So, I still love Rob Thomas. Today while I had internet, I uploaded some of his songs from pre-Matchbox 20 days, and even then, he was just pretty awesome. Before Matchbox 20, he was in a band called Tabitha's Secret. That was back in 1993 when I was... well... three. They had a pretty bad breakup that resulted in some lawsuits, though. I like him better with Matchbox 20, anyway.

My computer has been behaving itself and charging lately. During the first day of the four day break, I got super frustrated with it... so I sat down and had a nice little chat with the inanimate object. I told it I was sorry for blaming it for all the charging problems because it can't help it. It isn't its fault that the current is so much stronger here and things like that. Since then, it has charged easily every single night. So the lesson to be learned: talking to inanimate objects does not make you crazy... and sometimes it's helpful. However, Toshi (the computer) does still exude superfluous energy constantly, and the battery doesn't last nearly as long as it normally does because the energy is seeping out his ears (literally through the earphone jacks).

Today, I finally remembered to bring home the Ganpati/Ganesh idol that I made at ACM. Coincidentally, today is the fourth day after the full moon. The fourth day after a full moon is a very auspicious day for Ganesh. My family was very excited at the timing. They insist it's fate. So, my Ganpati statue is currently residing at a newly-cleared place in their shrine. I was given a hibiscus flower and some kind of grass to offer to him.

It was kind of a day of coincidences, actually. Today, Emily had to go to work at her internship. Sometimes she comes back after interning, but she's usually back around four. I waited around til five at ACM, and then decide she wouldn't be back so I started my trek home. I shared a rickshaw for about a km with Kacie because we start out in the same direction. I got to close to the divergence of our paths, so I hopped out of the rickshaw so I could catch another one towards home. As soon as I got out of the rickshaw, I heard my name being called. I had just happened to stop right in front of the coffee shop Emily had stopped at with her fellow interns to get a snack.

I've started wearing my brown contacts. After Turkey, I got some brown contacts. Blue eyes are traditionally auspicious in some places, and mine are freakishly blue sometimes. I thought brown contacts would be good for making me stand out a little less. However, the fact that I'm white makes me stand out here before you even notice the blue eyes, so the brown contacts haven't been really necessary. However, I'm going through contacts pretty quickly because of all of the pollution, so I'm going to have to start wearing the brown ones more. Either way, when I was trying on contacts to find a good color, I had trouble because virtually nothing actually conceals the blue of my eyes. I tried honey, hazel, dark hazel, light brown, and brown. Everything kind of made my eyes look blue with a hint of ________. Then, I tried dark brown contacts, and they actually did a fairly good job of making my eyes a color other than blue. So those are the ones I got. Today, two people commented on how my eyes looked funny today... the blue had a kind of brownish tint to it.

Emily and I stopped for coffee on the way back to our community today. Two Pune boys heard us speaking Marathi and came over to talk to us... they know some people from another American program here. Emily proceeded to tell them how long we're here, where we're staying, and what program we're part of. I later explained to her the concept within the movie Taken with Liam Neeson.

Long Weekend...

September 22^nd (-26^th)

Today marks the birthday of Frodo and Bilbo Baggins. Happy Birthday to them! If you don't know what I'm talking about, shame on you.

Today is a holiday. We were supposed to have a fun sleepover at Alina's and Whitney's home and spend the night watching the festivities from the safety of their roof. However, due to the fact that they have a small child and so many of us are sick, our fun got cancelled. Also, Alina flew home yesterday, so that puts a damper on the festivities. And, in honor of the holiday, there is no class tomorrow.

Friday, also, class got canceled. There is some sort of sensitive trial going on, and it's going to be decided on Friday. The trial is about a place that's supposed to be the birthplace of Lord Rama. There's a mosque there, and the Hindus want to tear down the mosque and build a temple. And the Muslims don't want their mosque torn down. Anyway, all the major American schools in Pune decided to cancel classes and put their students on lockdown, so we're confined to our houses that day. As white kids, we make good targets for annoyed people. They actually encouraged some of us to leave the city for the weekend – our resource guide booked a last minute trip to the beach to get some of us to a smaller, safer area.

So, since I have a nice, long weekend to sit and do nothing, maybe I should describe my living situation here. I don't think I've really done that. I've talked about where I live (very edge of Pune, close to the city limits and the foothills). I've talked about what my room is like, and how the colony is set up. But I don't think I've really gone into the actual setup.

First of all, I live in a gated community. Everyone here is in the upper end of the caste system. Most people speak at least a little bit of English – English is something associated with wealth and education in India. We have guards at our gate that monitor who enters and leave the complex. The first few times I came here, I had to sign in. Now, the guards let Emily and me through unquestioned because they know us. It's kind of hard to forget the two white girls.

We have maids. Plural. One girl comes every day to sweep and scrub the floor. Another comes to make chapati (flatbread) and wash dishes. They are from lower castes. They are uneducated, illiterate, and have virtually no prospects for life beyond being maids.

Electricity is prone to go out on Thursdays. Thursday is the day that's set for electricity cuts. Sometimes it goes off. Sometimes it doesn't. There is no set time: just the knowledge that at some point during the day, we might be without electricity. Sometimes, the power is cut on other days, too, but not often.

It has been monsoon season since I got here. Monsoons are necessary to life here. There is one season for a few months of the year in which it rains. If it doesn't rain, there is no water for the year. It hasn't been raining very much. My host family has said that if it doesn't rain more, there's a possibility that there will be water cuts along with the electricity cuts.

I take rickshaws to and from school every day. In the morning, we have a set rickshaw driver: Kaka Rajul. In the afternoon, we find any rickshaw walla on the street who's willing to drive all the way to where we live. Sometimes Emily and I rickshaw together. We always do in the morning. In the afternoons, most of the time either I have lessons on one side of town or she has an internship on the other, so we go alone. Rickshaws are basically over-glorified tricycles with engines. They run on a motorcycle engine, have handlebars, and they have a kind of bench for a backseat and a cover.

Motorcycles are very popular here. They make it easy to zoom in and out of traffic. Emily's host brother has one (he's 17). There are also a lot of bicyclists on the roads. Two of the boys in ACM bought bicycles to get around in their neighborhoods. I'd be a little bit afraid. The traffic doesn't work like it does in the US. If you turn, you stick your hand out the window to show which way you're going. If you're behind another vehicle, you honk so they know you're there. There is a lot of honking. Some cars, instead of having a long, obnoxious beep when they push their horns, play music as their horn. Eventually, you get used to the noise. When cars back up, they play music so everyone knows they're going backwards (the way school buses beep in America). The popular tunes are “Happy Birthday,” “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,” and “My Heart will Go On.” You hear those songs all the time. There are lots of “one-way” roads here. However, if a rickshaw-walla is going down a one-way street and realizes he took a wrong turn, it's completely normal for him to pull a U and drive the wrong way down the one way street. That has happened to me. At night. It's kind of an experience.

