first impressions

I don't have much time left on this internet cafe's computer, but I wanted to get a quick post in!
I got into Yaounde yesterday evening (seems like forever ago!), and was taken directly to our hostel on the top of a hill in the middle of the city. I don't know what to write, because there's too much to say! It's amazing, and scary, and beautiful, and dirty, and run down and modern, and so much else. I feel like it's a city of contradictions: a coca cola sign hanging on the sign of a building with words from a tribal language painted on the side, women carrying jugs of water on the heads past bars full of people watching soccer (football, Egypt beat Cameroon last night, BAD NEWS), huge europeen styles houses next to clusters of concrete shacks with tin roofs, hords of Cameroonian school children, and a group of 15 young americans walking down a main road.

It's so hot here, I am very angry at the people who told me it wouldn't be so bad. They lied, I haven't sweat this much in a long time. My hands are swollen from the heat, and I just won't stop sweating! I think I'll be so accustomed to the smell of misquito repellent in a few days that I'll never again notice the smell of Deet.

Our hostel is fantastic. I have a roommate in our small room, but our room is still bigger than the dorms at UO! I am really really glad that I bought a misquito net with a floor, because right before I went to bed I found a spider the size of a sand dollar hiding underneath it. There's also an ant hill in our room, but it's by the door so I'm not too worried.

This morning I was woken up by a symphony of jungle noises. Birds and monkeys and mythical beasts I'm sure. There are chickens and goats and random animals walking around the compound.
Oh no! Out of time!

I love you guys and I'll write again as soon as I can!