Botswana - 18Jump to page: Index PageBotswana 1 Botswana 2 Botswana 3 Botswana 4 Botswana 5 Botswana 6 Botswana 7 Botswana 8 Botswana 9 Botswana 10 Botswana 11 Botswana 12 Botswana 13 Botswana 14 Botswana 15 Botswana 16 Botswana 17 Botswana 18 Vermont 1 Vermont 2 Vermont 3 Vermont 4 Botswana 2 - 19 Botswana 2 - 20 Botswana 2 - 21 Botswana 2 - 22 Botswana 2 - 23 Botswana 2 - 24 Botswana 2 - 25 11/5/03 - I'm coming home today! Have some spare time at the office so I'm just telling a funny story from the other night. No news, no pictures, nothing like that. I went to my last Hash on Monday night with the Marines. We ran out in Mokolodi village - it was a beautiful run (although I, as a dumbass, forgot my inhaler and had a hell of a hard time. Oh - and I twisted my ankle pulling in my laundry earlier that day). There was no trash in the bush, it had rained over the weekend so everything was green, there were a few clouds to make the sunset spectacular.. All in all a great running evening (hot, admittedly, but I've gotten used to that). We sang our songs, drank a little, then got into the Marines' combi and headed back for the city. There were two other girls with me - one who needed to go to choir practice, and the other who's roommate was expecting her home. They're both American. The one with choir practice has lived here for seven years (her father is an orthographer), the other moved here a month ago to volunteer for Flying Mission. The Marines are going to drop Sarah off at practice, then I was going over to their place to swim for a little while and maybe grab dinner. We're halfway to choir.. when all of a sudden all of the cell phones go off at once. Guess what this means... drill. They have to get to the embassy ASAP to play with weapons. But what do we do? We can't take their transport anywhere. So they drop us off at their house. We are stuck in the backyard, because as long as no one's home they can't let us in the house. It's dark. My cell phone has no money left on it, so I can't make any outgoing calls (to call a cab). We're all dressed in shorts and tank tops, and three women dressed like that, walking around after dark seems like a poor idea at best. We decide to just jump in the pool (after all, it's hot and we're sweaty). Sarah has a swimsuit, so changes. Carla (I think that was her name, but I could be wrong) and I both stay in sports bras and shorts (but do remove underwear and tank tops so we have something dry). We jump in. Five minutes later we realize we have no towels. And it's dark. And slightly windy. So when you get out of the pool.. it's damn cold. And then we realize that in the pool, it's damn cold. So we're stuck in the pool, treading water to keep warm for about two hours until the Marines show up. Somewhere in this time period - Carla decides she can't handle the shorts in the water, so she and Sarah decide to switch. In the deep end. Sarah takes off her swimsuit and is about to hand it over... and drops it. We all look down and see no swimsuit at the bottom of the pool. Nooo. What we see instead is.. the pool vacuum cleaner. Guess what?! Much shrieking and battling with the Barracuda (the brand of vacuum) later - we have retrieved the swimsuit, the girls have changed, and things are safe. Of course.. we don't know whether the Marines have security cameras or not (we asked when they got back... in fact, it was the first thing we said, followed quickly by "Get us towels!" Their response? "Now we wish we did.") I haven't had quite such a girly evening in a long time. Lots of giggling and shrieking and discussion over how inappropriate white sports bras (mine was blue, thank god) were in this situation. Oh - and fighting with the large bugs that kept nearly swimming into our mouths (thus the shrieking). Of course - when it came out that I'm 22 - both of them stared at me wide-eyed: "We thought you were older than us!" (They're 24). Is that a good thing? Anyway - we survived the two hours. But the Marines came home and laughed at us (gr). We wrapped up in blankets, made macaroni and cheese, and headed home for the night. But - it was a good way to end my last week here. Had a lot of fun, even if it was completely ridiculous. And here I am, leaving the country in 4 hours. I'll be in Boston in less than 36. The past few weeks have been really good, so I'm seriously feeling all right about coming back now. My life is coming together here.. although work still isn't. I just need med schools to get their acts together and schedule my interviews! UCSF still hasn't told me if they want a supplemental, and Stanford rejected me (unsurprising). UVM and Dartmouth are both scheduled for the next two weeks. That leaves 10 schools that have secondary apps that haven't gotten back to me. Dammit. Anyway.. lots of love, as usual. Hugs all around.
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