Today, we went to the travel agent (and by 'we,' I mean Sarah and I). Again. We have two more trains booked, and two nights worth of hotels. So, for our 15 days of travel, that means we have 1/3 of them planned for. Progress!

I think we've decided not to use the travel agent to book anymore hotels... while the travel agent has better resources than we do and is more capable of finding hotels, he also charges us $6 for every booking we make. And, considering that we're paying around $5 a night for hotels, I'm not quite okay with that. Also, today, the travel agent in charge of hotels had to clarify that I am not a man, so I dislike him.

I hate booking hotels and trains. It involves multiple trips to travel agents. It involves lots of stress. It involves infinite possibilities of where to stay, how long to stay, which hotel to stay at while there, which place to go next, which train to take to the next place, etc. And Sarah and I are planning the trip for four of us, so it generally involves a trip to the travel agent to get options, a trip to ACM to get group input, a trip back to the travel agent to confirm, a trip back to ACM to collect the required money, a trip back to the travel agent to pay. For. Every. Transaction.

It's not fun. The two people in charge of trains know us by name now, though.

One of the ACM kids is in the hospital, and I spent an hour or so visiting her today. She has appendicitis or kidney stones or something like that... she's not feeling so hot, basically. The doctors aren't sure what's wrong with her. And no one speaks English regularly, so she never knows what's going on. Today, they didn't feed her. The surgeon was supposed to visit this afternoon, so if she needed surgery, she wasn't supposed to have any food in her system. However, no one at the hospital explained that to her, so she just went all day with no food and no reason why. Our resource guide who is hired to take care of the students' needs (be they shopping, directions, coordination of programs, health, or transportation) refuses to help Meghan with anything because she is afraid of hospitals. Today, Meghan had to have a CT scan, and the guide wouldn't go with her lest she get sick. So, ACM sent the non-English-speaking helper to sit in on the test. So Meghan still had no idea what was going on, but at least she had a friendly face. Note: don't get sick in India, and if you do, don't go to the hospital.

During class, we've been talking about how little Indians know about their history. That raised the question of how much we know about our own country. So, as basic review (I don't have internet at home... I have to do something), I've been seeing how much I remember. First, I tried to list the 50 states in America... I could come up with 49 of them (for some reason, Maine escaped me... I even drew it in my map, but it just wouldn't go on the list). I then listed the state capitals... it took three people to come up with all 50 of them. For some reason, Wyoming, the Dakotas, Michigan, and South Carolina are difficult. My third task: name the presidents. That's been the hardest. I can easily name the first 7 and the last 14. Then, in the middle, I can get 10-12 of them. I got up to about 35 of the 44 presidents. And at that point, I got internet, so I looked them up. Of the nine that were left, about five of them were definitely obvious ones that I would have gotten to eventually. Grant, Coolidge, etc. Then there were a couple of less obvious ones that I might have eventually come up with and at least knew of as presidents. Then, there were a couple (B. Harrison and Arthur) whose names I was kind of surprised to see on the list of presidents considering I really just don't know anything about them and I didn't recognize their names. So... how many states/capitols/presidents can you name?

My host family's son and daughter in law and granddaughter are staying a few days with us. Tonight, they asked my aai if I like the food. Aai's response: “She is not choosy. She eats everything. She always says 'khoop chaan!'”

Oct. 13

I forgot to post this this morning, so two days worth!

Not much happened today. About the most exciting thing was our Literature class. It annoyed me. I think it annoyed everyone. Coincidentally, today was the day to fill out a mid-course review on our teacher. I'm pretty sure he got lots of bad reviews.

Reason one for annoyance: We were discussing a memoir (imagine that happening in a Lit class...). It was about India being a poor country with a caste system. We got onto the topic of Americans as an audience. He told us that when Americans think of India, they think of it as a holy land of philosophy and a spiritual sanctuary. We told him that when we as Americans think of India, we think of it as a poor country with a caste system. He argued. He told us we're students, and that makes us different. We told him that most of our friends and family tend to think of it the same way. He told us that we're wrong.

