It’s Always Girl’s Night Out:

We have had two long weekends in a row here at Bingham Academy! Therefore, let me introduce you to a simple math equation: two long weekends + over 20 single girls on campus = girls night out. :)
Last weekend, Christina and I spent an entire day exploring the city in taxis. We shopped, bought delicious smoothies, went out to eat, etc. We also made lots of yummy food (i.e. peach crisp, cookies, pizza, and brownies) to snack on while we watched way too many movies.
This weekend, about 15 of us girls got all dolled up and went out to eat at the Serenade (a very fancy and delicious restaurant). We also made buckets upon buckets of homemade ice cream and chocolate sauce, got tons of yummy ice cream toppings, and enjoyed gigantic ice cream sundaes while watching a cheesy chick flick on a projector screen. Simply scrumptious (but let’s pray that I will still fit into my wedding dress back home).
 My point in sharing this? Well, this is the reason I have been slacking on updates: it’s always girl’s night out.

I also had my very first experience eating at a traditional Ethiopian home this past weekend. That was quite the adventure! I’ll have to post pictures of it later (they’re not on my camera), but I got to participate in the Ethiopian coffee ceremony. Ethiopians don’t have coffee makers…nor do they have instant coffee. Rather, they pick, roast, grind, and cook their coffee on their own. When I arrived at this home, they had a bag of freshly picked, green coffee beans that needed to be roasted. So they started a burner and taught me how to roast coffee! When the coffee was all roasted, we took it off the burner and crushed it with a stone hammer and then, finally, we made coffee! It was delicious. For our actual meal; however, we had injera…which was not so delicious. I don’t believe I have expressed my complaints about injera yet, so allow me to explain:
I had very high expectations for the food here in Ethiopia…and I was sorely disappointed. The ONLY Ethiopian dish (literally) is injera. Ethiopians eat injera for breakfast, lunch, and dinner…every single day of their lives. Injera is basically this flat pancake that looks like a sponge, feels like a wet suit, and tastes like barf. You must eat it with your right hand only (no flatware) by tearing off pieces and dipping it in various “wots”—which are just as revolting as the injera itself. Most “wots” come specially made with pieces of goat hair or ground up chicken bones. And if you are eating at a traditional Ethiopian home…they will force you to eat and eat and eat…and eat and eat and eat and eat. Fortunately, the home I went to wasn’t so forceful in regard to how much injera I had to eat…and fortunately I did not puke all over their living room floor. I tolerated enough of it to satisfy my growling stomach.

So this sums up essentially what I have been up to lately: lots of food and lots of fun. Oh…and also, Bingham Academy decided to take some of my suggestions for the renovation seriously after all. This little update is long overdue, but several weeks ago the Ethiopian workers built us a lovely pool (complete with a balancing log, water tubes, and inflatable boxing gloves) and a day spa (cucumbers included):






The pool was just fabulous. And, of course, so was the spa:




My body felt so refreshed after that spa treatment. I didn’t even have to shower for weeks after that! Two thumbs up for the incredible “weekend” renovations at Bingham. Great times!

-Nicole