Sports?!

Yeah, so I got my first taste in a very, very long time of American sports this week in Ouaga. I've been following the Africa Cup of Nations (that's soccer, my American friends) in my village with all the guys. It's been a good time. With only one TV in town that carries all of the matches, we have quite a crowd of rowdy African football hooligans (okay, they're not exactly hooligans, but don't you just love that word?). And even after seeing a great match like Morocco v. Egypt the other week, nothing... NOTHING beats a good game of college hoops. Hell, nothing beats an average game. So I can't tell you how giddy I was to be able to watch the Arkansas v. Kentucky game on Sunday with a few Missionaries in the American Embassy. Rock! It wasn't even a good game (except for about 4 minutes), but it seemed amazing to me. It's been almost a year since the last game I saw. **sniff** Go State.

And in other sports news, to give you a clue of just how out of the loop I am here in AfricaLand, I just realized today while surfing the net that the SuperBowl's in Detroit this year. The traffic in downtown's gonna be ri-goddamn-diculous! Now with that they've spruced up "the nice part of town" (AKA the one street block with the State and the Fox) by cramming all the nice new expensive buildings (including 2 stadiums) into a iddy biddy wee little area, traffic's just dumb. ( Oh yeah! I'm still bitter about that White Stripes show I was late to thanks to a Tigers game, can you tell?).

In other news, I found a cassette player with detachable speakers that I can use for my iPod, so now I'm back to living with much music. Yes! However, I'm not sure what my village family makes of my music taste, which even in America people seem puzzled at. Lately, it's been a lot of Carmen (the opera), Neil Young and Alela (thanks Tessa!,I'm addicted). I just found a tape at the PC Hostel here of Momus, which is an incredible find. Can't wait to pop it in. Of course, my tape player plays everything a little too fast due to the amazing technology found in third world village markets, so even old standbys sound new and fresh. (Now Michael Stipe somewhat resembles a cooler, more musically inclined Alvin).

Anyhoosy, I'm heading up to Kongoussi this afternoon and then back home to Bourzanga tomorrow to finish up the semestrial grades. Good times. Can't complain. I got my AmericaLand experience while in Ouaga (yesterday I had ice cream for lunch and pizza for dinner: when you're as deprived as me on a regular basis of these goodies, one tends to go a little overboard). Thanks Mom and Dad for the package, it finally came. The Cracklin' Oat Bran made me weak in the knees!