the eeeend.

so we are rapidly approaching our last 24 hours on the subcontinent. since leaving darjeeling, we made a fun fun fun jeep/bus ride to jaldapura wildlife preserve, saw some rhinos, and my favorite part, seeing elephant mommas and babies getting baths in the river. we had another day long train ride to get back to delhi, which was infinitely more fun than the first one, we booked an AC train where they feed you almost every hour, you get blankets and pillows, and one of the bathrooms even had toilet paper for the first couple hours! woow! what else have you missed? i let ian cut my hair, its super short. we drink a lot of vegan shakes and eat a lot of snacks. people ask to take our picture a lot, we're pretty famous. tomorrow night we board a plane state bound. life is good in the hood.

so here's the itinerary, call me b/c i want to hang out and i'm making a few cross illinois trips, so i'll be passing your way probably, and probably bearing gifts.

may 28th- june 1st i'll be in chicago

june 1st i'll be headed to u of i for just enough time to eat and get picked up by my momma.

then i'll be in so IL till the 6th. maybe monday or tuesday i'll cook a bunch of foods and you can come consume them and we can chat and stuff.

then the 6th to the 8th prooobably up to u of i, then headed to my permanent summer residence in chicago.

plan your days accordingly, my phone will be turned on wednesday morning, but i will be without text messaging.

can't wait to eat fruit pizza with you all.

loooooooooove,

sarah

we're alive!

sorry for all of you that were worried, but no need to fear any longer, ian and i are healthy and happy in darjeeling, just back from a trek in sikkim near the border of nepal. no where near jaipur, no worries. the hike was pretty intense, my calves are like knots and i think i dropped some serious sweat weight (which i'm right now replenishing with tons of mango fruit juice), but it was the prettiest 5 days of my life, i got a spectacular view of the 3rd highest peak in the world, and ian and i learned to rough it without electricity or running water for a few days. wooo.

so hopefully we still have some white water rafting and one horned rhinoceros viewing in store for us the next few days before we make our journey back to delhi.

only a few more days until we're back in the states! i've been making a mental grocery list, oh the chocolate chip pancakes i will consume.

miss you guys,

loooove,
sarah

mumbai.

so just a quick update to let you all know ian and i are alive and well and kickin and happy and almost healthy. we have had a series of rather hilarious mishaps, including a missed pickup from the airport and some fever/ stomach issues. but we've been having an amazing time exploring delhi and mumbai so far, and tomorrow we hop a plane to calcutta followed by an overnight up to darjeeling. we decided to nix our plans to go further south in lieu of the intense heat and the prospects of longer treks, bird watching, and one horned rhinoceros that the north promises. we've both been adventuring some great local cuisine including fresh squeezed sugar cane juice and bhel puri on the Chowpatty Beach, followed by a nice walk up the coast. Yesterday we took a ferry out to Elephanta Island for a hike up Canon Hill and exploring the cave temples. Ian got his first taste of the local monkeys and goats. Ian has proved to be the best of travel companions, I am so glad he's here, and time for me to get back to our adventures.

i'll try and write more soon,

love you guys,

thanks for the bday cards,

sarah

delhi delight.

so we made it in to delhi yesterday, no hitches on a big spacious bus that finished up the "riding in style" MSID allowed. i'm staying in the YWCA here, way overpriced, but just for the night because they have safe/reliable luggage storage. or so i hope because i'm leaving my computer and all other breakables, so we'll see how they hold up for the last month. my first impressions of delhi when i first got to india are so different than now. I am actually having culture shock here, the sidewalks and big and walkable, the stores airconditioned with set prices, and a good majority of people are in western clothes. teenagers were out in groups last night, and i saw people on dates holding hands. its all very bizarre. we hit up some shopping around connaught place, basically the heart of delhi that divides old and new delhi, and had some dinner with the remainders of the MSID group at a south indian restaurant, banana leaf. today we got up, i had some toast and fried veggie delight for breakfast, and now teresa and i plan on hitting up the national museum and some mugal relics today. maybe hit up delhi night life tonight? we did find a pretty happening jazz bar yesterday, we'll see.

so bad news, my cell phone will now officially be in roaming for the rest of my time in india, which means jacked up call prices and it charges me for incoming calls, so family, keep me posted on e-mail and i'll try to check it whenever i can and keep you all updated.

i just wanted to let you all know i made it here safely and soundly, and i'm excited to the nth degree about getting this travelling show on the road right now.

miss you guys,
see you in a month,
loooove,
sarah

the hill station that saved my sanity and the end of MSID

Time is such a tricky thing. Sometimes minutes are hours but weeks are seconds here. I can't believe my program is over. I just finished my Hindi final, turned in my final internship report, and had a delicious lunch of unidentifiable vegetables that looked kind of like lemon pickles and unidentifiable dal with unidentifiable fried balls that tasted just like french onion soup. so it goes. it's been a weird few days, everyone is getting ready for very different upcoming weeks, some are going straight back to the US, some to Europe, others spending a few weeks in India. Everyone is frantically finalizing travel plans, housing and and jobs internships at home, and planning meet ups over the summer. Its exciting and bizarre, the idea of being finished, of traveling, of returning home. Its been kind of an emotional ride, only made more intense by the extreme heat and insomnia.

So Wednesday Dana and I hopped a train to Mt. Abu, the only hill station in Rajasthan, a cool oasis from the intense desert climate. We spent our days hiking, saw what are considered to be the world's most intricate marble carvings in a Jain temple, and eating crazy amounts of a berry that must have been a close relative to the blackberry, so good.


the Jains know whats up.


on one of our walks around the lake.


at our favorite restaurant. the mysore masala dosa rocked my life, and was animal product free to boot.


Dana and I on one of our day hikes.

After a pretty miserable/long train ride to Jaipur, we made to our hotel and had an amazing reunion with our friends including a feast of fresh pomegranate seeds. The last few days have been spent wrapping up all loose ends, packing, donating, bartering, trading, shopping, and trying to making sense of the last few months of our lives.

