First Post

I'm behind the ball a little bit with this whole blogging thing but I figured better late than never. I am currently studying abroad in Dakar, Senegal, and I regret not having started this blog earlier because the first two weeks here have been pretty incredible and I wish I could have shared it all through this blog. For me to try and recap my time since arriving here would be nearly impossible and I'm sure it would not do justice to the experiences I've had thus far. That having been said I will describe some of the highlights.

I am studying at the West African Research Center (WARC) and Universite Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD). WARC is our headquarters where most of the American exchange students take classes, go on computers, etc. essentially our "home-base". UCAD is the local university, attended by over 50,000 students, mostly Senegalese but also including students from all over West Africa and beyond. I live nearby in the Fann Residence neighborhood, surrounded by Embassies and professor housing. Relatively speaking, it is one of the upper-class neighborhoods around (by African standards, which are in no way bad, just very different from our Western idea). The house is nice, there is electricity and I have my own room. The house consists of a mom, her two sons (16 and 27), an older cousin, and a father type figure who is around for about 4 days out of the week. It's tough to get a grasp of family structure here so I'm not really sure who other people are, but there are others who live elsewhere. The brothers are great and have been helpful in getting me in with the local soccer scene, working on my French, and keeping me company when in the house.

Soccer started off right away. From a soccer perspective this is a great place to be. Every evening the Corniche (the main seaside road) is packed with guys sporting their various bootlegged soccer kits running, training, and playing. This is usually my afternoon program after classes sine I live about two blocks from the epicenter of this kind of activity. More soccer related posts to come, the local team I play for has our next game this Sunday.