First weekend

Well, doesn't time fly. I can't believe I've been here 5 days already. It's quite easy just to slip into it, and everything seems really normal. We've kind of been a bit confined since Thursday as well, as it's been raining pretty much all the time. It's the short rains which are apparently a bit late, and I'm sure they're meant to be characterised by short bursts of very heavy rain, but we seem to have had n almost steady patter with not much relief. It's quite cold inside as well, as it's designed to keep cool, when it's cool outside and you're indoors not doing much it's quite chilly.

So anyway, apart from the rain i've not done a huge amount. Thursday I just spent reading really, and it started to rain. Friday morning I read and then Dave and I sorted out the finds storage room, which looked like quite a task but because there were the two of us doing it it went quite fast. I kind of took on the organisation as well and decided what would go where, and we had a bit of a giggle so the afternoon went quickly. oh, also there were monkeys in the garden during the afternoon. It seems they came out after the rains to eat the fruit or something. They were cheeky critters and because I'd left my window open I half expected to go to my room and find one in there later on.
At about 5pm Matt took us out for a drink, which was nice, although as we got to the place it had just started raining, and there was a torrential downpour just in time for us to get soaked trying to run to the bar. So I was sat there with my cold Savannah shivering because I was soaked through. But still, it was nice. It was an Ethiopian place and we're gonna go there when Dave & I get back from our Sudan fieldwork, which will be nice, and there's a new attachee arriving while we're away so it'll be a nice chance to meet her.

So, yesterday we got up fairly early, well, to leave at about 10.30, to go to the Sarit centre which is like a shopping centre with a few shops selling clothes, books and stuff to the more middle class people. There's also a food court and a cinema, which is going to be showing MJ's This Is It while I'm in Sudan, so I might not get the chance to see it. *sniff* But anyway, we split up and had a wander round, and then accidentally met up at a coffee shop which wasn't the one we'd planned to meet at, early than planned, cos there isn't actually much to look at there. So we had lunch and then Hannah went off to her sex talk (something to do with the research she's helping out on) and the rest of us went food shopping in the supoermarket and then walked home. Then that afternoon I moved into Hannah's room as that is where the girl attachees usually stay, and they had 2 new guests coming this weekend so needed my room. It's nice to be finally unpacked, and hopefully I don't have to pack up again when we go to sudan, it'll just be a case of packing what I need and then when the new girl arrives she can have my bed and I'll have a camp bed in the room when I come back.

So yes, on to today. I slept in late, which was lovely. Then got up and pottered around not really getting much accomplished all morning, before getting ready to go out to this play that Hannah had seen was on. So the four of us went along to that, which was fun. it was quite funny, about a married couple and another couple who were meeting for the first time from an internet dating site, and people getting confused with each other, and it made us all laugh out loud quite a lot. It was kind of like a sitcom on stage.
Then we went for drinks in this ridiculously expensive hotel over the road. It's very snazzy but I felt completely out of place there with my muddy trousers and trainers. Then by the time we'd finished it was getting dark so we caught a taxi back to the institute. And thats me about up to date with what I've been doing really. It's not incredibly exciting stuff at the moment. Just kinda plodding along.

Tuesday is Kenyatta Day which is a public holiday so everything will be shut, so I'm going to have to get some reading out to do a bit of research as I won't have much else to do. Matt is off until Weds so I've been told to think about what kind of thing I might want to do for my own research, as well as doing more reading about the sites I'm going to be going to. We're also all going up to the Rift Valley together (Me, Matt, Dave & Hannah) which I think is going to be a kind of educational trip or something, and on the way back Dave is going to Baringo for a week to do his own research, so I'm probably going to go with him. I think we'll camp by the lake and then have to do a hell of a lot of walking to find the villages hes looking for. But it should be good, and then on the way back we're going to stop off at a couple of places including Hyrax Hill and Olorgosailie which I'm quite looking forward to. And I'm going to have a look and see if there is anything else MSA related I can visit in the area while we're there. So I'm going to have to research the area and see if I can think of something I might want to do for something like masters or phd research. Which is really good that they encourage us in that direction, I suppose as it works in their favour in the future. So yeah, lots of reseach over the next couple of days. I've been completely relaxing this weekend anyway, so I feel almost guilty because I haven't done as much as I could have already. But it's been nice, and it's good to get adjusted for the first weekend, catch up on sleep and stuff.

Although last night was the first night I was sharing a room with Hannah, which was a bit weird. Also I woke up with a really bad sore throat and felt really coldey and ill so had to get up and find tablets and stuff. And then it must have been a combination of having seen Zombieland twice before coming away, and then watching an ep of Supernatural, but I had the weirdest dreams of being chased by zombies and stuff, that kind of carried on a bit while I was sort of awake as well, so that I knew I was dreaming but was unable to get away from it for ages. Weird. So obviously I watched more Supernatural today which was enough to put you off camping, which is great considering thats what I'm going to be doing in Sudan. Hmm, I may have to give it a rest. Might be a bit too scary for me to watch on my own. And after I went to all that trouble to download them and everything!

Ah well. I think that's pretty much it for now. I'm sure something exciting will happen eventually. At the moment its just rain and reading.

Oooh, but I did have to do some washing yesterday cos Dave spilt soy sauce on my jeans, so I got to use a twin tub for the first time in my life. Most exciting. It worked really well as well, although everything was kind've covered in blue fluff but I don't know where it came from. But yeah, excellent. Things came up so clean, even the mud stains from my jeans! Brilliant!

Right then. Enough of that. Please email me and let me know how everything is going back home! Miss you all.

xxx