Saturday I leave for Delhi, then off for more adventures.

hope all of your own adventures are going well,
love,
sarah

the untourist trail.

these last two days have pretty much rocked my life. yesterday dana, vaneja, this crazy animal lovin produce vendor, and i went out to the kaylana lake on the outskirts of town. he took us to probably one of the most amazing places i've ever been to, it was this cave temple/ashram/animal sanctuary (i even saw wild mongoose!)/ home for pundits. there were tiny caves to crawl in with temples inside, plus this huge amphitheater type area to worship Lord Shiva. it was the most amazing living space i've ever seen. check this out:


and then we took all our friends left over produce and hiked out to the monkey temple, where he literally hollered to the monkeys and they all came running, and we got to feed them right out of our hands. there were dozens of them.


after snacking on some grapes and oranges and chatting with the pundits of the monkey house, we went over to a part of the lake to feed the fish some chickpeas and parle g's, and hand lunch provided courtesy of the temple caretakers. mmm. oh yea, and i saw a tomb where a 200 year old man was buried alive, apparently thats your way to salvation when you've been hanging out on earth for 2 centuries.



followed by a paddleboat ride around the lake, and then back that evening for some fruit, sweets, and sugar cane juice purchasing:







today was a kerelan holiday, so we went over to vaneja's and had the most delicious of south indian dishes until i really thought i was going to pop. they were worried we wouldn't be able to eat all those curries and rice with our hands (because rice is rarely served with north indian dishes), but we definitely showed them how we can pack it away with our well practiced shoveling skills. we hung out with her family all day, how cute are they?



oh yes, i know how completely awkward this picture looks, but vaneja really wanted a picture of us with her family, she is such a sweetheart. don't let the no smiles fool you, indians never smile for pictures, because they were the warmest most adorable pair you could encounter.

life before india.

last night was a lovely lovely night. dana and i had late night sweet craving, and using the things we could find in the guest house attempted to make cookies. the final result, full of crushed up chocolate cereal and leftover peanut butter and other random refrigerator things, grilled on the stove, were a nice substitute for peanutbutter chocolate chip hashbrowns. delicious. we also discovered our basement, and decided that the value of sleeping in a space 10 degrees cooler was worth the cost of sleeping in a creepy space full of boxes and old toilets. today we made an extremely frustrating trip to the train station, but after some help from an equally frustrated woman behind us, we got tickets to go to mt abu next wednesday, its a hill station, which equals beautiful greenery and cool temps and hikes and such, and i booked tickets for mumbai, which i had to push back a day due to full trains, so heres to spending my 21st birthday in a 2nd class sleeper! woo! oh yea, and the highlight of my night was a call from anna, and we had a long talk. things are hard when you are away from everything that is familiar for so long, even more so in anna's case than mine. it is important to know what you value in life, and its even more important to never take those things for granted, and make sure you show all those people and places and things that they are important to you. you only have so many minutes here, so why not spend them always making everything you love happier?
and you want to know what makes everyone happy?

Picture montages!

Here are some of my happiest days with my favorite people.

thanks for being my best friend for the last lifetime sister.


for realz.



and you too brother!



and you too dad and granpa!



ok, well i was going to add more pictures of the rest of the crew that make me happy like hot cocoa and snow days, but it looks like my internet is losing steam. so i'll write more soon.

poops and bugs and hives.

so i think i'm losing my mind a little bit. i came upon this conclusion after dana and i got into a rickshaw accident today, and i didn't flinch. weird? a little. it was kind of a slow mo accident, but there was definitely a rear view mirror of another rickshaw passing uncomfortably close to me inside of my rickshaw. then our driver decided it was a good idea to hit the guy again to make him stop so he could yell at him. hehehe. oh india. we just got back from a ridiculous 3 day journey to jaipur for our mid internship seminar, which consisted of 16 hours with 8 people in a jeep (my levels of patience and tolerance for the uncomfortable are now higher than they have ever been in my life i'm pretty sure), 9 hours of class, and a quick visit to manju ji to recover my journal which i thought was gone for sure (woo!). it was so good to see everyone again, and compare war stories and the intense drama/comedy that is working for indian NGO. i'm pretty sure i got fleas from the hotel (not joking), but i'm really not too worried about it, as i spent our night in the hotel together checking out the lice and ringworm the other girls had. (also not joking). not to mention the diarrhea and insomnia that have become more of a condition than a problem. oh yea, and dana is in a constant state of hives of which we can not figure out the cause. who knows, maybe its because we are using this as a shower: so, things are pretty much hilarious in india right now. and i just read this, and it may sound like i'm upset, but this is completely not the case. my life is awesome and funny and dana and i are making big plans for the last weekend, which cannot be broadcast online at the moment, on top of the crazy adventures we've been having here, involving an assortment of hindi religious zealots, listening to some crazy tunes beat out by the unbelievably awesome kids from the school i'm working with, drunk angry mumbaians, an australian woman who gets us pizza and illegal copies of my favorite movies, swedes who informed me of late night headphone techno dance parties on the beach in a town i will be traveling through, public transportationlistening to some amazingly talented traditional performers one of which played a waterjug like a madman, having lifetime movie/knitting parties with dana, and getting soaked by rogue water balloons just walking down the street, and i'm making big plans for traveling in 2.5 weeks, and vaneja is having us over in a few days for a big south indian holiday at her house. woo talk about a run on sentence. oooh and did i mention that i found secret music i accidentally hid from myself on my computer, that i assumed had been lost in the crash of dec 2006? i like finding things that were lost more than getting new things 98% of the time.

oh and obligatory unflattering sari picture:

wowowoooooo.

i'm so exhausted i can't form sentences. thats a very good thing. my days are full and i'm taking in everything i can. so here is an update in a list.

lately i've been:

- making really good friends with this girl named vaneja who works at the blind school with me. she is amazing, i wish i could even explain what she has dealt with, she makes me realize a lot of things about myself and india and life that i'm not going to talk about online. she has been taking dana and i out to see the town, eat, shop, its been a serious blast.

- trying on saris and rajasthani outfits. hilarious. the women at the school love dressing up dana and me.

- swimming. oh yes, my breast stroke is getting pretty impressive, and dana's teaching me to fly. hehehe.

- visiting an orphanage, where i had to choke back tears hard. there was a drop box outside with a bell on it that rings when a baby is left there, which averages about once every month. and they are almost all girls, because they are considered to be a burden on a family. a lot of the girls were mentally disabled. i talked to girls that had lived there their whole life. i've never been so thankful for my family. i love you. i've always thought i would adopt, and now i am almost positive i will.

- drinking so much sugar cane juice, freshly squeezed right in front of my eyes. and eating way too much rasgulla and gulab jamun.

- playing holi:

- going to temple with vaneja, learning a lot about hinduism.

- sweating. all the time. its 90 degrees at all times in dana and my bedroom, and even hotter everywhere else.

- visiting a school exclusively for deaf students, it is run by an NGO, it was interesting to compare it to the blind school i've been working at, which is privately run (with government funding, and is provided completely free for all of its students, of which there are about 225). It is crazy the difficulties i hadn't considered, and the differences blind and deaf students face, and how they live in a culture that is very handicap inaccessible both physically and socially.

- missing you guys. i can't believe there is less than a month left of my program... and a month of travels that i couldn't be more pumped about. life is so good. i want to tell you everything, but soon enough i'll be able to.

trying to learn hindi.



our field visit to a local hamlet, on the outskirts of a village.



day 8, we lose our minds and have a beach party in fort gravis.



speaking at womens day.

hahaha, sorry the pictures are so small. guess you will just have to come visit me when i get back to the US to see the real thing.