There are animals everywhere. Cows, goats, dogs, cats, water buffalo, sheep, sometimes camels, lizards, rats, bats, snakes, chipmunks, pigeons, etc. The cats and dogs wander into our classroom sometimes. The lizards make regular appearances in the houses. My aai feeds the pigeons. One day we were sitting at the dinner table and a pigeon landed on the balcony. My aai said that the pigeon was ready for dinner, so she got a handful of our dinner and set it out for the pigeon. That's almost like home.

Everything is homemade. This morning, my aai made me a rose milkshake. She made the rose syrup herself. She makes her own butter. She makes her own ghee. She makes ice cream/kulfi. She makes buttermilk. She makes chutneys. Everything is made fresh. Aai goes to the market to get fresh vegetables daily to cook with, and she makes just enough for one meal at a time.

I feel kind of like a hobbit in that we have about eight meals a day. There's breakfast. It's normally an omelet, egg roll, oatmeal, or vegetable sandwich with tea. At about 10am in the middle of our first class, we have teatime... sometimes that involves biscuits (cookies). At about noon, we have snacktime... a thirty minute break in which we usually eat a banana or a pomegranate or something. We have another tea time in the middle of our second class sometimes. At 1:30, it's lunchtime. Tea time happens again whenever I get home from school. This tea time often includes some sort of chex-mix like snack. Then, at night, we have dinner.

The other day, I had a headache. It was the worst headache I had had in years. I tried everything I could think of to get rid of it... advil, tylenol, massaging my neck, extra vitamins, taking out my contacts. Nothing worked. And then it was tea time... and after that, my headache just went away. 0-Addicted in 5.5 weeks. Fail.

Today, since the trial was postponed until Monday and there was really no reason to stay inside, Sarah and I met up and went hiking. We climbed some foothills. We saw some mountains. I rubbed some more blisters. We talked about actors and movies and other things we're detached from from the US. I haven't watched any movies or TV (other than newscasts) or listened to new music since I got here.

We're going to Goa in a couple of weeks. Goa is a state in India that is directly south of Maharashtra (the state I'm in). It's known for its beaches. They're supposed to be in the top ten of the world's best beaches. We're going to stay in beach shacks or something like that, and we'll spend three days relaxing on the beach. There are things like dolphin-watching boats and parasailing. So I'm a little excited for that.

Today, Sarah and I went exploring again. Instead of going into the mountains, though, we went into the city. The city is more intimidating than the mountains. However, we found Italiano Gelato. It was a little Italian gelato store (betcha didn't get that from the name) kind of close to where she lives, and we were looking for something completely different and stumbled onto it. It was really good timing, because monsoons hit right after we got inside. We spent a long time in the gelato shop. Coincidentally, we ate a lot of gelato. I had a bowl of butterscotch and a bowl of rose gelato. Sarah got dark chocolate and limoncello gelato. And frankly, they were just about as good as what I had in Italy. However, I paid less than $1.50 for two bowls of gelato. How much are they paying in Italy nowadays? I bet it's more than that.

After the rain died down, we found a Big Bazar (that's how they spell it...it looks strange) which is basically the Pune equivalent of a shopko/walmart type supermarket. They have food, clothes, household items, towels, rugs, etc. And I went on a mini shopping spree. I got a dress. Technically, it's a nightgown, so I probably won't really wear it here and be the weird American kid wearing sleepwear during the day. But by American standards, it's a totally acceptable linen dress. I also got some astringent/toiletries, an umbrella (I forgot to bring one... it's more portable than my raincoats, and despite all the assurances I keep getting, Monsoon season is not actually over yet), some string (because I've bought two pairs of pants so far that lack the drawstrings), and a present for someone back home (and by “I got... a present for someone back home,” I mean “I found something cool that reminded me of someone. Coincidentally, I kind of like it, so they might never see it except on me”). Total cost of shopping spree: $12.

Today, there was apparently a large lizard on our balcony. When my host father told me, he was kind of hesitant as if the thought of a lizard near my room would freak me out and make me afraid to stay in my room. My reaction wasn't quite what he expected. I got kind of excited and went out on the balcony to see it. He then changed tactics and told me it's not allowed in the house. I was a little disappointed.

So... I have a pretty high spice tolerance. In the beginning of this trip, when the rest of the kids were complaining about how hot the food was, I was adding chili powder. When we go to Indian restaurants at home, I always get things pretty high up on the spice scale. I put hot sauce on pretty much everything I can at home. तीखात छान आहो.

Today, my aai made pizza. It looked like American pizza. It smelled like American pizza. It had the same texture. Same ingredients. However, it tasted like pizza gone a little wrong. Like, at some point in the pizza-making process, someone accidentally knocked in an entire bottle of chili sauce and decided to just pretend it never happened. My lips went numb from the spice. They're actually still numb. My nose ran. My eyes watered. So, to deal with the incredible heat of the pizzas... I ate two of them. I think I might regret that later. But they were good.

I tried out my new astringent tonight. I can't tell if it's the best astringent I've ever used, or if i'm just dirtier than I've ever been. I'm pretty sure it's the latter. It took about four cotton-balls worth of dirt before it quit coming off. I kind of just never want to use astringent again. It makes me realize how gross I get.

September 26^th

I love Rob Thomas. I've been listening to my i-Pod all day, and he's just amazing. I mean, he's been my favorite singer for about ten years now, so I already knew he was amazing. But after spending all day listening to him, I feel that I should share that information. Basically, I think he's the best musician since Vivaldi.   

September 21^st

Today, one of us left the ACM India Program. She talked to Sucheta, bought a plane ticket, and she's currently on her way to the Mumbai airport.

Also, today, all the highways between here and Mumbai closed due to terrorist threats.

A couple more people missed class today from viruses. Meghan, however, was finally cleared to come back to classes today after a bout of Dengue.

There has kind of just been a negative cloud settled over ACM today; hopefully, it'll pass quickly. Maybe we'll feel better when all the sickies start coming back; it's a little depressing just to sit in a classroom that's half empty.   

September 20^th

So, the electricity's out. It went out a few minutes ago. It's not Thursday. So I'm huddled up in the living room under the light that has a generator attached doing homework.

They fumigated ACM today. So, instead of working in an environment with disease-carrying mosquitoes, we studied in an environment saturated with poisonous chemicals. Seems like a good trade.

I think around nine of us are sick. Because of the rampant diseases in our midst, our Ganesh holiday on Wednesday is being canceled. We were supposed to have a slumber party at one of the families' houses that overlooks the Ganesh procession. Now, we aren't going to. We have Thursday off this week, though, so some of us are going to get together and do some shopping and sight-seeing.

This evening, my aai brought in a brigade of women to see the damage from last night's balcony accident. I was stretched out working on some homework, and she came in leading three of her friends so they could all see the chunk of rock that fell from the ceiling. It was a big rock.

