Monday
Monday started out with soccer practice bright and early! Did some passing drills and scrimmages. Not much else to report on the day, I honestly can't really remember. (oops!)
Tuesday
No classes in the daytime so I just kind of lazed around all morning and early afternoon. Around lunchtime, me and a friend went down to the Accra Mall to do some grocery shopping and snag some lunch. We had ham and cheese sandwiches (so American, it was fantastic) and ice cream. After spending some time in the shops we headed back to campus. A group of us did Insanity (a ridiculously exhausting workout video, but I'm committing to do it everyday for the rest of the time that I'm here! ) After wearing ourselves out doing that, we headed off to dance class. Dance class was fun, as always and we started learning the new dance after our midterm. This one is much harder and calls for some more precise hip movements that I have not yet mastered. Video to come though! After dance class me my roommate and some of the guys from the Cali Crew headed to our favorite restaurant in Accra for dinner; DNR Turkish Cuisine. Literally the best food ever. We always go with about 5 or 6 people and order enough food for 10. It's such a chill environment (right on the roadside) and really does have amazing grub. We probably come here at least once a week (and if we don't come, we get it delivered). We were there until they kicked us out at closing (11, so early!) and then had a chill evening back at ISH.
Wednesday
Headed off to Coastal Management in the morning. Class was good but I felt the mood was a little more subdued than usual today. I found out that the Ghanaian students have to turn in their thesis proposals tomorrow, so it now makes sense. Class was a little more stressful today, as Professor Nyarko could tell people weren't quite paying attention to him and proceeded to shoot exam questions at us, and singled people out, making us stand up and answer questions aloud. After class though I stayed for the seminar that is optional for international students; it was on coral reefs. Super interesting lecture done by Dr. Appeaning Addo who I met with last week, he's a great lecturer, I kinda wish I had taken one of his classes as well! After that I headed back to ISH to finish my assignment for Twi. We had to type out a one page dialogue on a conversation in the market ( It was fairly repetive - how much variety can you really have in a market? Everyone is there to buy something or another - Ex: Wo wa ankaa? Do you have oranges? Aane, me wo ankaa. Yes I have ornages! Wo wa kontomire ni boyare? Do you have palava sauce and yam? Aane! Yes! ....You get the point) Grabbed Mama Tantalizing food for dinner ( peanut soup and banku) and had a fairly relaxing evening.
Thursday
Lots of class today, started out with NGO's. Spent 2 hours talking about how to name your NGO. My one gripe with the Ghanaian teaching system is that they sometimes literally spend the ENTIRE class period talking about something that should really only take 30 minutes to explain. Fairly boring. Came back to ISH after only to be greeted with no power. Went down to the night market and had red red (fried plantains and beans cooked in red palm oil) and hung around downstairs talking to people for a few hours. Power came back on around 3, right when I was leaving for class. Environmental Ecology was standard, although we found out we have a field trip for the class! Professor Attua mentioned they usually take the class to Kakum (the rainforest canopy walkway that I visited when I first arrived in Ghana. See second post for deets. ) which is super exciting! That was one of my fav places and I would love to go back. This week has been ASPA (Association of Students in Performing Arts) Week so there has been a lot of fun activities going on within the dance department. Today for class, instead of being in the studio, many of the dance students, from levels 100-600 (undergrad to masters), all met outside and we started out having a huge dance parade where we all joined in. After about 45 minutes of that, Kofi, our instructor called each level up to do their dance in front of the department. We (level 200) performed Gaun, which is the one we had to do for our midterm. Watching everyone dance out on the street by streetlight and joining in a cheering people on was so much fun. I feel like it is experiences like this, where you're surrounded by culture, is truly what makes study abroad. I really felt like I was in Africa, with the rhythm and drumbeats going and seeing all the truly impressive dance moves.
Friday
Woke up hot, sweaty and with no power. BIG SURPRISE. Power stayed out almost all day. Headed to the mall for groceries and just hung around town for the day. As the closing event of ASPA week, the Dance Department had a banquet in the evening. Me and a few friends decided to hit it up, if for nothing else than the food. Event was supposed to start at 7, we got there around 7:30 and were still among the first to arrive (that Ghana Man Time though...). Event was nice, they had an emcee and the stage was decorated nicely.They gave out a lot of student awards, a few to people we know from dance class, which was cool to be there to cheer them on for. Just headed on back to ISH afterwards and had a chill evening in.
