Eliza... 3rd day in a row!! wowee

Uneventful past day spent mostly watching TV and overdosing on water. The meals yesterday were disappointing compared to Saturday. Ohhh well. I have hopes for today.

ANYWAY. Here are some questions my mom asked (and the answers):

So do the children cry when they are struck at school?

I don't know what Phil is talking about in his entry because I've only seen one child been hit. It was during drills outside and I have no idea what the kid did but the math teacher slapped him. It wasn't very hard, but obviously pretty humilitaing and the kid looked like he was about to cry. I felt so bad! It's the only time I've seen it happen though. The math teacher seems like kind of an ass. He's nice to us (and lets us play his computer games which is sweet) but the kids don't like him very much. The other male teacher (well, other than SM) is really nice to everyone, kids included. SM just scares the kids. Heh. He IS the principal.


And what is the house like where you are staying? How many rooms? What's the kitchen like?

I forgot to describe the house before. It's small... but not small compared to other houses there. There is a hallway that runs through the entire house. The front "door" (it's a gate) is in the middle of the house. The kitchen/dining room is to the right. The kitchen is very, very small. There is a sink, cupboards, and a propane gas stove. No oven. Right next to the kitchen there is a small room where they keep food I think. I go in there sometimes to get bananas (which they never have). The dining room has a table, 3 chairs, and a bench. We usually eat in shifts. Phil and me first (with whatever guests are also there). The kids sometimes eat on the floor in the kitchen. They don't seem to mind. SM eats with us when there aren't guests. Sunita, as well, but only sometimes.

When you go in the gate and turn left you have a spare room on the left (for volunteers), and SM and Sunita's room on the right. An interesting thing is that Pragya does not sleep in her own house, despite the fact there are 2 extra rooms (when volunteers aren't there). She sleeps with Sunita's mother who lives down the hill. Anyway, SM's room has a lot of books and a TV with cable. That's where everyone hangs out most of the time, it seems. Down the hall a bit more is the living room on the left. It has nice furniture, a nice coffee table, nice (but very tacky) decorations. It's the first room we saw. Across from that room is the 2nd extra room for volunteers.

The bathroom is attached to the kitchen but you have to go outside to get to it. This means facing the dreaded chickens. I really want to see Scar fight a chicken. But anyway. The bathroom has a regular toilet, a urinal, and a shower. And shelves with a relatively massive amount of shampoos/conditioners which we think are left by past volunteers.

Well, that's all. We go back tomorrow.

Eliza.... 2nd day in a row

Dear Tucker,

Scar > Tucker > chickens.

Kidding.... Scar is wayyy more annoying than you (I know, I'm surprised that's possible too). You have moved beyond your humping phase and Scar is stuck in an endless humping cycle, like a glitch in the Matrix.

I miss you though,
Eliza


----

I felt that the food I ate yesterday deserved an update. This hotel is freaking amazing. They have bottled water, first of all. Second of all, the lunch yesterday was soooooooo good! I haven't felt full in so long. We had vegetables in this cheesey stuff (like vegetable pot pie), grilled fish, grilled chicken, and roasted potatos. OH AND BREAD ROLLS! And for dessert..... apple pie. Dessert with dinner was equally as good: bread pudding. Dinner was pretty traditional Indian except they had really decent tandoori chicken and for the first time in my time here I had nan!

And to top off this amazing weekend: Little Women is on tonight! Phil is being nice and letting me watch.

Lots of fireworks for Diwali last night. Right outside our window..... yeah. They were pretty I suppose. I hope it's not a nightly occurance.

Miss you all.

Note from Eliza

I just changed it so you guys can comment without registering.

Week 2

Phil here,
hello all. Happy Diwali! Its the festival of lights and it is raining softly out side, my kind of weather.

The shower seems to be the tail-end of a thunderstorm that hit last night, the like of which i have never experienced before. To those of you who know me well i will say that it woke me up from a deep sleep, that loud. The thunder was quite unlike the conventional kind, it bounced off of the mountains reverberating down the valley, creating a long steady roar lasting over five seconds. this accompanied by the sound of water beating against the tin roof was indeed a sound to hear.
anyway, school continued this week and all was normal for the first two days. Class IV did not study and performed poorly to say the least on their vocabulary quiz. Class III did considerably better, although it was apparent that not all were equally prepared. We have begun to teach Class III the perfect, imperfect, and pluperfect past tense. they say that they know all of these already, but our exercises with them thus far have proven that although they indeed have a foundation, the finer points need to be refined. i understand their plight however, unlike the beautiful regularity of the Latin language English is a muddled mess of irregular verbs.

