le weekend!

i'm starting to figure out how to work these malagasy computers and figure out how to get pictures uploaded with some success! i had a really fun weekend and wanted to share. on saturday evening, i met up with my friend narindra (he's the one standing on the left in the photo below) to go to his church's english club where i taught english first to a group of kids, then to the group in the photo. it was pretty fun, i taught the kids about the parts of the body and played a game (it took some effort, these kids were ridiculously shy). with the group in the photo below it was fun because the level of english was higher and i taught them about the american education system, talked about obama, etc. it was cool because they seemed really interested in learning about the US and excited to have me there. the kid next to me in green was a crack up though (for an idea of how much i'm crouching, he comes to about my shoulder). anyway, when i mentioned that i had a boyfriend, i started hearing this chatter in malagasy and laughing. obviously i had no idea what was going on, but finally one guy from the class pointed to the guy in green and said "he is disappointed". so everyone was laughing when narinda (he's the one all the way to the left in the picture) piped up, "you better watch out! her boyfriend looks like the Rock!" (this was narindra's first reaction seeing a picture of garth last week, and yes... the rock like the wrestler, so idea how they know about him here). but anyway, it became the joke of the entire class, and being that garth is probably the most difficult name for non-native speakers of english to say, so he is now soley referred to as the Rock. so the questions became "is the Rock coming to tana?" "if the Rock comes to tana can he come to our class?" and everytime everyone was laughing. it was pretty fun. so after all this teasing, the kid in green asked if i had a younger sister, but i'll let you all imagine how much everyone erupted with laughter when i informed him my little sister was 3. oh man, it was quite an evening and i plan on going back this saturday.

then on sunday i went to the zoo with two americans from the hotel. it was pretty fun to get a glimpse of animals but it made me want to get out of the city even more!! i was so close to this ostrich it was pretty crazy (there's a lot less space between the animals and people in a low funded zoo). i'm cracking up though as i write this and look at the picture of the ostrich. it was pretty funny for me to take pictures of it. i already tried to upload a video of it that i took but it wouldn't load :(

and on the walk home we took some fun pictures like the one below. it was fun to explore a new part of the city and take some pictures. overall it was a pretty fun weekend. hope you enjoy the pictures!