A typical Thursday morning in the life of me!

5:32 am: Alarm rings and I roll out of bed to take a bath. After wiping away the residual dirt in the tub, I typically do squats and lunges as my as the bath tub slowly fills up. However, this morning there was little/no running water. So I forwent the bath and decided to just get dressed and ready for school. Typical breakfast consists of instant oatmeal or yogurt and granola. But seeing as there were no fruit or yogurt in the house, I decided to get phaphatas (delicious english muffin like bread) from a vendor at UB

6:20 am: Out of the house and off to the main road to catch the Block 6, Mogodisthane 8 combi. Excited to see a nearly completely empty one, I hope in the front. We drive slowly down the road, honking the whole way. We stop every block to pick up a Motswana. I don't think i've ever been on a combi with a white person (unless it was one of my friends). We wait in traffic lines at roundabouts for about 20 minutes before going around the entire circle to come back to the same street (just different direction)!

7:00 am: Reach Main Station/Bus Rank where I got my phone stolen a week or two back. Now i'm super careful about how I carry my backpack when I walk over the bridge. Vendors selling their fat cakes, air time, sweets, and brown bananas. I forgo a second combi ride to UB and take the walk through the Parlimentary and Ministry buildings, Main Mall, and past Princess Marina Hospital. Mornings are always cool as the sun is still rising, so its always a pleasant walk. I listen to shuffle on my ipod, still getting super excited when "wavin' flag" comes on. Race past the slow-walking Batswana. My Setswana teacher even admitted that you can pick a Batswana out of a crowd anywhere by how incredibly slow they walk. I wave to my CD vendor at the main mall and continue on past hackling men.

7:40 am: Finally reach the science block at UB and set up shop on my computer for 30 minutes (the professor is rarely on time) before Parasitology class. Talk to friends on gchat who are still up in the US--hard at work in the LL or procrastinating on the internet ;)

8:10 am: Parasitology class starts. We discuss all great things about bugs and parasites. We always go through the origin of at least 5 words. For instance today we learned about Cordylobia anthropophaga. Cordy is like Cardi-- which means heart. When you are infected with the maggots of this fly, it makes you nervous and your heart beats. Lobia is like labia like labia majora. Quite the stretches sometimes, but hey-- it can be pretty entertaining. Dr. Allotey tells us about how the article written about him when he was in Austrailian for an entomology conference. He made the university proud as a "distinguished." He has to show us some pictures of the parasites but can't find them on the projector. I see a document that says "pictures of flies" and show him. He is delighted and tells the class "Clap for Meghan. Great Job. I will have Chocolate for you" He continues to tell us about a fly that is not attracted to REYnann (Ranann, a friend of mind) but the rest of the class because of their dark skin. He calls on Kelsey, calling her Kelly. Kelsey corrects Dr. Allotey but he just laughs and says, oh well the Y in Kelly is just like Allotey so you will need it when we get married. Just fabulous. I'm sure Kelsey will be marrying our pastor/distinguished professor Dr. Allotey soon!

9 am: Get in line to drop off my backpack before entering the library. Can't bring water/food/backpack/anything into the library. Lucked out because it was so early so the line wasn't bad. In the afternoons you can wait as long as 30 minutes. And they always complain our backpacks are too heavy. Maybe if they let us carry them in, they wouldn't have to worry about it!

9:05 am: Head into the air conditioned, Special Documents room on the ground floor of the library, arguably the only quiet place to be found here. Try to get on the internet but half of the websites (facebook, any "entertainment" websites) are blocked. I guess I will just stick to gmail, blogging, and my homework! Hopefully they won't yell at me for using a pen or sitting on the chair the wrong way!