hey everyone! i'm back in one piece from DAr and Zanzibar! It was so amazing to go and see the two areas. Zanzibar was definately my favorite of the two places. It felt the most like a vacation which is what I needed SO BADLY. It reminded me a lot of Venice the way the buildings looked and the feel of the island. All of the buildings are very old and gorgeous because they have a persian influence that makes them elegant, in my mind. There were also SO MANY cats everywhere! They seem to run the streets, no one minds where they sit or what they do. We all decided to go to the beaches while we were there and they were so amazing. The water was so warm and the sand was so soft. When we were in Dar, we decided to try and swim on the beaches of Bagamoyo, but it was such a bad idea! Our first clue should have been that we had to walk out about 200 feet on mucky sand just to reach the water that was beyond a large wall of coral. Once we got there, I thought it would be a good idea to just jump directly in and start swimming. Wow was I wrong. I jumped directly into a huge patch of seaweed that kept grabbing at my ankles and dragging me under. It was so gross. I thought, well if I keep swimming, then I'll eventually reach an area where there was nothing but water. Again, was I wrong. I started swimming really fast and abruptly met with a large coral reef with my knuckles. It was awful. I wish that we would have had a camera so that you could see what I looked like. I was walking on my hands and knees across coral cutting myself to death. Everyone had to do it so it was actually kind of entertaining, but I am still getting over the scars. I can laugh now that it's over! But once we reached Zanzibar, I realized that if I was to ever come back to Africa, I would most likely want to be on an island. Zanzibar is my favorite spot so far just because of the people and the city I was in. It's not as claustraphobic as living somewhere like Arusha. All places are nice though, I just am a child of the ocean.
Now that we're back we are all working like crazy to finish all of our reports and get them ready to present. It's pretty intense, I'm not going to lie. I don't think anyone realized that everything was so serious and that it was supposed to be due so soon. I am very hard on myself when I have deadlines, so I am particularly stressed out right now. I'm trying to make sure that I'm doing everything that I'm supposed to while at the same time enjoy my last 9 days here AND make sure that all of my work gets transfered to I.U. just so that I can get credit for a study abroad program. AHHHH! I hope all works out well.
I hate to say it, but I'm getting really excited about coming home. There are so many things that I miss from home, not severly, but it would be nice to have them. I'm really just excited about being able to be on my own agenda. Anyway, time for class. More to come!