Asalaa maalekum!(Peace be with you!)

We started Wolof classes today and it was really intense, but it was also really amazing. For those of you who may not know, Wolof is the local language. YES, French IS the national language, but most of the people on the street speak Wolof.

My goal is to really focus on learning Wolof - especially since I found out that I will have to barter for a car rapide or a taxi to get to class every day.

Speaking of which, I discovered that I am not actually living (or going to school) in downtown Dakar. I will be living on the outskirts of the city in a residential neighborhood called "Sacre Coeur III". The CIEE study center (where my classes are) is in another neighborhood called Marmoz. CIEE is renting rooms from Suffolk University (which is an American University but has a campus in Dakar?) which is part of a larger building that the locals know as E.N.E.A. (confusing I know).

So I am living in Sacre Coeur III, where I will catch a taxi or a car rapide to Marmoz (about a 10 min drive if traffic is good - which it never is, so I have to plan for 30 min.), where I will walk to classes at CIEE which is really a part of Suffolk University, which is really a part of E.N.E.A. (phew!)

Today's lunch was REALLY interesting. Everyone was given a whole fish (grilled, but you could still see the head, fins, eyes, and teeth -yes teeth!) along with a heap of rice and some sauce.
I took a picture of it which I will eventually upload. It was actually pretty tasty once you got past the fact that it still looked like a fish.

After lunch we took the longest French evaluation test on the face of the planet. (Okay so that might be a slight exaggeration, but it was really long). I'm pretty sure I did horribly on the grammar part, but the reading comprehension, the essays, and the speaking parts went pretty well. I'm hoping to test into an advanced French class, but we'll see what happens.

That's it for now. We're supposed to find out who are families are tomorrow and I am very anxious to learn about mine.

Thanks for all of your comments too - I enjoy reading them.

Ba beneen yoon (until next time),
Kelly