Jamestown, dorm, Melting Moments, and lizard

So a long break between posts again! Sorry but a lot of days go by quickly without not much really happening outside of schoolwork and classes. Last Saturday I went with one student, Morgan one of my favorites here! :-) ) to see Avatar. Sadly, we made a mistake with the time and it wasn't showing. So we saw a Bollywood movie called My Name Is Khan instead. And I'm glad I saw it. I officially will never watch Avatar--I have tried to see it three times. Outside of Slumdog Millionaire (which I guess doesn't really count) I had never seen a Bollywood movie--it was epic, long, funny, sad, and had a message--Khan is not a terrorist! 

Most of my time outside of school has been used to research my Spring Break plans. And I am so excited about it. Spring break starts March 12th and ends March 21st. Around then you should definitely check the blog--I will have tons of pictures. I'm going to explore the Volta regions and the Volta Lake. The lake is the largest artificial lake in the world! I might post later this week a map of Ghana highlighting the route I will take so everyone can have a better understanding of what I'm talking about. Basically I will go around it and across it, taking 2 separate ferries, then travel south through the volta regions. The theme of the Volta region seems to be lake, waterfall, mountain, monkey sanctuary, forest, waterfall, mountain....The whole area sounds so beautiful and it's very close to Accra! I'm glad I will be staying in Ghana for vacation because I will get to see places at a slower pace than If i just had a weekend to explore. Then I will move to the coast east of Accra exploring the lagoons of Keta and Ada ( taking 2 more ferries!) Finally, during the last part of my trip I will explore the rest of the coast west of Accra revisiting the Cape Coast and going to Busia--which has the most beautiful beach in Ghana, plus Nzulezo to see the famous stilt village. (The whole village is in the water on stilts). All in all, it should be a really fun week.

I figured I should post some pictures too. These were all taken a few weeks back and are of Jamestown, views from my dorm, a restaurant I go to often, and a lizard. NYU took a short field trip to Jamestown, a neighborhood in Accra. There we met the king!

This is Melting Moments, the best place to eat nearby our dorm. It's a great place to have non-ghanaian food like french fries, sandwiches, or spaghetti. And we get 20% off so Spaghetti Bolognese--what I had for lunch today--costs like $3 here!  Oh, and just so you all know, I rarely eat Ghanaian food!)

And these are views from my dorm:

And lastly, a lizard (quick Fun Facts in Ghana: Part 3. #17. The most common animals I see on a daily basis are chickens, lizards, bullfrogs, dogs, cats, and bats!): 

Fun Facts in Ghana: Part Two

9. This is Big Milly's Backyard, an awesome place in Kokrobite that I stayed at this past weekend. The beach was great, the food was great, the live band was great, the kids on the beach who played with us and took a bunch of pictures (see below) were great.

10. Ghanaian fabric is very popular. There is kente cloth, woodin, and many others. I have bought three fabrics and so far Marjorine, the seamstress that most NYU students go to, has made me a pair of shorts and a vest. I'm not sure what to do with the last one--shirt, shorts again, or backpack. I'll post a picture of the fabric tomorrow, maybe some opinions will be useful!

11. The weather here is screwed up (global warming?)--it's suppose to be the hottest month of the year yet this past week had some of the coldest days since I've been here. Still, it's not like NY but 65 degrees is a lot colder than 95 degrees. Also, it's the dry season but there have been a couple thunderstorms.

12. At the mall--yes, there's a mall here and you can almost forget you're in Africa when you're in it--I bought a comic book biography about Barack Obama. It's actually awesome. I read the first two series, I need to go back so I can find out what happens next! (It leaves off with Obama in Jakarta).

13. Ghanaians LOVE obama. Some people here have called the United States the Obamanation.

14. Blackouts occur very often. The NYU facilities have back-up generators though but eating at restaurants in the dark (the NYU-affiliated ones) has been really interesting.

15. All cellphones have a flashlight. It's extremely useful and I have no idea why US phones have not adapted this. Except the The Iphone "flashlight" (which doesn't compare to these ACTUAL flashlights).

16. The kids here love cameras and taking pictures. It's really fun to do photo shoots with them. Those of you that have facebook have probably seen my pictures from Kokrobite (a nearby beach i went to this past weekend) that are mostly of little Ghanaians. I thought it would be funny to have these pictures up since most of my friends don't know about this blog and so haven't heard or seen any pictures from me, i.e. the first thing they see are these closeups of little children making funny faces. Here's some of the highlights:

You can see the yellow shorts i got made in one of the pictures. Here are some other pictures where you can see my vest, a Haiti Benefit concert, and another picture from the slave castle:

Kakum National Park and Crocodile Pond Restaurant

Ugh this is too confusing and I'm so tired: uploading took forever!. I will just say that we went to a Park where there was a canopy walk, I bought a mancala board (they call the game something else) in Cape Coast, and the ants are deadly--they're soldier ants and they bite.

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Weekend Trip, Documentary, and the Beagle

I miss Beagle!

This past weekend NYU took a field trip to Elmina, a fishing town famous for its slave castle. Cape Town is another, larger town with its own slave castle. Barack Obama came here when he visited Ghana but I'm not sure which castle he went to or if he went to both. The Castle was used by the Portuguese and then the Dutch. Very Sad.

Elmina Village

Coconut Beach Resort!

Elmina was great. My hotel room was so close to the beach! And the beach was so nice but had a very strong pull but I find that fun, haha.

Ok Uploading pictures is extemely annoying on this site.

A Note On Things To Come

Again, it's been awhile. This post is just to say all is well and that I will be posting a lot later tonight (because I'm busy today with a class and filming my short documentary film) on subjects including--

--My recent trip to Cape Coast, Elmina, and Kakum National Park this past weekend!

--Pictures and possibly videos, depending on the speed of the internet, of the trip! (Most likely no videos though--internet here is very slow!!).

--my filming project that I'm doing today. The subject is about Obronis--we will ask local people what exactly the term means, etc. Will explain more later.

--My music class and this fun instrument we've all been practicing (I forgot the name of it!). I'll take a picture of it too.

--and other stuff too.

Ok, hopefully filming today will be alright. I can't even be there for the entire time because I have class at one but hopefully the other 2 classmates can get it done.