And then, the men came to see. Apparently, it's kind of the talk of the building...

The Sky is Falling!

Friday, September 17^th

Today, I met His Highness, Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil of Raj Pipla, Rajasthan. We got invited to his palace... he said to just call whenever we want to come visit to give him some notice, and he'd be happy to show us around his palace. Raj Rao, an author, is our Indian Lit professor, and his newest book was released tonight. He is good friends with the prince, so the prince came to the release, and Raj introduced us. It was pretty awesome. I have now met a prince. Also, the prince is a musician. Apparently, the funny accordion-like instrument that I've been seeing is called a harmonia, and it is what Prince Manvendra plays. There's going to be a conference on music at his palace in a couple of weeks, and I'm kind of hoping we can make our visit to his palace coincide with this conference; there are going to be all sorts of amateur and professional performances, and I want to see it.

Other than the book release, today was just kind of chaotic. Sarah and I went to find the travel agent to pay for our train tickets to Goa in October. That in itself was an ordeal. It took four people giving four different sets of different directions to the same place for us to find the travel agency.

After that, we did a little shopping. Our resource guide recommended a jewelry store near the travel agency, so we made a pitstop there, and I dished out almost Rs. 400 on jewelry. Quite the spending spree (it converts to a little over $8). For that amount, I got a pair of silver hoop earrings about the size of a quarter, a ring, and a pair of “diamond” earrings. The salesgirl was pretty insistent that this pair of earrings was made with real diamonds, and hey... if she believes it, I will. They are little hoops designed like a celtic knot/triquetra, and they have tiny little diamond chips in them. They were my “expensive” buy, and they cost about ¾ of what I spent.

Our shopping spree was followed by going back to ACM and playing word games for an hour or so before we left for the book release. It was nice to just hang out with some American kids and play weird nerdy games. The book release was really long: over two hours of sitting in a bookstore listening to Raj and the prince and other people talk. But I was pretty content because I found a copy of Lord of the Rings to read. I wish I had brought one of my copies of the book so I could read it in my nonexistent spare time here. Finding it in the bookstore was like finding a little piece of home. Also, the Elvish Tengwar script is incredibly similar to the Devanagari (Marathi/Hindi/Sanskrit) script. I'm pretty sure Tolkien used Devanagari as inspiration for his Elvish writings like he used the Norse Futhark runes as inspiration for his Dwarvish letters. And, while I was contemplating that, I started thinking about the elves themselves in the book, and the possiblity that they could have been based on Indian people if their language was based on the Indian script. When we think of elves, we tend to picture the blonde haired, blue eyed, light skinned beauties pretty much as Peter Jackson depicted them in his movie. However, I remembered in particular that in Tolkien's book, Legolas (as well as Arwen, Elrond, and others) had dark hair. So I started looking up descriptions of the Elvish characters in the book I had to see if I could find a description of the elves to get a more accurate description of their appearances. As far as I can tell, one doesn't exist. I looked at the passages introducing Gandalf (he's not actually an elf, but the wizards have a historical link to elves, so I checked), Glorfindel, Elrond, Arwen, Legolas, Nimrodel (an elven-maiden in a song Legolas sings), Haldir and the elven scouts, Galadriel and Haldir, and Saruman (another Wizard), and only twice in all those descriptions does Tolkien ever mention skin. In the descriptions of the two girls, Arwen and Nimrodel, he says their “limbs are white.” But, it almost seems at points like Tolkien goes out of his way to avoid mentioning skin, and I find that rather interesting. In the description of Saruman, Tolkien describes grey hair that still has patches of darkest black in it, and he states that Saruman has dark eyes. The elves of Lothlorien are described as having hair reminiscent of shadows. His aversion to mentioning skin is kind of interesting, and I wonder if that was purposeful or just part of Tolkien's writing style. I also noticed that he tends to be rather vague about his characters descriptions.

So... today, I met a prince, and yet Lord of the Rings is my dominant topic of discussion. Good job.

The book opening lasted longer than we expected. It started at 6, and I think it was 8:30 before we got out of there. Kaka Raju (Emily's and my rickshaw driver) was supposed to pick us up at a restaurant across town at 9:30, so we had some finagling to do at that point... there was no way we could count on Indian time to have us fed and ready to go in an hour. So, Emily called Kaka and asked him to be there at 10 instead of 9:30, but his English is kind of sketchy, and our Marathi doesn't really extend to that sort of conversation yet. We also called/texted our host families so they would know where we were. And then at 9:20 he called and said he was waiting outside. At that point, we had ordered dinner and were waiting for it to get there, and he agreed to wait. I had ordered a vegetable stir-fry which turned out to actually be a vegetable-and-lots-of-mushrooms-that-make-me-sick stir-fry, so I ended up passing my plate around to everyone else to eat, and I had rice for dinner.

I got back to my host family's apartment, started writing a blog, and fell asleep halfway through.

Current blister count: 10.

Saturday, September 18^th

News from today: Dengue breakout in ACM! There are about five who have it. Five down, twenty-one to go. Who'll be next?

ACM is apparently spraying the building with insecticides in hopes of keeping the nasty Dengue-carrying mosquitos away from the rest of us. I hope it works, because I'd prefer to keep up my sick-free streak. I'm kind of a fan of not feeling gross.

Sunday, December 19^th

Today, I made breakfast. It was my first experience cooking since I got to India, and it went pretty well. There was no baking powder, so I used baking soda. I'm not entirely sure what kind of flour I used. And the milk... well... they don't separate milk and cream like we do in the states, so it was kind of lumpy and had a solid layer of fat on top. But, the pancakes turned out pretty well. Emily came over to eat pancakes, so it was just a pretty good morning.

Yesterday was the last day of the Hindu holy month, so my family is no longer doing a non-veg fast. Tonight, Aai is making a non-veg feast for the family (and something that isn't dead for me) to celebrate the first day in a month and a half that they can eat meat. Maybe they'll let me invite some of the non-veg ACM students over for dinner sometime, because I think I'm in one of the only families that eats meat.

Today is laundry day, round two. I'm kind of glad I brought so many clothes because I only have to do laundry every couple of weeks. The washing machines are different here. Basically, you fill a machine full of soapy water and clothes, and then it mixes them around. The machines don't fill themselves, and they don't have some special place to put soap so it will mix in later. Then, you manually drain the washing machine, move the clothes to the “dryer.” The dryer basically does what our washers at home do: it spins the clothes really fast so that instead of soaking wet clothes, you have kind wet clothes. Then you hang things to dry. Basically, the whole process is a few steps up from handwashing things in a bucket, but a whole lot more interactive than I'm used to.

Those tiles are 1ftx1ft... and that's the big pieces of the rock once it hit the floor. 

