something new...

I survived the first week of classes this semester. We only had one morning class today (African Drumming) and now that it's over I am free for the weekend. Classes here have not been very difficult at all, the only homework we have had was for Professor Jelks (who gives a hefty bit of reading and writing to do) and Twi (which usually takes about 5 minutes to complete) so most of us have quite a bit of time to spare.
Life is becoming so ordinary to me here that I have a hard time thinking of things to write about. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find things that people in the states would find different and interesting about Ghana...
Food is continuing to be an issue for the group here. It seems that whenever we go out to a cafe to get some food, something goes wrong. Either there's lack of communication regarding the kind of fruit drinks they carry or there is some mix-up with some one's food. Some places that we go to keep playing the same reggae song over and over again (it's become quite a little theme song for us by now). Anyways, there is always something funny that happens. A few nights ago we decided to try TacoBell which is a cafeteria (that serves absolutely no tacos) in Akuafo Hall on campus. All the Ghanaian girls said they have the best food and that it is the cheapest place to go. At TacoBell, made us sit down right away (although students usually order at the bar where the menu is located) and when we asked if we could order at the bar they wouldn't let us (this was the bright red caution sign there to tip us off that something fishy was going on that we missed). We ended up getting ripped off... the food at TacoBell was quite good and we all had a good time until it was time to pay and they charged us what seemed like too much (but at that point, what can you do, you're not about to argue about prices at a restaurant). When we told our Ghanaian friends how much we spent they were really angry, they said we payed a little less than double what the food should have cost us. Partly I feel like a stupid American but I'm also angry about the whole thing. Yes we should have been smarter, but none of us expected to be ripped off in a restaurant on campus which is supposed to have fixed prices. The market is always a different story and there we are on our guard, but none of us expected to be cheated in a restaurant. I guess next time we'll know.
The thing is, although we're getting used to things, everything is still so different to us here. Sometimes the way they do things here seems jankey to us but we try to go with the flow in order to stand out less than our white skin makes us stand out already. It seems like we can never tell the difference between what's shady here and what just seems shady to us (and is just how things are run)... therefore we are easily taken advantage of. It's frustrating that people think it's ok to cheat us just because we don't know any better. Well, I guess you just learn from your mistakes, take it in stride, and keep going.
I still love Ghana...although not so much TacoBell.

(Emily getting her finger stuck in a coke bottle at Taco Bell, only a few minutes before we got ripped off...)