TWELVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

            I have been writing little sticky notes of things I want to make sure I blog about.. let’s see how much my 90-year old memory can remember.

            People are always putting things in the office that they want to sell.  On Monday, I went in during recess time and there was a little Christmas tree for five bucks!  I couldn’t pass that opportunity up, especially since I was so sad that all the trees at the store I went to were way expensive.. like $100.  I just couldn’t bring myself to spend that much on a FAKE tree.  If it was a really pretty real tree, maybe I would do it.. seeing as how they don’t even exist here, I think $100 would be a reasonable price. Especially cause then you get the smell.. I just love real trees. Okay, so I bought it and took it home to decorate it!  Tried to make the lights look all pretty on it, but ended up just throwing them on there because I got too frustrated.  Later in the week I borrowed some more decorations, so my tree is very eclectic, and some might even say clashy.. but I like it still!  Even if it would never make it onto pinterest, it makes me so happy!!

            Then, we had our Christmas staff dinner.  It was at a really nice restaurant and when we got there we had little goodie bags full of yummy Christmas cookies sitting on our table.  The tables all had really cute centerpieces with some fake snow sprinkled around.  It was also one of the first days of the true COLD season, so it was really starting to feel like Christmas!  Seriously, I never thought I would say this while living in AFRICA.. but brr!!  I truly regret my decision not to pack warm clothes because I was thinking “the low is 70.. that will feel good!” but I have been freezing at night!!! I don’t know what is wrong with me.. it’s so weird! 

            Okay, so back to the dinner.. I had a really yummy salad with goat cheese and some lamb… hopefully it wasn’t lambchop! : )  I still haven’t decided if I liked it or not.  It was very interesting.  I think the highlight of the dinner, though was the fishies in the aquarium.  They had poop hanging out of them that was seriously twice as long as their bodies.. I wish I had my camera with me!! : (  It was seriously so funny and so amazing!! One of them got stuck on a rock with all his poop, and finally the poop broke off.  I wonder what they are feeding those poor fish!

            Also this week, I got to try some authentic food that they eat in the bush!  I forget what it is called, because I couldn’t say it anyway.. it was beef and the root that they make tapioca out of (a big hunk of it) covered in green slimy spicy sauce (kind of what I would imagine gruel to be), I think they said it was made out of okra leaves.  I kind of liked it in a very weird way.. but definitely would not choose to eat it every night!

            Friday morning I was packing everything up to get ready to go to school, and as I was putting my laptop away, I noticed there was a knot in my charger cord.  So, I undid the knot, thinking that would be helpful and a good thing to do.  But then I heard a sizzly noise and the light on my computer that tells me it is charging went off.. and it smelled like electric fire or whatever.  But, thankfully we have a super awesome technology man here that had a universal laptop charger that I can borrow until I go home and get a new charger (or a new laptop, Mom and Dad???? ;) )  I am thankful for people who know about technology.. because I sure do not!

            I just got back from downtown.. I pretended like I was in New York for a little while.  Sometimes I pretend like im in France too, since everybody speaks French.  It works for a little while, but then reality sets in that I’m actually in Africa.. which I have to admit, is still pretty cool! : )

            We went shopping and I got some pretty good stuff!   Most of it is a secret as of right now though! : )  It’s that time of year!  I will say that I got my kids some pretty cool gifts though!! Spended more than I would have liked, but I just couldn’t pass up the bubble wands and popper thingies (the ones that you throw on the ground and they pop.. SO COOL!)  I also got a pretty sweet headband with those bobby-things on it which are Santas.  Oohh yes.

            When we were sitting in the taxi waiting for traffic to move, one of the people walking around selling things came up to the window (it was rolled down because it was warm again today) and said “How is you Canada? Are you feeling good?” that is the second time somebody here has thought I was from Canada! Why is that, I wonder?  How do you tell the difference between a Canadian and an American?   I just ignored him because once you acknowledge them, they just keep talking to you.  So then he said “what? You don’t talk to the people here?”  Thanks for making me feel like a jerk, dude.  After we started going again, I realized I should have looked at him and pointed to my ears to pretend like I was deaf.. I still need to try that trick!!

            Twelve days til I hop on a plane!!!!!!!!!!!! Yahooooooooooooo!