I woke up when we neared Delhi on the train. I got all my belongings together. The sun had barely risen when Alix and I emerged from the train and walked like cattle through a sea of humanity outside. Alix was violently yelling at rickshaw drivers and then found out the Metro was closed for 30 minutes. For some reason she refused to wait and I was too scared at this point to argue, so I had to pay for a rickshaw I didn’t want to take. Mildly awkward ride I'd say. I spent a couple hours with photos and journaling on the terrace while the others slept in. Pigeons, hawks, and even a female peacock all flew overhead as the sun was rising. Later it got extremely hot. I unpacked all my things, and took a much needed shower. I wore my t-shirt that says “One Nation Faith Tested Since 1776; The Nation That Prays Together Stays Together”. So extreme that it’s hilarious. I ate lunch at…guess where? Fiesta! And sat at the same table and ordered the same thali. I now just drink their tap water, because in any good restaurant it’ll be safe with Aquaguard. Today the beds came for the girls’ rooms, and so did all the kitchen wares. The AC repair man came to move the AC from the common rooms to the bedrooms. That sucks because I feel that the common rooms will never be used anymore because they’ll get too hot. So basically everyone is going to be locked up in their own rooms and anti-social for the rest of the hot season. I had to help carry the AC unit upstairs. It was all wet and dirty, and there was a wasp nest, too. So currently, there’s a hole in the window in the living room with a horde of wasps flying in and out as they please. So the workers remedied this by taking a stick, putting some kerosene on the end, and lighting them on fire. Now it smells like smoke and it’s an open-door immigration policy for mosquitoes or other bugs. My cell phone tells you your location (much more advanced than in the United States). At home it says “Old Secretariat”, because this area (Civil Lines) was where the British officials set up temporary camps while the capital city, New Delhi, was being built. In the afternoon I had to attend the first class of Hindi. Apparently for Hindi, attendance and giving the teacher ultimate respect is very important. The respect issue is to be expected; the attendance just plain sucks. I really don’t want to have class four days a week. I’m really not coming on Mondays. Moreover, besides the unfortunate scheduling, we probably have the worst group of students that the UC system has to offer. Jocelyn asked how to say “I’m lost”. Do you really use that? How about let’s learn how to say “I’m a lost and vulnerable American tourist. Please rob me and rape me.” She single-handedly made the class go an extra 30 mintues. In addition, Katie (quintessential American prissy ignorant tourist) asked how to say “Stop staring at me” and “I hate this country”. Americans like that embarrass me. The teacher, Dinker’s sister, sounds like she has a really deep voice but is trying to conceal it under a forced high-pitched one. It has potential to drive me crazy. After Hindi I went to dinner at Connaught Place with housemates, to Banana Leaf South Indian restaurant. It was good, and then we went to Baskin & Robbins. We came back and Nikhil and I reorganized the room, so I guess you could say we had a re-orgy. I watched American Wedding with everyone. Next week on August 15, we have a national holiday for Indian Independence Day. In Delhi, the Prime Minister gives a speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort to a huge audience. I want to be there to see it, but if I don’t go it means that I can have a 10-day long break. This motivated me to research airfares. I found the following round-trip: Europe $550, Cairo $550, Dubai $450, Bangkok $350, Singapore $425, India $20-300, and other Asia $500-1000. I want to go to Thailand or Dubai. If I go to Thailand I could easily travel around Southeast Asia. I just want to see the grandeur of Dubai, a completely fabricated oil-money resort, with a 7-star resort island hotel and water park with five miles of water slide. If international travel doesn’t work out, I could always just go to East India to Varanasi, Kolkata, and Khajuraho. But I really don’t have any desire to travel with anyone; I’d rather just go on my own. We’ll see where everyone else is going and then I’m going to decide where to travel. I have to decide soon, though.
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