Arrival

I have arrived in Senegal. The plane rides were long and I had a bad cold which makes it all the more worse. On my flight from Charlotte to NY, I sat next to a woman from Morocco with a young boy on her lap. He was the most beautiful child. We ended up talking most of the way and her inviting me to visit her in Morocco and stay with her while I am in Africa. If there were a way to get there I would definitely go. She said she has a beautiful home and farm and a lot of friends who speak french and would help me speak. Sounds great. I met up with the other students at the JFK airport. They are all friendly and even though I had a hard time socializing with them, feeling so awful, they were nice about it and made sure I was doing ok. We arrived around 9:30 pm here and four of our bags did not make it, including mine. But we are going to pick them up tonight. We had a welcome at our hotel and some pizza and went to bed. I have a roommate from NY, though we are completely different, I am enjoying getting to know her. I think I am a lot different from most of the other students, but it is fun getting to know them and appreciate the differences. They are all just so nice. We move into our homestays on Friday. I live close to another student who is from California, so we will ride together to and from school. I had hoped to be within walking distance, but at least I will be close to another student. I know orientation is necessary, but I am so ready to start classes! I know it is going to be a lot of work, but I am ready to learn. I just had my first meal here. It was delicious. There are three vegetarians, so at least I am not the only one. I also had bissap juice, which is hibiscus and mint and a lot of sugar. Now we are going to have more orientation. Classes start next week!