VSingh

is back after, yet another, Salsa class. Thank God for the latinas.

The other day I went to see another gym – Bole Rock - a gym with a swimming pool. I am, as you might have understood in the process of trying to find different gyms and then determine which one to join.

Aerobics room and to the right the sports bar that is separate from the gym (open for members and non members alike) with stuff like pool table, foosball and table tennis. Might come here occasionally once I get settled here..

Bole Rock, the gym itself has a pretty big gym, a swimming pool, and a common spa/sauna. The other gym I’m considering is cheaper, has salsa, but no swimming pool. I don’t really like Bole Rock’s swimming pool – so I checked out other pools, and the one at Hilton Hotel (local branch) has an awesome swimming pool, amazing scenery and its generally pretty happening (and not too expensive) – so considering going for the first gym with salsa – and occasionally go swimming at Hilton (spoil yourself when you have the chance, no? )

Oh yes I was at the Indian restaurant I mention in my previous post- Tabla and watched a cricket match with da local Indians.

Watching the match, apart from me, were the Indians I met yesterday in Friendship mall – and a huge bunch of other Indians cheering and screaming when India shot a “sixer” or managed to get someone in the opposite team (West Indies) – to “get out”. Felt a bit alien – since I’m not a huge fan of cricket. I however did manage to get in touch with some bright, cool, less cool, weird, happy, not so happy (because India lost) Indians. Also managed to bump into the Indian ambassador  - chilled out guy. They asked me if I’m into cricket (“of course I am!” I said) – so now I’m officially in the Ethiopian Indian cricket team.

Anyway, I managed to network and get to know more people here. Even though I’m actually off on Saturdays, I’m actually working extra – collecting vacation, since I hope to travel a lot this year.

More updates on my time in Ethiopia to come!

has been gracefully moving his hips in Salsa today.

Strolling down Bole road was pretty sweet and happening. Too happening to cover it all in one post. So now I’m continuing with that…

More random pics. The security guard (in black coat) in the “friendship mall” asked me to take a picture of her and her friend – after which she requested me to get it printed. Me being lovely as I am decided to do so. She was really grateful and happy, which made me happy. I was forced to take a picture of the dog by a random beggar on the street.

Continued strolling down Bole road. Met an Indian couple. Knowing Indians, you probably know that when an Indian sees another Indian he/she/it becomes curious of the other. So we started talking and I asked if there’s a big Indian community – and apparently there is – but since there aren’t any temples there – big gatherings doesn’t really occur – apart from when India’s playing a cricket match – Indians gather at this Indian restaurant called Tabla to watch and cheer at the Indian team. There just so happens to be one tomorrow they told me, so might go depending on my mood and whatever else it depends on.

Anyway! The stroll continues and I find a gym where they have Salsa classes.  Beginner’s classes starting next week. It’s cheap cheap. It’s dancing. It’s not Bhangra, but salsa will have to do for now.

More random shots.. They’ve got some pretty nice bars and cafés. One that just happens to be called Stockholm (I think the owner’s lived in Sweden for some time or something)..

Towards the night I made my first out-of-office friends. I met these dudes on Bole street and we started chatting somehow (I think one of the dudes saw that a kid was pestering me and asked him, in Amharic, to stop… so we started talking)..

Really nice guys, relaxed, easy going, a bit gay (one of the guys showed me a picture of his girlfriend. I still don’t believe it’s his girl. One, she was hot. Two, I caught the guys holding each others hands a few times. Upon expressing my disgust the guys agreed not to grope each other in front of me. haha No, on a serous note they’re really cool guys who dropped me back home to (yes I sat in  a car with three “stranger” black men – after knowing them for about an hour….Was I being young and stupid? Or am I just showing my stereotypes about black people..by explicitly writing that they were three black men?)  A  philosophical discussion I refuse to get into. Anyway! The people I’ve meet so far are really kind and don’t make me feel like a foreigner (well apart from the fact that I don’t understand Amharic)

It gets dark here pretty early – 6pmish. And since much pretty all the streetlights are dysfunctional (if they exist at all) – it gets really dark. “My crib” is quite a distance (not walking distance) to the market area and the happening stuff. For that reason the last few days have been pretty boring: reaching home after work and doing nothing particular (trying to connect to internet with a dial-up connection…) watching the news, eating dinner and continuing with the battle against the slow internet.

Today I finally managed to get out! I asked my boss to drop me to the market place – Bole road (the area I live in is Bole). It changed my perception. My first impression was totally wrong. This place is pretty nice! So I’ve published pictures of the Africa you won’t see on the TV:

“Friendship mall” –  one of the main malls here.     A Dude sticking out his head out of the “minivan/taxi/busses”. It’s very similar to the Indian Auto-Richshaw system – where they squeeze in passengers.
Basic economics – big volume = being able to reduce cost. They squeez in about 13 people in a minivan. It costs about 2 bir (1kr, 20 Singapore cents…and something less USD cents)…to travel from one place to another. Cheap cheap!

Poor dead dog lying on the street in front of the mall..