Class II has continued to learn about the verb "to be". they are at about ninety percent accuracy in the present tense and i believe it is time to move the the past. The class still proves to be unwieldy and hard to understand. they seem to know more than Class I, but at times i wonder. Often we find ourselves repeating the same instruction many times before they all listen, where as Class I is very attentive and are eager to perform the tasks set before them. Class I continues with time and are making rather startling progress. We soon hope to move on the the harder times (8:47 and other non multiple of five minutes). they are making a "My Day" poster and seem to be enjoying that immensely.

For the later half of the week though, things have not been normal. the school needs the mortar in the walls replaced (the construction technique of the village is a wood frame with bamboo interwoven into the gaps covered in cement or mortar)and as a result the classrooms were far to dust to teach in. So, SM decided to begin preparations for the upcoming interscholastic sport day. this includes running, cockfighting (not what you are thinking), a math competition, pillow fighting, and marching. the marching is of great interested to Eliza and myself, and has been the focus of their training thus far. it is all rather amusing to watch, especially when the younger students get involved and are naturaly not in sync with the older students.

it is not all fun though, Eliza and i are rather put off by the fact that students out of line may be struck by one of the teachers. this is usually sharp but not too hard, but regardless it is hard to watch. Fear not, it does not happen with any regularity at all, i have only seen several students stuck and they usually are told to fix the mistake verbally before hand.


Well that is all for now

This is Eliza

Back in Kalimpong. We are staying in a GREAT hotel called the Silver Oaks until Tuesday.

Ok I'll start from last entry and work my way up to here. So remember how excited I was about pizza? One would assume that a restaurant named "Pizza Pan" would have pizza. But no. Both Phil and me got hamburgers. MISTAKE. I took one bite of mine and was like, No way in hell am I eating that. Phil ate his, though, and got food poisoning. I just had fries. Not a very good food day. We had crackers and bananas for dinner.

The food situation is vastly improving. I just try to mix whatever vegetables I get with the rice so I don't taste the rice as much. And Phil drinks my dahl. Um last night Phil did the cruelest thing. SM gave us some meat and said something I didn't understand about it. Phil had some. I tried a little and asked Phil what it was. He said he didn't know. LIES. IT WAS BUFFALO. Oh Lord I want to throw up just thinking about it. Buffalo is seriously like meat-flavored-jello. That same consistency. Disgusting. The only meat we've been offered there is buffalo and freshly slaughtered chicken. They have pigs... why can't they make some bacon?

Ok I got a ltitle off track.

Sunday: We were supposed to catch the jeep at 12. We were in the general area from 11:45-12:30 and NO JEEP. And this homeless man tried to steal from me. Anyway, Phil and I got in a bigggggg fight because we were really stressed and ended up walking all the way to the Mondochallenge office to see if they could help us get a taxi. When we went in, who was sitting there but one of the white people I mentioned in my last entry! This is ironic cause my mom asked me if they were volunteers and I said no.... but one was. Anyway, she's from the UK and a school teacher and she'd been in Nepal for 3 months before she came here. Well, Jiwan's sister was there and got us a cab.

Monday: Normal day I think. School. Cards. Reading. We're both reading Lord of the Rings. I'm half way through The Two Towers and Phil is halfway through the first one. SM has a pretty big library of books that volunteers have left.

Tuesday: Norms.

Wednesday: Phil taught me gin rummy. He truly created a monster. I only want to play gin rummy. I am OBSESSED with gin rummy. First, it was just plain old rummy. Now: gin rummy. I made up a musical about gin rummy. Sadly, we taught Babul and Pragya (SM's daguhter.... I learned her name) Go Fish and War, so they never want to play rummy anymore. Sigh.