Reason two of annoyance: One of the girls in the class said (and we all agreed) that the character in the book was hard to relate to because he was very flat, his character wasn't developed, and he was hard to relate to as an actual human. Our teacher told us that we were being narrow-minded and racist for not relating to a character because he was different from us.

Reason three for annoyance: We brought up Anne Frank. She went through the whole process of being persecuted for her birthright like the character in the book, and yet we can relate to her diaries. Our teacher told us that that's because she's white, so of course we can relate to her. He doesn't seem to acknowledge the fact that we aren't any closer to being Jews in Europe in the Holocaust than we are to being lower caste members in India. She's white, so we can relate.

Reason four for annoyance: Our professor writes books. We have to read and analyze one of them in a few weeks. He takes it personally and gets offended when we criticize books he didn't write, so I can't imagine what it will be like when we read something he actually wrote.

The Beach!

Monday

Trains are cool. Sleeper trains are set up so that you have a bench seat for three people, and a person can sleep on the bench. The back of the bench can be raised up on a ledge, and that makes a second bed. And there's a top bunk that looks like a plane's luggage compartment that the third person from the seat to sleep on. It's a pretty nice setup. However, 28 hours worth of train is just a lot.

The beach is awesome. 6 of us stayed in beach huts that were directly on the beach. They were made out of palm and bamboo, and they overlooked the ocean. It's off-season in Goa, however, so, to conserve money, they cut back on things. Like peanut butter and electricity. Things like that “aren't in season” right now. But that was okay, too. We couldn't charge our phones or cameras, but it was kind of like beach camping. Friday night, we all stayed up late playing jenga by candlelight with the hotel staff and a British couple that's been married twenty-some years and comes to Goa regularly.

The ocean was nice. It was shockingly warm compared to any American ocean I've been in, and it was more alive, too. Everywhere we walked, there were crabs scuttling along or some other sea life. When tide went out, we went to pick up seashells... and we had to be careful not to get the ones with hermit crabs or sea slugs in them (I tried to convince some of the hermit crabs to trade me because they had all the coolest shells, but for some reason, they weren't up for that). And there were starfish everywhere along the beach. I got a bunch of seashells to bring home despite that. We went swimming a few times, and we all got a little sunburnt and a little more tan.

The downside of the ocean was that there were jellyfish. Thousands of them, literally. The town we stayed at, Benaulim, is a big fishing town (all of Goa is actually into fish), so jellyfish get caught in nets a little bit out to sea and die, and then they're washed inland. And then they get partially buried in the sand in the water, so when you go out swimming, you step on them. Usually, they're dead enough to not sting you, so we all stepped on some impotent ones. Sometimes, they still pack a punch. Izzy got stung twice, and I got stung once at least. When she got stung, she said they were kind of painful like wasp stings or something similar. The time I got stung, I was not even in the water... I was walking along the beach at low tide early in the morning, and we could see the jellyfish in the sand where the water would be when the tide came in. And I avoided all the big pieces, but I stepped on a little invisible chunk of tentacle and didn't notice or think anything of it. And about three steps later, my leg was numb to my knee. It was a weird feeling.

We went on a dolphin-watching boat. The boat held about 15 people and was basically just a little motorboat. Dolphins here do not look like our dolphins. When I have internet, I'm going to look them up. They have longer noses, funny shaped dorsal fins, and they're not completely grey. I was a little surprised when one popped out of the water because it wasn't at all what I expected. The boat ride was nice. We never got out of sight of shore, because you don't really have to to see the dolphins.

