This weekend was the first (and last) that I'll be spending with my Yaounde host family for a while. On Saturday morning I walked around the Palais de Congres with my sister. It's a huge building that's located on a hill practically across the street from out house, and from it we could see great views of the city. Yaounde is HUGE: it went on as far as the eye could see. It's also pretty because the city is made up of a lot of different hills; it's called the City of Seven Hills but there are actually more than that. While my sister and I were walking around a Cameroonian guy joined us. He pointed out certain sites in the city, and then when we parted he didn't qsk for my phone number! This was my first interaction with a Cameroonian guy who didn't want my number or for me to take him to America, and it blew my mind.

Later that day I hung out with my host sister and some of her cousins/neighbors. Among them was a set of twins who were cute but wild. They really liked my hqir and I thought they'd tear it out when I let them braid it. Later we all played with my frisbee. Apparently they don't hqve frisbees in Cameroon, but they really liked it!

Sunday morning I did some research for possible independent study projects. We have to have two possibilities by next week, and right now I'm thinking of studying either traditional music or Cameroonian Jews (they do exist!) Later that day I went with my sister to a birthday party for an older family friend. All of the little kids there really liked me, and it was fun playing with them. I had a lot of trouble understanding them, though, and sometimes I needed my sister to translate their French into more comprehensible French for me.

Tomorrow is La Journee nationelle de la jeunesse, and the SIT students are all going downtown to watch the parade. Then we're going to the zoo after class. We're travelling to out second homestay at the university town of Dschang on Saturday. All of the Cameroonians say it's really cold there, and while their opinions mqy be subjective I would definitely love a bit of colder weather for a change.