Lagging on the blogging already.

Sorry people. Hmm, well this past week has been a busy one. Let me start off by saying- it is really not fun being sick in India. It's not enjoyable period, but then add the India aspect in, and it becomes really interesting. Today, there were five people missing from class (out of 15 total). This includes my roommate, Carly. Poor girl- she was given a mixture of yogurt (plain and strange looking) and rice. It was mixed together, and she was being watched by four members of the family and the cook. Wish I could have been there. I was ill for two days earlier, and ended up throwing up in an Indian toilet after being shown barrels of cow urine used as pesticides on an organic farm. I think the workers got a kick out of seeing my face turn white. Hopefully from here on out, getting sick will not be in my plans.
I have a fun fact: I was in an earthquake last Sunday. Too bad I wasn't aware of it. I guess it was about a 3 on the Richter Scale, and didn't do any damage.
Our class went to a rural area called Shekaweti last week. On the way, the car I was in lost a tire. Umm, that could have been bad, as drivers constanty play 'chicken' on the road at 70mph. whew. Anyways, the town had really amazing architecture and colorful, tiled palaces. The area is known for it's organic farms- hence the cow urine bit earlier. The style is even more conservative than Jaipur, and most women were wearing full burkas.


From Shekaweti, a group of us ventured to Pushkar. It was a beautiful city, free of car horns and beggars (for the most part). However, I was surprised to see so many non-Indian people wondering the streets. I guess many Israelis come there after the army to hang out. It was comforting and disappointing at the same time. I liked having the familiarity of western food (banana pancakes!) and the liberal atmosphere, but found that I enjoy feeling a bit unsure of my surroundings. We stayed at the Pink Floyd hotel, which ruled, and got to relax before a long week ahead.

I have to have my internship preference in by the end of the week. It's looking like Udaipur will be my new location. It's about 7 hours by train from Jaipur. There are two programs there that work with empowering women (mainly single, separated, and widowed) through literacy, and other issue based training. They also work alot with lobbying against child marriages- as Rajasthan has the highest percentage of child marriages in India (49 percent of girls ages 15-19 are married). I'm looking forward to the internship starting in three weeks, and even more excited about Hindi class ending.
I'll try to post more often. The wedding is this Thursday. Me and Carly have our saris laid out with no idea how to put them on.