First day of classes

Whew - orientation is finally over, and classes have begun! Last week we had orientation from sun-up to sun-down. The NYU staff here took us all over Accra, in an attempt to get us acclamated, but all I felt last week was extremely overwhelmed! As crazy as last week was, we got to visit some really cool places. We visited the National Museum, and the Artist Alliance Gallery where we saw artisans do kente weaving and batik making. We went to the Kaneshie market, which is this indoor/outdoor market that sells everything under the sun, but you're not supposed to buy any of the food there unless you want to get sick. But I bought some really pretty fabric for around 3 dollars that I'm going to get a dress made out of. There's a seamstress that comes to the residence every couple days and will make you anything for 3 or 4 dollars. Pretty sweet deal, huh?!

Classes started yesterday, but with my schedule right now I don't have class on Mondays or Fridays, which is
awesome! I had my first class this morning at the University of Ghana-Legon. It's actually a graduate
journalism course, but it's introductory, so NYU is allowing it as a journalism elective. It went pretty well today. There are four other NYU kids taking the class, and about thirty students in the class as a whole. The class actually began last week but we couldn't go because we were in orientation. So today, several students led the class with presentations on the development of mass media from books to the Internet, which was interesting, but I'd already learned most of it in my previous journalism courses. What I thought was really interesting was the difference in class dynamics. The presentations were much more relaxed here than any of my classes in New York. And if people got tired, it wasn't a problem to stand up and stretch and wake up a little. The professor actually stood up several times herself and made phone calls right in the middle of the class!

My second class today was at Ashesi University, which is right around the corner from the NYU in Ghana Academic Center. It's called Traditional Medicine, and it was kind of dry today, but the subject matter's really interesting so I'm hoping it will get better. Plus it will count towards my Anthro major so I won't be behind when I come back to the States. My favorite part of the classes is just observing how different they are from those in New York. For instance, the syllabus my Traditional Medicine teacher gave us all today just listed the different books we would be reading throughout the semester, but didn't lay out the different assignments or provide deadlines for any projects or anything; whereas in New York, the syllabus is always five pages long with every detail you could possibly need!

Tomorrow I only have one class: Projects in Photography, which is three hours long, but I think it'll be okay because I think we'll be going on excursions and doing developing and that sort of thing as well. And then Thursday I have Traditional Medicine again, followed by another class at the University of Ghana-Legon called Pidgin and Creole Languages, which will hopefully count towards the Linguistic part of my Anthro major. I'm kind of nervous because it's a 400 level course, and I haven't taken a linguistic course yet, but my friend Ben is taking it with me, so we'll survive together I'm sure.

Tomorrow I have to get some community service things organized as well. During the week of craziness last week, representatives from various community service programs in Accra came to speak to us. I'm excited about several of them - the Osu Children's Home and the New Horizons School for the Intellectually Disabled, especially, but I want to check out this other program called Theatre for a Change first. It's a program based in the UK and they have a project in Ghana called InterACT!, which puts on workshops and performances to educate people about HIV/AIDS. I went to the website and it looks like there's an extensive training program, but there's a phone number to call if you want to volunteer, so I'm going to call them tomorrow and see if there's anything I can help with.

We visited the Labadi Beach Hotel this past Sunday, and it was AMAZING! The beach itself is not so much fun - the water's really rough and full of trash and you're only allowed to swim in a specific area, so there are swarms of people. But the pool at the Labadi is lovely, and the hotel is beautiful. One of the girls here, Francis, negotiated with the hotel manager, and NYU students can pay $40 and get unlimited beach/pool/gym/sauna access for the entire semester. I really want to do it, because it's only $10/month, but then I'm debating...I only get to spend four months here. How much time do I really want to spend laying out by the pool, when there is so much else to see?! Still, sometimes it's nice to have a place to go to chill out, and work out, so I might decide to do it anyway.

Yesterday morning, I walked around the neighborhood with a couple of the other girls here. We tried to do it again this morning, but sleep got the best of us. I'm going to try to get up early several times a week and walk around and just explore Labone. Yesterday, we walked from our residence to the NYU Academic Center to Ashesi and all around, and realized just how close everything is!

For everyone starting classes, best of luck and enjoy! And to all, have a great week!

My Arrival in Accra

Maa dwo! Good evening!

After a day and a half of plane travel, I arrived in Accra Sunday evening. I met about 15 other students in my group on my various flights over. There are almost 40 kids in all, and everyone is incredible. We all mesh really well together and I'm really excited to be spending the next four months getting to know them all.

Ghana is beautiful. The weather is perfect - warm with a cool breeze that makes the humidity much more bearable. The people here are SO NICE. It's really unbelieveable how warm and friendly and welcoming everyone is.

