Downtown with the crew..., originally uploaded by Kattaka.

Photo after walking all day trying in vain to get to Nairobi National Park - it's Darryl and Lauren. Tim our fearless Dutch leader is somewhere off leading the way...

Sunday the four of us (possibly getting on each other's nerves as we only hang out with each other), went for Nyama Choma (roasted meat) at one of the places that Lauren & I went last weekend with her co-worker. It was good - roasted goat is delicious. But the power kept cutting out so we couldn't get any fries.

Then I hosted a wine and cheese party where we sampled some Kenyan cheeses (including brie, blue, and goat) and strangely enough - we had mostly South American wines. We even increased our social circle by inviting Nelly (the Quebecois intern who lives far from us and who we went out with last weekend).

I must say - this weekend I was feeling a little bit irritated with Kenya. I mean, the novelty of being in a new place has worn off a bit and the little things that are irritating that I used to ignore because I was excited about being someplace new are starting to hit me a bit more. I mean, I'm still really happy and excited to be here most of the time, but I've compiled a top 10 list of things that are starting to drive me batty. This is just to give you an idea of what my daily life can be like here... take them with a grain of salt. I do...

Things that irritate me:

1)Tiny ants crawling in my hair. (they are EVERYWHERE!)
2)When I forgot to turn on the water heater at least 1/2 hour before I have a shower – Brrrr!
3)People asking me if I want a taxi every five seconds. Taxi, madame? Taxi, madame?
4)Difficulty in acquiring change. No one ever seems to have the correct change whether I'm buying a bag of chips or taking a cab – it always seems to be a problem.
5)Denomination of bills – the largest bill available is the 1000 shilling – which equals out to about $16. When you have to take out $550 worth of rent money – that's a lot of bills to carry around!
6)Decent cheese is hard to find – and very expensive (we're talking a small cheddar for $8).
7)An oven that takes 45 minutes to heat up and elements that are equally as slow. I'm lucky if I eat dinner by 9.
8)Slow internet connections. I thought I would get used to it but it's hard when I'm trying to upload photos and it takes about 10 minutes PER photo (reduced size).
9)You HAVE to barter with cab drivers and street vendors and almost everyone. Sometimes you just don't feel like arguing – you know?
10) I can't eat goat for lunch every day.