Thursday: Since the school was under construction (repainting or something that I havn't paid attention to and I'm sure you can read Phil's entry and find out) the kids practiced drills all day. Backtrack jad;fsklas: On Nov 14 there's "Children's Day" where all the kids from 3 different schools are gettign together and competing in races and dancing and things. It's really fun. One of the things they have to practice is drills. They stand in two lines and there's a leader and he yells stuff in Nepali and they all chant "Left, right, left.... left, right left" and march around the field. It's sooooooooo cute. Babul is so horrible at it. All the little kids really don't get it. It's so fun to watch. Half day for us and we went home at noon. We went for a pretty uneventful walk. When we came back, Sunita (SM's wife) was gone and we were locked out of the house! Dun dun dun... Scar kept harassing us. Luckily, Phil was able to reach in the window and grab from our room: cards, ipods, Sprites, and crackers. Actually not so good cause anyone could have grabbed our stuff. We sat on a big rock in their yard (which I aptly dubbed Pride Rock.... and Scar owns everything the light touches... everything except the Shadowlands which is wehre the chickens live) and listened to Dane Cook and played gin rummmayyyyy. Oh, this was also the day we met 4 British trekkers (one of which is a volunteer in Bar Number I think). Two very attractive British boys.

Speaking of chickens: I hate them. They are SO ANNOYING. I think I say that in every entry though.

Friday: We didn't go in til 10:30. Sweeeeeet. Watched more drills and races. At night we watched TV with.... I don't even know who. There are always a lot of random people at the house. A lot. Always. Anyway, SM's other daughter (home from boarding school for Diwali) was flipping through the channels and Monk was on and she just went right by and it was sad. We watched this show called Soldier, though, whcih was quite hilarious. I'm looking forward to a TV packed weekend.

Today: Phil locked me "accidentally" in a room. Harumph.

Well, more tomorrow I'm sure. I doubt much will happen in between now and then though.

Pasta pasta I want pasta....

Week 1

Phil here,

well well well don't we have allot to say today? As all of you faithful readers know all too well, this week was our first meeting/teaching the children, and it was quite a week.

On Monday we walked to the school at 8:15, and after a short walk up the mountain arrived at a small building perched on a rock ledge. We went into the teachers lounge, a small building separate from the school to prepare ourselves for our first meeting with the children. SM then walked in to give us the discomforting news that we would be flying solo today. We had been told by Jiwan that we would spend the first couple of days observing the other teachers, and then slowly begin to teach ourselves. SM thought otherwise and insisted that we were more than competent enough to handle them ourselves. the main problem now was, what to do with the class? we had not anticipated this and as a result had nothing planed. so taking a deep breath we walked up the steps to class IV.

needless to say that there was a rather awkward moment when we first entered the room. without warning the students rose as one and chanted "good morning sir! good morning miss!" in a lyrical fashion. they then continued to stand until Eliza tentatively told them they could sit. this caused them to bust out once again as one "thank you miss!" following the self same tune as their earlier chant. We then introduced ourselves and asked for them to do the same. after they stood one by one, hands behind their back to tell us their names, ages, etc.. we set out to ascertain the extent of their knowledge. As it turns out, they are not quite fluent, but just enough so that Eliza and I struggle to find something to teach them.

this general pattern was followed for the other periods of the day, where we met with class IV, III, and II. Since we have also met class I.

Class IV are about 11 and very knowledgeable of the English language. We have decided to expand their vocabulary for the time being, and have taken the word from a book that is read aloud to them. We attempted to use "A Wrinkle in Time," but they did not seem to understand. I read the book that day and upon reflection, the content and overall vocabulary is far to difficult for them. We have switched to book to "Dear Mr. Henshaw" and the class was enthusiastic at the change. They have a quiz on Monday lucky them.

Class III are almost at the same level as Class IV and we have decided to pursue a similar regiment with them until we can better pinpoint the areas of their English that need to be filled in. Rather than a chapter book, we are using simpler "ladybug " books to provide the material. they have a quiz on Thursday.

Class II are a far cry from the bright Children of class III they struggle to use verbs and modifiers correctly. We are teaching them about the proper use of the verb "to be" and will them move on to singular and plural nouns and how they change a sentence.

Class I are adorable little munchkins who are a little lower than class II, but they are very receptive and i am confident that they will do fine. they struggle with the concept of telling time and we are teaching them just that.

that is all for now, more next week about the schedule of the day and such

'Tis Eliza

Hey ya.

Well, we are back in Kalimpong. This week the ride down was far less terrifying. In fact, I wasn't scared at all. Definitely getting used to the driving.

I feel like sooooo much has happened since last week.

Well, last Saturday after that entry, we went to the hotel and Jiwan (the manager of Mondochallenge in Kalimpong) wanted to meet us. We had to fill out some form for the registry or something. We had a mini-tour of Kalimpong then went back to Soods.