Shocked by the fact that you get pretty much EVERYTHING here – I reached the conclusion that I need a moisturizer (peach smell) and some paste (standard Colgate.) Talk about useless shopping.

Traffic is pretty hectic here. Nowhere close to the traffic in India – but still pretty bad…

Nope. No specific reason for taking pictures of flowers. I was just testing my camera. Just thought I’d mention that here too. It’s a pretty good camera (a Pentax kx) – just trying to figure out how to get awesome picture, like the ones you can see in people’s facebook thing – people with pro cameras…

I managed to do quite a few things while strolling that one road for a few hours.. so more to come in next post!

Landing in a hot third world country can be overwhelming. The heat, the crowd, the noise all combine to make your experience horrible. Take India for example. I’m overwhelmed by the heat, the terrible smell, the sweaty people, you name it. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia is nothing like that. Yes, I met some wierdos, and was asked to open all of my bagage on the airport. Yes, the guy in front of me in the toilet decided to have a full body shower in the sink (literally washing his head, ears, arms, and legs…while I was waiting to wash my hands). Yes it was warmer than Sweden. Yes my boss forgot that I was arriving today. Yes I had to wait in the airport for a few hours. The few hours passed pretty fast though since I found some Indians to chat with and a few tourist guides. After a few hours I decided to borrow someone’s phone to call him, and he picked me up within 15 minutes.

Here I am, Addis Ababa! It’s not really that hot. It’s not even close to the heat of South East Asia. I was told that it can get cold in the mornings and evenings. It doesn’t get “jacket-cold”. Nor “sweater-cold” for that matter. I guess I’m quite used to the cold weather in Sweden by now.

Anyway! He drove me through the “posh” district of Addis, “Bole”. It’s not posh. It’s like your random village in India. But it’s all good, I’m loving the dynamics of the place. I don’t understand a word of what people say but luckily they understand English. I intend on learning Amharic eventually.

My crib! I’m staying at my boss’s place – since he’s in Sweden most of the time. It’s a palace compared to the surrounding “slum area”-ish I’m staying in. I’ve got two rooms, nice toilets, kitchen, a household helper, a guard, and a random kid living in the “palace” (they have their own sections they stick to). And a Sauna. It’s actually a really beautiful place and I think I’ll fit in pretty well since my boss is really chilled out and relaxed type, and the place I’m staying at is good. So I’ve got a good base – and now I’ll check out the area and go travelling and doing stupid stuff. Oh and of course I’ll be checking out the hospital I’m going to be working in some time soon.

I’m in Addis baby!

Packing is always overwhelming. It was hard enough to pack when bringing all of my stuff back from Singapore. Had so much stuff I had collected over the months (the birthday cards, the weird exit sign my last roommate picked up from somewhere, among other things).

It’s time again. Now I’m packing for a year in Ethiopia. And it’s hard to think of all of the stuff I would need for a year. Instruments, computer and clothes being the essentials. Medicines, cameras, chargers? What plugs do they use in Ethiopia? So many questions. Thank God for Google.

Anyway. Got my flight in eight hours. Still have a lot of packing and shopping to do. Packing is always a pain. Hopefully it’ll be well-worth it.

Missing South East Asia like… a lot…

How have I been spending my last few days? Studying, studying, and studying? How am I spending my last weekend here? Not studying very much.

Considering I’ve got five exams the coming week (two Monday, one Tuesday, and Two Wednesday). I’ve been pretty ruthless in terms of studying. I’ve been doing everything but studying. But it was fun!

Friday was chocolate buffet at the five start hotel Fullerton. Just like it sounds – there was quite some chocolate. A lot. Of. Chocolate.

Frederike and Candice excited about drinking hot chocolate. Candice was dressed pretty classy, we all concluded. Frederike was also dressed ok

I was dressed pretty top-notch. Sofia was casually dressed *disappointed*

It should come as no surprise to anybody that the chocolate buffet was among the best things that happened me while I was in Singapore. But the fun aint over yet!

The last few days have been extremely hectic. I spent my Vaisakhi in KL (Yes, I did end up going). I went with the intention of studying since I always get distracted by other stuff in Singapore. I thought, going there and spending the Vaisakhi there would mean that I wouldn’t have a lot of time to study – which would mean I would have to stop procrastinating and that I would actually study well. Ridiculous. I didn’t study. Only finish an assignment that had to be finished.

This meant that everything became stressful, as I only had a few days to catch up on everything I hadn’t bothered doing during my semester in Singapore. As an exchange student a lot of time is spent travelling, working out, swimming, dancing, networking, and all sorts of other things, except studying.

So the last few days I’ve been studying quite a bit to catch up with the semester’s load. My exchange trip is coming close to its end. Exams are coming up and its getting time to say goodbye to the great people I’ve met here.

More to come!

Happy Vaisakhi!

Hope this Vaisakhi comes with a lot of bliss, happiness, and prosperity!

Still in KL, Malaysia, taking it easy - doing everything apart from what I actually should be doing: studying!