Day 10...Teachers make the worst students

On our first day at the university I already feel like I'm back in college. (On a side note, my sister emailed me to let me know that I was accepted into Wayne State University's Doctoral Program.) Anyways, we are staying in the dorm rooms, which are pretty nice and very roomy for dorms. We even have our own bathroom!

The problem with our room is that there is no air conditioning. This isn't a problem for me. For God sake, I'm African, but to Adrienne, this is life threatening. Our room has been closed for a few days since its summer vacation, so we immediately opened the two large windows to let some fresh air in. These are big windows, too big. Other universities learned long ago that windows this big makes it easy for people to sneak in and out very easily, or sneak things in and out! Although our dorms were built only ten years ago, obviously, the constructors didn't get the memo. On top of that there is no screen on our windows!!! That's just asking for trouble.

We left the windows open while we went out for dinner and do to our laundry, but came back just before sunset. That's when I sensed that we were not alone in our dorm. While we were gone and shortly before we returned, we received very unwanted guests.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you'd guessed it. It was horrible. While we were out and the sun was setting, through the open windows on the second floor they came....mosquitoes. My kryptonite. Not only am I allergic to them..they also carry horrible diseases like malaria, yellow fever and probably the plaque that wiped out 3/4 of medieval Europe, and they might as well carry swing flu. Now, I have lots of experience with mosquitoes as Egypt is famous for having them. I knew exactly what to do...just like in the elevator. No, not toe nail clippers either.

Mosquitoes come out big at night because they hate the light. I immediately began to close the windows. Prevent the little vermins from coming in and kill those that were already in our room. This would ensure a peaceful night. Adriennne almost passed out! "You can't close the windows! It'll be hot!! We'll die," she said. "You won't sleep anyhow, " I said. "They'll eat us alive! We won't survive."

She begged me to leave the windows open since they were our only source of ventilation and I threatened to go sleep in the hallway. So we compromised. Essentially she won. The windows would stay slightly open and the gaps would be covered by the curtains. This was false hope and I knew that, but it was only moral support for Adrienne. Of course, I knew we'd never sleep.

The mosquitoes still entered the room and it was still as hot as an oven. I slept in pants and a long sleeve shirt. That was still no good as my feet and face were exposed. Socks took care of the feet, but I had to thrown a handkerchief over my face. It didn't help because they continued to buzz around my ears and I couldn't breathe. If I hadn't been so tired I would have just gone into the hallway.

Adrienne got a taste of her own medicine and the "Stupid Stuff Police" was there to witness the whole thing. She has at least two dozen bites that are as big as quarters. I could hear her scratching her skin off in the middle of the night. She didn't complain when I asked her to close the windows for tonight. :)

Other than our nightly adventure, we've been in lectures all day going over the history of Turkey. Its been great because I'm learning a lot that I can take back to my class. I'm happy.

Quote of the Day:
"Get your tribe on girl!" - Adrienne to me as I started to belly dance to some music in the restaurant.