So, my life flashed before my eyes a little bit tonight. I called my parents tonight. They've been out traveling around Arkansas and Missouri and doing some camping, so I haven't been able to chat with them in the mornings like I normally do. I went out and sat on the balcony to talk. We were wrapping up our conversation, and a chunk of concrete bigger than my head displaced itself from the balcony above me and landed right next to me. I got showered by dust and smaller chunks of concrete, and the big piece (after splitting in half) hit me on the bounce. Yes, concrete can bounce. The balcony door was open, and the debris got scattered in through my room, and there were even little grape-sized chunks of concrete all the way into the hallway past my room. I was about a foot away from experiencing my first trip to an Indian hospital. I'm a little terrified to go out on the balcony now. The sky is falling, and I'm still picking it out of my hair! (In all seriousness, though... I really am).

Thursday, September 16^th

Today, I wore my new pants. According to Shridita, they're called harem pants. They're quite comfortable, and I think I might get a few more pairs.

We had Contemporary India and Indian Literature. In Contemporary, we basically just talked about the structure of the Indian government and how it's basically an amalgamation of British and American structure. It has the bicameral government with an upper house and a lower house. It has autonomous states. It has a written constitution. It has three branches of government: executive, legislative, and judiciary. However, the executive and legislative branches are kind of lumped together because the president is part of the congress and things like that. Despite the fact that states are autonomous, they don't have their own constitutions. They just have governors and chief ministers that work off the national constitution.

In Literature, we talked about Train to Pakistan. It basically divided into a few separate arguments. One lead to the statement by our professor that Americans are uncomfortable with ambiguity. The end of the book describes the martyrdom of an unnamed man; however, despite not telling his name, it vaguely describes the main character in the book. A lot of people in the class were uncomfortable with assuming that the martyr was the main character because the author, despite hinting at it, did not unarguably state that it was.

Another topic was selfishness. The martyr in the book martyred himself in saving an entire train full of people. However, he was doing it for one girl on the train and every other saved life was merely a side effect. Part of the class seemed to think that this was a selfish act, and that he wouldn't have done it had it not been for the one person on the train he wanted to save. The other part of the class tended to think that it was selfless of him to give up his life just for the one person. Personally, I don't really see why it matters what his motivation was or even his intentions; it should just matter that he did something. We also discussed love to some extent; more specifically, we talked about the difference between love and possessiveness.

This morning, I learned a very important lesson. My host father is more insistent on feeding me lots of food than my aai. This morning, Baba was in charge of making me breakfast. So, I had two apples. And before I was done with the apples, he put a pot full of oatmeal in front of me... so I had about three bowls worth of oatmeal. And, as I was finishing that, he says, “wait! You will have an omelet!” So I had an omelet, too. I always compare our cat Panda to the fat cat in the Swedish folk story, but now I kind of feel like that. The story is something along the lines of “He ate the gruel, and he ate the pot, and he ate the old woman too... and Skohottintot and Sir Linkinlot and a flock of birds... etc.” (And Dr. Nick would say something about linking that comment to the fact that vegetarians are just cannibals waiting to happen).

Also, today at lunch, my aai made a comment about “when you go back to America, Baba and I will always remember you because of how much you eat.” I think I might need to reevaluate my eating habits a little bit. But then again, it makes them happy that I like their food so much, and it makes me happy to eat their food... so maybe there's not a problem.

My host family is remodeling their kitchen. Today, they showed me cloth samples for the chair cushions and asked my opinions. One of the options was a reddish plaid fabric, and immediately upon seeing it, my unconscious mind recoiled and was like “NOOOOO!!! Not the plaid!!!” Thank you, Monmouth, for giving me an aversion to all things plaid.

Today, at a lovely establishment called Fine Foods on Karve Road, I found red wine vinegar. It's basically an international food store, so it had sushi ingredients, jams, pickles, Greek olives, ice cream, etc. I doubt I'll go there very often because the local food is pretty awesome, and the stuff there was pretty expensive by Indian standards. My 17 ounce bottle of vinegar was about $4.

But today was a really long day. Lots of shopping and walking and long classes. So, I got back to my host family's place, and I went to bed. And then I ate dinner, and now, I'm about to go back to bed. My Aai has been out all day. She went to visit her sister, I think. But that means my Baba cooked dinner. It was really good. I was actually a little bit surprised that he could. He made dal and a potato dish and some spiced rice. And it was a lot spicier than Aai cooks, which I appreciated. However, there was one point at the meal where I had set aside a giant chunk of chili pepper to avoid, and all of a sudden, my mouth was burning, and that part of my plate was cleared. Good times. I've turned into a rather inattentive eater now that I like pretty much everything available.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I'm with a non-veg family. My host family eats meat. A lot of us have had complaints about the way we were situated in host families because of our eating habits. There are at least three people on the trip who are avid meat-eaters, and they were placed in strict vegetarian homes that won't even allow meat in the houses. And then there's me, a 9-year rather strict vegetarian who got placed with a family who eats meat, and I have to worry about whether they're accidentally serving me chicken stock or something like that. We had to fill out questionnaires before we came here, and virtually the only thing I put on mine was “I'm vegetarian, and I would like a veg family.” So it seems like the priorities of the person in charge of housing were very different than the priorities of the students.   

Tuesday, September 14^th

Today, I had lessons... two hours worth of lessons. In high school, I took thirty minutes a week. At Monmouth, I have an hour of lessons a week. Today, I had a two hour lesson. Thursday, I'm going back for another one. It's a lot.

And they aren't like my lessons in the States. I'm not just working on technique and learning new pieces of music. I'm learning an entirely new way of music. New posture. New note names. New scales. New style of playing. New rules. New style of learning. New meter signatures. New name for meter signatures. The only thing that's really the same is the fact that I'm playing a violin, and when I put my finger in a certain place, the same sound comes out.

Before this trip, I thought music was universal; I thought that music was something that I could go to any corner of the world, and it would be understood. I actually still believe that, just in a different way. Music is universal. Language is also universal. However, just because I speak a language doesn't mean I can walk up to any person in the world and communicate with them. We can speak at each other as much as we want, but nothing really passes between. And that is the roadblock I have hit in the world of music. I can play my music, and Vidya can play hers, but the communication between them has not yet opened. My music portrays a mood. Hers evokes one. My music comes from a page that represents the impressions of a composer. Hers comes from her own interpretation of a feeling.

All music is learned aurally here. Nothing is written down. My instructor says a note (in Marathi) and I'm supposed to play it. My instructor says a series of notes, and I have to play them all. There isn't really any set notation because the music is so fluid and changing. But that means that I have no written guide for what I'm supposed to be playing.

Everything is in a scale of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni (like Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti or D E F# G A B C#). My instructor will say something like “Sa Dha Pa Ma Re Pa Ma Re Dha Sa” and I have to immediately associate that with the notes I know and play it for her. And I have to remember it and play it later.

