Akwaaba - Welcome!

I made it to Ghana! As I stepped off the plane I immediately knew we were in Ghana - the heat and humidity at nine in the evening met me as I walked to customs.

I met a few people in the airport in London before my last flight to Accra (the capital of Ghana) that are in this study abroad program as well. It was reassuring to know there were actual real people, just like me, depending on the e-mails that we received in the last few weeks before we departed, trusting that there would be people from CIEE meeting us at the airport.

There I was, with other students, walking to the buses to take us to the hotel and a man came up to me to ask me a question. I knew from what I had been told to refuse letting someone else take my bag so I wasn't sure if this would be the case. But then he tried to pull a quick one on me by telling me he was our driver. I sort of believed him until he asked if he could take my bag for me. At that point one of the CIEE UPals (students from the University of Ghana) noticed what was happening and came up to help me.

We've been at a hotel in Ghana for the past couple of days (although it feels like a lot longer) doing orientation and meeting one another. It's been interesting talking to people and finding out why they wanted to come to Ghana and what they want to do here. There are 15 people doing homestays and 23 people staying in the dorms. I've found myself to have a lot in common with the people that are doing homestays and in the coming weeks hope we will be able to walk to school together or do things outside of the home as I think that many of the people who will live in the dorms will do things together. However, there are trips and other competitions within our CIEE program that will keep us together.

I met my host family last night at dinner and it was great knowing that I actually have somewhere that I will be staying. My host mother is a widow, Grandma Gritty, and her son lives with her, Felix. He appears to be in his thirties and goes to another university. I'm moving in with them tomorrow and am very excited to finally be able to settle in and start to figure out Ghana on my own. Turns out CIEE matched me perfectly with Grandma Gritty who has children in Baton Rouge (and she's been to New Orleans before!) and she owns a nursery school next door to her house. She said there aren't very many children there right now but I will find out more in the coming days.

Tomorrow is the last morning of orientation and we will finally go to the campus of the University of Ghana to see a little bit of it. We did some discussion about classes today but we won't sign up until next week.

I'm starting to learn bits and pieces of Twi (it's pronounced Chi, with a soft ch sound) but Grandma Gritty said she would help. Right now all I know is how to bargain with a taxi driver to get the price lower, which apparently we're always supposed to do.

Also, my last exciting news of the day - I ate octopus for the first time! It was cooked for dinner at the restaurant we went to tonight. There we listened to music and danced for a little while. But now it's time for bed. My roommate (Zoe) and I will be going on a run in the morning, which we've been told is safe to do, because we tried to go to the little hotel gym this morning but the machines were very old and didn't work very well.

This may be the last time I have internet for a little while, until I get settled at my host family's house and go to campus. But I'm here, and it's a dream come true, actually.