Jodhpur.

So things have gotten so much better since the last time I wrote. Today was probably one of my favorite days in India thus far. First of all I have moved into the city into a guest house with Tracy and Kostya, two students from my program. We each have our own rooms and bathroom, our own living room, and best of all – kitchen. Woo. The family who is hosting us is amazing. They have this amazing library of musical instruments, puppets, brooms, all sorts of things from around India with a recording studio where traditional musicians come to lay down the beats. Hehe. So today I got in touch with Sushila Ji, the Chairperson of a school for blind students here in Jodhpur. We went and it was absolutely amazing. I sat in on a math class and a music class for blind students, and then an integrated class for deaf students. They have a computer lab with a program called JAWS that says everything the mouse scrolls over and the letters while you are typing. They also have a program that scans in books and then turns it into text format so it can be edited and, more importantly, converted to Braille and printed on a special printer. I met a girl today named Sunita, she is about my age and when she was young she had an accident and fell down the stairs, which damaged her optic nerve leaving her completely blind. She spoke amazing English we spent all afternoon talking about everything. She is leaving for a week or so to go back to her hometown of Bikaner (where I took that safari), for Holi, a huge festival in India. Two staff members sat and talked with us for an hour or so as well, and I can’t wait to go back and learn more from them. The students I met were so sweet, even though working at a school wasn’t what I had planned on doing, I think I will learn a lot working there.
So as I said Holi is this weekend, and I’m super pumped. All the kids that live around here are going to “play colors” with us, where you put on old white clothes, get these guns that shoot color powder, and go play in the streets. All my comrades from Fort Gravis are coming back in to play with us, and hopefully hit up another delicious meal at this restaurant called Midtown. Best thali ever. And the lassis. Oh the lassis.
So my days are much more productive since I’ve moved to the city, last night I went and watched how craftsmen make the bangles here, from melting the gold to casting the intricate designs. We went and picked up some saris that tracy had made, I love how vibrant Indian shopping districts are at night. I’ve been working on my Hindi, reading more books, knitting, having crazy talks with my roommates, I’m really happy. I think I’m going to head to the market and pick up some veggies and make some pasta for dinner. Eggplant maybe? Mmm. I’m trying to learn how to cook now that I have a kitchen and tons of spare time. It is proving slightly difficult though due to lack of supplies and lack of nearby grocery store, I just buy my veggies from street vendors. All part of the experience though.

ok quick update

so sorry this is going to be short but i'm paying for internet and don't have much time. I've been living in a hut in the middle of the Thar Desert for the past week and a half, but with no project and little to do. But thanks to my program coordinator it looks like I'll be moving into Jodhpur and working for a woman who runs an NGO based around training and giving financial services to women around the Jodhpur district, and she also runs a school for the blind that i will be working at. I am hopefully moving in on Monday and everything will be squared away. I was really going through a "low phase" for a bit there, but things are looking pretty good now, i'm excited to be working and interacting and everything. I'll update more soon.

7 weeks.

at officially half way through the program, its finally struck. my stomach is doing tricks i didn't think it knew how to do. but i went to the pharmacy and got some rehydration packets and some other meds, after almost passing out today in class (while giving a presentation, so i scared everyone pretty thoroughly). ugh. but really i've been tempting fate for a long time with the egregious amounts of street food i've been taking in, so i guess i deserve it. those samosas were completely worth it. hopefully this all clears up before the what could be a horrible all day drive to jodhpur on wednesday. but i'm a trooper, don't worry, can't break this spirit. i've been pumping myself up all week for my internship, and i'm crazy excited about this unknown adventure. at first i was worried about internet access/telephone service/bathrooms/where i'll be sleeping, but thats all quickly fading away. i had a nice talk with mom last night, and she's right, too much energy is wasted worrying. i declare march worry free month. all you can do is live every moment and make the absolute best of it, because you only get that second to live one time. i just finished reading 'special topics in calamity physics' and it talks a few times in there about how you should be leading your life keeping your autobiography in mind. is it worth reading, even if its just by you? i've been so fortunate my whole life with great friends, family, loves, days, weeks, years, and opportunities. being here makes me realize that i can really do anything. what a great feeling.

oh also, i found free wireless internet in the mall courtyard about 25 seconds from my house. hahaha. so many wasted rupees.

tomorrow is the big hindi test. let's practice:

"ap kaise ho?" how are you
"mai thik hu." i'm good
"meri parivar me pauch log hai. mera ma-bap, meri choti behen, mera chota bhai, aur me." my family has 5 members. My parents, my younger sister, my younger brother, and me.

and the useful phrases:

bas! bas! - stop! stop! (for rickshaw drivers, it takes them a little longer to stop when you yell in english)

bahut zyada hai! - it is very expensive! (and then you walk away from whoever you are talking to, and they will yell lower prices at you until you turn around. i heart baraining.)

malum nahi - i don't know/understand. haha.


ok, enough of that. i'm talking to katie and steph online, they are both in spain this semester. i miss my girls. its so weird to think that the people i love the most are spread so much over the globe right now.

tail end of jaipur.

so just one more weekend here in the pink city. i went and got my hair cut this morning to even out the back, and happened to run into one of the MSID staff on his motorcycle, so i hitched a ride to school (my first indian motorcycle experience, and an experience i think everyone needs, i was holding on to that back bar with my life). then today the class went to see a bollywood movie about a kid with dyslexia, 'Taare Zameen Par'. it was predictable, but still a tear jerker (not that that takes much, i don't know if mom remembers watching bridge to terabithia with me, never again) movies here are very different, usually between 3 and 4 hours long, always with an intermission, always with singing and dancing, and assigned seating (which they seam to enforce even when the theatre is nearly empty). No travel plans this weekend, just packing and getting some last minute stuff. It's officially hot now, 90's in the sun. i'm going to try to go get some cheap indian clothes from the old city tomorrow because i don't have anything light enough for the extreme temperatures coming my way.

so i did a packing run through last night, and realized i can fit 6 weeks worth of life into 40 liters. i'm like a hermit crab.

Agra

this was written sunday, i just haven't had internet till now.

I can’t believe I’ve already been here for almost six weeks. I feel like I’ve been constantly in motion. Today I took the day off completely, no errands, just unwinding my thoughts and bones and tired feet. Betsy and I made toast and tea for breakfast, and walked to an internet café, I sent out some resumes for summer jobs (I guess this was an errand, but it was the weather was nice and we walked, so it seemed like much less of one). We got back and had some tasty potatoes and onions with chipatis and dhal with our host parents. Then, after several months hiding from the sun (it was winter at home when I left, and here a t shirt and an ankle length skirt is as risqué as I’m willing to go), I put on my swimsuit and went to soak in some much needed vitamin D on the roof. I just started reading Special Topics in Calamity Physics, it’s starting semi slow but I have been assured in another 100 pages or so I won’t be able to put it down. It made for good laying out reading. It was warm and it was quiet and I was happy.