I'm definitely not an auditory learner. Visual learning is my forte. I can read things and remember them immediately and for a long time. I can learn kinesthetically. I can learn by experimenting on things. I am incredibly bad at learning things just by hearing them. In classes, I solve that by taking thorough notes of what professors say, and then remembering what's written in the notes. In everyday life, if you tell me your name, I'm not going to remember it five minutes later unless you're wearing a nametag. The only way I'm making it through lessons is by watching my instructor's fingers move.

Also, my lessons sometimes coincide with the lessons of a ten year old boy. We're learning the same raga of music, so my instructor says it's beneficial for us to play together sometimes. And the boy very much likes to show off his skills. There is nothing more humbling than being shown up by a ten year old.

On another note, I'm up to eight blisters on my feet. And no, that's not my running total. That is the number of blisters that currently occupies my feet. Four of those eight are on the pads of my feet; the only time I've ever blistered the bottoms of my feet was when I went barefoot at Six Flags with Robin in 8^th grade and literally burned my feet to the point of blistering. Now, they're blistered because we walk. All. The. Time. And it isn't like my feet were particularly wimpy when I got here. My feet are pretty tough, what with the walking barefoot across college campus and the farm and everything.

Emily got back from her family's farm today. She'd been there since Friday, so I was the first American she had seen since Thursday. I was the second person thoroughly fluent in English she'd seen since Thursday. She was happy to see me. Apparently, though, she and her family talked about religion this weekend. Emily is Jewish (I think at least four of the 26 people on this trip are Jewish, and that seems like a kind of high ratio to me considering I know more Hindus and Muslims in the states than I know Jews), and she had to explain to her family that she only believes in one god and that her religion forbids shrine worshiping and things like that, and she said that they were actually kind of baffled by that idea. It's strange to go from America where a vast majority of people believe in only one omnipotent god to a place where the common religious construct consists of multiple gods. And I think I'm less phased by that than most of the other people on this trip. I keep my nose in Roman books where polytheism is the accepted norm, so I've been thoroughly exposed to the idea of multiple divinities. Because of that, I don't really find it as unusual as many of the other American students do; I'm more thrown by the theriomorphism of Ganesh than the multiplicity. On that strain, Classics basically just gives me a healthy level of detachment from modern reality, so I'm pretty accepting of any idea.

Today, I talked to Kate about her experiences in Italy so far. She complained about there not being places to pee. Last weekend, when we were traveling to Ellora, we were on buses for about six hours a day. There are 22 girls, and at varying points, we all had to pee. When we did, the bus would pull over for a bathroom break. Ten girls would, without complaint, file off the bus into a corn field or a patch of bushes. All of India is a bathroom, and frankly, it smells like it.

September 13^th, round 2

So... last week, I think, I talked about the fact that other people here are getting lectures about wasting food and not eating enough, and I'm getting the opposite, right? Tonight, at dinner, my host aai offered me another serving of rice, and I turned it down. But, I asked for some extra bhaji (vegetables) instead. So she served me some bhaji, and then asked if I wanted rice again because she gave me too much of the vegetable dish to go with what I had left. So I said sure. And she just smiled and said, “You must put on much weight before we send you back to your parents.” First of all, it's probably true. Second of all, it really is some crazy Indian goal to fatten people up. Third of all, it reminded me of the witch in Hansel and Gretel. I've always said that if I were a fairytale character, I'd be that witch. I guess I came to the right country.

The llama song is now in Latin, all 51 lines of it. That's actually not really all that impressive considering that over 20% of the words are actually “llama.”

September 13, 2010

I left home a month ago today at 4-something in the morning. It's hard to believe that so much time has past. At the same time, though, it feels as if I've been here so much longer. It seems so normal to get up in the morning and hop in a rickshaw and go across town to ACM.

I'm still not used to not having internet all the time, though. It's strange that we've gotten so reliant on internet in so few years. I remember when e-mail was the new big thing that no one knew how to use, and now, we hardly go a day without checking our e-mails.

Today, Molly and I walked about a kilometer to the grocery store. ACM doesn't provide our lunches anymore, and we can't really go home for lunch, so we stocked up on stuff like Indian ramen noodles (called Maggi – they eat them with ketchup here), peanut butter, bread, and cheese (all the cheese here is either made with microbial rennet or marked 100% veg, so I can eat virtually any of it). We have a fridge and stove at ACM, so we can easily make sandwiches and noodles here for lunch. I got at least a week's worth of lunches for about six dollars.

My computer's been on the fritz lately. It dislikes the 220volt outlets. It gets a static buildup, and things just start to malfunction. Sometimes, it's the mouse that won't work. Sometimes the battery won't charge. Sometimes I can fix it by taking the battery out or unplugging it for a while. Sometimes, it just doesn't fix until it wants to. Today, under the instructions of online help after being unable to charge my battery for two days, I played the in-out game with the power-cord for fifteen minutes, and eventually, the charge took.

Today, I started translating The Llama Song into Latin. It's actually kind of pointless considering the general lack of coherence in that song, but pointed things are overrated.

Saturday, September 10th

So yesterday, I read a book. And today, I read another one. In all honesty, that's not all that strange for me; however, neither of them had anything to do with Classics, so it's pretty impressive. Except for one or two chapters in one of them... but that's not important.

The book yesterday was Train to Pakistan for my literature class. It kind of had an Of Mice and Men feel to it. The only characters you really like and sympathize with end up dying some horrific death that they don't even understand the meaning of at the end. It was kind of a downer, but a really good book... totally worth the $2.00 we each paid to photocopy it (copyright laws here are kind of fuzzy and books are hard to come by).

The book kind of talks about the idea of mob mentality and the sheep-like tendencies of people. It also shows how a person can twist religion into something evil and use it to guide the simple pious to do awful things in the name of a god.

The second book that I read today is basically a book on Indian music. It was much more cheerful and upbeat. It had a really interesting section on how the Indians view Alexander the Great and his attempt to conquer the world. It also talks about the Romans and their spice trade in Kerala (which is where I'm going in November... I'm even more excited about it knowing that it has some Roman history to it). But beyond the classics stuff in the music book, it had lots of helpful information on the history and structure of Indian music.

We had a meeting about independent study projects yesterday. We're slowly realizing that the answer to anything is always “yes” at ACM. The question of “how long does the paper need to be” is replied with “yes. You should write a paper.” When you ask “when should I do this,” the answer is “yes, you should.” It's not very helpful.

For some reason, my phone is not charging me right for my phone calls. I'm supposed to be paying 5 rupees a minute for international calls and texts. So far, I've called home for 20 minutes, texted Jolie and called her on her birthday for five or ten minutes, texted Yemna, and I've made some local calls here... and I've been charged 40 rupees. I'm not going to complain because I'm definitely getting the better deal in this case, but it's kind of weird. If anyone wants it, my number is (91)9552760453.

