Bring on the sun!

So, I am sitting in sunny Dakar, Senegal with a light wind, no clouds and a beautiful 75 degree day. Life is indeed sweet.
The voyage went smoothly, Portland to Chicago to Paris, all three cities cold, cloudy, grey, and foggy. Lots of boring airport time. 4 of us traveled from PDX together, 8 of us from Chicago and 9 from Paris. Charles DeGaulle airport, by the way, had the slowest, most inefficient security ever! It took us an hour to get into Terminal 2 and there weren't even that many people there.
Anyway, Air France served us a delicious dinner for the final leg. We had salmon, pasta, fine cheese, free wine and champagne, a baguette and a lovely chocolate tartlet to finish. I also watched about 3.5 movies in all and slept in many awkward positions.
Upon arrival, the 9 (now 10 of us) stayed in a small appartment for 2 nights. We just moved into our host families yesterday afternoon after an exhausting day exploring the neighborhood around our school on foot.
My host family is not the typical Senegalese family. Jacques (my host dad) is French/Italian and speaks French with Odile (my host mom) but not a word of Wolof. They each have their own grown children but none live in the house. They have a guard dog named Ricky that is slowly warming up to me. They are Christian which makes them a minority but I am planning on attending church with them. They are very calm and quiet but friendly. I am surprised at how well my French is doing. It is easier to understand than it is to express myself but I am still trying.
Things are different here, obviously. The people are outgoing and very friendly but things are generally very loud. There is construction everywhere and very large wealth disparities right next to each other. It takes some adjusting but people here are very happy and things function, just not as smoothly as elsewhere.
I am very excited to be here. We have orientation meetings all week before we jump into classes next week. Some of our orientation includes walking around our neighborhood and downtown.
Sorry to be so brief but we had 6 hours of Introduction to Senegalese Values today and I am pooped! Hope all is well in the United States.
I love you all.
Peace!
~Jessica~