While I was in Turkey this summer, I found a pair of pants that look like what Princess Jasmine wears in Aladdin, disney-style. I bought them for $20. After wearing them a few times and realizing that they are the most amazing pants ever, I wished I had gotten more pairs of these pants. I spent all summer hoping to find the pants in India so that I could get more of them. And, I spent my first two months in India looking everywhere and not finding any of them. I found them in Goa: they're called Ali Baba pants. And, acknowledging that I would have been willing to buy another pair in Turkey for $20, I decided the only thing to do would be to buy $20 worth of Indian pants. Do you know how many pairs of pants you can get for $20 in India? I do. I ended up paying about $30 actually, but I got 8 pairs of pants. And they're awesome. And I can't feel too bad about spending that much money on pants, because two nights of hotel cost $12.

So, now that our Goa expedition is over, we're getting to crunch time in our trip. We have two weeks of class, and then we go to the Mahabaleshwa Resort for a conference where we have to present our independent study projects. I think that means I have to play some violin... oh, joy. After that, we have half a week of classes before we leave on our two week vacation – mine is mostly planned... kind of. And once those two weeks of vacation are over, we have two weeks of classes, and then we fly home (except about half of ACM is staying later to tour India again). So I'll be home in just over a month and a half. It's nice to be past the halfway point.

Anyway, we rode a train back. The train went through the jungle, and there were some amazing views before night set in. The train left Goa (Madgaon Station) at 3:50pm. It got to Pune at 3:30am. Since it took 14 hours to get from Pune to Goa, we were expecting to get back at about 6am. We didn't. So none of our families were expecting us home this morning and we all had to figure out a new game plan. A lot of people bunked at one house close to ACM, and a couple of us just came on to ACM at 4 in the morning, jumped the fence, and slept the rest of the night in the classroom. So that's where I am now, waiting for class to start.

Magnus

Today, I saw a cockroach. I thought it was a mouse. A big mouse. I think it could eat a mouse. I named him Magnus, because he was big... and not even just big by cockroach standards. If normal cockroaches were people, he would be Godzilla. And he would be able to eat all the little cockroach-people, and their skyscrapers, too. Not that Godzilla really ate the buildings or anything, but if he had wanted to, he could have fit them in his tummy.

So, I leave tomorrow for Goa. Hopefully (but not likely) I'll have internet for at least part of our trip. Otherwise, this will be my last post until Monday or Tuesday. But if I don't have internet (and if I do), I am going to spend three days on the beach enjoying waves and sunshine, palm trees and sand, and all the things that mean ocean-y goodness. The sea is just a wetter version of the skies (RS). The catch: I'm going to spend about 28 hours on a train in the next few days... 14 each way, assuming it runs on time. I hope I can sleep on it.

So if you're wondering what's happening for those four days of my India experience, it involves beaches, palm trees, waves, sunscreen, coconut water, trains, and beach huts. And the coconut water is on there because the ten-year-old boy who I take lessons with told me I have to try it while I'm there. I'm a little skeptical, but he's a sweet kid, so I'll try it. His name starts with an M, and it's something I can't really spell. He was born in Florida, but he moved back here with his family, and he's been taking lessons with Vidya for the last three years. He doesn't speak very much English (I think he knows more than he speaks, though, and just prefers to talk in Marathi), and he really likes to show off his violin skills. It's always kind of humbling at lessons to get shown up by a ten-year-old. Anyway, today, he told me I have to try the coconut water, so I'll do that.

Also, playing Hearts has become a big time-waster for me here... it's what I do when I have no internet and no homework and nowhere to be. I'm never sure whether to feel proud or inept when I accidentally shoot the moon...

 So I haven't really posted on here for a while. Things have been a little chaotic lately, and sometimes, I really just don't want to write about my days. The most important update from the last week: I polished off the quart of pickled limes. I'm a little disappointed in myself because it took me a whole month to eat the whole thing, but I finally finished it. Mmm. Limes soaked in lime juice and spices. And probably some other stuff I don't want to think about. Also, for dinner tonight, I ate the chili peppers. My Aai served me and said something about “there are many chili peppers... be careful not to eat them.” And a couple minutes later, she looked over and my plate was cleared and there were no chili peppers. And she made some noise of horror and said “you ate... the chilis?!” And I agreed, and she laughed. And then she served me more food. I'm pretty sure I ate about three whole chili peppers tonight. That might have been a bad decision.

