Some Firsts

I played ultimate frisbee for the first time this weekend. A group of ex-pats (essentially a bunch of white people) get together every week. It was originally started a few years ago by a group of US Marines. Now it is mainly a mixture of people who work at embassies, the UN, USAID, etc. I heard about the pickup games and told a classmate who plays Ultimate competitively back in Seattle. She was super excited and convinced me to come. I ended up playing (ie running) for 1 1/2 hours straight because there weren't enough girls to switch out. People were really nice and were teaching me throughout the game. It was actually really fun and I even threw the game winning pass!

It was interesting to experience a mini America. Kenyans have never heard of Ultimate Frisbee. As we were stretching and getting ready to play, people were talking about their recent travels for work (Mozambique, Kampala, etc), sprinkled in with updates about their most recent MacDonalds meal and how much they want Arbys.

It felt so good to get exercise too! I may try to play on a team when I get back to Seattle now that I will have more time. I am thinking I may also want to play Dodgeball too! I hear there are some teams around the Seattle area.

The group enjoyed a fabulous Ethiopian dinner earlier in the week. I love eating with my hands. A large group of us then went out dancing. It was a bit rainy that night and most people avoided the balcony area. With the bar so crowded, us Seattleites took over the wet and rainy balcony. We had a lot more space and had fun dancing in the puddles! My cheap shoes, being wet, bled black dye all over my feet though. Afterwards my feet looked like they had serious frostbite! They are just now looking normal again. :)

Dancing time!


I wandered around the City Center alot this weekend too. I found a place to buy flowers (and so cheap!) and then bought a vase from the Maasai Market. I managed to get lost a few times but then always got unlost. The best way to figure your way around!

We had another group potluck last night. I made mango crisp but then was too full and tired to eat any of it! Running around for over an hour (ultimate frisbee) and then two glasses of wine meant that I could barely keep my eyes open.

I only have three more weeks left to the program. Within that time I have to prepare for a conference and write a long paper--and that is just for one class!