gonna leave ghana and off to go to togo

sorry i didn't update yesterday! i didn't have much to say since i didn't do much (again, thankfully). i had class at 10:30, and afterwards gillian and i went to the post office to do our usual thursday mailings. i really didn't do anything else the rest of the day, except have a great dinner at sunshine. after dinner, we watched hotel rwanda. it was my first time seeing the film, and it was really emotional but also really good. don cheadle did a great job, and seeing on film what we often hear about on paper and pay no attention to was moving. i hope all of you see it if you haven't.

also, on a totally unrelated note, as i'm sure many of you have heard, a group of about 50 radical nyu students called "take back nyu!" has spent the last two or three days barricaded inside our biggest dining hall which is also in our student center, kimmel. they effectively shut down the entire building, keeping the guards over hours and disrupting much of the business and social activities that happen daily in kimmel. they are protesting and advocating for a number of things-- some of their demands are reasonable, while others are completely insane. they are protesting under "we, the students of nyu" and i just want it to be known that i, for one, do NOT support this extreme and unprofessional/unorganized way of going about negotiating with john sexton and the school. to read the list of their demands, visit: http://www.takebacknyu.com/. to read the coverage about the protest (which ended in multiple arrests and 18 suspensions), visit our school's newspaper online at http://www.nyunews.com/. this is the kind of stuff that gives nyu a "whiny, prissy" reputation in new york, especially, but in the nation also. our press is always bad press because of people who need to be a martyr about something, anything, just for the sake of being a martyr. maybe i shouldn't be writing all this on my blog, but it pisses me off. anyway, please know that whatever you read or hear about on the news is NOT indicative of what 95% of the student body supports. just some crazy radicals trying to protest and make headlines like it's the 1960s.

this editorial, written by the entire washington square news team, sums up my ENTIRE stance on the issue: http://www.nyunews.com/opinion/staff_editorials/tbnyu_is_vocal_but_doesn_t_speak_for_all_students-1.1487680

whew. anyway, today was a good day too! again, did absolutely nothing, and slept in for a long time which was nice. gillian and i stayed in our pajamas most of the day. most of the students in the program went to their optional homestays this weekend, but since we're leaving for togo tomorrow, about 5 of us stayed behind (about 8 of us total stayed behind, the others are just staying in accra). the small group of us went to dinner at tante's and afterwards came home and watched america's sweethearts. gillian made a cake (which is interesting in its own right, since we lack many ingredients and our oven doesn't have a temp. gauge), and it turned out pretty good! we love cake here, and find any reason to eat it.

tomorrow we leave for togo! we plan on just spending one night in kpalime (pronounced polly-may), where we will wake up sunday morning at climb mt. agou. since togo was a french colony, no one speaks any english, and we are lucky we have marika with us, who speaks some french. this is when knowing many languages comes in handy! i've decided my future kids are going to speak at least two languages. they'll learn both english and spanish from a young age, so they can function more easily in foreign worlds.

well, better get to bed. we have an early morning and busy day ahead of us (a 6 hour tro-tro ride!). i will take LOTS of pictures, and will update you all when i'm back on sunday.

have a happy weekend, sending lots of hugs.

love love love

edit: no one who engaged in the sit-in was arrested, just suspended.