The next day, we got picked up for another tour from Jiwan's brother, Santa. He has a car... a NICE car with seatbelts and all... and showed us a ton of places. Like a PIZZA place! Legit pizza. We went up to the monastary and to the highest point in Kalimpong. He showed us the hospitals, the banks, etc. Then he drove us back to Kashyem. No jeep ride for us!

The next day was our first day of school. The kids are so cute/great/funny/etc. They have to say "Good morning, sir. Good morning, miss" or "Thank you, sir. Thank you, miss" in response to practically everything.

Our day is like this.... wake up at 6ish. Read/play cards til 7. Get dressed. Have breakfast. Walk to school at about 8:30 with SM's daughter, and 2 neighbors who are SO adorable. I seriously want to keep this little kid Bobel (spelled incorrectly, I'm sure). School starts at 9. We have a class for an hour and fifteen minutes. Then a fifteen minute break when we walk to the store and get a drink. After that, two classes, 45 minutes each. Then a 45 minute lunch break which usually consists of eating lunch and then being dragged to the football (soccer) field against our will. I just watch and Phil "plays." It's better to watch because the little girls come and play with your hair or give you candy.

Then two more classes, 45 minutes each. We leave at 2:15. Walk home. Do whatever til dinner at 7. Sometimes we play with SM's daughter and Bobel (who is always at the house for some reason) and this other boy, who is older. 13 I think. I wish I knew names but they're so hard! Anyway... we were about to watch wrestling last night (they are OBSESSED with the WWF here. And they are convinced it's real! Telling them yesterday that it's pretend was like telling a little kid there's no Santa. They still don't believe it, I think) when the power went out.... so we pretend the blinking light on the headlamp was a strobe light and they did little dances. The CUTEST little dances.... you could never get an American kid to do that. They have all these funny songs with movements. Also, past volunteers have taught them the Beatles and the Spice Girls.

The food situation is much improved. I have pizza to look forward to all week. Also, they have these great noodles which taste just like Ramen. Dinner is a problem. I just can't make myself eat very much rice. I hate it. I have no idea why because it's so bland.... Thinking about it right now is making me ill. Lunch is usually the noodles or crepes (literally French crepes... I think they call them pancakes). Well, I've definitely lost weight already.

Oh I should say the school is split up into 5 grades: KG (kindergarten) is the littlest. We don't have them, sadly, because they don't speak much or any English. Class 1 is 6-8 year olds, Class 2 is 8-9, Class 3 is 9-10, and Class 4 is 10-12. They already so much English, it's hard to figure out what to teach.

I think that's about it.... things are so much better now that we know our routine. The family is REALLY nice, especially SM.

Apparently, there are a bunch of other volunteers in Kalimpong this weekend so we might meet them.

Oh and pets! Ha. No monkeys :( :( :( But those chickens. They are sooooo annoyingggg. And I'm really scared of them. I keep telling Phil "The minute a chicken touches me, I'm going HOME." So far, so good. The family has 2 cats which I have named Ringo and Rooster. Ringo is Rooster's mother and HATES Rooster and it's very sad. Then there is a dog with a huge scar so I named him Scar. Even the daughter is calling him Scar now! Scar is sooo adorable and knows us now. He used to growl when we got home from school and now he runs up to meet us. Sometimes Rooster sleeps on top of Scar. Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cute.

Woah 2 white people just came in. Legit.

Comment :(

Week 0.5

Phil here,

Well, there is allot to say this week, seeing as we have finally arrived in Kashiem (the village that we will be teaching in). Now that we have finally seen the town and the people i can begin to conceive what teaching will be like in the months to come.

to begin with, the people of the village are not in the traditional sense Indian, in fact they adhere to Nepali customs, speak Nepali, and generally consider themselves to be Nepali. this means that Eliza and I are going through culture shock all over again before we have even recover from our last bout. there is indeed a great deal to be shocked about. we happened to arrive on a Nepali holiday that can be compared to a week long thanksgiving. there is a great deal of food that is far fattier than what i am used to, as well as a strange drink of dubious content that is served from a bamboo cup . Normally i am all for trying new and different foods, but this case is an exception to that for, you see, trying is not an option. The culture has deemed that when something is offered to you, it is rude to refuse (by "refuse" they mean "you stop when it is finished") this coupled with the heavy nature of the food means that Eliza and i feel slightly nauseous at all times of the day. Also during the festival it is typical to visit peoples houses. Upon arrival you are offered beer (they do not care we are only 18, we are "adults") Again, we must drink what is offered and the foul brew only adds to our nausea. it is no coincidence that the first word i have learned is "boiyu" (enough\ i am full)

other than these strange customs the people here are extremely friendly, every one seems keen to show off their English. The only truly fluent people we have met are SM (the headmaster who we are living with) and his brother-in-law, whose name i cannot pronounce let alone type. Eliza and I have talked with the latter extensively , and he has been more than happy to tell us all about the people and customs here.

