Things we take for granted in the US:
1. Not having to constantly carry toilet paper
2. Milk
3. The guarantee that there will almost always be running water
4. Up-to-date textbooks
5. Standardized and organized public transportation
6. How easy it is to access almost anything by internet (this is NOT the case when the internet is as slow as it is here).

On another note....in case I didn't already love this country enough, I think my dance class will push me over the edge. We had our first session tonight and it was incredible. It's a class of about 75 in a fairly large auditorium; one third of the students are Ghanaian and the other 2/3s are foreigners (I mean, it's Traditional Dance - are we surprised?). Apparently we are going to learn three different dances this semester. They did demos of each of them tonight and though I'm a little intimidated, I couldn't be more excited. We started to learn the first one and I'm going to have to ask someone how to spell it, but it's sooo much fun. The instructor told us that unlike almost every other dance technique, your posture is supposed to be completely bent, your knees and your back at about 45 degree angles. I loved the explanation for this: Each of the dances we're learning were created for a specific ritual or purpose (obviously). Since all the dances were created while most Ghanaians were farmers, the dancers would be slightly bent over from carrying loads on top of their heads all day. Actually, Ghanaians still carry almost everything this way. You see women and men all over campus with the goods that they are selling on a tray which is then balanced on their heads.

The class is doubly fun because we have students from the Performing Arts school playing the traditional drums while we dance and they get really into it. One of our U-Pals is actually the Master Drummer (apparently, this is a role) and he's really fun. He is a Theater major concentrating in stage directing. I asked him if we were allowed to audition for the plays and he says we are, so I might check if any of the plays need an oburoni.

Twi, one of the 45-50 languages of Ghana, is obscenely difficult to pronounce and the spelling looks practically nothing like it sounds but the grammar is fairly simple. Unlike my experiences learning Romance languages (*cough*french*cough*), I find that the locals are absolutely ecstatic when you say you are learning Twi and they are simply dying to help you. After our first Twi class, it seemed as though the entire Night market knew we had started and so each vendor spoke to us in Twi - only the basic greetings but I'm sure that conversation will increase over time. It's a lot of fun and the locals are incredibly helpful. Twi is one of the largest subsets of the Akan languages meaning that it, or a similar variation, is spoken by approximately 50% of the population. Our professor taught us that even some people in Cote D'Ivoire speak Twi because of how large the Akan Kingdom used to be.

Another striking cultural difference: In America, at least the America that my parent's brought me up in, it is fairly rude to snap at someone to get their attention. Here, it seems like the snapping never stops and they never mean any offense by it. They will snap in the direction of something if you are asking where to go. They will snap at you on the tro-tros so that you pay the fare. They will snap at the end of a handshake if you are their peer. It honestly seems like there is constant snapping. I'm starting to get used to it, but it was incredibly strange at first.

If you have been emailing me and been frustrated that I haven't gotten back to you, it is because it's nearly impossible to access my Bucknell Email on this internet. Therefore, if you would like to reach me, emailing me at makethemostofmusic@yahoo.com is the safest bet.