This weekend we made a trip to Agra. The train took longer than expected to get in Friday night, but that was fine with me as I was completely engrossed in The Unbearable Lightness of Being. I feel like I’m going to have to read it again because I couldn’t get myself to slow down. We snacked on oranges and Parle G’s, and talked to a woman from Israel traveling India for 6 months, then moving on to Nepal, Thailand, the rest of South East Asia for another 6 months. She had already traveled extensively through South America and the US, and Australia is her next on her list. I had questions I wanted to ask, like had she already served in the Israeli armed forces? Had she always been traveling alone? But she settled into her book in Hebrew (also weird for me, I always pictured Hebrew as a nearly extinct language, like Latin, what kids recited at their bar mitzvahs, but there is a whole nation speaking it.)

Anyways, Agra. To be honest the city is not somewhere I would miss. It was how I would picture a city rebuilding after a war. Police officers (in thick olive green suits holding rifles stood at every one of the several road blocks, the animals were sick (heart breakingly sick, I saw a dog that I think had polio), and the people we talked to unhelpful. The hotel we stayed at had next to no running water, and a “triple” was 2 twins pushed together, so Betsy and I essentially shared a twin. But we shook it all off, got up at 5:30 to see the Taj at sunrise. It was breathtaking, unusually quiet and we got there before the bulk of the tourist rush. Tour guides are highly recommended for the Taj, but we opted out, I don’t think explanations could have made it more beautiful. doesn't it look like we're superimposed with a picture of the Taj? i promise we were really there. sorry its sideways, i don't have time to fix it.

We then took a bus out to Fatehpur Sikri, Akbar’s fortified city. There is hardly a way to describe it except just enormous. Gardens, ruins, pools, it was just sprawling. Emma, Betsy and I sat and talked in a courtyard for a while, about how ridiculous it is that we still think about certain times and people and places with a good deal of frequency. But then I realize that I probably think about lawn sprinklers and crawdads at least once a day, so it’s not so ridiculous that even when things lose their importance we still think of them often. We took the bus back, I think the guy sitting next to me was drunk, he kept singing out loud and then passing out. It was 3 in the afternoon. We bought some parathas (basically a chapatti stuffed with spices and any veggies you want, in this case just potatoes. I prefer them with peas and cauliflower though) and bananas from the street and hung out at the train station until our train, which was regrettably not a sleeper, instead a car packed to the max with people, bumping elbows and sitting in the aisles. It was a challenging trip, but definitely memorable, and the Taj Mahal is unimaginably beautiful in real life. My friend’s dad cried when he saw it. I don’t think a building is capable of bringing me to tears, but I understand how it could happen there.

Udaipur.

First of all just let me say thanks you a million times over family for helping my pay for this trip, and thanks to everyone for being such cool people and giving me so much support. I want to tell you all this 15 times every day, if only international calls were less rupees.

Second, Udaipur – full of tourists, full of fun. The lake isn’t quite as glorious as it would be after a good monsoon, but still provided some spectacular views. This was the first time we have traveled with the majority of the group, and it added an extra layer of stress, but everything turned out well. India may try to break our spirits at times, but we always manage to make the best of it. We took an overnight train ride, around 10 hours, and boy did I feel sorry for those poor souls without sleeping bags. I cuddled up with my bag, 2 jackets, a scarf, my ipod, my headlamp, and my knitting and had a very pleasant ride filled with good dreams.

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We got off the train in the morning and went to a Westerner filled café for, gasp, real coffee and peanut butter toast, how I’ve made it without peanut butter for a month is really beyond imagination. We had made elaborate plans for the day, but that was all pretty much foiled when we came across the shopping district. Emma wanted to get some pants tailor made for her, which can be completed in 2 days, isn’t that wild? From scratch and all. I went with her, and needless to say I couldn’t resist. You know that one piece of clothing you look for but can never seem to find the right thing? Well, I decided to get it fitted just for me. And I’m in love with it.

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After we got all the shopping out of our system we explored the City Palace, but at that point we were palaced out, and ended up making fun of the place way more than we appreciated it (but seriously, imported British tile made the place look like a big tacky bathroom, I’m sorry). That night we, again as serious tourists, went and watched some traditional dances at a nearby haveli, which were actually very fun to watch. One woman danced while balancing 8 bowls on her head, and there was a puppet show! Woo! Then we all headed back for some dinner at the guest house we were staying in, which at $3.25 a night, you really could not beat. The restaurant was on the roof, and looked out over the whole city, including the lake. The weather was warm and the conversation was good. My friend Teresa and I tried to cut my hair, I got the length off, but the back looks pretty choppy, but it’ll be fine in a few weeks. No worries.

The next day was excellent. Relaxing breakfast of banana pancakes on the roof, followed by a paddleboat ride around the lake. We rode by the famous hotel and other palace that were floating around in the middle of it, had some street food (oranges and dal samosa) for lunch and explored the less touristy part of the city. That evening we had a cooking class, highlight of the trip. I learned so much and I can’t wait to come home and make you some tofu palak and aloo ghobi and chai samosa. Ugh it was wonderful and we got to eat so so much, when I went to pick up my jacket from the tailors I could hardly get it buttoned. That night we made a pathetic attempt to go explore the “night life” of Udaipur, but just a warning to anyone traveling to India, don’t expect a party scene, it does not exist. I was not sad about this, and had an awesome time falling asleep under the stars while cuddling with my friends on the roof (kind of a half level on top on the restaurant roof) and watching Octopussy, the horrible James Bond movie filmed in Udaipur, and shown at every establishment in the town every night. Hilarious.

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Sunday we got up, another lazy breakfast, this time nutella toast and banana cornflakes. It’s ridiculous how much my life revolves around food, but I honestly feel that my life would only be half as good as it is if I didn’t have taste buds. The four of us girls and two of the boys on our trip rented bikes and rode around a lake with a garden and an observatory in the middle, and then did some “off roading” through this village. There were some minor setbacks, a flat tire and a village kid that stole my pencil, and a few near accidents, but all in all a worthwhile. Exhausted and a little sunburned, we rolled back into the city for some street food (samosas and carrot halwa) in this hold in the wall, where we sat watching this kid make a crazy huge batch of sweets in a huge iron skillet that was bigger than he was. Back to the hotel for some lounging/reading/hindi homeworking, and then night train round 2.

