Junie's Online Thoughts
Saturday, March 08, 2003
Gawd damn! The computers are slow today. ARGH!!!!!!!!!! Did nothing yesterday but grocery shopping and going to the bank. Wow, what an exciting life I lead. Today is more of the same...woke up too late, made lunch, emailing now, going to buy a few groceries for supper (big Indian feast with a strange cheesecake-in-a-box that was on sale) and exercise. Boy, the thrills never cease!
Im at an absolute loss of things to write about today. Its not like I dont have anything to say, but nothing is coming out. Oh! I know! Last night, I had the best Italian experience of my life. When we were about to leave the restaurant, we both wanted to weep with joy. We have terrible luck going to the same restaurant twice, so were leary about going back to L'arco, the Italian restaurant we went to for Jeremys bday. But it turned out to be great....good wine, good bruscetta (and free!), good bread (and free!), good appetizers (they gave them to us for free!), good pasta, good chili olive oil, fabulous tiramisu and awesome creme caramel (they gave this to us for free too...who knows why) AND the best customer service Ive seen here in Ghana. The whole thing made my heart sing. We kept thanking the waiter and told him to tell the owners that this place rocked. I was happy to see other customers in there...it was empty the last time we ate there. I hope they do well for themselves.....and we will go back anytime we have a celebration.
As we walked home, we kept exclaiming "God, that was soo good!" or "Boy, Im really happy right now." I love being blissed out on food......one of the world's best pleasures.
Well, thats it for me today. More later...
Thursday, March 06, 2003
Sorry....the internet was freaking and I didnt want to lose it. NOt much to add...today was Independence Day here in GHana and we tried to walk to Independence Square to see it. Unfortunately, we had spent too much time trying to pick off the ice/defrosting the frig and when we reached the stadium, we met Erin, who informed us that it was over. We missed lots of marching, some small dancing, parades of military folks and a fly by with some helicopters. THe president was there, but Erin couldnt understand what he was saying...and said that most was really boring. Oh well.......we went to a French-ish bakery instead for pastries and stopped into Busy for a short time to check email before heading home.
Thats all for now...I have a lot to write about from stuff that happened before we left...but dont feel like doing it today. Hope all of you are well...more later.
whew! Its good to be home! I wrote a bunch about the trip in my journal, which I dont have with me now, so I will just skip around and write more about it later. Overall, it was okay, although I was really frustrated with the trip to Cape Coast and frustrated with Ghana last night. The canopy walk was fabulous and by far the best part of the trip, worth all the chasing and pain in the butt. But the Hans Cottage SUCKED monkey ass--its a total bait and switch scam. They advertise $15 doubles, expensive already compared to cheaper shoestring hotels, but it was my birthday right? Well, they dont tell you that theres only ONE $15 double and its always booked, so you have to stay in the $30 doubles with a crappy air conditioner, a tv with one channel, water that runs out, power that goes out and bad food. The buses consistantly ran late, we had a hard time finding trotros, got cheated by every taxi, felt cheated at every meal because every single thing in Cape Coast was grossly more expensive than Accra and half the quality. My birthday included the nice canopy walk---VERY cool---seven rope and cable bridges suspended along the tree middles and tops--a great view and worth every penny--watching the ocean, having a beer. Those were the good parts. Oh, and de-worming. That was fine, too...a tasty orange pill....no after effects and no worms.
The whole trip rose to a crescendo yesterday when we wanted to get out of Cape Coast. We had bought advance tickets on the 4 pm bus, only to learn that they had overbooked by an entire bus and we, along with hundreds of obnoxious stupid teenage school boys waited for the 2nd bus to arrive. An hour late and surrounded by hormonal loud boys, we left for home. Got off in Kaneshie to escape the chorus of animal noises and sports shouting, caught a trotro to Circle, and when I got off the shit hit the fan. My backpack was falling apart and I was hugging it in my arms until we could figure out where we were going. I felt someone dig in my pocket, where my mini wallet was and started screaming, "HEY! HEY! HEY!" while turning. The guy was totally sloppy and I could feel the whole thing until he dropped my wallet on the ground. I picked it up, and because my arms were still full, I couldnt punch him in the head and my brain/mouth wasnt working enough to scream THIEF or STOP or KICK HIS ASS. (next time....Ill be ready......) I woudlnt have lost much...only 30,000 cedis, but the principle of it chapped my ass. I was holey pissed off all the way home and really frustrated with ghana and ghanians and the whole abruni abruni problem really bugged me.
HOld on.....
