Sometimes I just don't want to leave my house

It's so stupid, but some days I just don't want to leave my house. I'm in the middle of the Hundred Secret Senses and I was really enjoying it, plus I made curried breakfast potatoes, eggs and banana bread today. I just didn't want to leave! But, like most days, I'm so glad I did. I had 2 review sessions today - one for my smart students where we just talked in English for an hour and another where the kids wrote a letter to my two cousins, which I'll reprint here for your reading pleasure... Dear Kelsey and Hannah, How are you and your family? We write this letter for you, we are very glad to write this letter. At first, have our greetings. It's the first time that we've written you, isn't it? We are Mrs. Daum's English students, we have been learning English for 4 months from her. In the beginning, we found it was difficult to understand her accent. In 6 months we will take our exam to go to university. There are 6 subjects: French, English, philosophy, history, economics and geography. Have you got the same subjects? In Guinea we like soccer more than all other sports, but there is also basketball, volleyball... tell us about the sport that you like best. In our town, there are a lot of goats, chickens, cows, sheep and others. They can walk among us without their owners in the street. In class we are tight, there are 3 per desk and over 100 per class! We have English class 2 times per week. School goes from 8 a.m. until 12 or 2 p.m. on Monday through Saturday. Because we are Muslim, we leave school at 12 p.m. on Fridays to pray at the mosque. How about you? We hope to hear from you soon. Yours truly, Mrs. Daum's English classes Isn't that a great letter? I hope Hannah and Kelsey enjoy it. I should qualify that I teach the social sciences kids, there are also math kids who have more science in their studies. These kids want to be sociologists, economists, etc. and get more English lessons than their science-minded counterparts. For those leaving for Guinea soon, I'm going to post an entry about what I should have brought, what I'm glad I have and what I should have left at home. The most important thing to know is that I'm glad I brought mostly skirts, cause I almost never wear pants and I'm also glad I brought kitchen stuff and food. I still have a bunch of American goodies that I brought with me and they keep me sane. I'll write a better list in my next entry.

Hope everyone is doing their part to keep the consumer spirit of America alive. I'm being serious. I would kill to go to a mall, even if it was impossible to find a parking space. Mmmm, and then I'd go to Panera or Chipotle and then to the Bath and Body Works, then the Gap or the Limited. And then I'd see a movie, even though it costs a fortune. I'd even buy popcorn. These are the kinds of fantasies Peace Corps volunteers have...