Thursday, July 20 Hindi final, party in Dev Dar

The Hindi final was today. Worst/best day of my life. There was an oral part, in which it’s one-on-one and you would say the answer and Joshi would correct you until you got it right. Then came the chai break and the written part of the exam. The written part was pretty hard, but cheating was rampant, as we were allowed to do it anywhere and Mariel, Kim, and I cheated off each other. I’m convinced the teachers wanted us to cheat; they’d give us hints, etc. I actually think the exam didn’t even count. They asked us to bring our homework and quizzes so they could check them off, and they didn’t even look at them. Welcome to the world of Indian education. That kind of made me angry because I studied really hard for this test, and people like ---- (who one of his group members called “one of the dumbest people I have ever met” and doesn’t know any Hindi) just copy off Hindi speakers and get the same A as them. Plus it’s suspicious if you’re an idiot and turn in a perfect test. But I hastily finished and ran out of that place. Never again will I have to study here! After that I went to Chardukan and ate a pancake and Ramen, and sat and talked to Mariel and Kim for five hours straight. Then we all went downtown to eat. On the way I got a haircut, which is an experience. It took an hour. They start out by cutting your hair (and I told them to only cut a little off, but they took massive chunks out, so I just told them to do the whole thing). They have no electric cutters, it’s all single-blade razors like they use in the military. They shave you, and it’s such a close shave, I don’t know how they do it, especially without cutting the patron. If I was a barber it would look like someone had been attacked by leeches. These barbers’ fathers and grandfathers have all been barbers, so they know what’s up. Then they shampoo your hair, but you’re face-down in the sink (that smells like sewage) and they use cold water. Then I wanted them to dry my hair, but I guess they don’t use towels because “dry” means barber massaging my head for a good 15 minutes. It was pretty good, except that they hit your head really hard and squeeze your shoulders, it’s painful. When I was done I looked like a schoolboy, with a part and greased hair. I ate with the others at Kalsang, the Tibetan restaurant. Then we sat in Four Seasons for a while and I got ice cream and mocktails, while the others got drunk (I hate being sick!) After a couple hours we went home via cab, where Kelsey was extremely awkward and wasted, telling us that she loves everything and eventually made out with Kim in front of everyone. Then we started a Dev Dar dance party, but Santa Cruz people were in charge of the music. They are all complete idiots and were blitzed out of their minds. And they criticized me for playing Eighties when they chose to play Rage Against The Machine. It was fun, but really weird. I’ve learned that everyone else is pretty much on the same page…except the Santa Cruz people. They are really weird, and just plain dumb. I can’t even carry on a conversation with them sometimes. They’re all too drugged out and I hypothesize that they can’t sense our humor because they’re too dumb. Honestly though. Kim and Ro were drunkenly going to hook up, and Maia heard them, and asked if she could join in. What?!