i'm going to vent now

so if you don't want to hear me complain, don't read this post. but if you do read it, you'll be rewarded at the end of the post with pictures! or you could just scroll straight to the bottom now.

(a) I NEED A BREAK FROM THESE PEOPLE. there are so many of us, there's never enough room for us no matter WHERE we go, everyone's always confused, we never have enough information, etc. etc. etc. and i think what bothers me the most is that NOBODY listens to each other. everybody just wants to hear their own stupid voices. seriously. sometimes i watch people talking and can actually SEE them tuning each other out and barely letting the other finish before they start saying something completely unrelated.

(b) the academic directors are wonderful but SO not on top of things. i hardly ever see them around anymore, to begin with, and then when they're supposed to be around they don't come. the day before yesterday 8 of us had appointments to meet with charlotte, one of the academic directors, to talk about our practicums. keep in mind that practicums begin in TWO WEEKS, in which time we have to figure out what we're researching, how we're researching it, where we're going, where we're staying, how we're getting there. so we're supposed to meet with her, and an hour into when the meetings were supposed to start, i hear somebody mention that charlotte isn't coming. not only did she blow us off, they didn't even TELL US. THEN, yesterday, they said she'd be there at 1 to make up the meetings. 2 rolls around and someone tells us she's not coming, but she'll definitely be there by 4:30 if we want to wait around. most ppl can't stay that late because it takes them so long to get home that by the time they get home it's dark and we're not allowed to be out past dark. another girl and i decide to wait. 5 rolls around. she doesn't come. AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. and they keep telling us we need to get a move on in "finalizing" our practicum plans. FINALIZING?!?!?! try FORMULATING. i finally managed to meet with her today (nobody even knew she was there; i just happened to wander past her office and see her there) and i've decided to switch to a completely different topic than what i've been considering all along, so basically i'm back to square one. SO STRESSED.

(c) i can't access pdfs ANYWHERE. no matter where i am, no matter how fast the internet is. how the hell am i supposed to write a RESEARCH paper if i can't do any RESEARCH?

okay. i'm done. i'm sorry. i'll try to write some positive things now.

(a) in my freaking-out-ness, i randomly realized on my walk home that there's a hotel down the street from my house, and decided to risk looking like a fool by asking if they had internet. THEY DO. THEY HAVE WIRELESS. AND IT'S FREE. AND IT'S RIGHT DOWN THE STREET FROM MY HOUSE. but i still can't download pdfs.

(b) i had my luganda oral exam today and i KICKED ASS. they said that most ppl would be rated novice, and he said that i definitely surpassed the novice level. this gave me a burst of luganda confidence, so in the taxi when some guy started talking to me, i spoke back in luganda and we actually managed to have almost a full conversation in luganda. of course he asked me about obama. he asked me if i have obama's email address, and when i said no, he was ENRAGED by the fact that every u.s. citizen can't contact obama personally. then he asked me to pass a message on to obama on behalf of all ugandans -- he wants me to ask obama to come to uganda and be their president because they don't want museveni anymore. LOL. i told him i'd try, but that we don't want museveni either.

i'm considering not even posting this because it's so ridiculous and pointless, but whatever.

here are some random pics.