another day on the beach. a happy afternoon with david and rachel and amelia especially. frisbee. warm sand. banana pancakes and smiles with friends. pink sun sunsets and somersaults in the waves.
and i'm depressed tonight. can someone cheer me up? or tell me why. i come to check my email and smile again and i think today might be the first time in my life I have NO new mail. not even listhost junkmail.
the last day of november. only four more days to go. incredible that it's almost the end. meeting. talking. honeymoon. happiness and soon to be divorce. i'll miss you guys.
sand everywhere and sand between your toes. and those people i talked about today that i was disapointed in. not so much anymore. let the friendship return.

"It's better in Goa"

Today I….
Realized that I have now been to all four oceans.
Parasailed up and down part of the Goa coastline with Carla
Spent the entire day at the beach!
Still haven’t worn sunblock this entire trip
Got very frusterated at this group
Didn’t call home on Thanksgiving :o(
Missed my family and friends
Just now cheered up getting an email from Susy saying that she bought Anju and I Shakira tickets!!!!
Was brave enough to show my stomach
Drank two maazas
Took a shower in the dark
Sang Christmas Carols on the beach
Swam in the Indian ocean
Smiled and realized how much I enjoyed being surrounded by new friends
Decided definitely on Hyderabad after our program ends
I miss my Nick
loved the feel of sand beneath my bare feet
tasted salt water once again
celebrated as Obie and Rachel each received a $5,000 grant

15 years old. Badami. Your president is George W. Bush, right? Are there any Muslims in America? How many buildings did Osama Bin Laden bomb? Do you go swimming? You are Christian? When do you have school? [laughing as we come at 5:30 for the 8:30 sunrise] what are you all watching?

i took the 360 shot today. and hopefully when i get back paul will teach me how to paste all those snaps together and i will impress all of you to death. it was gorgeous. orange Sadu temple men, demanding money and i didn't walk in thankyouverymuch. but enjoyed the stone fish instead. and the other sadu feeding and singing to the monkey. those monkeys, climbing all over the temples. swinging around and the little ones are so curious. in the underground temple there were supposed to be snakes. and i looked my hardest but found none. only some minnows in the flooded rooms and channels. Vijinagara becomes more and more beautiful. and touristy. today there was a guy from Brown. "just decided to drive on over...traveling around for a year". so nonchalant. all i could think was rich snob, but really that's all i would love to do too after i graduate. not going to happen.
elephant stables. queen's bath. palace basements. hundreds of temples. Lotus Mahal. imagining what this city would have looked like in the 1500's is just beyond comprehension. the wealth accumulated here is crazy. Vijinagara: the birth place and capitol of the largest Hindu empire ever to exist. Paes was a lucky guy.

sunset and you missed it. i missed you.

Sita and ram are finally done. 10pt to 12pt makes a huge difference, happily. And my paper grows in length. Awaiting anticipating the sunset tonight over Vijinagara. Will I ever be back here again? i keep myself wondering.
friends in so many countries. flash a smile to you all.
white dresses and manicures. one hour break between the ceremony and reception. i am going to laugh. is this all coming true so soon? expecting.....
ringing of bicycle bells. honking of rikshaws. hustling of cars every second. maatraas and devnagri. it's beautiful.

circular basket bamboo boats. covered in leather and tar. i really have no idea how they paddle straight. and we rode in them. maneuvering the water just like Paes accounts in the 1500's. they haven't changed since in Vijinagara. turning and spinning like little tea-cups in Disneyland round and round on the water i feel like i am 5 years old once again. he makes us laugh, it's a good break from the walking and history and sweltering heat.
The elephant at the temple gives blessings. no kidding! this painted elephant, you hand her a coin in its trunk, she then puts her trunk on the top of your head and blesses you, just as they do in the temples. this is the temple elephant, who pulls the gods and goddesses on procession. but today she's just chillin, and giving our group blessings.
And yesterday. To the villages. 3 hours there, 3 hours back. watching the world go by on the bus. hero stones and megaliths. stone age tools. pottery. we saw an asokan edicts. and the highlight of the day. in front of the old stone temple. on the side of the hill. a mother goat and three tiny tiny tiny babies. just born with placenta and imbelicle cords still attached. little legs, little feet and wobbly muscles they could barely stand up. old and new in the same square foot of space.
emails from friends bring such a smile to my face. thank you guys!
my ten page paper. NEEDS to be done in three hours. no more time to post.

