So I have finally figured out the trick to this whole updating thing. Write them BEFORE I get to the internet cafe in a word document, then I don't have to pay for the time that I'm writing... duh. So right now I am sitting in my friend's room (where she has an outlet to plug my computer in) and pre-writing this post. (By the way Dad, the converters work great. A lot of other people here bought converters in the states and the first time they tried to use them here they sparked and died.) Our week here in Mussoorie has been spent mostly going to school and studying. Our days go something like this. We wake around 7. Have breakfast around 7:30 (usually toast with peanut butter, chai, and porridge). School starts at 8:20. They divided us up in to groups of 6 and we have four classes that are about 50 minutes each. This way we get to switch teachers and have little breaks. From 10-10:30 we have a break for chai and cookies. We get out of school around 12:10. By then I'm exhausted, the Hindi learning is really intense. Hindi grammar is structured: subject, object, verb. So "I am learning Hindi" in Hindi would be "I Hindi learning am"--which is confusing. Plus the devangari script (what Hindi is written in) is very odd and has no similarity to roman letters (they have four different "t" sounds and four different "d" sounds). After school we come back to the hostel for lunch, take a nap, and then study. Around 4:30 its chai time, then we study more. Then 7:30-8ish is dinner. Dinners at the hostel are different everyday. Last night was mashed potatoes, peas and carrots, and tomato soup. The night before was pasta, the night before Chinese, the night before Pizza. We go to bed around 9, exhausted. Mussoorie is obviously very beautiful. I guess the only downsides of this place are that the lunches at the hostel are the same thing everyday (some rice and yellow goopy stuff) and they are not appetizing. Today Andrew and I broke the routine and went down into the town to get lunch instead of going back to the hostel. We had cheese and tomato pizza (which was super yummy and only 80 Rs, about $2!). The other bad thing is that because we are so high up (about 7,000 ft) we are basically in the clouds, so although the views are beautiful, you can very rarely see them. Usually you can only see about 200 ft. around you and then it becomes a white misty fog. But the clouds move very quickly and can clear in less than 10 minutes. The mist also keeps everything really damp all the time. Remember how our luggage was strapped to the top of the car? That was on Saturday, and most of that stuff is still wet. It takes about a week to dry out a shirt that is hanging in the window. All the sheets and all your clothes (even the dry ones) are constantly damp. It gets pretty aggravating after awhile. Andrew and I have just been sleeping in our sleeping bags because the feeling of the damp sheets is gross. Probably the worst thing is that there is a huge water shortage here. For a place that has a lot of rainfall, they can't seem to get water into the pipes, and it's never warm water. We take "showers" only every other day if we are lucky. The water pressure isn't enough to get up to the shower head, so instead you fill a bucket out of a tap and then use your hands to splash yourself with the freezing cold water. They call it a "bucket shower". Needless to say, my hair is going crazy. But at least it's not hot here so I don't need to take a shower everyday (like in Delhi). I can usually get maybe like 10 cups of water out of the tap before it runs out. And that sucks because then ALL the water in the bathroom runs out-our sink and toilet too. Each little cottage has its own tank so it's not like other people are using it before us or anything, we just don't get that much. In order to get a hot shower, we are going on a trip this weekend. Plus, there is not much to do in Mussoorie except for study, and frankly I need a break. So tomorrow (Friday), Andrew and I, with two other girls, have a taxi that is going to pick us up at 1 after school and we are going to Rishkesh , a town that is about 2 hours down the mountain and it's the place where the Beatles stayed when they came to India. We will stay Friday night in Rishkesh, and then Saturday afternoon we will take a taxi to Hardiwar (about 30 min away from Rishkesh) which is the place where the Ganges officially drops out of the Himalayas. We will spend Saturday night in Hardiwar, then Sunday come back to Mussoorie. I'm really excited. We already booked the hotels (which are guaranteed to have hot showers). The two girls that we are going with are Summer and Goldy. Summer is a senior at UC Berkeley, and backpacked through India for two months four years ago all by herself! And Goldy goes to Davis and is the same year as us. She is also fluent in Hindi. So I figured if we had to pick two other people to go with, these two girls are the best to go with. Plus they're fun. Other people are also planning on going to these towns, but it's easier if we go in smaller groups (because taxis can only take four people in one). I don't know how much we'll be able to update this weekend. I think the Lonely Planet guide says that one of the places has an internet café, but I don't want to take my computer so it will be a text-only update from one of their computers. This post is really long because I got to pre-type it. I guess that's the way to go. Hope all is well with you guys.
