I'm going to attempt to describe my spring break.

Day 1: Toubab Dialo

A week ago, three lovely friends of mine and I left Dakar to engage on a week of relaxation and fun along the Petite Côte of Senegal. Our first destination was the northern most town of this segment of coast; a nice, welcoming, toursity (as would be all of the Petite Côte) chunk of coast.
After our sept place escaped the perma-traffic on the way out of the city, (where I finally got a taste of these bags of cookies, which are among the many things sold along road by people who walk between the cars selling products all day, and they're stale. I don't know why I was surprised by this, but I wasn't really disappointed. Anyway, just remember, if someone is walking around in the sun all day, carrying food that may have been made that morning and may have been made three days ago, keep the effects of nature in mind.) after having haggled an unhappily high price for the sept place in the first place, we zoomed on down to our completely seashell ordained Toubab oasis.
We promptly got some food in us and headed to the beach. After having explained at lunch to my friends that I will always have the spirit of an eighty-year-old woman, Joey and I ventured to a nearby establishment to ask for empty margarine tubs with which we could build sand castles. We raced back. "I am a child," I explained further. We had a great time playing around in the sand, when the first in a run, which would prove to surpass the week, of women selling the jewelry from oversized baskets atop their heads strolled over. The margarine buckets were left to some talibe kids who thought it looked like fun (and were much better at castle making) while I bought some necklaces.
We spent the evening trying to prepare for the relaxation we were in for by strolling along the local streets and beach taking photos and listening to goofy little goat bleats. The sun began to set, so we settled in at the place that was nice enough to give us buckets to play in the sand with, and kicked back with a dinner of local (ok, one of two Senegalese choices of) beer and fresh seafood on the beach. Really! Our table was set ON the sand, and we were facing the sunset and next to the djembe rhythm that is never far when in Senegal. I followed my spectacular calamari dinner with a banana crêpe and stargazing.
I would like to stop writing about how wonderful life is at this point, but I will have to continue with the rest of my week on a later day.