Friday, Sarah and her host-sister showed up at my gate in the afternoon, so I went with them up into the Pune foothills. It's kind of surreal to be up in the foothills of the mountains, looking out over the city. Pune is huge. And, apparently, I live within walking distance of the city limits. Just a short five minute walk and we were outside the city, up in the foothills of the mountains. I think by now I'm kind of resigned to the fact that no matter where I live, it's going to be in the boonies. Also, they have roadside corn stands here where they fire-roast corn and then rub it with lime and masala. It's really good. I'm not really a fan of corn, but I'll eat just about anything when it's lime flavored, and corn with lime is quite tasty.

Sunday, September 12th

Last night I went to a musical performance in honor of Ganesh at the community center. A lot of the ladies from the complex dressed in nice sari's and sang. There was a drummer and a lady was playing an instrument similar to an accordion. It's not covered in my handy dandy guide to music, so I have no clue what it was. It sounded cool, though.

Today, for breakfast, I had oatmeal and something that reminded me very firmly of bird suet. It was kind of like a popcorn ball, only instead of popcorn, all kinds of seeds and grains were rolled into it. It tasted good, though, and that's all that really matters, I guess.

I need a haircut. My hair is getting close to chin length. Another girl cut her hair into a pixie before she came to India, too, and she's constantly lamenting the loss of her hair and wishing it would grow out faster. My hair's already long enough that I have to pin it back every day, and I can't stand it. Today, I actually french braided my bangs back to keep them out of my face. That hasn't been possible in nine months.

Tonight, I'm supposed to go watch a Ganesh play in the community center. I wish we were learning Marathi more quickly, because I rarely have any idea what's going on in things like this. I mean, I know how to say “I want some food,” and “how much does it cost,” but anything beyond that is so far beyond us.

For lunch today, we had chole (chickpeas). As a side, we had curd... I'm not a fan of curd. There are very few things that I've had so far that I've disliked, and I'm pretty sure 95% of the few I have disliked have been some form of dairy product. Like buffalo milk yogurt. I'm all for trying new things. I tried it. I even tried it twice to make sure. I just really really dislike the stuff. Curds are also something I just can't do here. And I guess I shouldn't be that surprised because I'm pretty picky about what types of dairy things I eat in the US, too.

Things I miss from the US:

1. 
   
   Vinegar – I think I average a bottle a month in the US. It's been a month. I'm about 16 fl.oz. behind.
2. 
   
   Cold water – it's all room temperature here because warm water is good for you.
3. 
   
   My car - it's very frustrating to have to rely on rickshaws to get me where I'm going. I basically can't be out past 7 because I can't get home after that unless I want to walk three miles in the dark.
4. 
   
   Latin – so, technically, I still have Latin here in the form of a grammar book and the first six books of the Aeneid. But it's different to sit and read it on your own time than it is to read it on your own and then sit in class for a couple hours every week and get feedback on the convolution of your grammar.
5. 
   
   Internet – I get it weekdays from about 8:45am til I leave ACM at about 2. Sounds fine? That very inconveniently coincides with when I have classes from 9 til 1:30.
6. 
   
   Toilet paper – if it's not in your purse, you're out of luck.
7. 
   
   Knowing where I am when I wake up in the morning – there's always a moment when I'm really just not sure where I am and why it smells like incense. It's a very disconcerting moment.
8. 
   
   Cooking – I love the food here, but I haven't gone this long without cooking for myself since I was eleven and I went veg.

Program tonight: first of all, Hindu equivalent of Halloween. Little kids dressed up as things like pumpkins and vegetable vendors and fairies. Not cool: they sang the Barney song.

Then there was a play that my aai was in, but they only spoke Marathi, so I have no idea what was going on.

Daily words of wisdom from Einstein!!

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones - Albert Einstein

Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy. --Albert Einstein

It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity. --Albert Einstein

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. –Albert Einstein

Happy Birthday, Jolie!!!

Well... today went about like yesterday did as far as luck. Classes went fine, but we had a two and a half hour window of time from 1:30 to 4:00 between classes and painting our Ganesh idols. That seemed like plenty of time to run down to the !dea store and charge our cell phone minutes, so that's what Alina and I did. However, unlike all the other people who did it yesterday, we tried to do that, and it didn't work. So the workers sent us to the main branch of the !dea company. We got a number (160) and waited... and waited... and waited. We sat there for over an hour before we even got to see an attendant. And once we got to the attendant, it was another hour before she figured out what was wrong.

Then, she told us to wait fifteen minutes and sent us back to the minute-recharge station to put minutes on our phone. After twenty minutes, Alina's phone was ready to have minutes added to it. Mine wasn't. So Alina went home, and the nice man at the minute-recharge place went with me to the main branch store to figure out what was wrong. They did some stuff to my SIM card, said to give them 500 rupees ($10) and I'd have minutes on my phone within thirty minutes.

At 5:15, I got back to ACM to paint my Ganesh. At 6:30 I was done painting Ganesh, and I still had no minutes on my phone. So I walked back to the phone recharge place and asked what was wrong. They made some calls, refunded my money, fixed my SIM card, took my money back, put minutes on my phone.

At that point, it was 7:00, right around the time I was supposed to be getting home. So I went to get a rickshaw... and I just have bad luck with that. So I tried for a while to get one, and there was another girl on the corner with the same problem, and we started talking... Her name was Richeta (or something similar to that) and she's a software technician in Pune who has family in Chicago. After ten minutes or so of no rickshaws even thinking about stopping for us, we started walking together in the direction towards our homes, hoping we'd find available rickshaws along the way. After an hour of walking, trying to find an available rickshaw, and calling my host family to tell them I'd be late, Richeta finally found a rickshaw-walla willing to take me to Paud Road. I'm pretty sure I couldn't have managed without her tonight, and it's things like that that restore a little bit of my faith in humanity. She really had no reason to help me, a stranger... a foreigner... but she did. And not only did she keep me company and make the walk with me, after an hour of searching, when she finally found a rickshaw, she directed him to take me home instead of taking it herself.

So, I finally got back to my host family's at about 8:30 tonight. I have blisters on the bottoms of my feet from all the walking... I missed lunch because my lunch break was spent in the !dea store, so I ate a ton of food for dinner. I watched my aai cook dinner, and we talked about spices and what we use in cooking. It was pretty nice. Also, as an appetizer, she gave me a plate full of salted limes. I think normal people would probably be a little displeased with this, but as the kid who used to (and still does when no one's looking) sit and eat the lemon slices that come with water at restaurants, I was pretty excited about it.

Also, today, I received an invite to a book launch today. Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil, the gay prince of India, is launching a book, and our Lit professor hooked us all up with invitations. I'm actually kind of excited about it.

Flash Monsoon!

So, since I got here, there's been a dry spell in Monsoon Season. It's sprinkled a few times... It even rained lightly for four days straight. But there's never been any serious raining going on. We've all gotten kind of lax about carrying raincoats and umbrellas.

