Edited to add: I keep getting questions about why I’m putting the * symbol in some of the words I’m writing; this is because I’m trying to keep those words from showing up in Google blog searches so I don’t attract unnecessary attention to my blog, where I’m at, etc. Also, everything I write (from the blog to emails) is monitored in the area of the country I’m in, so I have to be careful about what words I’m writing.

We went to the marketplace to do a little shopping, something we girls were very excited about doing. We had very strict instructions (even though security was going there with us) about how to act and such. You might be interested to know that we girls aren’t supposed to make eye contact with any males here other than those of our security agents or the guys in our group. This means that, when we’re in public, we almost always have dark sunglasses on and our heads towards the ground. It’s an interesting dynamic, especially when you’re used to looking wherever you want. We don’t always do a great job of it, but we try to follow the protocol, especially in a place as big as the market.

Things got off to an interesting start when I went with Hannah to try to find a bathroom and ended up having a man try to get us to come up to his apartment to use his bathroom. Um, hello, we didn’t get off the plane yesterday, sir.

Whenever we’re out in public like that, each of us walks around with a guy from our group, which we call our “trip buddy” (it changes all the time, we just each kind of pick a guy). In my buddy group at the market was John, who has actually been my buddy several times now and greets me with an excited “BUDDY!” about once a day.

John was very excited about the hat and jersey he bought, but I’m sure you can’t tell from the look of glee spreading across his face, right?

Joel was with us, too. At one point while he and I were waiting for the others to finish shopping in a stall, I thanked him for being such a good “buddy” for us.

His reply? “Well, if something goes down, I’m outta here and you girls can just fend for yourselves.”

Thanks, Joel. What a pal.

After leaving the market, we headed to an outdoor concert that basically featured men twirling around in long white outfits. My new mbff (male best friend forever) Nicholas was sitting beside me in his own white shirt.

Unfortunately his white shirt doesn’t twirl exactly like the ones on stage.

Speaking of our clothes, we girls finally had to do some laundry using the washer in our flat which happens to look like it was made in the 1940s. One of the girls got it started and then walked out of the bathroom where it was only to return two minutes later to a flood. I heard her yelling and, as I went running, I had the presence of mind to grab my camera and start recording for y’all.

My devotion to bringing you the latest breaking news from a flat in downtown Ca*ro cannot be stopped by slow upload speeds, lack of actual time on the internet nor flooded bathrooms.

Especially when said flood ends in an all out water fight.