vijinagara. impressive. but not so much as it'd imagined.
tempels galore.
there is a band outside playing. i'm in hospet, a tiny tiny town. with a slow internet connection, but at least it works.
cows sleeping on each other's shoulders. mosquitos. barefoot on hundreds of year old stone. etched. polished. carved. intricately.

i killed another computer. my disk and scattered thoughts survived, i think. onward and upward bound.
i claim the top bunk! just let me sleep...... another train ride. i fear this one will be longer than the rest.
procelina in the vast oceans please calm me now.

arabic twix and a sugar high. 7 hours until the train. failed communication and depressing thoughts. and nowhere to retrieve pdf applications. he can move the ENTIRE program around MY college schedule for me to work this summer. 50 high schoolers. geology. a promised job for the summer. but i can't commit....yet. it does bring a smile to my face though. and the possibilities are out there. already. sita sita sita. 8 pages more. 14 years of sacrifice for the one she loves: rama. i am scared of this little webcam. living rock. dressed rock. painted. spilled and flowered. not understood. alaska thoughts and The Great Columbia Crossing wishes. the more i'm here the more i want to run. and can't. restricted.

sometimes you just want to cry

I want to do this so badly

Shakira
One of the best emails you can come back to after being half dead for the past few hours: Shakira is coming to the United Center in Chicago in January!!!! :o) I really really really want to go! And so does, Jen, Carla, Anju, Nina, Susy, and Mike. I hope somehow we can all go together, but it's hard to buy tickets at the same time.... I hope it works out somehow...

Two Day Nap
Literally. Now I'm finally out of bed and feeling better... time to start that 10 page paper for last week's class, do hindi homework, make up the hindi exam i missed this morning, and read the 5 chapters of archaeology reading. i love to complain on my blog.... i just wish i had enough energy to complete this all tonight.

My Itinerary for the Next 3 Weeks:
* Bangalore : 17th to 22nd Nov 02 : Hotel Chalukya , Race Course
Road, Bangalore . Tel Nos 080 2265055 / 2266855 / 2266870 (I am in room 409)
* Leave for Hospet by train on night of 22nd Nov.
* Hospet : 23rd to 25th Nov 02 : Hotel Nagarjuna Residency -
S.P.Road, Patel Nagar, Hospet. Tel nos 08394 - 29009 / 29601
* Bijapur - 26th Nov: Hotel Madhuvan International , Station road,
Bijapur 586104. Tel Nos : 0835 - 255571 / 255572 / 255573
* Badami - 27th Nov 02 - Hotel Badami Court - 08357 - 65230
* Goa - Nov 28th to 1st Dec: The Mandovi Hotel , D.B.Bandodkar Marg,
Panaji , Goa 403001. Tel Nos: 0832 - 426270 /426271 / 426272 /
426273
* Return to Pune by AC bus on Dec 1st afternoon.
* Pune Dec 1st night to D6th at The Pride Hotel - tel no 020 -
5534567

i love bellatristic norwich boys.
and Kodaikanal. and the state of tamil nadu.
here in bangalore! until friday

you can run..... but you can't escape my love.
or my song. enrique is always on here. just as all the other pop songs. although i must say i am quite pleased with all of this Shakira!!!! i thought that coming to india i would be listening to mostly bhangra music, but no.although there have been some bollywood hits that i am fond of. and i have bought 3 cds since i've been here. Adnan, Bombay Vikings, and the Devdas soundtrack. ;o) I am slightly obsessed with the song Hawa Mein Udta Jaye. ;o)

Hookah Bar last night.
Anju's birthday
crazy ride home. in the middle of nowhere. pitch black. this rich bombay guy saved us. POLICE sign put in the front window. "my father is a cop". speeding. speeding. trance music. dance. he was smoking a bowl. in the car. driving us all the way back to the pride. fun night. bad ending? good ending? mixed feelings.

so much is going on. so many things to pray for. so many friends i miss.

Entry ways, tunnels, amigdaloidal basalt, temples caved out in splendid ways. It’s hard to imagine that the caves really exist.

