Can You Please Baggie Up My Leftovers?

When taking home leftovers, there are a few things to know about the way things work around here. One, phrases like "boxed up" really don't mean too much. Parcel will get the job done. But that's just a minor detail and to be expected when crossing cultures. Secondly, the reason "box up" doesn't work is there are no boxes. Well most of the time there aren't. Many times our leftovers are put in bags and knotted. And that's no Ziploc bag they're using.

Well what about liquids, you ask? Yup, they get the bag treatment as well. Mostly, we take home sauces, things that have some viscosity to them. Tonight though was quite the treat. We order take-out; and fruit beer came with our meal combo. To my part disbelief and part enjoyment, my drink did not come in a can or bottle. No, it came in a baggie as seen above, on the left, which also include the mystery condiments for my meal. I was very interested in trying fruit beer; but now, not so much. I'm just very glad I didn't order soup. Not having a bowl or spoon would have made that very hard.

Next stop: Bollywood

This story starts way back at the beginning of my arrival in India. Day 3, we went to Phoenix Mills (shopping mall) to get some provisions. In the courtyard, we stumbled upon a crowd of people. As we got closer, it was MTV filming something. They were interviewing 3 contestants. 2 guys and 1 girl who clearly loss and was on the verge of tears. We had no idea what she lost though. And as with many things in India, we would probably never figure it out.
Well this evening, we finally got our answer. The episode finally aired on MTV and Preshal and Heather just happened to be on that channel. And we all just happened to be filmed in the crowd. Who would have thought my first tv appearance would have been on MTV India. BTW, the contest was to go around kissing peoples feet. If I were the girl, I would have been happy to loss that contest. Nasty.
Now I just have to work on getting into a Bollywood movie.

I Wear Rain Boots Inside

Every day is a new puddle. I feel my room needs to have "Caution. Wet Floor" painted onto the tiles. Today's puddle came from the fridge. Not sure why. I think the icebox is overflowing and melting. This is incident number two with the fridge. The first being a my bad. Every outlet has a on/off switch. I accidentally turned it off. Big puddle along the length of the room. Turns out my floor has a slight decline.
Then there are the rains. The hallway to the bathroom frequently floods from open windows. We are talking small lakes that need to be jumped. I used to try to prevent it. But now I just put on my rainboots.
Rainboots were also necessary for the hopefully one time only massive flooding of my room due to cracks in the windows. Thankfully, the monsoon season is almost over. Otherwise, I might have to start building a boat.

And a hotplate.

So it has been one month since I left my job and began my trip around the world. (Next week will be 1 month in India.) I can't say I miss work. But I do miss having income.
Living in India has meant change for a lot of things other than going from worker to student.
My days are now spent moving from sidewalk to street back to sidewalk, dodging cars, manuevering around people, cattle and lord knows what on the ground. The only similarity is that instead of sitting behind a computer all day, I'm now behind a desk all day.
Living went from being a cozy one bedroom with the comfiest bed ever to a one bedroom, shared bath, and a hotplate. Not to mention what I can only imagine is plywood for a bed. It reminds me of freshman year. Shower sandals, bath caddy, and the desire to not make skin to wall, floor, or dirty fixture contact. Although I never have to worry about their not being any tp in the stall, cause there never is. Each trip a roll is tucked under my arm newspaper style.
I have once again reclaimed my nights. 10pm no longer seems late but instead seems to be the perfect time for a snack. Nights of 8+ hours of sleep are gone and continue to dwindle from their currently far too few hours. I don't miss getting up at 7 or earlier. I rather enjoy an eight o'clock rising which could only be made nicer if I actually went to bed at a decent hour.
Eating out every meal is very affordable and since we only have a hotplate, it's pretty much what we do. We have plans to cook but this requires time to find cooking supplies. Time which we don't have for at least the next three weeks as we are now starting to make up our swine flu classes on Saturdays. Although eating out probably in the end takes up more of our time as there is no such thing as a quick meal. I like to think the rule of thumb is don't wait til you are hungry to go eat; go eat when you think you'll be hungry.

Curry In My Eye!!

Setting: Dinner at a local restaurant. Plate full of different curries accompanied by bread and rice. Three beautiful, exotic, intelligent girls. Sitting, eating and enjoying a full meal costing less than a dollar.
Scene:
laura: brings hand to eyes to brush away something. shouts ensue.
"Curry in my eye! Curry in my eye!"

Lesson learned: Hands do not go near the eyes when eating curry.

Finally a parade that is actually a parade.

There is never a quiet moment here. This morning I was awakened by drums. It's the start of Ganesh Chatuthi celebrations and it's a celebration. Come on! A small parade, compared to US standards, slowly, very slowly made its way down our street. First came the drums, then came the dancing, and then came the very large Ganesh statue covered in plastic (due to rain). The drumming was intense with build-ups and low beats and full on, no holds. I really wish this site wasn't being so lame and would let me upload my video.

Hours later, I can still hear the drums in the distance. The town also has large statues set up along the street. Two stories high statues.... and lights everywhere. This festival will be going on for a week or so. More stuff to come I'm sure.

My mother never said, "It's not polite to stare"

While I am sure I have mentioned the love of white people, I think this video starts to illustrate just how much. Aside from being asked for photographs, being stared at, having pics and videos taken without permission (most of the time not very discreetly), congregating gets added to the list. India is by far the most intense, unabashed culture I've come across.

This was taken during one of our walks on the beach. We stopped to get Henna and quickly we were surrounded by at least a dozen guys. They seemed to have come out of nowhere. Some stood around for a few minutes and left and the rest as you see stayed. Others passing by would stop and look up close as well. I want to make a shirt that says "White people aren't that interesting"