The big 2-1

Namibia offered me with the best birthday weekend of my life.

On Friday I woke up to a text from a coworker, wishing me a happy birthday. Just half an hour later, one of my roommates who had been getting ready for her day burst back into the room and looked at me and said "happy birthday!!"

I went into work on Friday and my coworkers threw for me a birthday party with cake, cookies, and cool drinks, or as we would call in Minnesota, pop. More than half of the office came out and celebrated with me. It was a birthday/going-away party for me, as today, the 27th, is my last day at my internship. (More on that later) I was on a sugar high for the rest of the afternoon after all of that cake!
My housemates and I all went out to dinner at the Namibian Institute of Culinary Education, or NICE. The food was delicious, salmon with cream cheese and ravioli with tomato sauce and cheese,along with a little vegitarian quiche as an amuse-bouche. For desert my friend Hayley secretely ordered two little cakes for the intern and I (who share a birthday). Photos to come, i promise!

After dinner we all headed to a bar where one of the interns' friends was holding a going away party. We hung out for a bit, me not drinking (until 12:01) , talking with some people I knew and some I didn't.

To top off the evening we decided to go to one of the clubs in Windhoek called La Di Das. We all danced the night away until at least 3:00am, some later, with all sorts of music (not great music but we take what we can get right?) Many of us had some 12-15 Namibian boys trying to dance with us, to which we attempted to politely decline. One of the guys in our group had the opportunity to dance with the Namibian guys. Getting home at around 3:30am, I was exhausted!

On Saturday I went hiking on a hill that overlooks Windhoek, and on Sunday we all had a big "family dinner" at the house, everyone helping to make Mac & Cheese, Sushi, 7-Layer Dip, and Vegan Chocoalte cake/ cupcakes. Needless to say, most of us overate. We then raided our interns' closet, dressing up in some pretty fantastic outfits. A good party and a great end to a birthday weekend.

Windhoeked

This week has gone by so quickly it's been difficult to process all of my emotions towards this whole trip and all of the events I have already encountered. This weekend I spent much of my time with my fellow CGE-ers (Center for Global Education) exploring Windhoek and it's little nooks and crannies.

Today we went to the craft market, which is basically a large building with vendors (mostly women) selling handicrafts, jewelry, photography, and many more touristy things. I bought a few items, and found this wood-carved tortoise on our way out. I thought it was appropriate since I miss my tortoise Leo, but I don't think I'll be bringing this guy home with me.

Even though it is winter here, the temps are close to 75-80 every day during the daytime, so the pool in our backyard is nice to dip my feet into, even though it's too cold to swim in (maybe on a really hot day I'll be brave!!)
The sun rises here close to 7:00 (I've yet to get up that early so I can't give you a more exact time), and sets close to 5:45 pm. The temperature difference during the day and night impresses me, as some nights it's down to 40 degrees F.
We start our classes on Tuesday so I spent a few hours today soaking in the sun and reading by the pool; a good end to an amazing first week.
In Windhoek there are a couple parks for lounging, eating, studying- this one is called Zoo Park (there are no animals here, and I have not found any evidence of any animals ever having been there). The downtown area of the city is not too large but has many restaurants and bars (if you know where to find them). The main street is called Independence Avenue, which cuts north-south through downtown.
Though I enjoy walking down Independence Ave, my favourite streets so far are Robert Mugabe St, Fidel Castro St, Florence Nightingale St, and John Meinert St (which I live right off of). Most of the street names here of scientists, philosophers, Namibians, and other famous individuals (such as Gandhi and Beethoven).

Today we went to lunch at an Italian restaurant in downtown, which ended up being a restaurant where only white people eat. Though most of the people in the restaurant were not tourists, there was only one table that did not have whites sitting at it, which is a little strange where whites make up 200,000 of 1.8 million Namibians. I felt awkward sitting at a relatively nice restaurant being served by coloreds and blacks, while neither were represented as customers. I wonder if there will be similar encounters in the future.