Only two more days of class, and then Sacred Tests and Religions is over. But first we4 must write a 10 page paper! Scary. I don’t even know what I am going to write on yet. I’m thinking of writing about Sita and whether she is the “idezl woman and wife” or not. Or maybe if Rama is an ideal man.
Wednesday is our last day, and then we’re on vacation before our archaeology course begins in Southern India. For the 5 day break I’m heading down near Bangalore to a hill station called Kodi, where Mihra lives. A group of us girls is going to hang around there and go hiking~ It’s going to be awesome. And then we’ll meet our group in Bangalore next Monday. This means two great things. One, that we will be able to have an extra day of fun, since we’ll be skipping the long train ride from Pune to Bangalore with the rest of the group on Sunday (although we are doing this Wednesday instead, so I guess it sorta evens out) and Two, we’re actually making money by going on this trip. Because we got our original train tickets (first class, AC) to Bangalore refunded, and used that money to pay for our trip. We are taking second class, non-AC, and then having a hired car take us to Mihra’s house. And then on Monday morning taking the train to Bangalore (second class, non-AC). All of this is under the amount of the AC train ticket! :o)

God Bless You. I’ve never understand that. sneeze it's contagious. the saying. does anyone mean it?

back in Pune. still in awe of Ellora.
faux Taj. total monet (clueless). but i still took pictures, oh did i ever. sunset beauty.
lanterns. candles. kerosene lamps. i don't think twice about that light switch.
negative space in the sky.......where the pink, the scatter wavelengths......it's a peacock, no monkey...no pegasus. i hope you don't think i'm boring. i'm just in my quiet mood. relflective. missing....
i think of you. in seattle, in corvallis, in ketchikan, portland, chicago. you know. i haven't forgotten.

Aurangabad
Today we boarded the bus for a five hour bus ride to Aurangabad. We checked into our hotel and then drove 10km to a fort. We had no idea where we were going (they really don't tell us anything...the trip is pretty unorganized) and we were like, oh, a fort, that will be neat. But it was awesome. this huge fortress castle. on a hill. with moats (that used to be full of crocodiles) and spears on all the entrances to keep the elephants out, and huge stone walls for miles around with canons everywhere. there is also underground cave passages, which are pitch black, in case an unknown person got into the compound, they wouldn't be able to find their way around. to get to the castle on top of the hill we had to climb through some of these passages, and they were filled with bats. screeching. making cool noises. i was thrilled. but i don't think anyone else was. ;o) i was not thrilled by stupid boys who deliberately brushed up next to you in the dark. amy would be proud of me. i shoved them aside. the only bad part of the day.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATE!!!!!!

crackers scare me. and we lit about 42 off last night. sonia threw the end of her sparkler off the roof and it caught a motocycle on fire. with its gas tank leaking (unbeknownst to us) it was kinda scary. anju's auntie is about the nicest woman ever. so cute.
16 years old marriage. 17 years old baby. wow. still in love.
i fall asleep constantly. unlike me.
i really want a sony g-protection model no. d-sj301. or something like that. i just realized that i have $50 in amazon.com still up for grabs for another month. smile. what is the best way to spend it?
no tailoring. mahabaresh print. blue on blue. stitched identical minus pockets. you're on trial.

Another Weekend Get-Away
I'm leaving tomorrow morning at 7:45am. Long bus ride ahead. Our whole group is traveling to go see the Ajanta Ellora caves this Friday-Sunday. I am so excited!

Mushy Love Story ReadingI'm still reading the Ramayana though it's a short read and I was supposed to be done two days ago. I'm a bit behind. I really like the story so far though. It's actually a really cute mushy love story of Sita and Rama, wrapped up with a bunch of other stuff. ;o) Oh I'm sure a lot of people would get mad with that short summary, but hey, I find it entertaining. Rama and Sita's love for each other is just so neat,and I really like the translation that we're using (R.K. Narayan).

Pictures Back
Oh, I wish I had a scanner available! I got my pictures developed today from Mahabaleshwar. Most of them turned out gorgeous and I wish I could share.......