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We made it home for a quick breakfast (garam poa and tea) and a bucket bath, and off we went to school. Needless to say we were dragging today, and sitting through a lecture on the intricacies of the Indian Constitution did not make things easier. But I did receive a letter from grandma mohme (grandma beck, I got yours a few days ago (thanks so much both of you!)) and a package from Ian containing some much appreciated reading, the Sigur Ros DVD (dissipating my jealousy towards Anna’s earlier viewing) and 2 pop punk mixes. I think he sent those CDs knowing that even though punk is not my thing, I’m automatically going to fall in love with them because they remind me of him. Ian, I’m on to you, you aren’t that sneaky. Just kidding, you can’t even imagine how much I appreciate it, even though it makes me miss you more, if that’s possible. Thanks for ruling at life. Today I also went to switch malaria medicine, my skin is not having the doxy (I don’t know if you’ve noticed the Rudolph nose in all the pictures), and this new kind is over 10 bucks a pill (you take one a week) in the US, but when I went to the pharmacy here, only a buck a pop! And my prescription was scribbled on a piece of scrap paper that they didn’t keep, so I’m pretty sure if anyone needs some cheap prescription drugs let me know and I’ll smuggle them home. Just kidding, but its insane how much cheaper medicine and medical services are here. But I don’t know about the legitness of the “pharmacy,” which was really just another hole in the wall shop teaming with boxes and people and a polo game playing in the background. Oh yea, and I finally shaved my legs. It took almost an hour. It was disgusting.

bikaner pictures

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here are some pictures, and sadly enough, they are what i could scrounge offline because the wireless internet cafe did not exist. india is so full of illusions.

and i had to change the page layout so you could see all the pictures, which were all badly cut off earlier,sorry if its kind of uglier and harder to navigate now.

Happy birthday dad!

Hey y’all. So this week has been class as usual, no exciting trips or anything to report on, except tomorrows trip to Udaipur, apparently the most romantic city in Rajasthan, for Valentine’s Day. Cute, right? Unfortunately the significant other is a good deal of miles away, so I’ll be spending it with my new loves, the girls of the Bapna complex. We’re planning some cooking lessons and bike rides for this trip, I’m hugely excited. This week school has gotten slightly more serious, as tests and book reports and focus papers needed to be started and finished. But as usual, free time is abundant and well used. I went on my first run here in India, and the 4 km made me realize how out of shape I had fallen. But I’m determined to put some muscle back on these bones, and with easy access to central park I have no excuses. Last night Betsy and I went on our first temple trip with our host family. Religions of all kinds baffle me. But I’ve decided Hinduism may be somewhere near top baffler. We took off our shoes and left them in the car, walked carefully down the street into the temple, avoiding spit, broken glass, and other street unmentionables. We walked in to the bright, warmly colored temples with garlands of marigolds hanging from every crevice, up to the priest that handed us an Indian sweet. Then we walked clockwise around the shrine and that was that. No endless sermons (or as anna will surely remember endless games of hangman), wafer chips, or wooden pews here. Just a personal moment of reflection in front of a human size idol of an orange god with 5 faces.

Yesterday was a good day. I had a quick and successful trip to the train station, post office, and the cell phone shop. These may seem like small things, but getting my bearings here has given me a lot of confidence. I had a nice chat with the book store owner and he’s ordering some books for me, and he even e-mailed me today to say that he put it all in and to keep in touch, isn’t that nice? Plus I got to talk to Ian and Anna. Things are really great. I also got some recommendations for internships, and as of now it looks like I may be working with CECOEDECON – the Centre for Community Economics and Development Consultants Society, a civil society organization that undertakes development projects leading to community self reliance and empowerment. I would probably be shadowing and doing research based around women’s self help groups in villages around Rajasthan. I’m pumped to the max about this.

And I have located a wireless internet coffee house. Yes.

camel safari and random things.

So the camel safari was amazing. I'm sore all over, from my belly to my knees, but it was completely worth it. we had this hilarious guide that taught himself english, and some pretty cool card tricks. he taught us how to play pairs, which reminded me a lot of old maid (grandma beck, remember when we played that game all the time? i still remember that funny old card deck) we had 3 camels to ride, and one that pulled our cart, and a place to take a rest from riding. there were 4 guys traveling with us, and they made us chai tea and chippatis and ghobi allu from scratch for our meals. we all layed out in the desert, watching the sun set and the stars pop out. i saw probably the best shooting star i've ever seen in my life. the girls and i are getting really close, the share your deodorant and accidentally spoon in your sleep kind of close. its great. we were going to try to sleep outside our tent, but due to freezing toes and some wild dogs we ended up in the tent. thanks god for my sleeping bag, thats probably the best thing i brought on this trip. we got back today, taking a way too crowded bus (i love the buses though, no tourists, and it offers the best opportunity to people watch), and went to a palace dedicated to rats. one crawled across my foot. they were everywhere. and to worship then, people were laying belly down on the floor. no wonder the plague still exists. it was super gross. then we packed up and headed into town, had some lunch and are hanging out at an internet cafe until our train.

ok, grandma sent me a list of questions, and i thought i'd answer on here in case anyone else was wondering.

How about the toilets?
at school and home we have western toilets, but no one has toilet paper (but its available at some shops, so no worries), because they use water and their left hand to wash after. and thats why you only eat with our right hand here. the "indian" toilet is a hole you just squat over, but mostly at the places we stay its a mix of both, it looks like a low western toilet with a place to stand, and you really shouldn't sit on it.

when you are back with your host family do you have indoor plumbing of is it outside?
everything is indoor, but public urination is completely acceptable for men.

Is it a lot of veg. or do they raise corn and wheat there?
the farms we went to grow veggies and wheat, i haven't seen any corn yet, but i know it exists here, not as much though. in northern india,where i am, the food is wheat based, but in the south it's more rice based.

You said they irriagate so it must be small patches?
Yea, the average farm is probably 5 to 10 acres. it is run mostly by families, but some of the larger farms hire workers around harvest time, which is around 3 times a year.

How are you doing your laundry?
all by hand. we could give it all to one of the servants to do for a few bucks, but i didn't really feel right doing that. so betsy and i bought some liquid detergent, fill up a bucket, clean it, and lay it out in the sun to dry. needless to say, i wear a lot of dirty clothes.

if you guys have any other questions, let me know, i'll keep you updated.