because of this holiday we have not yet attended school, but we will on Monday. To give us some foresight, we have read the final exam of class 3. personally i was quite impressed. the question span a wide variety of subject from math, foreign customs, and even ethics . the English used can be considered at least fourth or fifth grade level. Again, i am impressed and highly anticipate meeting the classes.

eliza

i am feeling too lazy to write much. we're in kalimpong again. we have spent one full day with the family in kashyem. they're very nice. we arrived during some nepali festival (the biggest one, apparently) so the headmaster's entire family is visiting. people are very friendly towards us, but they tend to ignore us and just talk to eachother. i guess it's understandable since they don't see each other very often. i just keep comparing it to how it would be if they were visiting us in america.

SM (the headmaster) says 3 of the past volunteers have been from boston. funny.

my main problem is being forced to eat food i don't want to eat or drink things i don't want to drink. like dried buffalo adkjs;lfaskfd. soooooooo disgusting. and this weird drink called "bamboo." luckily, phil is the one doing most of the drinking.

it's pretty hot around noon, but it cools down a lot in the afternoon.

one guy in particular, SM's brother-in-law, has been very friendly.

i beat phil in chess.

OHHHHH I FORGOT THE BEST THING WHICH I DIDN'T MENTION IN MY LAST ENTRY: they have MONK here! wowee!

there are a LOT of chickens. they own 26. well, now 25. one was killed yesterday for lunch. oh, my stomach. also they own 2 very cute cats. one is just a kitten. the other is so small it could be a kitten. speaking of small: the people are sooo small and we keep bumping our heads on the doorway.

we had momo last night which was pretty good. it's like dumplings with cabbage inside.

still pretty jet lagged. we've been going to bed at around 7:30 every night and getting up around 7.

overall, it's been pretty nice and relaxing-ish so far.

kbye.

The Long Anticipated Arrival

Philip here,

Here i sit in the bustling metropolis of Kalimpong after four days of mind numbing excitement. i feel that there is so much to say and not much time, so i will get right down to our tale.

It began on the after noon of the 30th of September, at 2:30, when Eliza and I bid a tearful farewell to her parents. then followed security and Finlay we sat down to wait for our flight at 5:45. the long wait was filled by reading and music, but was rather dull regardless. After we boarded we had a six hour flight to Italy, a two hour layover, and then another six hour flight to Delhi. Of this flight there is not much to be said . the first part was exceedingly boring with little in flight entertainment, the second had individual televisions and was slightly more interesting.

We got into Delhi at midnight and arrived at the Arnies half and hour later. The Arnies are and acquaintance of Eliza's grandfather and were most accommodating. Both of them are quite interested in American politics, and despite being quite liberal, we got along quite well. After we arrived we immediately went to bed, i had gotten only about and hour and a half of sleep and was quite exhausted. i went to sleep quite confident that my efforts to not sleep had payed off and that i had cheated the ten hour time difference. this was not, however, the case. the next morning i was up bright and early at 6:00. this would not appear to be a problem, but not even an hour after i awoke i was again exhausted, my body foolishly assuming it was late at night in Glastonbury. A cup of coffee (delicious by the way) eased the pain and we went off to sight see for several hours around the city. We saw several Mosques that were quite old, and also a tomb of a Barber. the tomb was actually a prototype for the taj mahal and had a breathtaking beauty. We might have seen more, the red fort and the lotus temple for example, had that day not also been Gahndi's Birthday. because of this holiday many sights were closed. We returned to the house at 1:30 and Eliza took a long nap, and i fought my exhaustion to talk to Mr. Arnie about the history of India, the war in Iraq, American wealth and various other topics. the man is extremal intelligent, well informed, and a persuasive debater, qualities that i respect enormously. After hours of discussion with lunch thrown in the middle, i Finlay succumbed to jet lag and took a nap. then we had dinner and went to bed (again).