The NYU staff is going out of their way to make us feel at home. Our Orientation lasts all week long, all day, every day, which is exhausting, but we're receiving lots of important and helpful information. The days are broken up into different sessions covering everything from classes to health to computers to safety. We've also had guest speakers come to lecture. Yesterday, the lecture was on Ghana culture and society, by the professor who will be teaching the anthropology class on Society, Culture, and Modernization in Ghana, which I really want to take. However, that class conflicts with the journalism class I want to take, so I may be switching my schedule all around, which is fine. Everything is so flexible here - you can't help but just go with the flow.

NYU has two residences in Ghana now, which are about a ten minute walk away from one another. I'm living in the older dorm, which occupies 29 students in four different buildings. There are seven girls in my building. I have two other roommates, Katie and Delmeshia. Katie's a senior from Jersey and Del's a junior from Boston. Our room is very simple, but very nice. We each have our own bed, desk and closet. My closet is twice the size of my closet at home! And our bathroom is all decked out with marble floors, full length mirrors, and a hot tub! We also have a balcony that looks out over our neighbor's lawn, and you can see the Accra city lights in the distance.

Yesterday was our first day of Orientation and NYU treated us to a buffet lunch at this lovely restaurant. The fried plantains are SO GOOD! Then we jumped in the vans for a quick city tour. Unfortunately, I was still really tired from the night before, so I ended up dozing off in the van! Oops! Oh well, I'm living here for the next four months - hopefully I'll get a good grasp of the city by then! We ate dinner last night at this restaurant called Tante Marie. NYU has set up a meal plan for us there, so we can eat dinner there Monday through Friday, which is really exciting because the food is AMAZING! Last night we ate vegetable soup, jollof rice and grilled chicken, and it was delicious! And the couple that owns the restaurant, and their employees, are so sweet. They even had us write down all of our birthdays so they can put together something special for each. Emily's birthday is today - so we're excited to see what's in store for dinner tonight!

Today we had a little bit of time to venture out into the city alone. They dropped us off in Osu, which people are comparing to the East Village in NYC. It's reminding me so much of Egypt. I can't really put my finger on what exactly makes it feel so familiar, but it's exciting and weird all at the same time. Street vendors line the streets and persistent boys and girls make conversation with you as you pass by. Whether you're traveling on foot or by van, nothing phases them. They're determined to make the sale. I haven't bought anything yet because I'm still getting a handle on the money situation. You get $9100 cedis to the dollar here, so you end up with a big wad of bills that surprisingly goes really fast, despite how cheap everything is here. Plus, there are a lot of logistics that I have to take care of before I can splurge - like getting voltage converters to plug in my phone charger and laptop, and opening a bank account to transfer money from New York, all that fun stuff. It's so weird because in New York, even if I didn't know where to get it, I could just google the who, what, when, where, why, how and step out in the city and take care of it right away. Here I have to ask for help with everything, which is something I have to get used to. Plus while we're all in the same boat, we all need different things, and I feel weird asking the NYU staff to make a special trip for me. Which I know is something I need to get over, because, well, I need my bank account.

If you can't tell already, it's been a busy couple of days, and as always, I'm late to rest and early to rise. I'm having so much fun, but everything is a little overwhelming right now. I'm looking forward to getting through this week of Orientation, and getting all these logistics taken care of, so I can relax and really start living here.

Blogged for Ghana!

"Blogged for Ghana!" Wow, that sounds funny, or perhaps I'm just easily amused...ANYWAY, Welcome to my blog! I've never had one of these before, so this will be yet another of my many adventures over the next four months!

I'm not quite sure how easy it will be to contact me when I'm abroad, but this will be one for sure way to stay in touch with me!

For anyone who may have simply stumbled across this page, my name is Noelle. I'm a junior at New York University, and I'm studying abroad in Accra, Ghana this fall. I spent an amazing summer in my hometown in North Carolina and made some incredible friends, with whom I hope to stay in contact with during my semester abroad. So I apologize in advance for any personal or sentimental comments that may slip into my blog posts every now and again. I can't help it! I haven't even left yet and I miss everyone already!

Don't worry though. This way, I can share all of my experiences with you, and hopefully it will be like you're here yourself! Or, well, at least like getting lots of fun postcards. Except better, because I can write a lot more and share many more photos and don't have to worry about them getting lost in the Ghanaian mail.

My flight for Ghana leaves this Saturday. I did all my laundry today so now the packing must begin. Except I can only bring one suitcase. Hmmm...I can tell this is going to be quite a learning experience!