365: Exhausted but Satisfied

So pretty much Ange and I have been "partying" for 36 hours straight (and I use partying very loosely). One of my bffs came into town for about 24 hours and then we decided to go to the winery this weekend without actually checking to see if the winery was open (it wasn't; oops!) so we ended up hosting a little impromptu afternoon winery party of sorts at our house. After all that hosting and socializing I am BEAT! But I wouldn't have changed a thing. Such an awesome weekend. Now I have to bust some ass on grading and make it through finals and we're off to the Gambia!

365: Spyder & Scarlett

These were our get-ups for the white trash party (yes we know that's classist and not pc--it wasn't our party and we just rolled with it). Ange was also known as Spyder & I went by Scarlett. We carried ketchup and mustard bottles for our beverage containers. All together we spent about $25 putting our outfits together. It's ok to be jealous. We know we're hot.

365: Post Carwash Par-Tay

The fundraiser carwash raised over $700 to fund HIV test kits for Stonewall! Wahoo! Of course we did what we do best and partied it up to celebrate our hardwork and sunburns! Love my peeps!

365: So Excited!!!

Tonight's Gambia party went well! Ange and I are super pumped for this trip! Only 36 more days til departure!!!

365: Don'tchawanna Fanta?

We're having our first official pre-departure meeting/party for the students going on the Gambia trip. We went out shopping today to get stuff for chicken yassa and when we were in the ethnic food aisle Ange spied these orange Fantas imported from Mexico! What would a Gambian dinner party be without orange Fanta?!?! We decided we'd roll them in the driveway and dirt tomorrow to make them look "more authentic." Can't wait to get these students PUMPED UP for this trip!!!

365: Par-Tay

Last night's party was a big success! Besides Daisy's upset stomach the only other minor catastrophe was that we lost the lis to the tequila bottle. Luckily we had an old agave bottle just hanging out. Hmm, convenient was to spice up our coffee or tea?!?!

365: Wii are having so much fun!!!

Ange's birthday party = total success. We had 22 people in total--an all-time high for Camp Awesome! My favorite part, besides seeing my babe SO happy, was our Michael Jackson: The Experience 30 minutes of hysteria. Of course I had to dance my booty off! So much funsies!

365: Remnants of a Good Time

We're sticking to our couple's New Year's resolution and having more people out to the house/hanging out more often. This one snuck up on us--Ange's friend Melissa came to visit from San Francisco (and is now my friend!) and one of my friend's texted me to see what we were doing for the evening so I invited her over. Then Ange remembered one of her friends' partner was out of town so she invited her! We ended up having dinner and cracking up until after 1 am! Definitely a great night. Yay for impromptu gatherings!

365: Mennonite Madness!

We went to a friend's birthday party tonight. We had so much fun, met some new people and had some yummy food. Best of all, we learned two new games! The one you see pictured is called either "Mennonite Madness" or "1 to 100." Obvs I'm going to go with the double M because that's way more fun to say. The other game we played was called Four Mary's. Which also has a name that doesn't describe the actual game play. But still super fun! Good times :)

365: Going Native

Our second social event of the weekend has been described as a very exclusive dinner party where we were instructed to "dress up" to the hilt. Ange doesn't have many dressy clothes (mostly business casual) do I thought matching Native African attire would be our best bet. Plus I have a billion native outfits that I never get to wear so this is a great excuse! Ange is less thrilled but she's playing along because she is AWESOME like that.

Oh yeah...did I mention that I won a dance contest?

So I've been meaning to tell you how I won a dance contest at a party when we were in Nigeria, but I didn't have any pictures to accompany the blog and I knew there would be some sweet ones. Luckily Dymisha and Mercy both handed their cameras over to others in our group and now that we've re-grouped I've gotten copies of them.

So the dance-off is part of a larger story I've been meaning to tell, but just haven't gotten around to writing so I'll tell you the short version of it now. We met a woman and her husband at the Benin Airport, she invited us to her son's birthday party the following weekend which for many reasons was a very huge affair, we went, and I won the dance off in front of about 500 people.

So we got there late because of car issues but when we got there we were able to jump in and participate in the last hour of the party. Mercy and Dymisha had gone out to the middle of the lawn to dance (there was a DJ playing music) and I got an itch to dance as I usually do so I convinced Taryn to go with me. Not 30 seconds after we got out there the DJ announced they'd be having a dance contest. We were already out there so we thought "why not?"

Now I have to say...I'm a pretty fierce when it comes to competition. Even if they don't matter I still like to win. The other thing you have to know is that when you already stick out like a sore thumb you can either try and hide (and usually fail miserably) or just suck it up and make a complete fool out of yourself. I usually choose the latter.

So when we started the dance contest I was dancing to win, no matter how ridiculous I looked or how much MORE attention I may receive.

So in the first round we had to dance with a partner against another couple. Taryn and I paired up and kicked butt quite swiftly.

In the next round they made us switch to a new partner from the winners of round one. Dymisha and I quickly paired up because we knew we'd be unstoppable...which we were.

After that we were narrowed down some more in individual dance offs. Sadly Dymisha threw in the towel and lost. I of course did not and the field narrowed to three.


In the last round it was me and another young woman. I dance like a crazy fool but I have some tact. The other lady was a little more...how shall I say "hoochie." The event was hosted by Evangelical Pastors so that was not appreciated.

In the end I prevailed. Now some have said it was rigged since I was the one of only three white people in the 500+ crowd, but I prefer to believe it was because I was AWESOME, but I guess we'll never know.

All I know is that I was the one who walked away with the grand prize grape lip gloss...SO THERE.

The funniest part is that for the next few days we hung around with the Birthday Family and every time we went somewhere with them they'd introduce us and they'd say "Oh I remember her. She won the dance contest at the party. You dance very lovely." Bwhahaha. I'm such a rock star. Only in Nigeria.