Diwali Adventure
Ok, now for the rest of the details. Pretty much, this weekend Carla and I were adopted by a Jain family. They were having a family reunion with about 14 of them at their bungalow near the hill station where we were traveling to. Everything this weekend could not have gone more perfectly. Carla and I had really no idea what we were doing. In the beginning we just took David’s travel book and photocopied the page with the hill station of Mahabaleshwar. Then we took off from the hotel and the doorman asked us where we were going and gave us directions to the bus station about two blocks away. We speed walked on over there to find out that the bus wasn’t leaving there because of Diwali weekend, and we had to take a rikshaw to a different bus station on the other side of town. We arrived at Swargate bus station and everything was written in Marathi. In the end we finally found the place where we were supposed to buy tickets and while standing in a random line we overheard a guy saying the name of the town we were going to. He was looking for the same bus that we were. Another fellow in line informed us that it was better just to wait for the bus (which was comign in 10 minutes) and hop on and buy our tickets there, instead of waiting in the long line. So we followed our new friend to the bus waiting place and met up with his wife, Mihra. She was incredibly nice…they were a really cute couple.
When the bus came it was completely full, with no seats to spare. The fellow talked to the bus driver and the driver waived us away. But then somehow the fellow negotiated with the driver and the driver motioned for us to get on the bus. Carla, Mihra and I squeezed into two seats in the back of the bus, and the fellow sat in the front. We ended up paying 250 Rs. for both of us for the ride there, which I think was a bit excessive, and maybe we paid that much to bribe the driver? Because on the return trip home Carla and I only paid 49 Rs. each.
The bus ride was so much fun, even with the cramped quarters. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous! We drove up over some hills, and through some valleys. It was all flood basalts, and reminded me of home of the Columbia River Gorge. Also, we had this adorable little boy sitting in front of us on the bus. We played peekaboo between the seats, and then at the first stop I began talking with his dad. The little kid and his family had been traveling all day long, from Gujarat (a state North of Maharashtra). Also at the stop (which was only a few minutes before the end of our trip) we started talking with a lady sitting across from us. After about 30 seconds of conversation she invited us to stay with her family in their bungalow. Now usually I am not a spur-of-the-moment, unsafe, big risk-taker kind of person. But right away I thought this was an excellent idea, and I didn’t need much encouragement to say yes, besides conferring with Carla to make sure it was ok with her.
We had the bus driver stop early and four of the family members, plus Carla and I hoppped off the bus. We started walking down the driveway off the road and all of a sudden hear this car driving up blasting dance music. We smile at each other and everyone starts laughing. Here come the rest of the family! They pull up next to us and we get introduced. After a few more steps we're to the bungalow. Three stories, with balconies off almost every room. It was gorgeous! And a garden surrounding the house!
Nine twenty-somethings. Smiles, and lots of music and laughter. It's universal. Guys everyone love to pump the music and drive fast. We toured the area going to Sydney Point, Arthur Seat Point, Tableland, and so many awesome places.
More to be update here later........

The object of Intense Dislike, in fact, Hate
Las Ketchup
The music video is the worst. And it's even more horrible in English. I haven't hated something this much in a long long time. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh. It's on tv all the time, and now at the internet cafe they've played it twice in the last half an hour. I have to get out of here soon.

Happy Diwali!
Yesterday was Indian New Years. Practically everyone celebrates (except Muslims and Christians) and it is called the Festival of Lights. In front of every house their are beautiful paper lanterns and lots and lots of lights strung everywhere. Fireworks go off every few seconds and the sky is illuminated with sparkles. It's really fun and exciting, but at the same time scary to walk around because I feel like I'm going to be blown up by the large popping fireworks that the kids love to set off everywhere just to shock everyone.
Last night we Chaitra and Ashish bought tons of fireworks and we went to an empty field nearby to set them off for over an hour. It was really fun, but scary because Indian fireworks seem to have a much shorter fuse and go off after only one second of being lit. Ashish and Sean almost killed themselves more than once, while I on the other hand stood a healthy distance away from the launch zone. In the end Sean successfully completely blew up his Nalgene (the almost indestructable water bottle--for those of you who don't know) by lighting off lots of fireworks inside it. Oh what fun. ;o)

I knew this was a bad idea from the beginning: CNN: Voucher students going back to public schools, 1 in 4 transfer out of private education

i had one of the best weekends ever! so much to type.....but this space bar and computer is messed up, so i'll post later.stay tuned! carla and i got adopted by a Jain family and stayed with themin their bungalow for the weekend and celebrated Diwali!

101 degrees
Fever. Chills. My entire body aches. Three days of weakness. I can barely walk.