Finding a little bit of America

With missing a few of my favorite holidays this year - Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas in what feels like fairly quick succession - I found myself desperately missing home. In came skype and a few imported goods to the rescue. I pulled out the computer and headphones, checked to make sure I still had skype credit and began going down the list and calling the 'rents and the sis' back home. I then dove down deep into the suitcase and pulled out some treasured goods - teriyaki beef jerkey, peanut butter, marshmallows, and swedish fish. YUM! Nothing like the taste of home :)

This isn't to say that you can't find pieces of America here in Senegal, especially Dakar. There's an American food store just a block from the office. A little too dangerous considering I can indulge my afternoon cravings with a packet of cheez-its for 80 cents.

If I venture a little bit farther and take a taxi into the city, I can spend the day at SeaPlaza and feel like I'm back at Southdale or at the Mall of America. They had just raised the plot of land along the coast when I was here back in 2009-2010. Now, it's a magical place of escalators, fixed prices, and food courts.

Enjoying the escalator ride. What a wonderful feeling!

Arguably, much fancier than any food court I've ever seen.

The view from the food court's outdoor patio.

The condiments at the food court. Somehow I'm guessing that these were bottles weren't sealed by the manufacturer...

I can't wait until I get to celebrate Thanksgiving with my friend Kaela from school (we were on the same floor freshman year at the University of Minneosta, and she's also working at Tostan). She got a fantastic care package from the states with Thanksgiving goodies such as pumpkin pie filling! My stomach's already grumbling in anticipation.

A few weeks ago, we also managed to celebrate Halloween. Even though the holiday isn't celebrated here, not even that much in the expat community, Senegal has made the amazing decision to have the day after Halloween, November 1st, a national holiday. This may in fact be in honor of All Saints' Day and not intended as a day of recovery from the festivities the night before, but we're all in favor of using it as such.

We ended up going out for Karaoke on Halloween night and then that next weekend going to a few costume parties. I managed to piece together a cat outfit from scraps lying around the house and my limited wardrobe, which then morphed into a Zorro outfit on Friday and the catwoman on Saturday.

Roommates and I, all decked out for karaoke-ing - it's the new trick-or-treating.

My friend Remy and me.