Saturday
Started the morning out with a dance workshop at 8 to make up for the class we missed on thursday. After that, a couple of us decided to head out to Kokrobite Beach, just West of Accra, for the night. Per the usual, the journey there was eventful, confusing and ridiculous. We knew we needed to get to Kenishie Station, but no one informed us that there is a difference between the Kenishie tro tro station located at Kwame Nkrumah Circle and the actual suburb of Kenishie. Naturally, we turned up at Circle, only to realize we had to take yet another tro to get to the real Kenishie and then found out that we could only take a tro as far as Bojo Beach and then taxi. Long story, short, we made it by mid afternoon to our little hotel, the Kokrobite Garden which was AMAZING. It is owned and run by the sweetest Italian-Spanish couple and there are only 5 rooms, all little bungalows and a one person treehouse. Super cute. We spent the day having drinks and swimming and buying more souvenirs at the beach and headed back to the hotel for dinner, where I had the best Italian food i have EVER had. Literally salivating just thinking about it now. After dinner, we headed back to the beach for some live Reggae Music at one of the resorts. Very mellow and fun and we spent the rest of the night there.
Sunday - Monday
Proved to be an interesting day. Started out by spending some more time on the beach having drinks (10 am in Ghana, but it's 5 o clock somewhere, right?) and chilling. Decided to head on back to Accra around 1. It was on the second tro tro ride that I started to feel kind of funny. As we made it back to ISH i felt downright sick and proceeded to spend the next three hours throwing up every 30 minutes or so. It was terrible. At the prompting of my friends I finally decided to call Auntie Sharon and go to the hospital. They made me stay the night (UGH) since it was already 8 and gave me something to stop me vomiting. Next morning, I saw the doctor and she informed me it was a gastrointestinal infection. I am now back at ISH and on my meds, still not eating anything too major, but feeling better nonetheless. They made me stay in the hospital to monitor me (much to my chagrin) until Monday evening, so I spent Monday bored to tears in the hospital room. When they finally discharged me I felt as if i had been sprung from prison (not that they weren't all nice people in there). Spent the rest of the day recuperating in bed. Feeling better though, and updates for next week are to come!
Yebehyia bio!
Monday started out with soccer practice bright and early! Did some passing drills and scrimmages. Not much else to report on the day, I honestly can't really remember. (oops!)
Tuesday
No classes in the daytime so I just kind of lazed around all morning and early afternoon. Around lunchtime, me and a friend went down to the Accra Mall to do some grocery shopping and snag some lunch. We had ham and cheese sandwiches (so American, it was fantastic) and ice cream. After spending some time in the shops we headed back to campus. A group of us did Insanity (a ridiculously exhausting workout video, but I'm committing to do it everyday for the rest of the time that I'm here! ) After wearing ourselves out doing that, we headed off to dance class. Dance class was fun, as always and we started learning the new dance after our midterm. This one is much harder and calls for some more precise hip movements that I have not yet mastered. Video to come though! After dance class me my roommate and some of the guys from the Cali Crew headed to our favorite restaurant in Accra for dinner; DNR Turkish Cuisine. Literally the best food ever. We always go with about 5 or 6 people and order enough food for 10. It's such a chill environment (right on the roadside) and really does have amazing grub. We probably come here at least once a week (and if we don't come, we get it delivered). We were there until they kicked us out at closing (11, so early!) and then had a chill evening back at ISH.
Wednesday
Headed off to Coastal Management in the morning. Class was good but I felt the mood was a little more subdued than usual today. I found out that the Ghanaian students have to turn in their thesis proposals tomorrow, so it now makes sense. Class was a little more stressful today, as Professor Nyarko could tell people weren't quite paying attention to him and proceeded to shoot exam questions at us, and singled people out, making us stand up and answer questions aloud. After class though I stayed for the seminar that is optional for international students; it was on coral reefs. Super interesting lecture done by Dr. Appeaning Addo who I met with last week, he's a great lecturer, I kinda wish I had taken one of his classes as well! After that I headed back to ISH to finish my assignment for Twi. We had to type out a one page dialogue on a conversation in the market ( It was fairly repetive - how much variety can you really have in a market? Everyone is there to buy something or another - Ex: Wo wa ankaa? Do you have oranges? Aane, me wo ankaa. Yes I have ornages! Wo wa kontomire ni boyare? Do you have palava sauce and yam? Aane! Yes! ....You get the point) Grabbed Mama Tantalizing food for dinner ( peanut soup and banku) and had a fairly relaxing evening.
