Addis day 2.

We woke up at 7am after almost 11 hours of sleep. Glorious. We were both so happy. Then, Kwazo and I set out for Meskal Square to run with the best of the best Ethiopian elite (well Lonely Planet put it that way). We were a little bit later than the suggested 5am arrival time, but we still felt pretty cool and there were some other fast runners (so let's pretend their famous). It felt great to shake out the legs and move and get some words of encouragement (well I hope that's what they were shouting at us) to start off our day. After the run, we grabbed bananas, and figured out how to get hot water (such a mood booster). Then, we found the cleanest clothes available :) and got ready for round two of this city, which is pretty complicated and we have decided is full of many highs and lows. I.e. from this morning high = awesome run with locals and hot water shower, low = spending hours and getting 1,000 opinions about how to take a bus tomorrow morning to Bahir Dar, where we will start our Northern region exploring. Patience. Flexibility. Laughing. We'll be alright. Finally got the bus thing figured out, and jumped in a taxi (they're all royal blue and white and adorable), to try and get to the Ethnological Museum where Haile Selaisse's palace was. Explaining this to the cab driver = NOT successful. A long while later with many confused conversations, we made it! We had a really fun breakfast/lunch first though, where our total inability to converse got us some delicious egg sandwiches, my first spiced tea and Kwazo's second delicious coffee (with milk! many attempts required to make the milk part happen...). The museum had a lot of interesting cultural items, and reading about the Italian Occupation and government shifts here was interesting. Kwazo is definitely better at internalizing the historical information, and I'm trying my best, although I definitely got most excited about the traditional medicine section in the museum - did you know tamarind could be used for upset stomachs AND malaria AND hemorrhoids? And that coffee began in the region of Ethiopia called Kaffe? Now you do. Finally, we are back at an internet cafe so that Kwaz can do some registering for school and I can catch up with some much needed reflection and writing. The Kenya descriptions are in progress, but I don't want the order to be weird, so I'm saving it in draft form til the end. For our afternoon, we are planning to see the original skeleton of Lucy in the National Museum. Lucy, one of if not the, earliest hominins was discovered in 1974 here in Ethiopia and her structure provides evidence that bipedalism preceded increase in brain size in human evolution. Should be cool! Then, we are going to Holy Trinity Cathedral and hopefully to a good dinner with a friend of Kwazo's before a good restful night before our very early departure again tomorrow. Despite these current plans, I would be shocked if they didn't totally change on us, as that seems to be the theme :) Ethiopia what is next?