So today I thought I'd fill you in a bit on the living situation. I came here with two fellow UFV students: Heather Sye and Natalie Laforest. Heather and I used to work together briefly at Greek Islands years ago. She's from Chilliwack, and we have a few mutual friends, how could we not in Chilliwack?? Natalie is from Mission, we met when we signed the forms to apply for the trip. So basically we were three strangers thrust into living and travelling together. It could have been a recipe for disaster, but we all agree that it's going amazingly well.
The fact that we made it to Nairobi without killing each other was a very good sign that we would be able to live in harmony for 90 whole days. Almost 30 hours of travel time would make even the nicest people irritable to say the least, but we stayed upbeat.
We share a 2 bedroom suite in a residential hotel. Natalie and Heather each have their own double bed in one room, I have a single in the other room. The very first night we got here, we all slept in the one room, giggling and carrying on like little girls for about 3 whole minutes before the jet lag set in and knocked us all out.
It could have been really awkward rooming with two strangers, but we've become so close so quickly. There are certainly no boundaries here. Bathroom doors stay open almost all the time. We all buy our own food, but share it freely. We have so many inside jokes already that its scary.
We've each settled into our roles very quickly. We call Natalie the "mama bear", mostly because she is the oldest, but also because she is the one willing to wash the dishes when we are all feeling lazy. Natalie earns the prize for being the most open about her bodily functions, she has a weak digestive system, and we all hear about it on a regular basis, but we love her anyways. Besides, she's the only one who has got the hang of figuring out the exchange rate between dollars and kenyan shillings in her head, so we have to keep her around! Haha!
Heather is voted the "creep", because she is able to make ANYTHING inappropriate. As well, her facial expressions are hilarious, one look from her and we are all in stitches. Heather gets exasperated when Natalie and I spend too much time uploading pictures, she'd much rather be playing cards. While Natalie and I are both overly worried about parasites, and use purell on a 5 minute basis, Heather is a seasoned and brave traveller, who scoffs at our paranoia.
I am both the "baby and the grandma" (as Heather says, "Either way we have to change her diapers" haha!) I require frequent input on EVERYTHING from which shoes to wear to whether the milk is drinkable or expired, making me the baby. However, I also like to knit and go to bed before 10am, so I get grandma points as well!
From Thursday evenings to Monday mornings, we are basically together every waking second. Having "room mate time" is a big joke, we are together every second, but we still designate time to hang out. From 7pm every night when the sun sets, we have to stay inside, so we tend to get cabin fever. We (ok, me especially) get a little giddy around 8pm. We've tried to curb that by scheduling some fun "room mate time" activities. For instance, this afternoon we went down to one of the tables along side the pool to play cards. It's this really impressive game that Heather taught us. Strangely, the rules change every time we play, always in her favour! Haha, I said next time that I'm going to write the rules down as we go!
Other classic "room mate time" activities include:
-Rocking out to Kanye and AC/DC at 830am to pump ourselves up for getting out of the house so early.
-eating meals together, including pizza and beer, weiners and beans, yogurt and granola... we also like to make fun of each other's weird food habits...
-Me helping Natalie pop the blackheads on her nose...yes, I told you we have no boundaries... I wish this story was made up, but its very true...
-going NGO hunting (aka looking for cute North American guys)
-doing water aerobics in the pool downstairs courtesy of moi and my excellent coaching skills
-running up and down the 6 flights of stairs in the hotel, trying to get/stay in shape while we are here (We can only make it up and down 2 or 3 times, we like to blame it on the altitude)
All in all, we are so lucky! Not only do we all tolerate each other, but we have really great times together, and its only been a week and a half. I'm sure there will be plenty more fun stories to come!
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