The court trial was finally decided, and I got some extra information about what it was. Ayodya (or some similar spelling) is supposed to be the birthplace of Lord Rama. Muslims built a masjid there years and years ago. In 1985, the Hindus decided to tear the mosque down because it was their religious holy-spot. 25 years later, the court finally decided the case: this place really was the birthplace of Rama (India's idea of secularism doesn't quite align with the American version...) Anyway, 1/3 of the land goes to the Muslims, 1/3 to the Hindus, and 1/3 to some other group that likes to smoke pot to get close to god(s). I'm not really sure what role that group played in things, but that's all the information people here really have to give about them.

The trial was kind of a big deal. ACM held classes; however, they set a 2:30pm curfew for us, so we all had classes, ate, and went home. As Emily and I got into our community, the gates were closing. All the Indian schools dismissed early for the day, and our gated community closed and locked its gates in case of mob violence or riots. Doors stayed closed. People stayed inside.

Yesterday, I was attacked by a pigeon. I was walking along the street, and a pigeon landed on my shoulder, dug its claws in, and flapped its wings in my face. If it hadn't been for having Jake around this summer, I'm pretty sure it would have been a pretty big shock.

Yesterday, I also got my sari. My aai picked it up from the tailor. I tried the blouse on... it was too small. When we went to the tailor, he measured me. I watched. He wrote the numbers down right. So somewhere along the lines, there had to be some thought of “they can't really be that big...” because the blouse will not button over my chest. Today, I get to take the blouse back to the tailor and make him fix it.

Sarah and I are going to meet up and go shopping today; we're going to go back to Tulshibag Market, the place we went the week of India. It's kind of a giant open market that sells clothes, jewelry, dishes, scarves, material, etc. I'm a little excited for it. Indian prices make shopping actually kind of fun. It's always a downer in America to shop because everything is so expensive. But here, I can get two shirts and a pair of pants for under $10. It's like going to garage sales, only it's all day every day and the supply is virtually unlimited.

I've been doing a lot of work for my independent study project. I have lessons for about four hours each week. That's starting to take its toll because Indian violining uses completely different muscles than Western violining. My right shoulder is pretty much just in a constant state of tense discomfort. I've been reading books and typing things up, and I so far have about eight pages worth of rough draft and another three pages of extra notes to add in. So I'm actually kind of on top of things for that... two months left, and 8 pages in. However, I got kind of annoyed at one of the ACM people the other day because she made a comment on how easy my project is compared to what everyone else has to do. I very much disagree.

More on the Sarah-Anne Tulshibag shopping spree: it's done. Total cost (including refreshments, ice cream, and transportation): $20. I got two pairs of pants. I got two kurtas/dress shirts. I got a scarf. I got four pairs of earrings. I got drawstrings for the pants. I got a petticoat (for my sari). And I got presents for two more people back home (so Derek isn't special anymore). I'm pretty sure if I had gone shopping in the States, nothing I bought would have cost less than $10. It was a pretty good day for shoppings.

Side notes:

Ashley Gilland, if you're still reading this, Jolie said you're looking for some kind of tunic/blouse type thing and not having any luck. Tell me what you want in a comment on here, and I'll see if I can find it for you. Color/pattern/cut/sleeve-length/etc. Tunic-y shirts are pretty easy to come by.

Jolie, since this is easier and cheaper than texting you to ask, you said you want a shirt, too. Tell me what kind/color you want. What size does Joacquin wear in a shirt? I mean, I know he does the XL or whatever, but do you know what that would equate in inches? Also, if I buy you something with shiny blue stones and tell you they're sapphire, will you believe me?

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.