Sunday, March 31, 2013

Sunday, March 31, 2013


This morning, all of us didn’t seem to struggle with jet lag. Because of the 2-4 hours power nap we took yesterday, we were able to overcome 7 hours difference. After eating the breakfast which was prepared, the Easter bunny came. Wishing the Easter bunny to come, Florrie was super excited. After that, we went to the International Evangelical Church. It was nice to celebrate Easter, even though it is not Easter in Ethiopia. The “international” church was full of people from other countries. The service we attended was in English. However there were French, Korean, and Chinese worship service also!! After the service, we came back to Cherokee house and took a moment to change to comfortable clothes.

We left the Cherokee house, and went out to eat lunch. We ate lunch at “Top View” and the view from there was literally amazing. We were able to see the whole Addis Ababa and enjoy the lunch simultaneously. The restaurant we went to had some Ethiopian traditional meals, and the Western meals which include several types of burgers, pasta, and sandwiches. Because we were planning to eat dinner in an Ethiopian traditional restaurant, we all chose the Western meal, burger. Even though, the burgers we got were quite different from the one we can get in States, they were enjoyable. After the lunch, except Mr. Turlington, we ate ice cream. After the delightful lunch and dessert, Mr. Turlington took some group pictures of us. Erin, sitting next to me, is trying to upload one of the pictures on Facebook, but the slow internet doesn’t let her do it!

Next, we went to the Joy House which is a house for orphaned girls. We introduced ourselves, and the girls in the Joy House introduced themselves. The girls’ ages ranged from 16-25. After the brief introduction, we started some icebreaking games to get close to each other, and found out we have lots of things in common. After the fun games, we had traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony. It was supposed to be three rounds, which means 3 cups of coffee, but we only had two rounds. During the coffee ceremony, we talked to each other a lot, and got to know each other more. Some of the girls like Justin Bieber, and they all like High School Musical! During the ceremony, the neighbor kids of the Joy House joined us. One of the kids really liked Mr. Turlington’s camera, and started to take pictures of us. Not able to hold the camera properly, he took pictures of our legs and the floor.

After the Joy House, we picked up Binium and headed to Ethiopian traditional restaurant called Yod Abyssinia. Because lots of tourists visit the restaurant, the restaurant had more intense system to check our belongings. They even had metal detector! We had injera, and different types of sauce and toppings(?) from yesterday’s lunch. It was super good! Especially Ms. Turlington, Florrie, I, Erin, and Mr. Turlington enjoyed it a lot. After the dinner, traditional dances and songs were performed. Some of the dances were quite intense! There was a dance which two women performed, and this was more intense than any other performances. They swung their heads a lot. Aubrey even danced on stage with the dancers!

We have done lots of things, and are absolutely enjoying the time here!

-        Yeon Mi Hwang, ‘14

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