1st IMPRESSSIONS...gone.

SOO…A LOT of first impressions and expectations have changed since I first got here.

FOOD—the food is delicious here!!! (for the most part, the other night I had some concoction that did NOT even seem Indian) I actually said the other day that I don’t know if I will be able to go back to normal American food. I know, crazy huh? My biggest nightmare at the beginning has turned into the biggest blessing. And even if I OVEReat EVERY meal, I will probably still loose weight by the time I get back. Haha…I am living THE most organic life that you could possibly live. They buy EVERYTHING they make like 30 minutes before they cook it. ALL the vegetables and fruit are SOO fresh. Lunch is definitely my least favorite meals during the week at school but during the weekends we eat at home and its DELICIOUS! This just proves that God will provide for you and will NOT give you something that you cannot handle…haha…veggies! (that’s so lame that I cant handle veggies, BUT I CAN NOW!)

WEATHER—so its supposed to be REALLY hot this past week and the next weeks or so, but we have only had like 2 REALLY hot days!! Otherwise GOD is filling the skies with clouds and keeping us cool. I mean I still SWEAT when I walk outside and I still need the fan on when we go to bed, but at least its somewhat cooler!

HINDI—ummm, well I guess you could say that I can read Hindi script now. We only have two-three more days of Hindi. When I am reading a book in Hindi class it reminds me of sitting at the round table in the back of Mrs. Lofftus’ classroom reading the paper thin books that would rhyme and once you conquered the first book then you would get the next one. I have to sit there and sound out EVERY letter and then I STILL don’t say it right. I am the WORST Hindi speaker in my class (there’s only two of us). Our teacher makes ME do MORE of everything and always tells me to listen to Molly, because he knows that I am WORSE! Its sometimes VERY frustrating, but then there are times that I am not as frustrated, because I am having a good Hindi day. Ha. SOME of our homework these past few days have been to learn to make tea and khir (a sweet dish) in HINDI…so I have the recipes WRITTEN IN HINDI if anyone wants them. HAHA. I am encouraged when I think of how long it took me to learn the alphabet in Kindergarten and how LITTLE time it has taken me to learn the Hindi alphabet. Haha, but other than that I get rather discouraged with Hindi.

KIDS—there are poor children that sleep on the corner that we pass every day at school. EVERY morning and afternoon that we walk by they RUN up to us usually half undressed and wearing clothes that are WAY too big or WAY too small and wave to us and say “Hiii!” “Hello” “Hi.” Hello” “Hiiii!” “Hi, Hi, Hi, Hi”…all different ages, while there moms just sit there and smile at us as we walk past. One day I tried to exercise my Hindi and I asked them the simple question of “how are you?” and they just stared at me as though I was speaking English. So that went over well…haha. I am determined to be their friends. They are poor, but they do not come up to us and beg us for money like all the other poor families do and so it is nice to be able to begin a friendship with them.

WALKING—We walk everywhere unless its really far away OR we don’t know where we are going. The language barrier is annoying (all the rickshaw drivers want to cheat us) and its easier to avoid it by walking. So while we walk…the most common smell is either the OVERflowing trash can, URINE (being heated by the sun, EVERY man here PEES on the street and somehow they KNOW where to pee because ALL of them pee on the same walls, and its AWFUL!...sorry for the details but I am just taking you on a walk with me), the closest vendor’s food or just BLACK air. EVERYONE stares. You know how your mom always told you to “Stop Staring” when you were younger…WELL, that is not ever said here. People just stare (mainly men, but don’t underestimate the women they stare too). Their necks are like OWLS and turn 180 degrees while driving their motorcycles…it DANGEROUS! There is NO doubt that if we walk10 yards, we will be awkwardly stared at, even if they have seen us walk by every day since we have been here. We will be asked by ANY rickshaw driver (bike or auto) if we need a ride. Molly and I discovered that if we walk the opposite way of traffic A LOT less rickshaw drivers bug us. May times we are TRYING to cross the street and a rickshaw drives up to us to ask if we need a ride and BLOCKS us from crossing the road and then we have to wait for the nest WAVE of traffic. SO FRUSTRATING! Lastly we have to strategically cross the street wherever we go, which can be really easy sometimes and really hard other times, but adventures nonetheless.

