Traveling, Airports, First Night in Dakar

Hello everyone -
Well, I have finally made it to Dakar. Good Lord, it was a long flight, but I finally resting in my bed. I left PDX at 8:55 Friday morning nd arrived in Senegal late Saturday night at around 9:30. All those time zone changes can really mess you up. The break down was PDX-Philadelphia-Paris-Madrid-Dakar, with a few hours of layover in between for sanity's purpose. It was fun, and I definetly have a better sense of the world's airports. My favorite was by far the Madrid airport because of it's funky colorful modern design. Check out the links below for a picture of the inside of the building. Note that the support beams are different colored all the way down the main terminal.
http://www.airport-int.com/images/companies/338/imat13.jpg
http://www.koalie.net/Walks/20060504-06_Madrid/20060504120032.jpg
It was fun and exciting to hear so mny languages throughout the various stops. Spanish, Italian, Portugese, Arabic, French, Wolof, and of course, English.

I arrived in Dakar and made it through the mob of people that were exiting the plane. Customs was a breeze because they didn't really care what I was bringing into the country. I just got a big red stamp on my passport. Somehow, I do not think it will be as easy getting back into the US with all my newfound goodies. Out on the street there were over a hundred taxi drivers and "baggage boys" to help you with your luggage . . . for a price. When I saw Prof. Galvan waving his arms from the crowd, I got very excited and ran towards him It is so comforting to see someone familiar, especially after traveling for so long. He and his counterpart took me back to my apartment and showed me around the grounds a bit. My room is jokingly referred to as the "closet" in the apartment because it smaller than the rest, but it is plenty big enough for me. I have a bed and a desk and a small window with shutters that I can open at night. I also received a mosquito net as a gift.

Galvan then told me that the rest of the group was downtown at a bar listening to some local musicians raise money for a grade-school in downtown Dakar. For some reason, the past thirty hours of flying/traveling did not catch up with me, and I dropped my bags off, changed into some clean clothes, and headed down to the club to meet the people from my Study Abroad group. Everyone was really nice, and it was great to know that there are people with me in the program who are as excited and clueless as I am. Galvan knows the area well, and made sure to point out some key locations to us on our walk home.

The jetlag has not caught up to me yet, but tomorrow might be a different story. We meet our conversation partners tomorrow who will be our local "buddy" contacts to help practice the local language and customs, as well as hang out and travel around the city with. Im pretty excited because we also get to have our first real Senegalese meal tomorrow. Hurray for new adventures!