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Day 5

It's the beginning of Day 6. Yesterday Andrew and I took it easy. We walked down to the cafe to see if there was internet (there wasn't) then had lunch, then went to buy cell phones! So now we have cell phones. Unfortunately I have no idea how to people from the US can call them. The parents figured it out but it is very confusing. For the phone it was about 1600 Rs which is $40. Then you put money onto it. It's about 7 Rs a minute to call the US, which goes by very quickly. I've already used half of the 400 Rs I put on it! While we were walking to the Cafe Barista down the street something weird happened. A very well dressed young guy (about 16) was walking near us. He was very clean and well dressed. Here's the convo: Guy: Where are you from? Us: The U.S., California. Guy: Ahh... Welcome to India. How long have you been here? Us: Three days. Guy: Well double welcome to India! I'm a student here and I'm on vacation so I like to walk around these parts. Where are you headed? Us: The cafe. Guy: Ok, good luck. Andrew and I were really shocked. It was the first person on the street who didn't offer to sell us anything. Then we went to the cafe. The national bank was across the street so after we found out it didn't have internet, we Andrew wanted to go there to get some bigger bills exchanged into smaller bills. As we were walking to the bank, a very well dressed boy approached us (about 16 years old). Conversation: Guy: Where are you from? Us: The U.S., California. Guy: Ahh... Welcome to India. How long have you been here? Us: Three days. Guy: Well double welcome to India! I'm a student here and I'm on vacation so I like to walk around these parts. Where are you headed? Us: The bank. Guy: Yes, this is the government part of town. The tourist part of India is north, you should go up there, there are better shops. Good luck, bye. It was the freakest deja-vu I've ever had in my life. They were both dressed so well, and didn't try to take us anywhere, but it was the exact conversation. Andrew thinks that maybe they are paid on commission, and after they found out that we knew where we wanted to go, they didn't want to waste their time trying to take us somewhere. Today we are going to look at more apartments for when we get back to Delhi. So far I haven't been impressed, but hopefully today we'll see some better ones. Everything here is always late. Dinner is supposed to be served at 7:00 and is usually not served until 7:45. The realtor for the apartment was supposed to be here half an hour ago. Everything is on "India time." But we have gotten used to it. Everybody has been joking that we'll get back the states and still be on India time and be late for everything. Hopefully not =). *EDIT* PS- I am getting everyone's comments and I REALLY appreciate them. I want to be able to respond to all of them, but I have to pay by the minute for this internet and it is really slow. So I will start to repsond to individual comments once I get faster/cheaper internet access. But don't think I don't see them/love them. I really miss everybody and the comments really help me out! Okay, now before I get to emotional... just keep the comments coming!

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