In Search of Flipper

My coworker's husband invited me on a fishing expedition last weekend. This trip held a lot of promise because he had made the same one a month ago and mentioned seeing "hundreds" of dolphins next to the boat for a good portion of the afternoon.

How can one resist seeing dolphin upon dolphin flipping through the sparkling blue waters?? Well not me. That definitely grabbed my interest more than the fishing part.

Fast forward to the day --

I lasted about 2 hours on the boat, and I was so miserable with seasickness the entire time that the guys offered to drop me back on shore. They were so kind about it.

And, the closest I got to seeing Flipper was a table in a restaurant where we booked the trip. I guess I'll just have to take my chances with SeaWorld from now on...

Farwell Dinner

Our school staff met one last time for a farwell dinner.

Around 12 people are leaving...some back to the states or Canada, others for different jobs to Argentina, France, and Thailand. One couple is taking a year off to travel the world.

I wish all these wonderful people the best!

Staying up Late!

My friend Desvaux has connections.

She got us into an unspecified club (as in workout/swimming/cabana) the other night at 1.30 in the AM to watch the Lakers vs. Celtics basketball game. The late hour was due to the time difference between the states and here obviously...

PR quickly got the television in order, I hopped on pouring drinks, and Desvaux chilled.

The Celtics won, and we all made it into work the next day at 8 a.m. Not bad for staying up until around 4!

Au Revoir

Today was my last day of school.

With my line of work, it's easy to mark the passage of time. Another school year gone...I now have a decade of teaching under my belt. That is incredibly hard for me to believe.

I'm here in Dakar for one more week to get settled into my new place - it has a pool! And then I'm off to do some sailing in Greece with my friend Jill.

Au revoir for a little bit, Senegal.

Brazilian Rooftop Dinner

One of my friends recently had some pre wedding festivities. Part of the night was spent dining on the rooftop of a Brazilian family in Dakar. The family opens up a restaurant one night out of the month, and serves delicious meats and side dishes for those that reserve a spot. I'd heard about this fun dining experience a few months back and had always wanted to go.

I'm so glad I got the chance! I'll try for a repeat next year...

Creative Club

About every 3 weeks, I got together with some other artsy gals to be creative. I usually painted or made cards, Jenn and Jazzy liked to scrapbook, and Stacey funked it up and worked on different projects.

We recently had our last get together for this year at Stacey's. She cooked homemade pizza and cookies...so delicious! Very bittersweet because Stacey is moving to Argentina next year. We'll miss her.

THRILLA

With a group of teachers at my school, I learned Michael Jackson's Thriller dance. We've been practicing for the past 3 months or so and finally performed for our school's talent show yesterday. We did pretty well and had loads of fun!

Here is the YouTube link. I'm in the back middle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpmWbUE4iB0

Eh? (Said with a Canadian Accent)

I forgot to write about my new roomie, Monika! She's now been here 2 months living with me. She just finished doing her student teaching in the upper school where I work, and recently got a temporary job until the end of the school year.

Monika is from Canada, speaks French, English, and Polish, and loves African dance and culture. Senegal is the perfect fit for her!