TRAVELING—SO like I said Molly and I only have a few more days of Hindi and then they gave us a week to travel!! As we have been trying to find out what we want to do and how we want to get there and all of that, we have discovered that although India has MANY options to get places, it takes FOREVER. We are traveling towards the south to a beach community in the smallest state in India, Goa. On our way there we are stopping in Mumbai to visit with some of the people that I met in India the last time that I was here. I am VERY excited to see them! They are great and they offered us to stay the night so we will be in Mumbai for one night on our way down there. Please pray for our safety…we should be fine, especially with the Lord watching over us. We will then fly back and meet up with the rest of the students and stay at a hotel with them I am rather excited to meet all of the students! Our faculty says that the office will transform when all of the other students get here…haha. I like it to ourselves but I would not mind having a few more faces. Its comforting that Molly and I have been able to settle in and learn some Hindi before all of our schooling starts and all.

RELIGION -- So I ALMOST committed a MAJOR sin the other day!...Our hindi class (meaning Molly and I) took a field trip to the Wednesday market (which Rishiji says not even Wal-Mart would be able to compete with this market). As we walked around Harshji (our teacher) and Rishiji (faculty member) told us how to say different things in Hindi and about the market and just typical knowledge. We had stopped and we were translating signs with our notebooks in our hands (totally typical…and don’t worry, NO one was staring…Kidding!). ALL OF A SUDDEN, I felt something biting me in the middle of my back, so I reached back and I could feel through my shirt something hard like a little pebble…Well, OF COURSE, I pinched it to make sure that it if it was a bug then it would not continue to move around in my shirt. I was RATHER convinced that it was just a pebble because it was SO hard. I QUICKLY tell Molly to hold my notebook, and I reach up the back of my shirt and pull out a BUG!!!...as hard as a ROCK! At this point BOTH Rishiji and Harshji are staring at me…and Rishiji (without hestitaion) informs me that I JUST COMMITTED A SIN(cause he thought it was dead)!!! …mind you we were standing outside the white temple…So, he goes on to inform me that if I was IN the temple it would have been a DOUBLE sin! LUCKILY the little thing was actually still alive. GOOD THING, or else I might have killed Rishiji’s second cousin twice removed. I hate to break it to you, but I do NOT hesitate to kill the GIANT black ants that crawl around our room or any other type of bug or spider that we find. I guess I should be more careful next time, and YOU should consider NOT killing the next bug that you find in your house.

On a more serious note, Molly and I were just discussing how crazy it was/is that they abide by such a rule. Rishiji told us that the life of an Indian is very hypocritical. He said it in a way that made it sound as though it was almost inevitable that life here is hypocritical. For example, he told us that he eats meat, but his mom does not know that and when his mom comes to visit he has to clean the kitchen out to make sure there is no evidence of meat-eating. If this is true that he eats meat, then how can he get mad at me for killing a small bug. Whether he is eating cow or a chicken, he has to kill something in order to eat meat and therefore he is doing the same thing that I did when I was killing the bug. I also remember the last time that I was here in India, our driver was Hindu and while we were in a circle praying (I’ll admit, my eyes were open) a tarantula was walking within our circle. Since he had no idea what we were saying in English, he had his eyes open and he saw the huge spider also, and walked over and stepped on it. I am not sure how the whole Hindu thing works, but I am pretty sure that if I cant kill a bug, then our driver was not allowed to kill the tarantula and Rishiji is not allowed to kill an animal to eat. This concept is something that I guess I will have to figure out while I am here, but it seems as though the younger generation is ignoring the strict rules of Hinduism, which then goes completely against their religion. Sooner or later they are not going to be able to justify their beliefs because they will be breaking all the rules.

*****CORRECTION…all of you math majors (Mom, Ruth, Megan F.) probably ALREADY realized that I did the math wrong in my post awhile back with the 2 rupee shoe man…2 rupees equals 5 cents, not .8 cents.

I think about you all VERY much. If anyone (RACHEL) knows how I can respond to your comments easily just let me know, otherwise I have NO idea how to do it, but i truly enjoy getting them.

I CANT believe that all of you LOMA people are starting school!!!! HOW EXCITING! I am sad that I am missing all of you guys being together but I am content being here and being pushed out of my comfort zone to something new and different. But PLEASE attend PANCAKE BINGO for me!!!!...theres NO reason why you shouldn’t! TELL me about how it is and all the changes, I would love to hear from you! J