Shekawati and Bikanir

I don't have long to type, i'm staying at this crazy guesthouse in bikaner with 3 other girls from my trip, and i'm currently using the internet in one of the owner's teenage son's room, and boy is it kind of awkward. this week was the trip to the sustainable village, which was such a unsettling experience. they put us all up in this 5 star resort (including free ping pong), with these over the top meals and and super touristy group events. but then we went to these really awesome organic farms and training centers, where we learned about their irrigation systems and vermicomposting and the like. did you know that the indian government buys organic produce for 15% more than the pesticide filled stuff? but it was beautiful and i learned a lot, and it was nice to take my first real shower in almost a month, but i just wish we were doing more than these sheltered sort of tours. but i have decided i'm going to do a rural internship, and probably request to be the only one in a village so that i can really immerse myself, push myself.

today we girls took off for bikanir, a desert town that doesn't see too many tourists. it was great, we ate at this great place called amber, walked around probably the coolest streets i've seen since ive been here, and almost got involved in a gambling match with some old guys on the street. the bizarres here are amazing, the kind i really thought would be in india, streets only wide enough for a scooter, fabric hanging out across the streets, colors, sounds, smells. so great. and tomorrow we leave bright and early on safari into the desert, and we're sleeping out under the stars. i love my life.

i'm almost done with "the space between us." the busride here, though bumpy and crowded gave me lots of time. i need something new to start. any suggestions?

love,
sarah

here and there.

So I’ve decided to consolidate my blog and my actual journal, because I am really repeating myself a lot, and writing by hand is really hard for me. So be ready for even more posts than usual. (and mom, I really don’t have that long on the internet ever, I write these at night before bed and then post them in my ½ hour break at school.)

Today Betsy, Dana, Emma and I got up extra early so we could run over to our favorite internet café for all of our skype dates. Of course, as the computer was almost done booting up, a “scheduled blackout” took over Raja Park, which lasts for around 2 hours, and I still haven’t figured out the method to their madness. So I sadly had to call ian to cancel our chat. It’s hard when you’re almost 12 hours apart, very few times work when you are both awake, and both with internet capabilities. But not a huge deal, I’m not much of a phone talker, I just miss you alls voices.

Hindi was as always an adventure, and I’m getting really good at the alphabet, I can read most things, but my speaking skills are decidedly lacking. Practice practice practice. The rest was all class as usual. I got to talk to anna for a few minutes, I have no idea how we’ve been able to make it this long without seeing eachother. I missya sista.

Our host family is really starting to open up to us. Today Manjuji taught us how to make “chay” the Indian way. In the winter, she uses cinnamon, pepper, and cloves to spice it up. Then we went to the market with her and Girdhariji, our host dad. It made me not want to come back to America. None of this self service self checkout talk to no one no eye contact convenience above all sort of society we live in. Here all the groceries are behind the counter, like you are at a jewelry store or something, and you tell the guy working what you’re looking for, he pulls down some options, and checks you out right there. Oh and there is one store just for snacks. Bins and bins of crispy crunchy snacks. Wow.

For dinner we had south Indian again, and I’m under the impression that we will keep having south Indian until the coconut curry from the party they had the other night has run out (and this is not a complaint, it’s delicious). We also had soup, and the cutest thing Girdhariji has said to us, “we make this noise to show we like it.” And slurped up his soup.

Other things that made me happy today:
• We found a store that rents out movies for 75 cents, and they have big fish.
• I can finally sleep without my coat on
• Only one more day of school this week
• I don’t have to ship my suitcase home anymore
• My jeans are clean for the first time since I’ve gotten here

Love,
sarah

Bundi.

outside the RN Haveli, and that's momma

"Rajastani Pizza" and dried up "lake" outside the "garden" restaurant. false advertisement at its best.


Livia, this ones for you. They're everywhere.


after dinner at the haveli


outside our haveli, all the houses are bright colors, the whole city looked lavender from far away. This kids begged me to take their picture, and then they took pictures of us with their camera. hehe.

So I successfully made it back from my first unMSID journey. It made me want to drop the program and just go traveling indefinitely. We left Friday afternoon, after a field trip to where they made blue pottery, block printed fabrics, and then to this “hand made” paper shop, who in their display room afterwards had products packaged for sam’s club. They wouldn’t let you take pictures, and the tour lasted for all of 7 minutes, and there was so much loud machinery I didn’t get to ask any questions. I think it was a “fair trade” factory, but not how I pictured it would be. It was a bizarre trip. Anyway, so we bargain the rickshaw walla down to 40 rupees from 100 (still a rip off, but we’re white so we can pretty much guarantee we are getting ripped off with pretty much every purchase). Our driver was hilarious and kept yelling “woo!” every time we would go over a bump or make a sharp turn (so continuously). We get to the train station with time to spare, but couldn’t find our car, which, to our credit, was labeled SE2, which didn’t exist. So, utilizing our superior Hindi skills, we went up to anyone we can find shrugged our shoulders and pointed at our ticket. As effective as this may sound, we got pointed in both directions several times, but after near defeat we got on car S6, SE2’s alter ego.

And the train, an experience everyone needs to have I think. There is no concept of personal space here, and “better out than in” is a lifestyle. Hilarious, and I can’t wait for my first train overnight. So 4 hours later we get off in Kota, our rickshaw gets followed by another full of super creepy guys yelling at us. And by full I mean at least 8 guys in this tiny thing, and by following I mean his auto was touching ours. It was dark and super scary. Then we get off at this random street fire, cow hangout known as the “bus station,” and guys just start yelling “Bundi! Bundi!” at us, and that was our destination, so we let them push us onto the sketchiest bus I’ve ever seen, and off we are to bundi. I’m making this sound scary, but really it was just more funny than anything. Bundi is a pretty small place, and we don’t get in until 11, on a dirt road with no one around, so this guy we were talking to on the bus hooks us up with a rickshaw and takes us to our final destination, RN Haveli.

We pull up and this mid sixties Indian woman greets us at the door, and we spend the next 10 minutes trying to get these street puppies that ran in back outside. Well, really we just let them play inside while we sat and had chai with the other guests. First of all, its no wonder to me so many people are depressed in the US. Its hard to get two weeks off of work. All the travelers here have been in India for months. It was so great listening to talk about all these places, and taking quick mental notes of all the places I now have to go in May. And it has cemented my belief that Australians are the happiest people on earth. I’ve also decided when I travel I’m going to try to stay in as many guest houses as I can. It cost me less than 2 bucks a night, and the woman running it made us call her mama. She hates money so she makes you keep your own tab, and when I tried to show her, she just shut her eyes and said, “mama’s good in the kitchen, don’t deal with money.” So we left her what we owed, isn’t that crazy? She just trusts you to pay for what you take. And she was right, so good in the kitchen. Sweet dosas for breakfast, stuffed with kalwa, my favorite dessert, kind of like sugared carrots.

While we were there we went to this great fort with no one around, so we basically played explorer all morning. There are no guards, we didn’t pay anything, and if mama wasn’t so awesome we would have just pitched a tent and stayed the night up there. We went to the bizarre, got some great street food, and checked out some local artists paintings. And had lunch in this garden, and being the only people there, our waiter brought over a portable radio and started blasting bollywood music. We got some rajastani pizza, which was topped with everything from pomegranate seeds and grapes to nuts and peppers (and a live worm, but that didn’t stop us). It was interesting for sure. Got back to the Haveli, read a book and listened to some Scottish burnouts play the didgeridoo. Dinner was great, pretty much family style with all the guests.

