Aside

Today, someone tried to scam me. It was more amusing than anything else, honestly. I was trying to catch a cab in tourist central of Dakar — someone please tell me why the Place de l’Indépendance is where tourists seem to congregate here? It’s probably the most boring place in the entire city. The only reason I was there was for an interview. The Place de l’Indépendance is a big rectangular square, that commemorates, you guessed it, Senegal’s independence from…

January 19, 2007 I’ve been in Senegal for about a week now and most things are sort of how they were when I was last here four years ago. Jeez, I can’t even believe that it’s been four years already. Four years? That’s the length of time between presidential elections, the Olympics and the World Cup. That’s how long I was an undergraduate. Four years? And yet here I am, ready to negotiate with taxi drivers in Wolof of a…

LA Times: But Southern California’s six-day cold snap took a surreal turn Wednesday as a rare snowstorm brought snowplows to the canyons above Malibu, left parts of the San Fernando Valley with a white dusting and shut down Interstate 5. The snow levels plunged well below 1,000 feet in some areas, blanketing the Santa Monica Mountains with snow and leaving streets and lawns in Venice, Westwood and elsewhere on the Westside covered with ice from pea-sized hail.

Rabat, Morocco January 11, 2007 Despite what all northern Europeans say, I’ve never really been a fan of saunas. I went to my first one when my parents took me to Finland at the age of six. While it sounds romantic, perched on the edge of a lakeside cabin somewhere in northern Finland, honestly, I just found the whole idea of soaking oneself in heavy steam and then jumping in a freezing cold lake to be just downright crazy. It…

Ok, so I found my host family in Yoff. Well, they’re not exactly a family quite yet. It’s a young couple, in their 30s probably. The guy, Dominique, is from Montreal and the girl, Fatou, is from Yoff, a northern suburb of Dakar, where the airport is. They both work at CRESP and are slated to be married in September of this year. They have a pretty nice and new apartment by local standards, including a real oven, which I’ve…

I’m near that pool in the center.

The good news is I made it on to Senegal safely. The bad news is I never managed to meet up with the guy (“Max”) who was supposed to take me to my host family, which was arranged by Mamadou Gaye. The other bad news is that the airport’s ATM wasn’t working, so I couldn’t withdraw money. (Fortunately, I had $20 and 15 euros, which I was able to exchange.) But, the good news is I was able to crash…

It’s almost 4 am, but I really wanted to get these photos and text out. I arrived at Casablanca airport with no problem. The train station is downstairs from the main baggage claim/terminal area. A ticket to Rabat is 65 dirhams ($7.50) for about an hour and 40 minute ride. Train was on-time and clean and easy to navigate. I chatted up a guy on the train who was going to Oujda (way northeastern Morocco, on the Algerian border), who…

It’s been awhile since I’ve been in Paris with a laptop and I’m happy to report that you can buy Net access for six euros for 30 minutes (or 10 euros for one hour, or 15 euros for two hours). The nice thing about this is that the credit lasts for a whole week and doesn’t count when you’re not using it. So I bought it just to use it for two min in Charles de Gaulle but can still…

I’ll be on the road (West Africa, Europe) until February 14. Until then, I’m best reached by email or Skype (cfarivar ; 510.931.5564). I’ll be getting a Senegalese number and an Estonian number as well. Ask me if you need it. See you guys soon!