Ah, I do not feel good. I arrived in Maryland after a somewhat scary flight ( I can't remember how many times I prayed the rosary), and slept all day. I didn't know I was so tired until I hit the couch. Today I went to get my glasses (they're so damn cute!!!). I actually picked out a guy's pair for my second pair, but they look so good on me. It's been quite a week for me though.

Monday: Veteran's Day
I was honestly confused. I don't even know what Veteran's Day is about, but my guess is it's to honour old army dudes and dudettes. My uni also thought it would be great to combine it with some good old community service. That, I was also clueless about. I thought we were going to hang around school and wash some cars and stuff. I had no idea we would be going to different places and working on lots of diverse stuff. I initially wanted to go to the Thrift store that was on the list of places to serve, but it was all filled up, so I ended up going to the Boys and Girls club with Pauleisha's team. Rest of the pics are in the Veteran's Day Collection.

At first, it felt like the place was overflowing with students, and it seemed like there were more uni kids than actual kids, but we played an American version of "Form a big circle." I was tempted to say "Like your mother's cooking pot" *lol* The kids were sweet. And I met a guy that I never knew was in my year. Honestly, I'd never seen him before. But he was nice. No.... there is no potential of a love interest there, so stop wishing.

Tuesday: My Speech
It was fantastic!! If I say so myself. I delivered a speech, aided with a powerpoint presentation on Facial Scarifications in Nigeria and Western Africa which I wrote a fantastic essay on previously, and my professor was just blown away. Ahhh, the sweet smell of success. Not quite the smell of overdue homework which is about to choke me at this point.

Wednesday: Intercultural Food Night and My Culinary Debut

Cooking Nigerian food takes so long. Honestly, there is no fast way to do it. Darling Charla-Maye let us use her kitchen, so that made things so much easier. Of course, we left them a pot of rice and chicken in thanksgiving (no pun intended). Our food turned out to be more than a hit. After setting out all the food in the warmers, I nipped back to my room to shower quickly and change because cooking for six hours left me smelling like onions and cayenne pepper. So in the spirit of the International thingy, I slipped into my ankara skirt that billows as I hurry down the stairs. It's simply marvellous.
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The food is gone. All I met was upturned plates, and forks and spoons. We had cleaned out in under three minutes reportedly. I didn't even get to see people eat my own food! But it was great because all the other countries still had full pans of food. See the pictures here Nigeria rocks everybody!! But we specials already knew that.

Posted by Lotanna Igwe-Odunze at 5:38 PM | Permalink

Some of the kids here don't dress so badly. Actually, they wear some pretty cool looking clothes (at least, some of them) I couldn't resist camping out on the walkway and waiting for some fly looking chico or chica to walk past.

I just love the way the vivid blue peeks out of his hoodie. He could be a model..I think. Then I found this other guy with a cool monogram on his jacket, so I just had to have him in here.

Check out Russel's cool bag. It's a nice bag, not fantastic, but I just realised that what drew me to it was the fact that it was slung across the shoulders of a GUY. Yay! A man bag!

Allow me to indulge myself. That bag is clearly unisex, but I'll just go on and pray for the day that guys realise the benefit of handbags and stop lugging all their stuff around in their bottomless pockets.

Posted by Lotanna Igwe-Odunze at 10:11 PM | Permalink

Being Nigerian, before college, I'd almost never heard of the Freshman 15. Those legendary pounds that you're supposed to put on in your first semester of school. So Seventeen and CosmoGirl mentioned them a few times, but I never really paid any notice because it was all alien to me. Until I got to Saint Leo. It turns out, not only have I gained the dreaded Freshman 15, but the name should be amended to the Freshman 75.

Yes, I have gained 75 whole pounds since August 20. Isn't that just swell? Now I have a closet full of clothes that I can't wear, but on the upside, it's made me quite creative about finding what to wear each day. I have 2 pairs of jeans that still fit, but they groan as I put them on, and one has already burst its seam in (thankfully) a discreet location. I began to suspect that all was not well when I wore my high-heeled boots to Mass one day, and during the walk back, my legs began to shake uncontrollably, all of their own accord. Turns out they couldn't support my weight in addition to the incline of the boots anymore. It was take off the boots or collapse on the sidewalk. When I got back to my room, I wiped the dirty soles of my feet with a napkin and hopped on the scale.......

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L-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-N-N-G-G-G S-I-L-E-N-C-E.................................

The next day, I decided to visit the more than well equipped gym, for the first time since I arrived at school, and for the third time in my entire life.....

.......The price we have to pay for pancakes...

Posted by Lotanna Igwe-Odunze at 2:51 PM | Permalink