Month and a Day

Hi everyone!

From today I have one month and one day before I am home!! I can't believe it. This week has just been studying and basically not doing much more than that. Last week I went to Kokrobite Beach, about an hour and a half outside of Accra. It was soo nice! I went with my friends Victoria and Tatiana and since we went in the middle of the week it was very quiet. There were only a few other people at the restaurant/area we were at, which was great. It makes me a little nervous when there are only two or three people in the ocean, but I try to stay close to the shore. There was an accident with an international student's Ghanaian friend, who got caught in a rip tide and died! I didn't know the person, but the story was definitely on my mind. I am being very careful at the beach.

Besides studying I've been working more on my research. I've finished all the interviews-- I ended up doing 47. Most of them were international students but there were a few Ghanaian students here and there. Now we are working on the analysis of the data. Since it is qualitative, I am learning how to go through the transcribed interviews and find the major themes. It is really quite interesting! I am learning so much. I have three finals coming up on Thursday, Saturday and Monday, but after that we will meet again and go over what I've done. It's great to be able to get feedback and help as I go along.

Yesterday I was at the psychology department and I saw the professor for my personality class. We didn't have any assignments in that class at all so our final is 100% of our grade! He didn't even explain the layout of the test (whether it would be essay, multiple choice, etc) so I am feeling a little nervous. I went and asked him some questions about the test and maybe how I should approach my studying or anything like that. His suggestion to me was that I go to church and pray! He just said that and walked away! So, if anyone out there wants to join me in prayer for my finals, it would be greatly appreciated :)

I think the general sentiment around the hostel is that we are busy enough studying for finals that we can't really pick up and leave on a trip but we are not busy enough to kill our restlessness. It's been so different from what I'm used to at home with all of my finals being in the same week and only one weekend separating classes from finals. I'm just hoping all my exams here go well!

We are having a Thanksgiving Dinner at the ISEP director's house on Thursday. My exam is at 11:30 am so those of us in that class will be going afterwards. The scheduling is kind of funny because that is our Twi exam, which has only American students in it. I'm guessing no one really bothered to check when Thanksgiving is. It's not a problem though because we still get to go to the dinner, although we don't get to help cook.

Sadly I forgot to take my camera to the beach last week, so there are no pictures to share today. I'll make sure I take a lot at Thanksgiving so I can post those later! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! :)