Wednesday

I'm in the staff room during our morning break from classes. The teachers get served tea every day during this break, and it was pretty good today, not too sweet and piping hot. Even as I write that, I can't quite believe I'm describing this tea as "good", because if I'm being honest, it actually falls under the general heading of "bilge". The whole room is in uproarious laughter right now, including me, as we're talking (in a lunatic mix of English, French and Kinyarwanda) about poor Peter teaching sex ed to his O-Level biology class. One year ago at this time, I had recently returned from France, was busy at work planning our lab's move to a new building, and was vaguely thinking about going to Africa at the end of the year. I am surprised to find myself now, chuckling over the menstrual cycle with Rwandan men.

With the free time I have in the evenings here, I've been catching up on all that delicious purposeless information seeking that I'd have loved to have done in San Francisco if there were more hours in the day. Here's what's been keeping me from going postal:

PODCASTS

Fresh Air from NPR - I never listened to this in the US, but now I love, love, LOVE to hate Terry Gross's smugness. Plus, sometimes she talks to interesting guests, although usually their smuggery is outclassed only by TG herself.
The Archers - I've revived my love affair with that gloriously mundane English village of my dreams. David Archer reigns supreme. Lillian can die.
This American Life - After being given a whole data CD full of episodes as an (excellent) gift, I've been listening to these would-be-sappy-if-they-weren't-so-damned-good hour-long awe-fests every week.
The BBC History Magazine Podcast and BBC's From Our Own Correspondent - Both really interesting romps through mainly useless brain fodder from olden times and the world today, respectively. I'm totally out of my depth with the first one, but I like to pretend, and sometimes I catch a brief idea of what they're talking about.
A History of the World in 100 Objects - Haven't started listening to this yet because I'm waiting for 100 consecutive days to do so, but I'm weirdly excited about it. I think I'm also going to give my English class an assignment to write the history of their lives in five objects. Thanks, BBC!

BOOKS

One Fifth - Complete and utter drivel, like the worst book I've ever read, and also the most amazingly satisfying when I arrived in a country where all of my norms and comforts were decidedly absent and I just wanted to bathe in a trashy novel and forget that I wasn't in the United States. One Fifth is pure awful, but it saw me through some dark times, and I'm grateful to it.
Table By the Window and Table Number Seven - Two halves of Terrance Rattigan's Separate Tables collection, and both awesome. His plays are all about the dramatic happening within the mundane, and for some reason his stuff really sits well with me.
Baking Cakes in Kigali - As I think I said before somewhere (this blog?), this was a little heavy on the folksy African wisdom for my taste, but it was nice to read, if only because you have to have been to Rwanda to understand what she's talking about half of the time.
Jurassic Park - UNFORGETTABLE AND AMAZING. Why hadn't I read this before?! Why did I throw Michael Crichton under the bus so? I don't care if it's not great literature, I don't care if it's infuriatingly unrealistic, this shit was GREAT. I think I might have skipped a class or two towards the end so that I could read more, and I don't even feel bad about it.
Tess of the d'Urbervilles - Oh Tess! This started out a tad slow, but became a total page-turner towards the end. As in, it took me about two weeks to read the first sixty pages, and three hours to read the last hundred and fifty. Hardy is my mum's favorite, and I've been meaning to tuck into some of his books for years, but it wasn't until I saw them on display at Nakumatt for just 2.500Frw that went for it. And now, thanks to John, I've got The Mayor of Castorbridge on its way!
The Road Taken - I've only read the back cover and introduction of this Michael Buerk autobiography, but based on those alone, I have high hopes.

And now, one more class before lunch. Wednesdays are the new Thursday. I love them.