So I am just about to complete my second official week of classes. This experience has been so amazing so far! Every day I feel like I’m learning in and out of the classroom. The classes aren’t that different from what I’m used to at American University, there are normal lectures and seminars. Thankfully I haven’t had a difficult time understanding any of my professors (I have two Nigerians, one Indian, one Kenyan and a Canadian). They are all males surprisingly! Sometimes I struggle to understand other students because of their accents and their inflections, but I’m getting better. ). I’m taking
1.) African Politics
2.) Advance Topics in International Relations
3.) African Literature
4.) Comparative Religions: Islam and Christianity
5.) Introductions to Film Studies
The hardest part for me so far has been the social life. There’s not a lot to do in Yola and you need a car to be able to get around in the evenings so a lot of students get into trouble out of boredom. There aren’t really drug or drinking laws here, so students occupy their time in some very destructive ways. It’s discouraging to see because it’s much more prevalent here than back at AU. There are some things going on on campus, just not a whole lot.
Students here have really embraced me, and unfortunately it’s difficult to return the love when I can’t remember half of their names. But I’m working on it. Two girls, Joy and Asabe, have taken me under their wing and I love spending time with them laughing and just hanging out talking. We’re all just college students, you know? So we’re not that different. But then sometimes I realize that we are quite different.
Last weekend I ventured to the market in nearby town, Jimeta. The university provides a bus on Fridays at 3 pm which is really nice. So I went with Joy and we walked around. She bought sheets for her bed and we got hair clips. It was insane, cars, motorcycles, kids staring at me as they sucked on sugar cane, meat covered in flies, colorful fabrics, and soooo many people! It was major sensory overload, and I loved it! All of the students here HATE the market, they die laughing when I tell them how much I liked it. Just goes to show how immune we get when we’re used to something. I went back on Saturday with another friend and bought flipflops, a new purse, milk, bananas, cereal, and fabric for a dress that is being made for me at the tailor (they use push petal sewing machines!). It was a fun morning, but it was so exhausting bargaining and being out in the hot sun.
The food here has been alright. Every meal is potatoes or rice with chicken or beef and cabbage or some veggie. Then there’s fruit, oranges (which are greenish yellow here, but still taste like oranges)or watermelon (which is really seedy). There’s a snack bar that has donuts which are to die for, I don’t know if you’ll believe me but they’re better than Krispy Kremes (but it could be I haven’t tasted anything sweet in like three weeks so my taste buds are a little dull). I also had ice cream on the way back from the market at a legit restaurant called “Tasty Menu”, it was not normal but it was delicious!
All in all things are going well, obviously there are good and bad days and I’m still adjusting, but I honestly do love it here! The internet has been a trial, considering it doesn’t really work! But thankfully we only lose electricity about twice a day for like five minutes (we’re on a generator), so that’s good. I’ll leave you with a funny story:
So I’m on the bus heading to town on Friday. I greet the student next to me and then like ten minutes later she looks at me and then looks at my arm and asks me what’s wrong with me. I look down and she’s pointing at the beauty marks on my arm! I laugh and tell her it’s normal… in my mind I’m thinking wow I’m such a freak here! Haha
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