Settling In

I finally have time for another update. I am currently waiting to take my first Twi test, and although I feel I am able to use certain phrases in real life, it certainly isn't an easy language to be tested on.
Classes have started, and I like what I am taking so far. I need to make sure I am not overloading and won't get in trouble at Northeaster, but I am taking Xylophone, Drumming, Music of West and Central Africa, Sociolinguistics, Development Studies, and Twi. My internship will start any day now, so I am just waiting for the call.
I have been a little sick, but nothing out of the ordinary given my surroundings and diet. It is getting hotter and walking outside everywhere makes me tired during the day. Soon (hopefully) the school pool will open and it is right by my dorm. Currently there are tadpoles living in it, but apparently when the dry season starts and the weather gets "nice" they will open it to Legon students.
Tomorrow I might skip Music class to go to the funeral of one of the UPALS from last year. He took me and my friends to the beach a couple weeks ago. His father was a chief, and many of the students are going. Funerals are supposed to be big parties. Saturday I think we will go to another beach, hopefully a lot cleaner than the last one. Sunday we are going to the Ghana Blackstars football game against Sudan, which should be really fun.
CIEE has all of these trips planned for us for the semester. Last weekend we went to the Aburi botanical gardens, the Tetteh Queshie Cocoa Farm, and a wood carving village. Next weekend we have an overnight trip to the Central Region.
Except for the UPALS, who are supposed to be our friends, I still haven't made any Ghanaian friends. I talk to people when I am on tro-tros or at bars or in class, but I dont want to give out my number because people end up getting harrassed. Pretty soon into a conversation with a guy, he inevitably asks for your dorm and your room number and your phone number, which is much faster than the way I am used to things happening. Some people this year and others from the past have been followed, called every hour for weeks, etc so we are kind of set up to be isolated simply by protecting ourselves and our privacy.
I have been writing a lot in my private journal (that Rael got my for my birthday). It is crazy how much ends up coming out once the pencil hits the paper. I am remembering things that I had forgotten about when I was a youngster in San Francisco. Stepping away from the environment that I have almost always been in helps me see it differently. I had similar times in Boston, but since I didn't write anything down, a lot of my realizations just came and went.

Things I miss (not in any particular order):
hot showers
burritos
family and zoe
sleeping in without the sounds of chickens
sunsets over the ocean
somewhat reliably scheduled buses
Weeds
having an oven to bake
the shade of being in a forest

Things I know I will miss when I get home:
mango
pineapple
kelewele
chicken
not having to be anywhere on time
taking classes just for fun (Xylophone!)
having lots of time for recreational reading (I've read 5 books since leaving home, 4 in Ghana)

I am going to switch to a laptop for my skype date. maybe more later.