End of Week 5

I have been having a rough couple of days. It seems like every time I am out walking I am attracting extra attention. Yesterday some guy grabbed at my backpack while I was walking and that really bugged me, then some guy yelled something obscene from his motorbike, and later I had to yell at another guy to leave me alone because he kept calling at me and was starting to follow me. And even if every guy on the street doesn't yell, "madam! madam! Hello!", just about every guy is staring or leering, and that just puts me in a bad mood.

I feel a little guilty. So, on the second day I realized that my malaria pills made me incredibly nauseous for an hour or two after I took them, so I immediately quit taking them. Another intern has been taking them this entire time, but didn't realize that they were why she felt so sick every morning. They had even made her vomit twice. I was like, dude, quit taking those pills. And so she did. And now she might have malaria. I feel terrible--I just hope her fever is caused by the bedbugs she caught during a stay at a nearby guest house (this has not been her week). Or mostly I hope she just feels better really soon.

Today on the bus my driver was singing to himself, and that was really sweet.

It has been so hot this week that the local schools are adjusting their hours to end earlier. I feel like curling up and sleeping until August. I hadn't realized that it had cooled off until just now when it has fired back up. It is almost unbearable this time. It didn't bother me as much at first because I was excited to be in India and experience the new climate, but after six weeks I would really like to be dry for 30 minutes. And not so salty. I'm sweating the prints off of my new Indian shirts! The three days of monsoon were just a cheap trick.

I also never thought this would happen, but I might be ready to branch out from Indian food. It is still delicious, and I enjoy it when I eat it, but I would love some fresh vegetables or fresh fruit, or normal cheese, or milk without sugar. The only salad I eat here is fresh onion and cucumber. I'm starting to miss bland! How crazy is that!

Here are some positives: I am buying kulfi almost every day, I found and then bought some fresh plums this morning, the public transportation system still fills me with excitement and adventure every morning and every night, I love having staring contests with the old, turbaned, sheet-pantsed village men who are on the bus with me, my host family is very accommodating of my napping needs, the other interns are full of other perspectives and help me be more reasonable, and yesterday I made friends at McDonalds with an Indian man who is now a french astronaut and back in India with his french wife to visit his mother . So my life isn't all rain clouds right now! Or maybe hazy dust storms?

Also, here are some pictures that probably should have gone with my last blog entry: Sorry about the layout, I don't have the patience today to make it look great.

My neighbor during the monsoon

Mandore Gardens