Winter and spring

May 05, 2011 13:53

I've been home for over a month now, I just keep putting off updating this...

I got back to India and spent a few days exploring Calcutta with another American woman who had just finished her course and was just heading out to Thailand soon.  That was fun.  Then I went to Hyderabad.  The hotel was nice.  The area it was in wasn't bad.  But the autorickshaw drivers were SO obnoxious...  And it was really hot.  So I did a few things, but didn't enjoy myself as much as I might have.

In Delhi I stayed with a family that kind of did a homestay thing on the side to make extra money.  They were nice, but the wife was antisocial and the husband was all up in my business.  But I did a lot there.  I went all over Delhi.  I saw the Red Fort, the old city, lots of cool markets, Jantar Mantar (a huge old observatory complex), the zoo, and more.  I bought loads of stuff.  I ate some good things, but mostly I fell into the habit of having one decent meal and a snack or two per day.  I quite enjoyed the metro system.  I developed a favorite coffee shop, and left the workers there a note and some pennies on my last visit.  I took a day-tour to Agra on a bus full of Indian people, but it was conducted in English.  I was told that everyone in India speaks English...  Not the case.  Just the upper class, most people in stores, and a lot of taxi drivers.  I smelled a lot of stale pee.  A lot.  Every day.  I changed my daily route so I didn't have to pass by the public toilet, and I still smelled pee every day.  Gross.  I was consistently overcharged for things.  I had fun haggling with people selling things, because at the end we could agree on a price and part ways smiling.  I did not have fun haggling with autorickshaw drivers, who wouldn't budge on their prices and gave nasty leers as I scuttled away.

I had intended to get my wisdom teeth removed.  The wife was an oral surgeon at a government hospital, so she took me to work with her one day. The halls and rooms were packed with people in various stages of medical distress.  I pushed along after her to (and through) the dental department.  I listened to a lady suck in air painfully around her tooth.  I saw a girl about my age bring in her grandfather, who had a 10-year-old injury that left him with a broken lower jaw and only 4 teeth in his whole mouth (the front top ones), to get dentures, because he hadn't been able to eat solid food in the past 10 years.  I had normal x-rays taken, then I went across the street for a panoramic x-ray of my whole mouth, and one of my skull where I had to lie face-down on a table.  There were signs all over the place informing people that the x-ray clinic would not tell expectant mothers if they had a girl or a boy, because this was against the law.  Then I went back to the hospital.  The main oral surgeon wrote me a prescription for pain medicine if I wanted it, but said since it's really my second molars, not my wisdom teeth, and they're all up in my sinuses but not erupted in my mouth, I should just wait.  I was a little put-out over this, but I was then sent to a little room to wait for the wife to finish up.  It was a tiny, dingy, cluttered room.  I sat on one side of a junky table.  On the other side, a young man sat in a plastic chair with his mouth open.  A hygienist lit some alcohol-soaked cotton on fire in a dirty steel kidney pan, and repeatedly stuck the tip of her crusty steel dental stick into the flame, into a pile of white powder on a newspaper, and then into the guy's molars.  I watched in horror as he got his fillings put in, and now and people passed outside, now and then looking in.  I was so glad when the driver came to pick us up, and had no more desire to have any medical procedures done in India.

I was due to fly out of Delhi at 7:15 or so in the morning on my last day.  Unfortunately, the man who ran the homestay didn't get his hustle on that morning, so I was... maybe two minutes late for check in.  I could have run and caught the plane easily, but the people at the counter wouldn't give me a boarding pass.  Instead I had to buy a new ticket.  I was FURIOUS.  I had the money, and it wasn't a ridiculous price, but it was still a lot more than I planned to spend that day.  And I STILL had to run to get on the plane.  But instead of flying Delhi-Bangalore-Cochin-Mumbai, I just went straight to Mumbai.  That was fine.  However, since I had to switch terminals and re-check my bag there, I had to go through check-in all over again.  And they wouldn't even let me into the airport until 4 hours before my flight.  There was an outside waiting room (air conditioned), but it cost about $1.25 to get in.  I reluctantly paid, and sat there for 10 HOURS waiting.  Actually the ticket was supposed to be only for 3 hours, but the guard nicely didn't kick anybody out.  The cricket world cup was on TV, so the whole room (the whole airport, in fact) watched that and cheered from time to time.  I read, wrote, did crossword puzzles, and made friends briefly with a Japanese woman.  At last I was allowed into the airport, where I had to go through at least 3 different x-ray checks and 2 interviews about my bags, my trip, my destination, my purpose, all kinds of things...  Security's very strict there.  But even despite all that, it went very smoothly, and people were friendly and helpful.  I LIKE the Mumbai airport and its workers, despite all the trouble I've had there.  I found my gate, bought a snack, and exchanged my remaining rupees for dollars.  On the flight home I watched movies and went bathroom-hopping.  Even if I don't have to go, it's nice to be secluded in a lit area for a few minutes.  In New York I found that I had been moved to an earlier flight.  I got some hummus and dry bread slices for breakfast, and finally got on the plane.  I called home from the St. Louis airport, then sat  and waited for my mom to come get me.

All in all, I'm glad I went.  I wouldn't go back alone, though.

And my box from Thailand is having its own adventures!  It was too expensive for the school's director to ship (over $200!), but his older brother flew to San Francisco a few days ago, and apparently took my box with him to mail from there, which should be much cheaper.  How nice!  So once again I have hope that it will arrive, and it could be any day now!  Yay!  So full of awesome!!

Since then I've seen a few people, been to some meetings, applied to some jobs, and generally fallen back into my normal routine.  It's so much easier to be outgoing anywhere but here.  But oh well.  I've been working at the barn for a few days, and I have more coming up, though some days are canceled due to no one signing up.  I'm the summer assistant director again this year, and I move in for the summer in... 18 days!  I have to admit I wasn't very excited about that for a long time, but I'm getting into the spirit now.  I'm mostly packed, and I have a lot of things planned and ready.  I've been planting seeds and plants.  I got 2 succulents from a pet store (for the price of one, because one had just sprouted up in the pot next to the other) that are now in a brandy glass and a honey jar on my windowsill.  I have cilantro sprouting up well, that I've already started eating just to thin it out a bit.  My basil from last year is flowering now, and I've been eating that, too.  And I have tomato and banana pepper seeds that I'm thinking of planting somewhere with more space.

Mr. S is doing well.  He's started eating again, after his annual spring hunger strike.  He's ready for camp, too.  My mom managed to kill off my khuli loach, and then LEFT it for me, dead and dry in a dish on my windowsill.  NOT appreciated!!!  So all that's left in my fish tank is a bunch of little snails and the toughest amano shrimp in the world.  I like him, and I'm taking care of him, but I'm kind of ready to not have a fish tank anymore.

I'm sure many other things have been happening, but really, that just about covers the big things.
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