Today, it rained. I left ACM for my violin lesson and it was bright and sunny, so I didn't even consider the need for a raincoat. My lesson was an hour long, but even when I left my lesson for my thirty minute walk home, the sky was only little overcast with a light mist. And then it started actually raining. And then I stepped in cow poop. And then I fell in a mud puddle. And rickshaw drivers are having some sort of strike, so very few were out... and those who were out didn't want to go to Paud Road. However, after crossing a street to ask a rickshaw-walla if he would take me to Paud Road, a motorcycle drove through a huge puddle next to me and sprayed muddy gross water all over me.

So I walked... thirty minutes... through a monsoon... without any rain gear. Bad life decision. I look like a drowned, muddy rat right now.

Also, my school bag is not waterproof. Thankfully, my notebooks full of classwork and my important documents and my money soaked up all water before my computer got wet, though. Be grateful for the small things.

I actually wouldn't have minded the rain if I hadn't been carrying a bag full of electronics. I've been kind of paranoid about that ever since the incidents in Turkey when it was pointed out to me ever so forcefully exactly how much electricity and water dislike each other. But if it hadn't been for that, I'd have been okay with getting drenched and muddy. It's been a while since I've gotten to play in the rain and jump in mud puddles. At least a week...

We've been here almost four weeks. We just have about 2 and a half months left, and 2 weeks of that is going to be spent on our break and not in classes. That's kind of a cool thought, because I'm about a fourth of the way through my India experience. And in a month and a half, I'll be leaving for travels around southern India. However, on the downside of that, in less than a month and a half, I'll be presenting my independent study project by playing a recital of Hindustani music... that's quite daunting considering the fact that I can currently barely play more than scales.

Today was our first day of our elective class. I'm in the class on Indian literature, and I'm quite certain that it's going to be a very interesting course. Our teacher is an openly gay Indian author who seems very liberal. Homosexuality is currently illegal in this state of India, so he calls himself a criminal. In class today, he told us that he believes heterosexual people seem to have a “naive belief in monogamy.” He also told us that he thinks that students in India are “too respectful of their teachers.” Also, we have to find and read two books by next Wednesday, and a five page paper on those books will be due after next Thursday's class. Monmouth's low standards have not prepared me for such things. On the plus side, books are dirt cheap here if you can find them. That's a rather big “if,” though.

Today for dinner: pav bhaji. pav bhaji is basically a mushed vegetable stew served with bread. I ate two full bowls of pav bhaji with two dinner rolls. I then had a bowl full of dal with a cup or two of rice. And I had about half a stuffed eggplant. Also, there were two or three chapatis involved. I didn't really realize it until yesterday, but some of the other people on this trip are getting lectures about how they need to eat more, Indians don't waste food, and they should never leave anything on their plates. Do I ever get that talk? Noooo. I get the talks that say, “you know... if you don't like it, you really don't have to eat it,” and “you can tell us if you don't like the food; our feelings won't be hurt if you don't eat every single thing we give you.” Basically, my family is shocked at precisely how much the American girl can fit in her belly, and they expected me to hate their food.

And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh. ~Nietzsche

Duct tape is like the Force. It has a dark side, it has a light side, and it holds the Universe together. -- Carl Zwanig



Let's just say that if complete and utter chaos were lightning, then he'd be the sort to stand on a hilltop in a thunderstorm wearing wet copper armor and shouting "All gods are bastards." –Rincewind

Violin!

Important news of the day: I have a violin now. I'm excited. Now, if only I knew how to play Hindustani Music, I'd be set.

The getting of the violin, I must say, was a very unexciting experience. I called Rama, the Suzuki teacher who offered to loan me a violin for the semester. She said she had to leave her house in thirty minutes, but gave me her address and said to get there as quickly as possible to get a violin. So, I spent the first five of those thirty minutes waiting to talk to our resource person, Anju, and the next five getting directions to the address I was given.

Sidenote: I should probably explain how addresses work here in India. Think of how girls tend to give directions... you know, the whole “next to the McDonalds” or “go straight until you get to the bridge” or “the one with the red mailbox”? Well, that's basically what addresses here are like. My current address is something like “Ved Vihar Colony, near Ved Bhavan Temple, off Paud Road, in Kothrud, Pune.”

So basically, I was looking for an apartment complex across from a Yoga Institute off a big road. Anju drew me a map, so I had a basic idea of where I was going. Then, since it was a mile or so away, I had to get a rickshaw... Let's just say, that's not so easy at three o'clock in the afternoon when you're across the street from an elementary school full of kids wanting to go home. So that wasted another ten minutes of my thirty minute budget. Then, there was the ten minute rickshaw ride where the rickshaw-walla dropped me off at the Yoga Institute. So I wandered around some random Indian street for a few minutes before eventually finding the sign with red letters directing me to the right apartment complex to find Rama and get a violin.

Lesson of today: brown time is kind of legitimate sometimes.

Emily and I totaled things up this morning... we're spending about $20 a week on transportation. It's a little bit ridiculous. I think we're the farthest people from our ACM program site, and it costs us about $1.50 to get from our colony to school every day... then we have to make the same trip back every evening. I'm very glad she and I live in the same place, because at least that lets us halve the costs.

Today, we got our train tickets for our two week break. I'm currently the proud holder of four train tickets from Pune to Bangalore, four tickets from some other city to Pune, and a bill for about $80. I'm not sure exactly how all the conversions work, but I'm pretty sure that's a ton cheaper than it'd be in America. I looked at train tickets from Jefferson City to Monmouth once (that's maybe 500 miles worth of travel), and the tickets were around $90 per person. We're going to be traveling close to 3,000 km, and the total for four of us is going to be less than that. I get the feeling I'm gonna go totally broke on this trip because of all the money I'm saving.

Now, we just have to figure out how to make it from Bangalore to Ernakulam in the span of fourteen days. I'm pretty excited to travel, and I'm happy with my travel buddies. Laura, Sarah, and I are always the ones that are off climbing trees or finding the way back to waterfalls and things like that, so we're all kind of on the same page about what we like to do. And Bill's a boy who speaks Hindi... and both of those things come in handy in India. And he was planning on staying in Pune for the two weeks because he was too shy to ask to be in anyone's group, so supervising our elephant rides and tree climbs has got to be more interesting than that. Also, we all tend to be fairly unconcerned with what we're doing during the travel. There are a lot of people who are trying to fit everything they can into the two weeks... taking overnight trains and sleeping on them so they can maximize their daylight. And they're trying to see all of northern India, hitting Delhi, Dharamsala, Agra, all of Rajasthan, etc. all in two weeks. I kind of feel like by trying to see everything, they're not really going to see anything. They're going to be so busy traveling that even when they're at places like the Taj Mahal, they'll be too worried about catching the next train to really appreciate it. I mean, when you compare it to the United States, it's like trying to see the entire eastern side of the country in a couple of weeks. Can you imagine a trip where you tried to hit New York City, Boston, Washington D.C., Charleston, Atlanta, Miami, Disney World, Baton Rouge, all in less than two weeks? I can't imagine that being anything but stressful, especially when you factor in being in a foreign country and having to find the right train stations and deal with all of India's bureaucracy.