the next day we were up again early, and were off at 8:00 to catch our flight to bagdagra at 10:10. The flight was brief and we arrived without anything to mention. it was in this city that the culture shock hit me. Unlike Delhi with is comparable to any American city, Bagdargra is rural and small hut/shops line the street offering basic commodities as well as furniture, statues and many other crafts. the city is unlike anything that i have ever experienced and truly defies explanation. Part of my inability to describe the city comes from my attention not being entirely focused on the sights. We naturally had to take a taxi to Kalimpong, and the driving in India is truly terrifying. lanes are often ignored as cars swerve onto the other side of the road to pass bikes and carts. the drive up the steep roads that led into the mountains were no less terrifying. but regardless we arrived safely and after an early bed time and ridiculous wake up, we have ventured out into the city. and here we sit.

hope that this has prove insightful to many people out there, and i apologize for not being able to write all i have thought, but our time is closing here at this Internet cafe, and i must be going.

more later

This is Eliza....

I'll start from right now and work backwards.

WEDNESDAY

11:45AM We find internet cafe (minus the cafe part) with broadband. Yippee.

8:00 AM Seinfeld! Cheers! OPRAH!! Criss Angel Mindfreak!!

7:30 AM I actually wake up at a reasonable hour.

3:00 AM We discover cable television. Yessssss!!!

TUESDAY

5:00 PM Sleepy time.

4:00 PM We buy 2 huge bottles of water and a coke for 50 rupees. Whaaaa?

3:00 PM THE MOST TERRIFYING ORDEAL OF MY LIFE IS OVER.

12:00 PM We get a taxi. So normally driving about India is stressful enough. Why even paint the lanes on the road? Why? It started out fine driving out of the airport. Then the car starts to break down. Ahhhhh. It was putt-putt-putting along and Phil and I kept exchanging concerned, horrified glances. Turns out it just needed gas... yeah... driving down a busy street in Bagdograh (not spelled correctly) seemed bad enough but then we got to the MOUNTAINS. I am very scared of heights as is. Also, I am scared of bad drivers. Switching "lanes" on windy roads going 60mph is not fun. I thought to myself, "If I survive this, which I probably won't, I will write about it on blogspot." Many a monkey was sighted. We almost killed one.

10ish AM: Flight from Delhi takes off. I am scared of flying. Especially in commuter jets. Also, in foreign countries, your chances of a plane crash go from 1 in 11 million to 1 in 300,000 and it's even lower on commuter flights. Heh.............. Anywho... we saw Mount Everest!!! The top of it at least. It stuck right up through the clouds.

MONDAY

Our one full day in Delhi (so far). It was Ghandi's birthday so a lot of places were closed. The Arnies set us up on a little tour with their taxi driver. We saw the something Minar (?). I remembered it from the last time I was here. We drove by the Locust Temple. Went into the Humayan tombs. I bought a cashmere pashmina at some store the guy brought us to. By the end of it I was feeling really nauseous. We went back and I slept for like .... 6 hours. Pretty bad. I don't know why I was so nauseous. Probably from traveling. Everything I'd eaten so far had been fine. Really just bananas and eggs. We had dinner at 9:30. Mrs. Arnie made Italian chicken and it was goooood.

SUNDAY

Milan in the morning for a couple of hours. Very enjoyable flight from there because offffffffff LITTLE TVS!!! Score. Little TVs on the back of the seats. I watched Thank You for Smoking. So did Phil. I'm sure that Phil will tell you that in his vivd account full of big words.

Oh Lord I hate flying. I'm getting used to it though. Three flights in four days will do that.

Honestly, I have spent most of the time here sleeping. Might as well sleep while I can.

What else, what else.... it's so beautiful here. When you step out of our hotel room, the view is like nothing I have ever seen. Better even than our Paris view of the Louvre. The air is sooo much better than in Delhi and it's a little cooler. In Delhi, though, we had an air conditioner.

If Sam is reading this, none of the commercials are the same and it is very sad.

I miss everyone so much. I miss french fries. I miss traffic laws. I miss my feather bed. Mostly.... I miss french fries.

I am kind of stressed about getting to the village tomorrow. alsdk;fasjdf. I assume a taxi will take us but where is the headmaster's house??? I'm a very neurotic girl.

Someone send me a helicopter so I don't have to drive back out of here.

I miss you all.