Going to the what? To the lake.

So as it turns out, I'm a part time worker here in Malawi (sort of like a "part time student" - Mr. Lavin, Springfield High School, 1999). But it's not because I'm pretending to be sick, rather I just happened to arrive during a 3-day work week. Wednesday was America's birthday and Friday was Malawi's Independence Day--all in all, sticking it to the Brits, bam. Anyway, a few new friends of mine and I decided to hit up Lake Malawi for the long weekend--I mean, let's face it, I deserved a break.

Right, so we took off...
That's Kate on the left--she's a Brit researching sanitation at primary schools for her thesis. The driver is Amy and she absolutely rocks. Amy's my neighbor and I'm actually at her house as I write this--yeah, she's getting A LOT of Emily time. In the backseat is me (not shown) and Anne (also, not shown).

Don't worry though, I took an artsy picture of my shadow when we pulled over.
It's like I'm becoming a hipster...

Okay, not really because I still like non-urban areas and trees. Check out this Baobab we saw on the side of the road (see Kate and I for scale).

Further distancing myself from hipsterdom, I hugged it...

At the tree we made some friends...

It took us nearly 5 hours to reach Monkey Bay/Cape Maclear, but it was seriously worth it. Below is a photo of the porch off our room--I'm missing the olden days and Kate is pretending to do work for her thesis.

Oh and this was on the other side...

After a long breakfast on Saturday we went to an island for some snorkeling. As you can see, I did a really good job hiking--I'm fast and athletic.

Then came the snorkeling. I think I look prettiest in this shot--nice to publish it on the internets.

Here's a picture Amy took of us before dinner, but clearly, after sun (see my raging red face as warning for prolonged sun exposure).

Right, so I hope you all enjoyed this explosion of culture and all of the insight I'm bringing you on Malawi--you're welcome.