Our two week break is going to be more like spending a couple of weeks in one state (Kerala), traveling around to all the cool places in one region. We won't see as much of India, but we're definitely going to see what we see more thoroughly and less hectically. And we're going to ride elephants. We're also mostly avoiding the big cities, so that in itself should slow the rush down a lot.

After two entire weeks of our complaining that we have no idea where we live in relation to each other and everything else, ACM finally provided a map of Pune. This map has each of our colonies marked so we can see who lives near us and where we live on a map. This would be great, except Emily's and my colony is apparently too far in the outskirts of Pune to be on a Pune city map. I started at ACM and mapped our route home... Patrakar Nagar, right on some other street, right onto Law College Road, right again, right onto Karve Road, merge onto Paud Road... follow Paud Road for a while... pass Sarah and Liz's colony... go further on Paud Road............. and then there's no more map. It's like in the movies at the ending credits when you keep waiting for someone's name to show up, and it just never does. David lives off the map, too, but he at least has his name and a little arrow pointing the right direction. It's just unfair.

Cell Phone Update, Week 4:

I have my police registration.

I have my cell phone.

I have my SIM card.

I have no minutes.

For the last seven years or so, I've been keeping a list of all my favorite quotes. I think I'm gonna start ending my blog with random quotes from my list because it seems like after all these years, I should do something useful with them. And, since I have 88 more days in India and around 200 quotes, you're getting more than one a day! Lucky you! I hope everyone likes Nietzsche and Tolkien, because they're pretty dominant in my list.

There is not enough darkness in all the world to put out the light of even one small candle. –Robert Alden



When catapults are outlawed, only outlaws will have catapults.



He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.  ~Friedrich Nietzsche



The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.
~ J. R. R. Tolkien,

Mmm... Clay.

September 6^th

Today's accomplishments:

1. I made a clay statue of Ganesh. He was pretty awesome if I do say so myself.
2. I ate about a quart of rice at dinner.
3. Actually, that's about it. But my host family was pretty impressed at the way I was packing down the foods tonight.
4. Oh! I also shaved my legs. One of them at least. But it's kind of an accomplishment.

We had a workshop today and we learned how to make Ganesh idols for the upcoming festival. Working with my hands always tends to relax me, so this is coming at a pretty good time. I've missed clay and ceramic works since high school. The sense of accomplishment once your done is always so rewarding, and just basically playing in the mud is fun, too. On the downside, the purpose of these Ganesh idols is that once you make them, you return them to the waters they came from... i.e. we toss 'em in the river once they're done. Somehow, that doesn't seem like it's going to be nearly as therapeutic.

Today, I took yet another step towards realizing how much of a classics nerd I am. We have to write journal entries for our Contemporary India course, and tomorrow's entry is supposed to be about caste systems. We're basically just supposed to talk about what we're learning in class (caste systems) and what sort of relations we can find to it in our lives. So, without really considering the implications, I started writing about Plato's Republic. Apparently, when normal people get that sort of prompt, they don't immediately come up with a comparisons to a book from a couple thousand years ago.

This is the river that fills the Daulautabad Fort moat.

This is pretty much the most beautiful place I've ever been.

So... four days and 342 pictures later, I'm back from the Ajanta and Ellora Caves. We spent about 16 hours of it on a bus.

Our first stop on the trip was to the Daulautabad Fort. It was pretty impressive. It was basically a medieval Indian castle, founded in the 11^th century A.D. Generally, I start to lose interest in historical things when it's too far past Jesus, but I couldn't help but be fascinated by this castle. I'm very much a Classicist, so I have to admit, I spent a lot of time comparing it to what Rome would have had... and I'm not quite sure what I came up with. Rome and India seem to have had completely different ways of thinking. In Rome, they kind of had the philosophy that they'd build a very huge, very pretty wall. If you were not intimidated enough by that wall, Rome had a huge, undefeated army that probably already conquered you while you were contemplating the pretty wall. The Daulautabad Fort was kind of set up on the principle that they built a wall... and if you got past it, there was another wall... and then 59 trick doors that led to empty space... and then there was a trip-step to add some chaos to your ranks... and then a couple of moats with random places designed to make you fall into them... and then there was a labyrinth (complete with bats... it was amazing... Daedalus would be proud) that tricked you into fighting your own men... and then you'd find a staircase leading to a small defense that would pick off one by one anyone who hadn't self-destructed yet. There were just two entirely different ways of thinking.

Our second day, we took an 2 hour bus ride to Ajanta where we looked at a bunch of cool cave-temples. There was an amazing waterfall that some of us hiked back to see. That was pretty much the most epic experience ever.

Day three, we saw some more cool cave temples at Ellora, and then I took a really long nap.

Day four, we spent six hours on a bus. Again.

That waterfall in the other pictures?  This is me behind it.

Castles in the Air

Tuesday, I Think It's Still August, But I'm Not Really Sure What the Date Is, 2010

Two nights ago, I met with my first example of Indians who disapprove of us being here. I went to a puja (basically where they give a religious offering), and one man started grilling me with questions about why I was here. When I said I was here to study culture, he basically said that I was just going to form my own uninformed opinions about things I know nothing about and then go back to the US and spread my prejudices. Good times.

Yesterday after class, we went to a place called Choki Dhani. It's pretty much a theme park, and the theme is Rajasthan, India. There were dancers and musicians and puppet shows and a tightrope walker. People did mendhi/henna on us, and we got to ride a ferris wheel. When it's not wet and rainy, they give camel rides, too. It would have been kind of cool if it hadn't been just sad. You can always see in a person's face how they feel about what they're doing, especially when it comes to music and dance and things like that. And when you looked at the dancers, there was no joy from what they were doing. Mostly, there was just worry and pain mixed with discomfort. It's awful to think that that's just how these people live... doing the same unpleasing thing every single day just to survive. And despite that, they're so much better off than so many people here. No matter how unpleasant or trying their job is, at least they have one, and have a steady income. As wonderful as the dancers and performers were, I couldn't really enjoy watching them knowing their hearts just weren't at all in it.

And it was too wet for camels... sad day.

I miss Latin. I'm also a nerd. I don't think I've ever really realized how weird some of my interests are. When I'm at school, it's totally normal to pull out a Latin book for some reading because when I'm there, I'm always in some Latin classes. However, Sunday afternoon, when I pulled out my Latin grammar textbook and read a hundred pages or so of it for some fun reading... not so normal. It just kind of hit me then that I have some weird taste in reading materials.

I've had Don McLean's Castles in the Air stuck in my head for the last few days. I really like it at the moment. He's an interesting change from my normal Regina Spektor/Rob Thomas playlist. I kind of wish I had more Don McLean on my iPod. I only have about five of his songs. :(

Curate ut valeatis,

Anne