Almost ta-ta to Ghana time

Hello dear blog followers, 

It genuinely doesn’t feel like three months since I wrote that first blog talking about preparing to leave for Ghana.  It is odd to feel like the things that seemed so strange, or specific to Ghana are now so normal that I know I used to find them to be out of the ordinary, but now I can’t quite remember why.  I’m spending the weekend with my girlies here shopping for souvenirs, taking photos, and keeping up with our new addiction of One Tree Hill (Thanks for that Liza.  We found that you can buy entire seasons of shows for 2 cedi on the street.  That’s actually less than how much you can buy one episode in the states.  BUT IT’S ALL OF THEM.  So that’s cool beans.)  

I will admit that I’m getting a little stressed about returning to real life, probably just like I felt stressed about leaving for Ghana in the first place.  Three months feels like forever, and then BOOP!  It’s over!  Nothing like doing the whole ‘where am I going to live’, ‘what am I going to do’, and from a distance at that.  I know I should probably just be patient and wait until I am at least in the same hemisphere to sort this out, but as you all know, I’m not good at waiting when there is planning to be done.  

It is going to be difficult to say goodbye to everyone here too.  After living with Aunti Doris and Rosemond for 3 months I know it will be strange to go without the experience of being given advice on everything from washing my cloths, to how much food to eat at each meal.  I recall writing in one of my first blogs too that I was excited to meet the other people that I’d be spending my time with here.  I know that it is going to be ridiculously hard now to leave them.  Maita and I have been together since the very first day here, finding out that we came in the very same day, and leaving within minutes of each other.  Such a wonderful partner in crime for this whole visit, and a beautiful person all around.  And Liza… oh Liza.  After living together and working together for 2 months we joke that we only need to take bathroom breaks from each other, but to be honest, it is not a joke.  Practically 24 hours a day, and not only do we not hate each other, but we actually still like each other quite a bit.  The other girls have been wonderful too, and it’s been sweet to be able to randomly meet up and go to our favorite restaurant, wander around the market, play bananagrams, and sit for hours and talk.  

So as I roll in on my last week I’ve still got about a million emails to respond to (sorry guys…) and I’ve been working on my capstone presentation (a little), and preparing to get my work ready to leave.  Hopefully there will be a little goodbye get-together at the end of the week (or as Liza calls it the “I’M SORRY, YOU DID NOT JUST SAY SOMETHING ABOUT LEAVING?!” party) and I think I finished all my shopping today.  It may be sweet and sour leaving Ghana, but let me be honest with you all, I can’t wait for cheese its, my bed, Kevin, yogurt, berries, my boots, my car, and all sorts of other things.  And those things might be important, but I can’t tell you how excited I am to be back to the people I love.