my one month aniversary

I have officially made it ONE MONTH living away from all my loved ones! I cannot beleive how fast time flew! Everything here is still great-My language skills are at the intermediate low level, and in 6 weeks I will have to test at th intermediate mid level-so, not that bad, eh? My family is doing wonderful....everyday I like living here even more. This past weekend, I went hiking to a place called Morningside, an old German hideout in the Uluguru mountains, from WW2. It is a 4 hours hike to the top, and going down makes your legs just as tired:) I went with my sisiter and my friend Gregor...the night before we made Mandazi, little donuts like things, to bring with us...they call them "bites" instead of 'snacks'..I love that! We ate them by the waterfall we found 1/2way up the mountain-gorgeous!!!! we got rained on on the way up, but the afternoon turned out to be symmetrical. Rain in the morning, beautiful weather at teh top, rain right at the end...it rains here a LOT more than I ever thought it would! On other notes, I have been having some interesting chats with my family-apparently leg hair and chest hair is the sexiest thing in the world...as are cankles and thick legs! I am set! I really should stay put here-I would be a rockstar! (no, i do not have chest hair...the guys here do though:) ) Last friday I went out and had quite a little adventure with some of my buddies....we went to study/hang out/drink a beer on a friday night, and then by the time we tried to gt a taxi home, none of the taxi services were working b/c of ramadon...so, I ended up getting a tazi 2 hours later, after my friend broke the toilet off the wall at some hotel, spilling water evreywhere, and realizing that it was 2am....the time I have to type this does not give this story any justice...nontheless, I had a REALLY great night friday, relxed Sat and hiked a mountain sunday. I am running every morning with my dada(sister) and trying to stay in shape. since I have no protein and no fats in my diet, I am losing a lot of muscle mass...so I have to keep running to stay toned, I guess. I live my this river that one of my neighbors told me I could go swimming in-I got really scited to do this until my sister, on a run, told me there were crocs that lived in the river and would eat me. My neighbor doesn't like me? I'm not sure.....
My fmaily is doing well halth wise,including me. I do not have malaria, although the deadly mosquito lives in Morogoro, which makes me a little nervous....fannie, my little bro has Malaria as do all the children at some point. I guess its not that big a deal here? Most of them get over it fairly quickly.
I just taught for the f9irst time this wekks-my class told my contact teacher that I was a great teacher and that they wanted me to stay, which made me feel really great....A lot of peole have asked me for teaching advice, makes me feel like a mother hen. Friday is midterms for me(I have to take a oral exam and a written exam) so wish me luck!
Time is out, so I love you, please write!