Our first order of business once we hit Arusha was to find our hostel. Which was an adventure in itself. A-Town Hostel is located in a local village about a 10-minute walk up from the only traffic light in Arusha. Ergo, no address. Living amongst real Tanzanians? Awesome. Attempting to explain exactly where we were located to our taxi drivers and guides? Not so much. But the manager of our hostel, Justin, and his girlfriend, Jenna, were absolutely amazing as hosts. For one thing, Jenna took us to a local restaurant where we got our first taste of real African food. And we all know how much I like being fed yummy food. It turns out Tanzanian cuisine is surprisingly similar to Chinese food, namely rice, meat, sauce and very minimal veggies. You had the option to substitute the rice for fries, but other than that, I could've been eating in a rural village in China and not known the difference. And then, to add icing to the cake, she introduces us to our first bottle of Konyagi, the Tanzanian gin of choice, which, coupled with their ginger beer, Stoney, gives Finland's lonkero a run for its money at the top of my alcoholic wish list.

Jenna also spoke a little Swahili, known as Kiswahili by the locals, and taught us the few words we would need to get by in the village. Jambo is the touristy version of hello and should be responded to in kind, whereas mambo is a more colloquial what's up and should be responded to with poa (cool) or safi (fresh, not that we ever really felt fresh sans regular showers). Mzungu is what they call white foreigners. I guess this is a good time to mention that only one person in ALL of Africa believed I was from the States. Everyone else just looked at me funny when I told them I was from San Francisco. Eventually, I gave up and started saying China in an effort to minimize their confusion. In retrospect, I probably just added to their perception of America as a nation of WASPs. Oops.

After a less-than-restful night of sleep thanks to a mosquito that had managed to penetrate the netting, we woke up to shower #1 of 4, of which three were cold showers. And, yes, this is the grand total for the entire trip. I know. I know. Yuck! Gross! But it happened and we dealt with it. Cold but semi-decently clean, we set out to explore Arusha. First stop, the crafts market. Before dropping us off, Godwin, who owned our Kili tour company, Amani Afrika, told us he would be impressed if we bargained down to 50% of the asking price. I guess he was operating under the assumption that we had the haggling skills of mzungus instead of, well, cheap Asians. I think we actually ended up paying between 10-30% of the asking price for 90% of our purchases. My parents would've been proud. At one point, we were accosted by a guy wearing a shirt that said, "Here I am. What are your other two wishes?" and who actually understood what it meant. We would later learn that Tanzania is the secondhand clothing capital of the world, at the expense of their local textile industry unfortunately, and that Tanzanians learn a lot of their English through their t-shirts. And rap songs.