Semester Two Update!

Semester 2 has been go-go-go! I am now working in only English classes in the high school and it has been a bit of an adjustment! That doesn't mean I have been living a boring life, though.  Dhaka winter has a lot of great things going for it: cool weather, little-to-no power outages, themed dance parties, travel opportunities, and the WORLD CUP of Cricket!

Bangladesh in the news:

I experienced my first earthquake! It was pretty scary.  Savanna and I were watching TV in our living room, when everything started to shake and rattle.  I could see the apartment swaying as we made eye contact and silently waited until it was over to start to panic and yell.  I quickly grabbed my cell phone and called a few teachers until we got a hold of someone to confirm what we had just experienced: a pretty serious earthquake! There was a smaller one the following week, but I was on a rickshaw heading back from laying out at the Canadian Club, and didn't feel it! Here's some info on the first one: Earthquake Article

WORLD CUP MANIA! Dhaka has been counting down and preparing for the world cup for months now.  Before Christmas, I started seeing some signs of the upcoming cricket frenzy.  Large cut outs of the elephant mascot were stationed around the city to get people excited about the upcoming matches.





In addition to these, the airport got entirely redone: new tile floors, freshly painted walls, strange lifelike models of tribesmen making pottery on mudbanks, and cricket paraphernalia around every corner.

cricket poster outside of our gate at the airport

even the walkway to the airplane was WC themed

All of the medians in the streets were decorated with posters, twinkle lights, and cut outs of birds and flowers of Bangladesh!

This week, Bangladesh made it in the news for something negative I'd like to counter.  It was ranked 2nd worst city to live in by the Economist Intelligence Unit. I'd like to say: Watch this video! It doesn't exactly focus on Dhaka, but check out the great things, or as the slogan says, the "Beautiful Bangladesh" that is out there!

Finally, to really get a true picture of how Dhaka has been transformed for the better by a few weeks of hosting the World Cup here, read this article from ESPN.  Thompson has a nice way with his words to try to grasp the picture of the Dhaka spirit. While it is impossible most of the time to truly describe the things that happen here, he gives you another way to see "Beautiful Bangladesh".

Ok- enough legit current events.

How about the current events of my life (in photo montage)!

Epsom salt Bangladeshi Version. Dyed my foot purple for a whole day after use. 

New Super fun roomie: Kajori! She moved in a few weeks ago and is working as the Elementary Intern.  

I volunteered at the Elementary School Track and Field Event.  First, I volunteered saying I would only help if there was a running backwards race (go ahead, picture it and laugh), but I got assigned javelin throw. Some of the kids were definitely on 'roids cause they threw twice, some times three times as far as I could. (or maybe I have never been good at sports that didn't involve choreographed movements)

My form was at about this level.

Scene around the corner from school and near my apartment. There is a construction site behind the brick wall and, yes, a man carrying live chickens by their feet in the foreground.

The flowers are SO beautiful right now! Some of them are a foot in diameter, I swear! This one is outside of the gate to our apartment. 

We celebrated Kelly's birthday on the rooftop at the ARA with the karaoke machine.  It was AWESOME! 

80s Dance Party at the BHC with the girls! (This was a few hours post earthquake, but that didn't stop us from having a good time!)

Funkadelic Party a few streets down from our place! 

We had another Service Learning Day at school, and I traveled with my group to Apon.  Here, Barry is interviewing these children who have been rescued from the street.  They are sharing their horrific stories of drug addictions and suffering they experienced before coming to live in Apon.

Breaking the language barrier with a game of rock, paper, scissors.

At the gate ready for a long weekend getaway with Savanna to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia! 

The most delicious dumplings I have ever experienced. We ate here twice while in KL. It was worth the plane ride just for this scrumptious treat! 

We did everything we wanted to get done in KL: sunbathed (this is a view from the pool on our hotel rooftop), drank starbucks, and shopped! 

Ok, yes we also went to a club.

We got up early and made it to the KL twin towers by 9:30am and the tickets for the walkway were already sold out! Oh, well- at least I snapped this pic!

What to expect in the next blog post? I am heading to the Himalayan Mountains of India on Friday with 25 high school students for Discovery Week.  Think warm thoughts for me and keep your fingers crossed I can successfully pitch my tent, pee outside, build a fire, and purify my own water.  On second thought, tomorrow I'll look into seeing if Misti can come along...