its been a while...

As the title of this entry suggests, it has been a while since I last wrote to you all...and much has happened since then. The following is the abbreviated version of what I would have written had I blogged every day these past few days...
Thursday began as a celebration...since we have readings and papers due for History and virtually no class on Fridays, Thursday nights feel somewhat like Friday nights. On the recommendation of our High-life music professor, we decided to try Bywell Bar which has a live band every Thursday night performing covers of popular songs as well as Ghanaian music. I had a really good time dancing and hanging out with the group and hope to turn Bywell into a Thursday night tradition...
On Friday, after a night of dancing at Bywell and our morning drumming class, we decided to take a day trip to Asenema Falls (a waterfall and hiking area located not too far from Accra). The waterfall was amazing...but surrounded by large slippery sharp rocks (ones that Brad eventually cut his face on) which we proceeded to climb until we got halfway up the waterfall and behind it. This was probably not my most intelligent decision but the experience was worth the few scrapes on my arms and legs. The most interesting part of Asenema falls was the journey there and back. Unless we were willing to pay an arm and a leg for a taxi (which was not the case) we had to take multiple modes of transportation to get to Asenema. First we took a tro-tro to Medina (tro-tro's are large eighteen passenger vans that cruise along the roads here picking up passengers as they go, they usually have a final destination but no set schedule, a passenger can get on and thus get off anywhere along the way...tro-tro's are also usually packed full of people and can become hot and uncomfortable, especially if you are sitting in one on a tro-tro yard waiting for it to fill up before take-off). In Medina we got off at the wrong stop and had to walk a half mile up the road to find a connecting tro-tro to Adrukum (the village closest to Asenema Falls). Most of us ended up sitting on the Adrukum tro-tro for nearly 45minutes as the driver waited for it to fill up. After about an hour's ride we reached Adrukum where six of us shoved into a taxi which took us on the last 5 kilometers of the trip. The way back home was even more interesting since Asenema falls in out in the middle of nowhere--which meant we had to hitch-hike back to Adrukum where we grabbed a tro-tro home. We walked about a half-mile before some Ghanaian workers picked us up in their covered pick-up and took us into town.
Having survived Asenema (beat up yet in one piece) we spent most of Friday night hanging out in Erica's room...while most of the boys bought cheap nasty boxed wine for the night, Sam and I decided to be classy and go with the bagged vodka. That's right, you can actually buy vodka pre-packaged in shot-sized bags here...I have included a picture if you don't believe me. The fifth that Derek's holding up cost us about $2 dollars, real classy...they made probably the worst screw-drivers I've ever tasted.
The rest of the weekend was spent on random affairs, Saturday a few of us went down to "Circle" (a shopping area of Accra) where we explored the Hocker's Market as people tried to coerce us into buying all sorts of random paraphernalia.
On Sunday, Emily, Lydia, and I spent most of the day in search of a chick-flick, which was incredibly hopeless... but in the process ended up eating at a great restaurant called Papaye and finding a little Gellato place which sells both Gellato ice-cream as well as other European desserts...yay!
Overall these past few days have been a great learning experience, I've been busy traveling here and there but in the process have gotten quite used to riding on tro-tro's and bargaining with taxi drivers. Hopping on a tro-tro to a rather unfamiliar place is no longer as scary as it was a few weeks ago. I'm also more on my guard than I used to be. I still struggle with knowing when to be polite to harassing street vendors and when it is culturally acceptable for me to respond with a comment as equally rude as the one directed at me. The one thing I cannot stand here is that people (mostly men) feel that they have permission to touch and grab at us ladies. It is not uncommon for a street vendor to grab at my arm or wrist while he is trying to get my attention... At first I was shocked when this happened, then I tried to be polite, now a days I either rip my arm free or attempt to slap their hand away (which sadly is yet to be successful). Overall, I love that I am finally getting used to being here, I'm more used to the culture and how I am expected to act in certain situations.