Thursday
Lots of class today, started out with NGO's. Spent 2 hours talking about how to name your NGO. My one gripe with the Ghanaian teaching system is that they sometimes literally spend the ENTIRE class period talking about something that should really only take 30 minutes to explain. Fairly boring. Came back to ISH after only to be greeted with no power. Went down to the night market and had red red (fried plantains and beans cooked in red palm oil) and hung around downstairs talking to people for a few hours. Power came back on around 3, right when I was leaving for class. Environmental Ecology was standard, although we found out we have a field trip for the class! Professor Attua mentioned they usually take the class to Kakum (the rainforest canopy walkway that I visited when I first arrived in Ghana. See second post for deets. ) which is super exciting! That was one of my fav places and I would love to go back. This week has been ASPA (Association of Students in Performing Arts) Week so there has been a lot of fun activities going on within the dance department. Today for class, instead of being in the studio, many of the dance students, from levels 100-600 (undergrad to masters), all met outside and we started out having a huge dance parade where we all joined in. After about 45 minutes of that, Kofi, our instructor called each level up to do their dance in front of the department. We (level 200) performed Gaun, which is the one we had to do for our midterm. Watching everyone dance out on the street by streetlight and joining in a cheering people on was so much fun. I feel like it is experiences like this, where you're surrounded by culture, is truly what makes study abroad. I really felt like I was in Africa, with the rhythm and drumbeats going and seeing all the truly impressive dance moves.
Friday
Woke up hot, sweaty and with no power. BIG SURPRISE. Power stayed out almost all day. Headed to the mall for groceries and just hung around town for the day. As the closing event of ASPA week, the Dance Department had a banquet in the evening. Me and a few friends decided to hit it up, if for nothing else than the food. Event was supposed to start at 7, we got there around 7:30 and were still among the first to arrive (that Ghana Man Time though...). Event was nice, they had an emcee and the stage was decorated nicely.They gave out a lot of student awards, a few to people we know from dance class, which was cool to be there to cheer them on for. Just headed on back to ISH afterwards and had a chill evening in.
Saturday
Started the morning out with a dance workshop at 8 to make up for the class we missed on thursday. After that, a couple of us decided to head out to Kokrobite Beach, just West of Accra, for the night. Per the usual, the journey there was eventful, confusing and ridiculous. We knew we needed to get to Kenishie Station, but no one informed us that there is a difference between the Kenishie tro tro station located at Kwame Nkrumah Circle and the actual suburb of Kenishie. Naturally, we turned up at Circle, only to realize we had to take yet another tro to get to the real Kenishie and then found out that we could only take a tro as far as Bojo Beach and then taxi. Long story, short, we made it by mid afternoon to our little hotel, the Kokrobite Garden which was AMAZING. It is owned and run by the sweetest Italian-Spanish couple and there are only 5 rooms, all little bungalows and a one person treehouse. Super cute. We spent the day having drinks and swimming and buying more souvenirs at the beach and headed back to the hotel for dinner, where I had the best Italian food i have EVER had. Literally salivating just thinking about it now. After dinner, we headed back to the beach for some live Reggae Music at one of the resorts. Very mellow and fun and we spent the rest of the night there.
Sunday - Monday
Proved to be an interesting day. Started out by spending some more time on the beach having drinks (10 am in Ghana, but it's 5 o clock somewhere, right?) and chilling. Decided to head on back to Accra around 1. It was on the second tro tro ride that I started to feel kind of funny. As we made it back to ISH i felt downright sick and proceeded to spend the next three hours throwing up every 30 minutes or so. It was terrible. At the prompting of my friends I finally decided to call Auntie Sharon and go to the hospital. They made me stay the night (UGH) since it was already 8 and gave me something to stop me vomiting. Next morning, I saw the doctor and she informed me it was a gastrointestinal infection. I am now back at ISH and on my meds, still not eating anything too major, but feeling better nonetheless. They made me stay in the hospital to monitor me (much to my chagrin) until Monday evening, so I spent Monday bored to tears in the hospital room. When they finally discharged me I felt as if i had been sprung from prison (not that they weren't all nice people in there). Spent the rest of the day recuperating in bed. Feeling better though, and updates for next week are to come!
Yebehyia bio!
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