Came back today, almost finished my book, and would have if the kids across from me on the train would have quit screaming and throwing toys at my head (not soft toys either, we’re talking plastic motorcycles. Twice). Plus their dad was playing really annoying music super loud on his phone (I always wondered who bought those stupid cell phones that you could use to play music, and now I know), and passing a lot of gas. Not such a good trip back. But we made it with no serious hitch, which was a pretty big accomplishment, and I’m more excited than ever to be here.

Oh yea, and mom, I wore my money belt. It was hilarious, I’d have to pull up my shirt to get any money out, so it was not as discrete as promised. And for some reason it made me constantly insecure that my pants were unbuttoned. I think I’d rather be robbed than wear that thing again.

This week, 2 days of class and then 3 day field trip to the Shekhawati region to a sustainable village. My life rules. Wish you were here. This was really long, I wonder if anyone made it this far.

i'll try and post pictures soon.

monkey attack!

so our house in under a monkey seige right now. they launched a sneak attack last night, breaking some pots, knocking over everything in the living room, and stealing some peas. They were waiting outside our room this morning, watching from the roof, planning their next move. We have to run downstairs and lock the doors to keep them from stealing our secret chocolate stashes. Maybe if we hadn't destroyed their natural habitat, they wouldn't have to go to such retaliation methods. But i guess we deserve it. hehe.

In other news, we are going to the small village like 5 hours south, staying in a Havela (sp?) (old mansion) run by all women, who will even take foreign men to the market with them! (very taboo, these seem to be some pretty cool ladies). and yoga classes will be beginning soon! woo! its finally warm and sunny out, i'm sitting out on our school's patio, soaking it up.

i'm considering getting a new piercing, any thoughts?

love,
sarah

pics!

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Old Delhi


Fields near Jaipur
Jeep up to Amer Fort


Amer Fort

publish more soon! don't have much time! Sorry!

just business.

hey guys, i've got some business here first of all.

ok, first phone calls. you can all call me now, i have a cell phone, so run out and get some international calling cards and start dialing!

011 91 9950713894, hit it!

and if you want to send any care packages, or preferably just letters expressing said care:

Sarah Beck
MSID c/o
15 Uniara Garden
Jaipur 302 004, Rajasthan
India

also, my return home has been pushed back from April 28th to May 28th... Ian is jumping across the pond and we are going to travel around for a month! woo! sadly i will not be in the states for the big 2-1, but i'll be sipping on coconuts right out of the shell fresh of the vendor cart here, so don't feel too bad everybody.

so today we went to jager (sp?) fort here in jaipur, its about a 30 minute hike up this worn down mountain up from Amer Fort. It was so nice to get away from the sounds of the city, and for a while meghan and i just layed out on top of this flag post in the highest point of the city, rumor has it. it was so sunny and nice, and there were secret passage ways and gardens and spectacular views. sadly enough, also camel and elephant rides, which i did not take part in. i want to take them all out of there, i couldn't stand watching them walk up and down this fort path all day, in their own excrements, being prodded by the man directing them while the tourists just waved and laughed. ugh. i wish this program was a little heavier on the "development." but i have high hopes things will get better, especially in the internship.

we may or may not have located a coffee shop that has wi fi, and if so, i'll be arranging skype talks, and hopefully upload some pictures already!

hope all is well at home,

sarah

oh man.

so these last couple of days have been crazy. wednesday we went to the literature festival here and saw benazir bhutto's niece, fatima, speak on her family, life, and her journalism. she is only 5 years older than me and she is so smart and accomplished, and been through more than i could imagine. it was wild. then later that night we got to go to a private screening of the movie atonement, and after got to sit in on a discussion with the writer of the book, ian mcewan, and the screenwriter of the movie, an oscar winner, and nominated for atonement. crazy? yes. and its wedding season here, so everynight we get to watch fireworks go off! man, if i ever get married it'll probably just be at a courthouse or something, but if i change my mind, i'm going to have one like this. so over the top with decked out horses and almost a carnival after with everyone i've ever met. hehe. fridays we don't have class, we have "field trips" instead. this friday we rented a bus and went to all the touristy things in jaipur. ugh touristing. i really don't like it. don't get me wrong, i really wanted to see all the things we saw and its so nice of the program to pay for us all, but i guess i just like to do things on my own time and my way, no guided tour, just wandering. it was a lot to take in too. so last night, completely worn out from the day, my roommate and i went and cuddled up in bed with two other girls living in the same house as us and watched anastasia, and laughed about how nice it made russia look. of course we didn't make it through the whole thing, because we go to sleep at like 10:30... but our host family stayed up with friends singing songs and partying until 3 in the morning. hilarious.

miss you guys,

sarah

school

so i started school yesterday. hindi is intense, and i'm hoping to get down the basics before i move for my internship, but we'll see how it goes. our family is helping us too and we hear it everywhere so i hope that will make it a little easier. its unusually cold here, and there is no heating, so i've been sleeping in my northface (yea, i'm so glad i have my northface, yes i own a northface, and yes it was a good investment) and 2 pairs of socks and 2 heavy blankets. its so hard to get out everymorning and bucket shower. i don't think i've shave my legs until its like 80 degrees out. i need the extra insulation. hehe. we've been learning a lot and a lot of my views have been challenged. it's crazy, today i was reading an assigned article about the servant/master relationship while baarti, my families servant cleaned my dishes. its such a weird feeling. and we've been learning a lot about women in indian culture, assanged marriages, child marriages, history, its crazy. indians take so much pride in their culture, and while some things don't seem to make sense from a western perspective, when you hear someone who's lived here their whole life talk about it you start to understand. i wish i could even begin to explain the differences between living here and in the US, but literally its like night and day. but i need to go back to class, breaks over. love you all, miss you.

home stay.

so i moved into my home stay today, i live in a house with four families that are all related, and betsy and i share this beautiful big room, i'll send pics when i figure it all out. we are walking around jaipur trying to get our bearings, some bottled water, and sunscreen. we just popped in an internet cafe for a minute. tomorrow i start classes and i'm way excited. i think we are also geting cell phones tomorrow, and my address, so as soon as i can i'll post both. incoming international calls are free, so family get some phone cards and give me a call, just remember when its noon there its 11:30 at night here. so my house is in a quiet part of jaipur across from the central park in jaipur, which is huge, 4 km around. today they were having a rose festival so we walked over and checked out rajasthan's most beautiful flowers. hehe. apparently they have free shows by some of indias famous musicians a lot, and i can just go to the roof of my house and listen. awesome? yes. i love the house because its so open, all the doors and windows. my host dad is a civil lawyer and his wife stays at home. they have a servant, which is very common in india. they have a son and a daughter, the daughter lives around here and is an architect around my age who recently got married. they son works for an IT company in a different part of india. well, i feel like i'm posting a lot, hopefully i can keep it up, and family, i haven't heard from you, let me know you're still out there.

