June 25, First day in Mussoorie

I woke up because there were loud crashing noises on the ceiling of the building. So I went outside to see what was causing the noise. Turns out there were four monkeys fighting. And by monkeys I mean like human-size half-apes. And by fighting I mean hitting each other and having sex. I decided to take a shower without realizing that the hot water doesn’t work in our room, so it was frigid. And there is no lip, so the entire bathroom floor just gets soaked. Breakfast was nothing to write about…which is why I’m wasting space saying this, right. Vijay our guide took us on a walking tour of Mussoorie, a.k.a. him not telling us we were going the wrong way until we had already walked that way for a good fifteen minutes. This time of year is the peak tourism season, so there are a lot of “weird people” he says. There were a lot of specialty shops, like the egg store (with crates upon crates of eggs), the mutton shop (always needed in any town?), general stores, vegetable stands (useless to me thanks to water contamination), tailors, phone and internet “surfing zones”, Tibetan handicraft and textile shops, clothing stores, and restaurants. I bought two pairs of acid-washed totally Indian FOB jeans, underwear (tight and small, but they don’t sell anything else, when in India...?), and a pair of khakis (that word is Indian woot-woot). Then I walked back. However, it was like an hour-long hot and sweaty walk, which turned into a really soaking wet one once the monsoon hit all of a sudden. There were rivers flowing down the streets while we waited under an awning. To make matters worse, three taxis filled with EAP students passed us without stopping! Then we walked back and had lunch with my now see-through shirt. We had an orientation at the church/language school, where the principal (a small Indian bearded man) explained the program. I was really expecting a priest to walk in, and I’m glad to know that UC is paying money for us to study in a CHURCH. The principal was funny. We have 48 students, and 10 groups, so he said “that leaves 4.8 students per group”. He also goes, “The Canadian priest started this school. He was a scholar and wanted the best for this church. If you want to see him, his grave is out back”. And also, he goes, “70% of India’s water is contaminated, so don’t try and be adventurous. This could ruin your vacation and your peace”. In other words, this guy is a baller. We got our Introductory Hindi textbooks and 3rd grade notebooks with random pictures of phones/microchips/windmills, and flowers on the cover. I was walking to my cottage and this random cow climbed up the cliff, walked about five feet across and jumped off and started jumping and kicking its legs and following me kicking. Mad cow disease! Apparently we have four hours of class every morning with a 30-minute tea break (what are with these tea breaks), and two hours of homework every day. I thought I was done with school...it’s summer! Plus, Hindi is hard. The writing is a line with curly q’s coming down and they talk so fast, there is no hope.