Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Indigo Montoya

yesterday was our first day of classes. i am officially a senior. blerg.

a few of us got the bus from ouakam to the school and that was an adventure in itself. we are the first stop so there is barely anyone on the bus when we get on. five minutes later my face is literally touching the sweat under an large african man's armpit while mr hands-on over here is having a field day. not to mention liz (another ciee student) is busy getting pickpocketed next to me (there was nothing in her pockets so no big deal except oh wait we get to do this everyday). needless to say, we push the button to get off at our stop, the bus doesnt stop and we end up back tracking about half a mile to get to school. i am pretty sure 68% of the sweat on me was not my own. african public transportation in a nutshell right there.

my first class of the day is gender and development. my prof is a woman who studied in kalamazoo so we have a special bond, or at least she was really excited that i understand the cold weather there. she seems really progressive which doesnt seem to be common outside of the school so i am fer sure stoked on that.

next class is wolof. awesome. because there are letters that dont exist in the english language that are used in wolof and i wish i could show you some examples but they dont make wolof keyboards so that will be difficult. also there are different ways to hack up sounds from the back of your throat so that will take some getting used to.

next class. MY FAVORITE. it is french phonetics. i couldn't even tell you what we did because i was too busy comparing my life to the princess bride. why? my prof has six fingers one of his hands. the 6th even has a fingernail. i challenge anyone to try to take his class and not picturing him fighting indigo screaming, "you killed my father, prepare to die"

my other french prof is a polygamist. you know, the classic conversation starter.

later that night i was hanging out with my friend/brother/uncle ousseynou and we were swapping music. it's always fun to see what songs people know who are not from the us. so obviously i asked him if he liked beyonce. he does. +10 points for ousseynou.
later i recieved a text that said, "S8 content de la musique i love you te gentille." i dont know what the S8 means but i chose to translate the text as "thanks for the music"

6 comments:

  1. Hi Sarah,

    Your mother shared your blog with Stephanie and me today. We will look forward to watching you grow. A young man started here at Pepsi a few months ago and he is from gambia. He was able to read to me the wolof you had written in a previous post. How was your sleep? Peaceful. Pretty cool to hear him say the words verus how I was reading them, not very close on my part.

    Stephanie and I will keep you in our prayers. Have a great time and life life BIG.

    Mike Reynolds

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  2. SO seriously, Sarahtutu, have you considered being a writer. You have a gift.
    Praying for you dahling.

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  3. get ready to explode on the literary scene, Sarah Helen, if you do not do something special with these blog entries, the world will be poorer for it. All this time searching for your major -- who knew? Write, write write .... and live life to the fullest. xox gma

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  4. Yes, Sarah!! Everything that Gma said! Laughing out loud with your stories. Question: Are you going to have to duel the 6 fingered man for your exam?
    Love you,
    Aunt Diana

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  5. Sarah,

    I spoke with my friend, Mafoday, who is from Gambia and he told me of two artist you should check out. the first one is huge(his words) in Senegal and his name is Youssou Ndour. Another guy he has actually let me listen to on a recent trip is named Saikouba Bambino. There are some others who play the Kora, and african guitar which is pretty amazing.

    God Bless and it is time to get serious in Life, NOT!!!!

    M

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  6. mike!
    i know youssou ndour! and mafoday is right he is HUGE here. he actually has a concert coming up in october or november i think that some people were thinking about going to. i like him a lot, and i will have to check out saikouba bambino.
    some people were also thinking about going to gambia for fall break...any thoughts from mafoday on that??

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