Real life interactions with my roommate.

Dog Friends!

Today was a Sunday filled with joy and love...meaning nice things that made me feel good. I woke up at nine, which is nearly unheard of for me to sleep in so late (especially as I was in bed at 10:30), and missed breakfast, though the nice man who I pass every day coming into the hostel offered to go get me some, but I assured him I'd be okay. (This all happened in hin-glish)

I then went to my favorite cafe and actually did work while enjoying real coffee and banana bread.

This evening, I went out for my lovely excursion in exercise in the dark back lawns of campus. As I was running around, a dog decided to run around too. I decided the dog was saying, 'look! I like running too! lets run together!'

As I invited the dog over, it turned out she had impeccable doggy manners, slowly rolling onto her back in front of me. Unconcerned then that she would get excited and try to nip me as I was running, I continued. When I stopped to do yoga, she came over for a little while, watching me and just hanging out. When she left a different dog came and said hi. This dog I knew as Hazel, the friendly brown dog that frequents our singing practices. I named the other one Deer, because she reminded me of a deer. My dad asked why I didn't name her Bambi...honestly the name didn't cross my mind...but I'm just gonna call her Deer.

I also saw a shooting star and had one of my favorite meals in the cafeteria.

Now! back to Winson Churchill, Bengal Famines, and World War II. 

Interactions with my roommate - in pictures

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travel plans!

I have begun booking tickets and such for my adventures around India this winter. After this busy end of the semester (a little more than a week to go!), my first stop will be in Kerala, to an ashram in which my step-mom's brother stays, situated in a small fishing village in backwaters.

The tentative plan after that is to be spontaneous...yea...somewhere in the areas around Darjeeling, West Bengal, and Sikkim.

After that, off to the north east, to Meghalaya, to spend Christmas with a friend, and back to Delhi after that..... :)

(pictures from the internets)

Popular hindi songs and their music videos

For everyone's amusement, I decided to post the music videos of songs I hear as often as Tiao Cruz or someone like that. 

Here is Chammak Challo - translated as a woman's butt that shakes as she walks...

"I'll let you be my chammak challo...."

apparently it can mean a flirtatious girl...theres a cultural study for you!

Shiela Ki Jawaani - something like 'my youthful body'

Jawaani, could be 'woman,' to be nice, though could also mean something like 'virginity,' and apparently an expression to say a guy is hitting on a girl, is to 'loot her jawaani'...

Wow I could really make this blog post into some gender-cultural study...

Senorita, apparently is just a nice song, and you have to appreciate the dancing. 

Hindi

In my four months here, I've learned frightfully little hindi, but enough to get around, and enough to make myself feel like I know enough hindi. This satisfaction mostly comes at moments like I had today, in which I realized I was able to give the address (283) in hindi (do, aat, teen). It was, I suppose, a coincidence that I knew these numbers, as I only remember off the top of my head 1, 2, 3, 4, then skip to 8, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 (though I get confused between the two: chaa-les and pa-chaas) and finally 60.

My hindi is limited to only a few sorts of interactions. Well, really only three.

1. Getting an auto or rickshaw.
Bhaiyaa, __(insert place here)__ chello gay?
Kit na lo gay? (how much will you take?)

Hang-je, Na-heen (yes, no)

(I get much more realistic prices when I speak hindi, though that doesn't always help in me understanding what they mean by their head nods that look like 'no' but mean 'yes')

2. Asking if a store has something and how much it is.
Bhaiyaa, __(insert thing here)__ hay?
Kit na ha hay?

3. Ordering food.
This one I actually only know one helpful phrase, if I remember correctly
Dedo = give me
Remember the grammar!
__(food)__ Dedo.

That seems kinda rude to me, but I haven't learned how to say please because no one seems to say please. I do know how to say thank you though! Shookria!

Goa (part 1)

I just got back from a trip to Goa with the Western Music Society, where we had a competition.

Goa is a small state, about the size of Rhode Island, meaning that when you are going to Goa, nobody asks where in Goa, its just Goa. Going to Goa is the rough equivalent of going to Florida for spring break.  There are beaches, palm trees, and ridonkulous amounts of seafood.

In our singing competition we got third, and that was over in the first two days of our trip, and then we went to go relax and have fun.

This is when I point out that Goa is beautiful, cool, and fun...but never again will I willingly go anywhere, no matter how beautiful, with a group of seventeen girls. Never. Again.
Whilst some have the happy nature to be able to enjoy constant company and stimulation, I do not.
This group felt the overwhelming need to do everything together, every meal, everything. I feel bad for everyone we had to deal with. I'll just stop here.

What I think my favorite part of the trip was though, was the dining experiences. All along the beach there are "shacks," outdoor restaurants, who aside from having delicious seafood, have most of their seating on the beach looking out onto the night ocean, which is beautiful and warm.

In conclusion, I would recommend this place to anyone, just not anyone coming with a group of seventeen girls. It was worth it to see Goa though.