So I have finally figured out the trick to this whole updating thing. Write them BEFORE I get to the internet cafe in a word document, then I don't have to pay for the time that I'm writing... duh. So right now I am sitting in my friend's room (where she has an outlet to plug my computer in) and pre-writing this post. (By the way Dad, the converters work great. A lot of other people here bought converters in the states and the first time they tried to use them here they sparked and died.) Our week here in Mussoorie has been spent mostly going to school and studying. Our days go something like this. We wake around 7. Have breakfast around 7:30 (usually toast with peanut butter, chai, and porridge). School starts at 8:20. They divided us up in to groups of 6 and we have four classes that are about 50 minutes each. This way we get to switch teachers and have little breaks. From 10-10:30 we have a break for chai and cookies. We get out of school around 12:10. By then I'm exhausted, the Hindi learning is really intense. Hindi grammar is structured: subject, object, verb. So "I am learning Hindi" in Hindi would be "I Hindi learning am"--which is confusing. Plus the devangari script (what Hindi is written in) is very odd and has no similarity to roman letters (they have four different "t" sounds and four different "d" sounds). After school we come back to the hostel for lunch, take a nap, and then study. Around 4:30 its chai time, then we study more. Then 7:30-8ish is dinner. Dinners at the hostel are different everyday. Last night was mashed potatoes, peas and carrots, and tomato soup. The night before was pasta, the night before Chinese, the night before Pizza. We go to bed around 9, exhausted. Mussoorie is obviously very beautiful. I guess the only downsides of this place are that the lunches at the hostel are the same thing everyday (some rice and yellow goopy stuff) and they are not appetizing. Today Andrew and I broke the routine and went down into the town to get lunch instead of going back to the hostel. We had cheese and tomato pizza (which was super yummy and only 80 Rs, about $2!). The other bad thing is that because we are so high up (about 7,000 ft) we are basically in the clouds, so although the views are beautiful, you can very rarely see them. Usually you can only see about 200 ft. around you and then it becomes a white misty fog. But the clouds move very quickly and can clear in less than 10 minutes. The mist also keeps everything really damp all the time. Remember how our luggage was strapped to the top of the car? That was on Saturday, and most of that stuff is still wet. It takes about a week to dry out a shirt that is hanging in the window. All the sheets and all your clothes (even the dry ones) are constantly damp. It gets pretty aggravating after awhile. Andrew and I have just been sleeping in our sleeping bags because the feeling of the damp sheets is gross. Probably the worst thing is that there is a huge water shortage here. For a place that has a lot of rainfall, they can't seem to get water into the pipes, and it's never warm water. We take "showers" only every other day if we are lucky. The water pressure isn't enough to get up to the shower head, so instead you fill a bucket out of a tap and then use your hands to splash yourself with the freezing cold water. They call it a "bucket shower". Needless to say, my hair is going crazy. But at least it's not hot here so I don't need to take a shower everyday (like in Delhi). I can usually get maybe like 10 cups of water out of the tap before it runs out. And that sucks because then ALL the water in the bathroom runs out-our sink and toilet too. Each little cottage has its own tank so it's not like other people are using it before us or anything, we just don't get that much. In order to get a hot shower, we are going on a trip this weekend. Plus, there is not much to do in Mussoorie except for study, and frankly I need a break. So tomorrow (Friday), Andrew and I, with two other girls, have a taxi that is going to pick us up at 1 after school and we are going to Rishkesh , a town that is about 2 hours down the mountain and it's the place where the Beatles stayed when they came to India. We will stay Friday night in Rishkesh, and then Saturday afternoon we will take a taxi to Hardiwar (about 30 min away from Rishkesh) which is the place where the Ganges officially drops out of the Himalayas. We will spend Saturday night in Hardiwar, then Sunday come back to Mussoorie. I'm really excited. We already booked the hotels (which are guaranteed to have hot showers). The two girls that we are going with are Summer and Goldy. Summer is a senior at UC Berkeley, and backpacked through India for two months four years ago all by herself! And Goldy goes to Davis and is the same year as us. She is also fluent in Hindi. So I figured if we had to pick two other people to go with, these two girls are the best to go with. Plus they're fun. Other people are also planning on going to these towns, but it's easier if we go in smaller groups (because taxis can only take four people in one). I don't know how much we'll be able to update this weekend. I think the Lonely Planet guide says that one of the places has an internet café, but I don't want to take my computer so it will be a text-only update from one of their computers. This post is really long because I got to pre-type it. I guess that's the way to go. Hope all is well with you guys.
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