St. Louis and Mardi Gras

Well we successfully had our first weekend trip without the group or guide. Six of us left Dakar at 7 on Friday night and took a sept-place up to St. Louis - a city on the coast that was the first capital of Senegal. The way up was a typical Senegal transportation experience - we got the gare routiere, which is basically a huuuge parking lot, and were accosted by people who then found us a driver and negotiated the price (for a small commission of course). A sept-place is basically a station wagon with three more seats in the back - so eight people in a station wagon can be pretty cramped, not to mention the fact that the car couldn't go above maybe forty miles per hour at its absolute best (this is the estimate given that no dashboard indicators were working). All in all it took six hours to get there, though its possible for it to take as little as three and a half. In St. Louis we met up with my room mate's friend who is studying there and she showed us to our cheap but quite nice hotel. From there we went out to a bar around the corner and had a good time dancing, also discovered that there are lots more europeans and Americans here than in Dakar!
St. Louis is really different from Dakar - particularly the main touristy island, which is very quiet with grid streets and lots of colonial architecture. We really enjoyed being able to enjoy just sitting in a cafe - something you cant find in Dakar, not to mention that there were good bakeries. There are some in Dakar as well, but nowhere ever has seating where you can just hang out. We also walked around the fishing village area and the market, which were naturally much more lively. That night we went out for a nice dinner too, which meant getting vegetables, something I miss a lot here! We left Sunday afternoon and successfully got back in only four hours. We were shocked :)
In other news, yesterday was Mardi Gras, our sister's birthday aaand the day we had promised to cook for our family. We decided to make tomato soup, grilled cheese and salad (previous Americans staying with them seemed to have taken a lot of our ideas). We went to one of the big, intense and cramped vegetable markets to get the vegetables, and then to the main supermarket to get things like sliced bread, cheese and ham (family is catholic, but ham is still very hard to find here). The cooking went well except that we failed to realize exactly how different their tomato paste is until it was too late. The stuff here is very dark and VERY bitter. We managed to salvage the soup so it was acceptable, but still wasn't the best. The sandwiches were a hit though, and afterwards we all had beignets and cookies for mardi gras. Most importantly, they seemed to appreciate it, so phew. It was also fun throughout the day to see all the little kids who go to school: it seems like their version of halloween, with lots of little superheros, princesses and peter pans etc. all over the place.
Finally a note on birthdays: even though Fifi was turning 17, they barely acknowledged it. It seems like people celebrate their birthdays (if they know them) very selectively: you decide to fete it one year, and then not for a few more. I think the only people who I heard wish her happy birthday were me and Vanessa.
Well, off to class, and then off to find out what lent is like in our house!