The 5th good thing about Lagos: Going to the movies!

We have a "Galleria" shopping center just about two blocks from the apartment. It's close enough that it's really the only place we're allowed to walk to. It's nothing like the Galleria in Houston -- but there's a quite good book store, a CD music store and a number of other assorted shops and a couple fast food restaurants and cafes -- and a movie theater! Brent and I just got back from Superman Returns. It's pretty good if you can suspend your disbelief. Forget about Luther springing up cities of crystals -- the fact that all Superman has to do is put on his glasses and he's totally unrecognizable is a real stretch. Anyway, the theater is really pretty much like a Cinemark -- theater seating and all. Tickets are 1500 naira -- about $12, so it's pricey enough that the bulk of Nigerians couldn't afford it. But there are a number of rich Nigerians, and they were there at the movies tonight. Brent and I were the only white faces in the theater, but no problem there. The crowd seemed to enjoy the movie -- the kids really whooped when the bullet was repelled by Superman's eye. The only annoying thing is that there were a number of cell phone rings going off -- they didn't make any announcement at the beginning to turn off cell phones and there seems to be less social pressure here in general on cell phone use. Anyway, it's nice to have something normal to do in the evening like going to the movies -- even if on the walk home we were confronted by several beggars asking for a handout...