sarah

jaipur.

this is going to have to be a short one even though i have so much to tell. we made it to jaipur, it took about 6 hours including stops at these beautiful outdoor restaurants and sadly enough a mcdonalds. (don't hate me ian, i had to choice in the matter, but their veggie burgers here taste just like falafel.) we drove through miles of mustard seed fields which are these beautiful yellow flowers and a mountain range older than the Himalayas. beautiful. we've been staying at the rajasthan hotel, and i've been having some new experiences for sure. such as bucket showers. the bathrooms are huge and the "shower" has no curtain so i am just out in the open dumping cold water from a bucket to get the soap off. its really so fun and hilarious when i think about what i'm doing. we made it to our school today, which is in a (slightly) quieter part of jaipur and its in the second floor of a house, and its got a huge sunny outdoor patio and a room of just pillows and rugs. some things are scary, like the traffic and the honking (which is used to just say "i'm behind you" and not "i'm mad," which is hard to get used to) and camels, elephants, and cows all over the place. but i'm really in love with it, today we even accidentally met the second in command of the biggest university (over 500,000 students!) in rajasthan (the state i'm in) and we are hopefully setting up conversations between some of his students and us. so many people are willing to help you, its such a warm culture. and its beautiful here, today there isn't a cloud in the sky and probably around 75 degrees. well i'm off, going back for my last day in the hotel, tomorrow i move in with my host family!

love you all sooo much!

so i made it everyone! the 14 hour flight was a total breeze, no worries. (anna, i flew right over uppsala (sp?) i wanted to call and tell you that i was completely within seeing distance of you, but i had no way, so i waved and smiled, i hope you saw it) they had those personal screen tv's and me and the guy next to me had a really great time watching office reruns. oh yes, they had the office. hehe but really i spent most of it sleeping and reading and arguing with the attendant, who didn't have the vegan meal ian called in for me. so in protest i ate around the cottage cheese dish and handed it back to him with a frown face. but the air port was crazy, people were lined up on both sides when you walked out with signs, and there were hundreds of them, all staring at you. very paparrazi (sp?) ish. but we got to the delhi YWCA Guest House and all packed in for the night. today we began our orientation, walked around delhi for a bit, and got lunch at this southern indian style restautant. they had divider trays so nothing touched (yay) even though you were supposed to mix everything together and eat it with your fingers (but only your right hand, making things a little difficult). But so tasty. The people on my trip are really awesome, all just trying to make a difference and learn new things. we are leaving in a little to go explore "old Delhi." The craziest thing for sure is the traffic and just the sheer volume of people. there are no traffic rules, except you get out of the way for things bigger than you. too bad for the rickshaws (which all run on compressed natural gas, come on america, get with the times). everyone is always honking, its kind of like a crazy rollercoaster meets a really weird dream. Also, grandma momhe, you were right. monkeys everywhere. but they haven't stolen any of my things yet. there are also a lot of wild dogs, but not scary, they just lay and sleep a lot. Also a lot of poverty, that i am not sure i was completely ready to see. It's so hard, so many little kids begging, going out in traffic and asking cars. It's eye opening and scary and real. So far we have been in kind of this touristy bubble within the comfort of our group, but i'm preparing myself to get outside of this. On a lighter note, much talk has been going around about taking indian dance and meditation classes, so i'm super pumped for that. tomorrow we drive to jaipur, and on sunday we move in with our homestays. woo!

well, time for me to go, but i love you all, and i am going to come back with so many pictures and stories and trinkets, so get ready!

oh yea and please send addresses if you want postcards/letters/cool stamps.

love,
sarah

One Week

Ok so seven days and counting. Yikes. I cracked open my hindi "teach yourself" book last night. oh man. it is kind of fun because its like a secret code you have to crack before you can translate it. I've almost got the alphabet down, one slow step at a time. I'm up in champaign for the week, telling myself it'll help me focus, but really I've just been hanging out with Ian, going on walks and cooking enchiladas, running "errands" which seem to accomplish very little. I've decided winter break is not geared towards productivity though, more towards hibernating, so i'm not going to be too hard on myself.

Those last few days I was home, I realized I'm officially moved out for good. Adult style. I am going to miss it. Of course i'm going to miss the people i love. But the actual place too. I know i tease a lot about going to the doctor's office in a double wide trailer "parked" in gretchen wilson park, but i love it down there. But you'd be hard pressed to find a place so unassuming, where strangers wave at eachother, or you walk into a restaurant and know at least half the people in there. My grandma's houses are in walking distance of eachother, and in the spring daffodils still grow a quarter mile from my house where my greatgrandma used to live. It's weird the things you notice when you aren't there anymore. I sometimes thought i have little in common with my friends at home, but really the things we don't have in common are all just all surface stuff that doesn't matter anyways. I know their histories, their families, their flaws, their best qualities, and i could go months without talking to them and pick up right where we left off. I am so lucky.

oh and anna, i downloaded skype, but i have no idea what i'm doing with it. hopefully I'll figure it out before i leave.

and thanks everyone for the kind/encouraging e-mails. they mean so much to me.

sarah

America

dear friends and family,

I decided I won't spam you with India/life updates, so I'm making this so if you feel inclined to see where my travels have taken me, it's all right here for the taking! First let me all say that I love you guys, thanks for taking time out of your day to see about me. Right now it's 3 in the morning and I leave in T minus 11 days. I find my life is currently a jumble of travel size shampoo, travel documents, and extra socks. Hopefully it will all make its way into the one suitcase and backpack I plan on bringing. Yikes. I'm working on minimizing my life... so if anyone knows anyone who needs lots of size 8 shoes or small/medium clothes, please get in touch with me or my momma.

Anyways... life lately... I've been having an amazing winter break. I've been spending a lot of it up in Chicago, i've got something up there that i just can't seem to stay away from. I rode home from there today, on a venture that took nearly 12 hours. Frozen trains and various delays. It wasn't all bad though, I got a lot of reading done, and spent most of my delay talking to this Chinese guy who moved to America a year ago and works in a restaurant in Springfield. I liked that he used "beautiful" to describe everything he liked. He wanted help pronouncing words in English, and found the word ear very hilarious. On the way home I listened to a very special tape and imagined all the places I could have traveled to in the amount of time it took me to get home. Thanks for picking me up mom, you're the best.

Maybe the next post you read, I'll be on the other side of the planet, or just somewhere in Illinois. We'll see.

Sarah