Time - 2.5 hours
(having issues with my tracking app, hence the not entirely correct but pretty close map screenshot instead)
I appreciate it when my friends leave me to go to work because then I get things done - typically blog updates, emails, applications - all those necessary things that are constantly awaiting attention. But I also love when I get to hang out with people for calm weekends spent grazing on delicious food and playing with babies! Saturday I woke up much later than anticipated, my room on the third floor very effectively insulating me from Colin's wake up routine. I padded downstairs to the kitchen, where Jen and Colin were eating breakfast (at least he was). We chatted and played with him for a while, then the two of them went to "Rockin' Railroad" - a kids music class just down the road.
I declined the jokingly-offered invitation to come along and hear them banging on things (Mom - it sounds like those elementary school band concerts!) and instead spent the morning blogging and talking with Chris, who made us excellent egg and cheese english muffin sandwiches. Jen came back with bagels, which we grazed on for lunch and breakfast the next day. Chris went to go watch a football game at his old high school with his friends after Jen put Colin down for his nap, and then she and I had some time to talk and do little to-do things until Colin woke up. We all bundled up to go walk to the park, where Colin had a great time directing us to go over and stare at all the ducks and geese - when was the last time I saw an entire flock of geese? Certainly not in Tucson!
We were all getting chilly (even Colin, who refused to leave the playground without a fuss because he was still enjoying himself even if he couldn't feel his fingers), so we walked home to warm up. We watched an episode of Dora The Explorer, which admittedly left me wishing we had just watched endless re-runs of it in my Spanish 101 class - I would have learned so much more! When Chris got home we put all of our layers back on and went out for Mexican food at Tinga. The tacos were tasty, the service was very prompt (we agreed that having a small child might have helped with that part) and we were fed and back home in time to get Colin to bed at bedtime. We settled in and watched The Hurt Locker - none of us had seen it and felt up to a more serious movie. It was such an intense film, but really felt well done. I was surprised to find that it was filmed in Jordan and Canada - I wonder what other films I've watched that are set in a certain location (in this case, Iraq) that aren't at all filmed there? I knew it was fairly common, but I guess I've never actually looked to check.
On Sunday I woke up and spent some time playing with Colin and chatting with Jen and Chris while we all ate breakfast and Chris layered up for the Giants Game. The sun was shining but it was deceiving - it was freezing outside! Jen, Colin, and I went on a drive around the local area to see some of the different parts of town, which was really a treat. They live in a large comfortable house on a beautiful road, but some of the houses we passed - good grief! They almost look like hotels - how do you ever have enough people in them for them to feel full? As we pointed out houses that we liked, I found that I particularly was drawn to ones with bay windows and those round turret rooms off the front - some day I would love to have a home with a round reading room stuffed to the gills with books ;)
I packed up my car, said goodbye to everyone, and headed to meet Elissa and Sarah for tea at InsaniTea! It's just down the street from Jen and Chris and it only took me 3 minutes to drive there (waaay too cold to walk) but 10 minutes to find parking :p (clearly I should have walked anyway). Sarah and Elissa live a town over but come to Montclair for church, and then stick around to get some work done in this cute little shop that only sells tea and hot cocoa in mismatched "choose your own" mugs. The lady working behind the counter asked if I knew what I was getting into by ordering the lapsang souchang tea, and I assured her that its smoky flavor didn't scare me in the least, but I appreciated the warning. The three of us sat in the front window to talk for a little bit - we all rowed together at Mount Holyoke for three years. Elissa and I had caught up quite a bit the other day in town, but I did enjoy listing to Sarah talk about her work as a teacher in Newark - it sounds challenging and stressful, but really rewarding in a lot of ways.
All good things must come to an end, so after an hour or so I realized I really should get on the road and let them get a little work done. After a last hug goodbye, I was on my way to Philadelphia! I was going to meet my friend Clara but our timing was off - I suggested meeting for a late lunch, but arriving at 4:30 pm is really much later than a late lunch. So I headed over to meet my host for the evening, Emma!
Emma was another Peace Corps volunteer in Burkina, I believe she was starting her second year when my training group arrived in the country and then she stayed for a third year so she ended up leaving only a few months before I did. She worked as a teacher her first two years, then worked with Save the Children her third year in the hopes of using that as her "hands on" experience for applying to school as a Physician's Assistant. She's now in her first year of a two year CDC fellowship, working at the airport in Philly in the quarantine (for sick passengers as well as for potentially diseased foodstuffs that are brought into the country), and working on trying to help her boyfriend Richard get his visa to visit the US from Burkina, where he works as a gendarme (sort of a policeman, but Burkina also has separate police - admittedly I never really figured out the exact difference in their jobs - Emma?).
We went out to dinner at a great West African restaurant - twice in one week! Le Bercail was closer to Burkinabe food than Africa Kine in Harlem, which was more Senegalese, but both of them were very good food. My chicken yassa was very similar to ones that I had had in Ouaga (yassa is an onion sauce that is actually Senegalese but adopted by other countries in the region), and the atticke was pretty close to what I remembered, even down to the dollop of cucumbers, onions, and tomatoes mixed in mayonnaise that was served on top. Emma's sauce d'arachide (peanut sauce) was comfortingly familiar, also with the unavoidable red palm oil slick on top, but we were a little concerned with the unnamed hunk of bone/meat that tasted as though it had been smoked. Normally this wouldn't raise much concern, but Emma said that she often saw people enter the country with meat from abroad that they had half smoked to try and keep it from spoiling on the 24 hour journey, which admittedly kind of tainted it for both of us and we just stuck with the sauce after that. They did have gingembre - essentially juiced ginger mixed with water and sugar - which was an unexpected treat! It had been a favorite of mine in village, where my friend sold it frozen in little plastic bags, you just bite off the corner and crush up the bag - instant slushie, particularly amazing when it's over 100 degrees outside.
I know I keep saying this, but I really do need to be better about taking more photos on days like these! :p
I missed the adorable moment when they were coloring together, but I still think this is a cute father-son photo
Atticke and sauce yassa! Admittedly not the most photogenic, but it tastes great, I promise ;)
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