Weekend

It is Sunday afternoon and I had a relaxing weekend, with lots of sun!

            I went out to dinner on Friday with the other Lisa and a family from Seattle that is here learning Hindi for 3 months.  I am by far the youngest one here, and I have actually learned a lot about “life” from hearing what everyone else is doing and why they are here and learning Hindi or Urdu at the language school.  Many are pursing masters, but most already have and are going towards their PhD’s or into the Foreign Service.  There are a few select people who have interesting degrees (one going for her PhD in anthropology) that I have made a point to talk to about their degree choices and what they plan to do in the future.  At such a point in my life when I still can’t decide what graduate program to go into it is really helpful to have these people to get advice from.  I don’t usually like being the youngest of a group, but in this case it is really beneficial!

            I walked in the bazaar yesterday for the entire day.  I had class in the morning and then met Lisa and the American family from Seattle (they have a young boy about 4 years old who is a bundle of energy).  We walked the 45 minutes to the main bazaar and walked the entire thing until we stopped at a small dhaba for lunch, after which we continued until late afternoon.  I was finally able to get a fleece and a sweatshirt and some scarves, in preparation for the cold weather to come in the next week or so. We have had three gorgeous days in a row, so I do not have high hopes for tomorrow’s weather; I think it is due time for more rain.  I do appreciate the great weekend weather though.

            I am literally the only foreigner up here that wears Indian clothes.  I have no other choice; I didn’t bring any clothes so I had to get them here! Everyone else who is here for a few months like me came with two or three suitcases full of Western clothes. Upon hearing I only brought one backpack they are shocked… It is a much different crowd of foreigners than I am used to in India.  In fact, sometimes up here I do not even feel like I am in India.  I am so used to desert life and big city India life (which are so different from each other as it is) that the mountain life is almost surreal.  Comparing my experiences in India, each is vastly different from the next.  It makes me realize even more how many different Indias there can be.  Every place and every state is so different from the next; it continues to amaze me.  

            We went to one of the guy’s guesthouse for breakfast this morning; he wanted to make us the miti chappatis (sweet chappatis—2 chappatis filled in the middle with sugar and ghee, clarified butter) he used to have as a kid in Pakistan.  We had eggs as well, and I was so excited to finally have something other than carbs in a meal.  I feel like all I eat here is bread and potatoes. 

            I have spent all of today doing my Hindi homework.  I get so much, while some of the other students with different teachers don’t get any! I find it helpful though, otherwise nothing I learn would ever stick without the drills I have to do in my own time.  I have 200 more vocabulary words to learn by tomorrow, so I brought my notecards to dinner tonight.   I did 6 chapters worth of work last week, so I can only imagine how much there will be this coming week….