Almost the end

In Paris, I determined how well I had adjusted to my new culture by how Parisian I looked and how well I blended in. In India…well, let’s just say blending in is not such an option. So instead I’m measuring my adjustment by how well I can walk home in the dark when it’s raining. Tonight proves me a success, as it has been pouring all day and I walked back from the mall, stepping in all the right places, and made it back with only a couple of mud splatters on my yellow pants.

Sorry it’s been so long between blogs. I haven’t done anything terribly exciting like elephant-riding this time, so here’s a brief recap of the past couple weeks.

The weekend before last, I went with my service learning class and several tag-a-longs on a village trip. It was just a couple of hours away, but so different from Bangalore it may as well have been another country. The trip wasn’t what I was expecting, but it was fun nevertheless. My favorite part was playing games with a big group of village children. They were all so cute! The group had great times, too, singing every song we could come up with while hanging on for dear life to the horse trailer for humans that we were riding in.

Last week we had a mehndi (henna) party and I got my palms tattooed this time, as Indians do. They normally get it done before big occasions, like weddings. I also went to the movies with my friends, seeing half of a Tamil movie in incredibly comfortable chairs that recline more than plan seats do! We had to leave in the intermission though to get back to our dorm before our 9:15 curfew. We got to see an hour and a half of it though, and I would like to see it again (with subtitles) to see the whole thing. It was really funny at first because they had a lot of random phrases in English thrown in casually among the Tamil words.

I had a final this afternoon, so now all of my classes are over besides the dance class we started last week. Dance is so much fun! We’re performing in front of who knows how many people on Monday, and I’m going to try to get someone to tape it, so hopefully I can upload the video when I get back home IN A WEEK. I can’t believe I’ve been gone for 6 months. I absolutely love it here, but I’m so ready to be home, even if it’s just for a few days!

Now that class is over, I don’t have much to do besides shop for souvenirs, so I’ll write you one more entry before I head back halfway across the world. Until then…

Kristin