Saturday, August... ?^th

So, today, I learned some very important life lessons.

1. There is a time when “say yes to everything” and “don't ask: just eat” run into something that is basically breaded deep-fried extra-spicy green chili peppers. This is a bad, bad time. These chili peppers look for all intents and purposes like every other fried vegetable; however, they are like chewing on fire.
2. When fair skin is coupled with increased photosensitivity from medicine, there is no such thing as too much sunscreen on the mountain. When added to this, the phrase “I put sunscreen on my face, and everything else but my hands and feet are covered” actually means “my hands and feet are gonna roast like ducks. And then, in the sun's intense heat, the sunscreen on my face will sweat off, and my face will burn too. Afterwards, since that's simply not enough, the sun will burn the rest of me through a layer of cloth.” Thank you, sunshine. I appreciate your hard work.
3. Indians are fascinated by the funny red color white kids turn when they go in the sun. I totally wasn't getting enough stares because I was white; now, people approach me and ask “why has your skin turned red?”
4. Climbing trees is easy. Getting down is not... at least not until your foot cramps and you fall.
5. There is a road of desperation that leads to all sorts of awkward toilet facilities. Many people found that road today.

On another note, we've been working on planning our 2 week break. Four of us (Sarah, Laura, Bill, and I) are going to Southern India for the two weeks, and we have a sort of rough sketch of what we'll be doing. We're gonna take a super-long train ride from Pune to Bangalore, and then a short train from there to Madhumalai. Madhumalai is basically a giant jungle/forest sort of inland, and we'll stay a couple of nights in forest lodges. That is also where I'm going to get to ride an elephant. After that, we'll take another train further south and towards the coast to Parya. Parya is another forest where we'll get to see wild tigers and other cool wildlife. It's also located near the Spice Village, where all the Indian spices come from. From Parya, we'll travel south to the very tip of India, Cape Kamarian. There's a musical temple along the way that I'm excited to stop at. After that, we'll head north to Kochi and take an overnight boat ride through the canals (mmm... I can smell the bugspray already). And then we'll be back to Pune. Exciting, huh?

It's weird to think that I've already been here for two weeks. The time is going extremely quickly. I'm already an 8^th of the way through my time in India. Before I know it, I'll be packing up a bunch of new clothes and trinkets (and pretty things for Yemna) to come home.

Sunday, August 29^th

Today, my host family went to visit relatives and left me home alone. It's the first time in two weeks that I've really had any time or space completely to myself. In the hotel room, we would get a little bit of time alone, but I roomed with two girls who shared virtually the same schedule as I had, so we were in pretty constant company. In the last week that I've lived with the Junnarkars, I live in the bedroom with the shrine, so they tend to come and go as they please. It's been wonderful today, just being able to sit and read without any interruptions or other people.

Curate ut valeatis,

Anne