back and finished general registration, and ran around to some departments to register, but we'll probably go back again tomorrow. This of course has eaten up our 'free time' and we're behind on other planned activities, like our Twi lessons. All I can say in Twi is hello, how are you, what's your name, and where are you from...but since greetings are really important, I guess that basic stuff is helpful. It would be nice to know more, but we'll learn throughout the semester, and it's not that essential, since most Ghanaians speak English. It's just nicer to try using the local languages out of respect, etc.

So even though we're mostly through orientation, I'm still not sure what classes I really want to take. Many things seem really interesting, and some I may just audit. I really wanted to take this course called traditional medicine at Ashesi University, but I may also sit in on an Economic development course there, for example, because it would be interesting to see what discussions the Ghanaian students are having about those types of topics. Ashesi seems like a pretty neat university, because it was founded only 5 years ago by a guy who went to Swarthmore, and worked for microsoft in seattle. So that school is much more like a small american school, and is very discussion based. Ashesi means beginning. There's a whole interesting story about ashesi and it's beginning, and the president of the school is really cool, but i'll tell that another time. maybe. The university of Ghana, Legon, is on the british system, so there won't really be assignments that are graded, because it's mostly just based on a final exam grade. So we'll see how that works. A lot of those classes are much larger since the campus has 28000 students, so it would be really easy on some to just sit in and no one would really notice (although we do stick out...) However, it should still be really easy to sit in, and part of what I'm really interested in learning from these classes is not so much the material, but the way in which the material is being taught, the teaching style, and perspective, etc. So I haven't really picked a class there yet, because I'm not sure what would offer the most unique experience. Part of me really wants to take a science course to see how they are taught differently, but I'm not sure if I want to be graded on it. I signed up for a sociology course in gender studies, which should be similar to my anthropology work, and I'm signed up for a zoology course, but that's just because they told us to register in departments we think we might be interested in. Next week we'll "shop around" for classes, and see what we like most. I also want to look in on some of the archaeology courses and see if they tickle my fancy. I'm also not sure with the upper level science courses if I could sit in unnoticed, and I probably can't audit a lab....but their system is very slow, and I'll figure it out. At the nyu campus...or building with two lecture rooms, I'm hoping to take the documentary course, because that's pretty key in some anthropology work, and I wouldn't do that kind of thing in NY so here's the place to try it. I hear people can do some really great work with that course, so it should be fun. There are a couple of other courses more focused on pan africanism, and globalization in ghana, and literature by african women that all draw my attention for different reasons, but again, I'm going to shop around.

Let's see what else I can write about... I was the first one to arrive at the compound, and that was really funny. Plus the RA for our building called me Erica the whole first day, and since I was so tired I didn't bother correcting her, and now I'm pretty sure she'll call me Erica the whole time. Her name is Ama. Everyone here has names that mean "was born on blank day of the week". So ama is girl born on saturday, and that would be my name too! but our Ama is really funny. She's the one that drove me to the airport twice to look for my lost bag. Retrieving that was a adventure of sorts. They didn't have it the first day, and the second day they said they had it in their records, but I couldn't find it forever. They just let you in this room full of suitcases, and say....look around. really weird system.

We won't pick our community service places until tomorrow, and I'm still not sure what I want to do for that either. I'll write more on that when I know. Tomorrow we're also going to see some famous coffins? because here they make really weird coffins apparently, like in the shape of coke bottles and weird stuff. I'll take pictures. We will also get a tour of the Kwame (male born on saturday) Nkrumah Mausoleum. He was Ghanas first president. It's pretty cool being here this semester, since this is their celebration of 50 years of independence. So far we've mostly just had a lot of mini lectures about the culture, religion, medical care, policies, geography, and more. The real fun should start tomorrow with our fun visits, and on Saturday, we're going to a village, and there will be an official naming ceremony, visit with the local chief, learning different crafts, etc. It should be fun/ interesting, and on sunday we'll get to see a traditional dance performance over brunch. which brings me to food. we do have a meal plan for dinner, at two different restaurants. one is "the best west african cuisine" and the other is indian food. They're both nice, but of course our bodies all have to get used to it, so most of us are kind of sick. My one roommate slept in bed all day yesterday. I'm more bothered by a slight head cold/ allergy i have. I'm not sure if i'm allergic to something here, but it's mostly getting better. Also, I do have 3 roommates, but I haven't really had a chance to get to know them real well yet.

i guess my last comments for now are just some funny things that have occurred. For one, Ama seemed to think we needed about 3 hours in the morning to get ready....so she'd come knocking at like 6:30...and well. it was just a little crazy. not really funny i guess. but worth noting. the real funny thing i guess is that for the normal semester we'll have a couple vans that drive us around between the academic center and dorms and other universities and stuff, but for orientation transporting all 50 of us to the same place at the same time....they rented a tour bus. like a safari bus. with elephants and giraffes on the side. and everyone is embarrassed to be bussed around in it. i'll try to remember to take a picture of it, but its just funny how much we hate being marked as tourists. the vans blend in more, because tro tros are a typical form of transport...and they are just vans which act like oversized cabs which drive a lot of people around. so. i think i've now written more than anyone should reasonably care to read in one sitting, since i wrote it over a very long period of time, taking breaks, etc. Which is probably also why it may not seem logical. But now I'm going to go make some soup and get to bed early to try to be more alert during the day. I'm not sure when I'll write next, but probably this weekend to tell you about those adventures. Til then~