Two parties and the NGO bazaar

No movie theater pics today…the theater changed the movies and is now showing something rated R and some Twilight type movie called The Host…anyone know what that is?…yeah me neither…I know, I know…I’m disappointed, too…what, you thought that actually sounded boring and are glad that I didn't waste your time by talking about watching a movie?...fair enough, so it’s just me that’s disappointed.

Now that I've used up my monthly allotment of ellipses, I thought I’d share some more pictures (turns out to be a much easier way to fill space).

Last Saturday (April 20), Matt and Sophie (some of my favorite British people) threw a party. The theme was the 1970s, mainly because Matt and Sophie’s house kind of looks like it’s from the 1970s. Turns out I didn’t really bring specialized attire to Ethiopia, but other people did so I present to you pictures of them.

The invite:

Actual pictures of the house (notice the similarities to the invite and the amazing old school television, which I'm sure reminds my college roommates of some of the TVs I bought at DI back in the day). I'm also fond of the Last Supper. In general, the people here are very Orthodox Christian, so the furnished houses frequently have a lot of pictures of Jesus, crosses, etc.

Rachel, Betsy, and Sarah all decked out. You've also got to love a pink house...there's a joke in there somewhere about my Dad's old pink car (I know, I know, IT WAS ROSE MIST), but since I wrecked that car as a kid, I'm going to leave it alone.

Stephane and Matt.

Hayoung, Sophie, Caitlin, Betsy, and Eric.

Noah, Alli, and Betsy.

Fabio, Hayoung, Noah, and Stephane.

Barry's trying to figure out what I'm doing going around pointing my phone at everything. Followed by a picture with Barry and Iris in the background.

Sophie.

On Thursday, my apartment had its housewarming party. It was fun, but I didn't take any pictures. Just take the apartment pictures I shared with you before and imagine furniture and lots of people in it (don't worry, my room still looks pretty similar to the picture I shared before). Somehow, I hadn't made it up to our roof until the party. It's pretty nice up there, though we were only up there for 10-20 minutes before it started raining and the party moved inside.

This morning I went to an NGO bazaar. It's held at a church school of some sort over near Sarbet (which is close to the African Union building). They hold it the last Saturday of each month. I was super excited by the apples. I kept hearing they were finally in season but hadn't seen any for sale around. The grocery stores sell imported apples (which I hear are pretty bad) for almost $2 per apple. By comparison, the 50 birr (~$2.50) / kg that you pay for local apples is really cheap. They also had pears for 60 birr (~$3.25) / kg. In the fifth picture, you can also see some of the very, very colorful children's furniture.

Well, that's all folks. See you next time.

Weird stuff in Addis (mainly copyright violations)

So, today I thought I'd just share a few pictures of some very random stuff in Addis.

First of all, an explanation of the phenomenon known as Facefood. Essentially, Ethiopia has no copyright protection laws at all. There are entire shops on the street that are dedicated to selling you pirated DVDs. This also carries over into the names of restaurants. In other words, Facefood is exactly what it sounds like...a blatant ripoff of Facebook in the form of a restaurant in Ethiopia.

The entrance:

My friends Nadia and Scott who I went there with. Yes, this is another picture from the week Scott was in town. Clearly, I didn't do anything interesting this week so I'm reaching into the past for material. By the way, in case you are interested (which you should be because Scott is awesome), Scott has decided to go work for a start-up in Tokyo (very cool for him; kind of sad for me since I thought there was a 30% chance he would come here).

A sampling of the pages in the menu. Obviously, the front and back are the best part with the "log in," "log out," and the giant "Like." I also like that on the second to last page it says "The End" at the bottom followed by "log out" on the back.

And because ripping off Facebook isn't enough, check out the sign right by the Face Pizza sign out front. For reference, T'ibs is a traditional Ethiopian dish.

