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.