Asalaam aleikum!

That means peace be with you :-) I am finally here in Senegal!! The trip was kind of rough. Very long, with very little sleep. We're not totally un-jetlagged yet but we're too excited to worry about it. I'm in the lobby of the hotel right now where we're staying for the week during our orientation. It's nice because the rooms are air conditioned and there's wireless, so we're totally spoiled for the time being. It is SO. HOT. Like a different level of hot that I have never experienced. They say it gets better after September- cooler, less mosquitos, less flies, no more Ramadan, etc. We kind of get thrown into the thick of things this month. Ramadan is starting and it's pretty intense. We passed by people praying on the way to dinner tonight. The food was good, not totally sure what everything was but we're all being adventurous. Everyone in the group is great. It's a very small group, only 18, so we're spending a lot of time getting to know each other. Everyone is really open minded and friendly, it's a great environment to be in. There are definitely people who are very advanced in French, but they will split us up into small groups for the French class, so I'll be okay eventually. People's majors range from Anthropology to Films Studies to French to Psychology. Today we talked about our classes and our schedule for the week, etc. It's pretty overwhelming. Tomorrow we're going to the SIT building where we'll be taking classes, so we'll be able to get out a bit more and see more of the city. From what we seen Dakar seems very big and spread out. There are a lot of run down buildings, people on the street, animals wandering around, abandoned buildings, etc. It looks a lot more like the Africa I've seen on TV than I had expected. But I haven't seen that much yet. We're all really excited to get out. Apparently French is not spoken as much as I thought. Wolof is the dominant language conversationally on a day to day basis. So, we'll see how that goes. I'm a little nervous about bargaining in the market and everything, but I'm excited to try. We move in with our host families this weekend after orientation which I am really excited about. I'm in the neighborhood of Mermoz. Not totally sure what that means yet. This week is pretty packed with activities but on weekends we'll have some free time to explore. That's all I can think of for now, we're getting up early tomorrow so I'm gonna go shower since I've been sweating more today than I have in a long time. I know everyone wanted to know that. Miss everyone very much!! LOVING Senegal!! Bon soiree!