I hope that this blog finds you well and happy…I am doing good here in India. I have not explained that I am here with ONE other girl from the U.S. (her name is Molly)…We were placed in the same homestay and therefore the same room…I get along with her just fine. She is from outside of Philly and goes to UNC..so neither of us knew anyone else in the program. I am so thankful that she is here because it takes a lot of effort to talk to all of our faculty and our host family so it is nice to split the attention. Therefore whenever I am saying we I mean Molly and I for the most part, because we do EVERYTHING together.

1. SO, Wednesday was the beginning of our Hindi classes. Lets just say that if I wanted to ask you your name in Hindi the format of the question would be: Your name what is? And then you would answer: My name ________is. I mean its REALLY EASY and I am ALMOST fluent…they only have 11 vowels and some symbol that relates to the vowels that means empty. Not only are there 11 vowels, but each vowel has its own script if the word starts with the vowel but if the word does not start with the script then there is a matra (a different sign) that is added either after or before or above of below the word so you know which vowel to use. If that didn’t make sense then ummm….you are in the same place that I am. Haha. On top of all of that...the majority of the single letters in the alphabet use MULTIPLE letters to make their sound such as dh, ch, th, ph,…and there are TONS of words that do NOT have vowels like gml, glm, jr, jg, ghr…YEP!!!...those are words! OOOOR there are such words as chhh which means 6. Like I said SOO easy! ...haha...I told our instructor that it should not be allowed to have 3 h's in a row and then he just laughed. Our instructor is very nice and it is very enjoyable to only have TWO of us in the classroom learning the language so he can correct us EVERY TIME…(which is every single time). ANNIE…(in case you are reading this or any other India Loveworks 2007 member…HE HAS LIGHT EYES…aka: TIGER EYES!!!...hahaha…you would be soooo jealous)

2. We walked to school on our own WEDNESDAY. It is only 5 minutes away from our office, but that is only true when you are an expert at crossing the street otherwise it takes A LOT longer!!..hahaha But we survived….eventhough Molly’s shoe fell of in the middle of the road. I hope to film our walk to school someday and post it on the post so that you can ALMOST get ran over by a rickshaw WITH US!!...haha.

3. EVERY TIME is TEA TIME…I cant express to you how delightful it is to be served chai tea during our hindi course and not only be served it but it also tastes SOOO good!!!...the best tea that I have had is what we are served at the office….tea at home is only ok.

4. Our host family is very nice. The doctor is pretty much never around, but he did take molly and I to go get Molly a cell phone. He is supposedly known for being a very generous doctor..he opens his clinic every night and it is somewhere where there are MANY Muslims(most which as poor) and he will charge VERY little if anything at all…so he has a very generous reputation around town. He is also a YOGA MASTER! The life of an Indian is NOTHING compared to that of the chill Costa Rican lifestyle(sadly). Everyone is pretty much ALWAYS on the go…unless, of course, you are our host mom who MUST be in her 70s and has bad knees and bad eyesight…so whenever we go into the house to say hi, she is sitting on the couch. She is a very nice lady and she insists that we call her mom, she wants us to tell her ANYTHING that we want!! She does not want us to go hungry…but all she eats is green vegetables!!!...She has high blood sugar so she does not eat sweets, she is a vegetarian and that entails NO EGGS L…and she does not eat CHEESE!!!!!....so that pretty much leaves vegetables. If anyone knows me well enough, vegetables are the last of the food chain that I like to eat…Fruit, LOVE IT…BREAD, LOVE IT…MEAT, LOVE IT…VEGGIES…I prefer them raw and they are cooked and BRIGHT YELLOW here!! O’ yes…we HAVE to eat pretty much EVERYTHING with our RIGHT hand ONLY…and because of that our fingernail beds are died yellow.

5. We were given a little tour by one of our faculty yesterday of Jaipur….Lets just say the city has TONS of history. EVERY mountain pretty much has a fort built on top of it from who knows when…We drove up a windy hill to the top of one of them yesterday…and it had a GREAT view!

6. I have THREE fresh bug bites!!!...LARGE ONES…Tracy Le, you know what I am talking about. And I wake up with more EVERY morning.

7. Beds here in India are SOO small!...Dad would NOT fit, MY toes fall of the edge, Marisa and Lindsay T. would LOVE IT…haha.

8. I exploded the surge protector that I brought today…YES, there was FIRE!!...but don’t worry Molly and I are ok. Now I think that I am going to get electrified EVERY time I plug something in.

9. I find myself laughing to myself, SO much here…when our host mom is talking to us about her cooking and her spices I get the urge to just break out in laughter because Molly and I are nodding our heads even though we have NO idea what she is saying, or when the Hindi instructor expects to write ONE letter in their dialect, or when we are driving in our host’s family car that is about to break down and we continually jerk forward, or when we are in the cell phone with our dad and Molly is trying to get a cell phone, or when I just think of the fact that I am in India, trying to make it my home for 4 ½ months.

There are so many random things here that make me think of you guys back home and I wish that I could remember them, but I cannot right now. I hope that all of you are enjoying your BURGERS and RED MEAT and CHEESE and AVOCADOES and JAMBA JUICE and PEANUT BUTTER M&Ms. Thanks for reading…or as they say it Hanks for reading! J

God is good.

-Renee