That's right, ripping off the Pizza Hut logo is popular around here. There's also a restaurant called "Pizza Hu," which is literally the Pizza Hut logo with the "t" taken off the end. Somehow, I don't have a picture of that place though.

Anyways, next we have the blatant rip off of In-N-Out Burger. This place seems to be less successful at ripping off the logo, though, because that doesn't really look like the In-N-Out logo from the states. However, I've been told that's definitely who they are ripping off because there's no way this restaurant, which just recently opened, is celebrating its 50th Anniversary.

Here's a pizza restaurant whose logo looks an awful lot like Pac-Man.

And I kid you not, there's what I can only assume is a women's clothing store here (there's a picture of a high-heel shoe on the sign) called "Sofi's Choice." I'm betting that's just an unfortunate coincidence.

That's all for this week. I really want to check out the movie theater here, so I hope to have some pictures of that next time.

More awesome weekend pictures and Mercato market

I just wanted to share a few more pictures from the March 14-17 weekend and a few pictures of my time at the Mercato market last Saturday (April 6).

Let's start with the awesome weekend:

I promised you an embarrassing picture of me after we got rained on hiking in Entoto. Natasha's on the left and Scott's on the right. That's what an $0.80 poncho from Walmart looks like (in case you were curious). The Ethiopians all find it hysterical, which is fair. Turns out to be highly effective though. Given I had the backpack with everyone's electronics in it, I had to be the one to wear it. I offered it to Natasha and Scott, but they seemed happy to avoid the derision that comes with it.

More pictures from the Entoto hike.

Here's the whole gang at Jolly. From left to right, Nadia, Scott, me, Natasha, and Amandla.

Natasha and Amandla at Jolly.

Mercato is a very interesting place. It looks like an open air market that ran out of room and expanded into the surrounding buildings. According to Wikipedia, covers several square miles and employs approximately 13,000 people in ~7,100 business entities. Each shop is more like a little kiosk that locks up, so it also has a weird feeling of an indoor/outdoor market held in a bunch of storage units. In other words, picture an indoor/outdoor Manhattan Mini-Storage (which has small units) where each storage unit is a little shop.

I got there around 4:30 pm or so, which turned out to be perfect timing. It was early enough that pretty much everything was still open, but late enough that the crowds had really thinned out. Some friends of mine (Matt – the SPA for coops – and his girlfriend Sophie) went the week before around 2 pm, and the streets were so jammed that they said it was hard to find space to answer your phone. When Mercato is crowded, it’s also more dangerous because the lack of personal space makes it easier for pickpockets and thieves. In fact, when they went, Sophie’s necklace was stolen right off her neck. Someone literally ripped it off her neck. This is probably why people who work for the American Embassy are forbidden from going to Mercato.

I, however, found it a fairly pleasant experience. I found a bunch of stuff cheaper than I’ve seen it elsewhere. This is all post negotiation, of course. I bought a thin foam mattress (I was getting tired of the hardwood floor without carpet or anything) for 300 birr when the original quoted price was 700 birr. I still may have gotten ripped off (though they seemed pretty upset to sell it to me at that price, which is normally a good sign) but not by much.

Anyway, the market is also interesting because there seem to be clusters of certain types of shops. In other words, there’s a kitchen section, a blanket section, a clothing section, a shoe section, etc. It’s like a giant indoor/outdoor version of Walmart where every time you buy something, you have to fight about what you’re going to pay.

Picture time. Typical shops.

Pictures of the streets and outside shops.

As I said, the market encompasses buildings with both outside facing shops and interior shops.

I didn't get a great picture of a bunch of similar shops next to each other, but this is one of the stores in the "shoe section."

Here's the random guy who came up to me at the market, followed me around, and even translated some. Both weird and cool. I told him I was taking his picture twice. Both times he looked to the side at the last minute, and no, I don't know why he wears only one sleeve of his jacket.

Here's the place where I bought my foam mattress. It's like the one on top, only thinner.

At the end of the day, the lines for the minibuses get long.