City Life

This is Mallory and I at the water's front in her beautiful city!

Right off the bat let me tell you all that I'm posting pictures from a link on the left. It's titled "Pretty Pics" and you just click on the link "Niger Photos #1" and "Niger Photos #2" and you can take a look at a few photos that I posted on my facebook. There are several of Karissa and I and many of the safari that we took at the beginning of February.

I have been here in Central Asia for 4 days now and it feels like just yesterday that I was in Morocco waiting to get here. Yesterday Mallory and I had brunch and headed to a mall across the water - which meant that we had to take the boat! It was so fun getting to ride and see the birds, not to mention the city from a completely different view. The mall was so much fun! I bought a t-shirt from "United Colors Of Benetton" and looked in tons of different stores. They have Adidas, Nike, Reebok, and many other athletic stores as well as many dressy clothing stores too. It was a lot of fun to just browse. I didn't have a change to go to the mall in America when I was there in September but I did go to one in South Africa. But this one was a bit bigger with more of an American selection. Mallory and I went to a bookstore were I read an article in the "People" magazine about the pilot who landed a plane on the Hudson river. I hadn't heard that story before and if you haven't read it yet either you should get online and check it out. It's pretty amazing.
Mallory and I made a stop at Starbucks and I had my favorite - A cold chocolate chip creme. It was so good! We left after dark and took the bus back to the water where we then took the boat back to her side of town. It was raining and the bottom of my pants were soaked which meant that my shoes and socks were soaked too. I thought that I was going to lose a toe from frostbite or something!
We stopped at a vegetable and fruit stand and bought some of each. We made vegetable and chicken stir fry in a tortilla wrap and it was so good! Then we ate the most amazing orange I've ever had for dessert.

This morning Mallory and I left for her language tutor's house. Her name is *Aleah and she lives a ways away. We left and hopped on a bus where we rode for about 25 minutes before hopping off and climbing a killer hill to Aleah's house. She is a very nice 28 year old who knows how to speak English but refuses to do so around Mallory in order to help improve her language skills. She talked to me through Mallory the whole time and it was a great cultural experience for me. She served me Chai (the same tea drink that we have in Niger only not near as strong) with a little chocolate chip cake and a warm croissant. About halfway through Mallory's language lesson I put on my winter gear and took my camera out to take some pictures of the city from a distance.
Mallory and I left a little bit later and went to her office where I met up with a couple of people from my FPO two years ago! It was great to see Ryan and Laura. We are headed to their house for dinner tomorrow night and I will take a picture. I will get to see their little girl, Selah, again too. Laura told me that regardless of the fact that she won't remember me, she will be my best friend in less than 5 minutes:) I'm excited about tomorrow evening.
I was also able to meet another Journeyman, Jeremy, today and talk to him a little bit too.

Jana (Mallory's roommate) returned from the States today from a work conference she was attending. It was great coming in from the freezing cold to be greeted by her! Jana and I walked to the Post Office to pick up a package that she has there. It's quit different than my Post Office in Niger. I have one for the whole town that I live in and there are well over 10 here in this huge city. Jana and Mallory talked about which one she had to go to in order to get her package. So Jana and I took off and left Mallory talking on the phone with a friend that's in America. We walked a few streets and went through security at the mall and down a flight of stairs to the Post Office where the man told her to come back tomorrow morning because they were closing up. So we came back up to their apartment and sat down to check email and facebook. We then began talking about what to have for dinner when they informed me that they could order just about anything and have it delivered... WHAT?! That's awesome! So we all decided on McDonald's and Mallory got online and ordered us all Double Cheeseburger meals. It was at our door within 10 minutes! We put in the movie "Top Gun" which I had never seen before and I ate my first McDonald's in over 5 months:) Boy, was it good!

Tomorrow morning Mallory and I are hitting up the gym for a good workout. So I'm going to close at this point. I hope that you all enjoy the pictures and stories thus far. Be watching for more!