Visiting my neighborhood and the French Placement test

Welp, yesterday I didn't have time to blog although for good reason as I was trying to study for the French placement test. I'm going to attempt to cover the events of both days in this one blog as well as some extra thoughts so sorry for the long posts! Either way, don't quit halfway! I believe you can make it all the way through!

So I discovered that dairy actually DOES mess my stomach up. For those of you that didn't know, I was vegan in the states for about 7 months and decided to convert to vegetarianism to make my time here a lot easier. Before I left, I decided I would transition in to vegetarianism although I wasn't too happy about the idea. The first thing I ate was a grilled cheese sandwich from cafe brazil, and I'll admit it even though it is an embarrassing 1st world problem, I cried. Foolish I know, but having a mental block against something that you hadn't eating for 7 months causes awkward unnecessary reactions--such as crying. The next day I didn't have any stomach problems so I ate the rest of the cheese sandwich and found that I didn't have a reaction to that either. Thus I decided that I would continue being vegan until I came to Dakar. It seemed practical as I didn't have a reaction, well I'll be the first to say I was wrong.

Eating Dairy in Senegal is like swallowing knives. Adjusting to vegetarianism here has been quite an uncomfortable experience and I hope that the stomach aches will be over soon. I'm thinking it is mainly the cheese, as I ate a bag of cheeto-like chips that really buckled me over. Haven't had any serious side-effects, just terrible stomach pain. A girl here has liken to the idea of calling me Cheetos because of it. I think that is a terrible nickname since I don't even like Cheetos lol I sincerely hope it doesn't stick. Either way the girl, Laura, is pretty nice so I don't really care lol.

ANYWAYS,  I'm sure you don't want to here about my stomach problems, although they have been the conversational topic of choice here in my room (I suppose you can imagine why) lol. So I'll go on to some other aspect of my stay...let's see. 

Yesterday I found out who my family was and where I will be living. I haven't met my family yet, but I know there names! I have a mama named "Yaye" which conveniently means mom in Wolof (the way it is pronounced not the way it is spelled), an older sister (28) named Angelique, a cousin Gizele (20), a father named Benjamin, and a house maid named Fatou (24). Apparently fatou is very nice as the house director said I will make friends with her quickly. I also have many brothers and sisters that are currently studying abroad and the house director, Alain, said that they may visit sometime during my stay. I am very excited to meet my family and I hope that I can make a good impression on them. I want to spend a lot of time getting to know them.

So an unfortunate fact that I found out during orientation, was that it is very difficult to meet and become friends with Senegalese women. Apparently, women don't leave the house much here because that kind of behavior isn't acceptable for a young woman. Thus, I shouldn't be surprised if my future Senegalese cousin and sister don't want to go anywhere. It is a bit of a shame, seeing that I won't be to keen to staying in the house all the time (nor do I agree with it...) but I'll have to take some sacrifices in order to get to know them. Perhaps they will go shopping with me or take me around Sacre-Coeur.

Oh, that's right, the neighborhood that I'll be living in is called Sacre-Coeur  (Sacred Heart) and it is a much busier place than either Wakan or Mermoz (which is where my hotel is located). I went on a tour of it yesterday with all the other students who are living there (which was a lot of fun). It is very business-like at the center, and takes on a residential feel when you go on the outskirts. There are fruit stands at the edge of Sacre-Coeur where one can buy bananas, oranges, peanuts and etc. I think I'm going to like this neighborhood a lot although I heard a lot of good things about Wakan so I'm going to have to go visit! Mermoz is pretty beautiful too, I accidentally took a wrong turn earlier today and wandered in to a square in front of the local Mosque. There was so much life in the streets--including a goat chillin' in front of a store--that I couldn't help but look like a tourist. There was even a nice Senegalese guy who said hi to me in English (which caught me off guard lol). I didn't wander off too far though as I was alone and I didn't want to get too lost. I backtracked and eventually I made it back to my hotel where I ran into a group of girls talking to our guard. He was a younger Senegalese guy probably around 23ish, and I joined the conversation for a bit too. He was pretty nice and I tried to get him to show off his dance moves but he said he wouldn't dance without music lol...lame. Either way, he was nice enough to buy the girls and I some local tea called "Tea Touba" which is apparently a Senegalese classic. It was quite interesting lol. The best way to describe it is a mix between café and thé--or an expresso shot with a bunch of sugar---ending with a licorice taste. Odd I know lol, which is why we all shared one cup. Probably an acquired taste if anything. 

Earlier on today I took the french placement test which was lame if anything. I didn't do as well as I hoped as I failed to really understand a passage that was testing our reading comprehension skills. Urgh. Either way, I hope I place in to Advanced...I really do. Otherwise I'm going to try to argue my case. I also had my first couple of lessons in Wolof today and I didn't exactly catch on too quickly. We learned about greetings and how to say our names. Greetings are extremely important in Senegalese culture and there is a million ways to introduce yourself/ask how a person is so I'm trying to learn as many greetings as possible.

That's all I can really think about as I feel this blog has drawn out to long already. 

For now,

Marissa laa tudd, Maangi sant Ocampo.

Song: Don Mclean - Vincent (Starry Starry Night)