Here is the entry I wrote a couple days ago but couldn't upload: It's been awhile since I have used the internet. Andrew and I ran out of cash and the ATM in Mussoorie was also out of money, hence no money for internet. There hasn't been much going on here. We only have one more week left of language instruction! We'll have class Mon-Wed, then review on Thursday, then a exam on Friday. The final is pretty intimidating; it's going to be written grammar, oral pronunciation, oral comprehension, and reading comprehension. It's also worth 80% of our grade... Andrew is doing really well on all of his quizzes up until now, but it's a bit harder for me. I picked up my shirts from the tailor on Thursday. The total for each shirt was 160 Rs, about $4, 100 Rs for the material and 60 Rs for the tailoring. I like them a lot, they fit well. I'm going to go back and have him make a bunch more shirts. The tailor that I went to is the brother of one of my teachers, and is really nice. I'd rather give my business to him then a random tailor in Delhi, so I'm planning on getting enough outfits to last me for awhile. There is a spot on the green shirt because I just had breakfast and spilt water down my front. I guess some things don't change =). The other shirt (the dark blue one with gold border) I bought in Delhi but it didn't fit well (and didn't have sleeves) so I had he tailor it and put sleeves on it. Sometimes when you travel around in India you have be careful about sleeveless shirts. Goldie wore a sleeveless shirt to Rishikesh and she felt that a lot of people were looking at her because of it. The bag I'm holding in that picture I bought from this women who came to the language school at break. She's part of an NGO called SHRAM-Self Help-Recycling, Altering and Manufacturing-Group. They go around and take all the scraps from all the tailors that they would throw away and make them into bags, scarves, coasters, and anything else they can think of. They even take plastic bags (that are seen all along the mountainside) and put them in between the two layers of fabric so that it is semi-waterproof. I had been looking for another bag, and it was a good deal (175 Rs), so I got it. She kind of reminded me of myself trying to sell my Christmas ornaments. She was a real entrepreneur, and a very good salesman. I think she sold almost everything she brought to the school. If you're interested she has an e-mail at piyusha4@gmail.com. There hasn't been much going on here, just going to school. Almost everyday now at the school the electricity goes out. Although in The States they would stop teaching, here they just get out the candles and keep going. It's pretty surreal trying to learn Hindi in the Himalayas, in a dark candle lit room, while it's pouring rain outside. The electricity usually comes back within 10 minutes. Most people are ready to get out of the mountains. It's pretty hard up here, with little running water, limited food, limited purified water, and no heaters. Also there are "critters" everywhere. One of our friends had an experience. She was about to go to bed, and felt a small itch on her back. She felt her back, and then looked at her hand. It was covered in blood. She had had a leech and not even known it. Of course there was no running water so she couldn't wash off her hands or her back. So she wiped it up with some "wet ones" and went to bed. A lot of people get leeches up here. One guy returned from a walk and had seven on his ankles, and he was wearing socks and jeans! Andrew and I haven't gotten any yet, and frankly I don't think I want to. They sound gross and messy. Another girl had an experience with the critters up here. She went on the hike last weekend and on the second night her ear started to feel funny. She said it felt like there was too much pressure, or if she had gotten a lot of water in it. She thought it would go away after coming back from the hike, but on the car ride home it still felt odd. Then she tried a Q-Tip and everything. Then she was sitting next to her friend and her friend started to scream. A medium sized spider crawled out of the girl's ear. She took a picture of it. Then she went to the doctor to make sure that having a spider in your ear for 24 hours wasn't too bad for her ear. The doctor was surprised at the story. Not because a spider had crawled into somebody's ear, that's common, that the spider actually survived. Apparently they extract a lot of dead spiders from people's ears here. There are also a lot of stray dogs up here. There is no organized pound or neutering service, so they just roam around as they want. There is one dog that has taken particular liking to our group. Everyday she sleeps under the over hang of our hostel. Then she waits for us to go to school and walks us to school. Then she waits outside the school until noon and walks us back to the hostel. Lots of people feed her food, one girl even went to town and bought her dog food. Some people say we shouldn't feed her because once we leave, she'll think she can come back here for food and probably just be beaten. But for now I like to think she's our guardian angel. She has already scared off two monkeys just for me, so I like to have her along. But I don't touch her like the others do; the teachers say she is probably full of leeches. She's a pretty cute dog. She's a yellow lab mut mix. The first day of Hindi class we learned the word for yellow, "Pilli", so that became her name. I'll try to take a picture of her before we leave. Well like I said, there is not much going on up here. We're excited to return to Delhi where we'll have running water all the time, and have a lot more freedom to eat what we want and with our schedules. We already saw that McDonalds delivers... their number is 1.800.066.0666. I don't know what's funnier: that McDonalds delivers, or that their take-out number ends in "666". *Since then* We have our Hindi final on Friday. I was studying this weekend and for some reason I decided to open up the "Hindi Phrasebook" that my aunt Jeannie bought me. It has so much information in there! I don't know why I didn't use it before. There are charts of all the words and things that explain things a lot better than our Hindi book. Our Hindi book is based off of inductive grammer. So each chapter just has a "dialogue" in Hindi then you are supposed to figure out what grammer lessons they are trying to teach you. So there are no charts or simple rules for Hindi. But this little phrase book has it all! So I just wanted to add a note to say thank you again Jeannie for the book, it has proven very useful! Also, here are some photos of me in my shirts! I'm going to go get more today. Sorry, no other pictures, we haven't been going many places lately, just studying.
Here is the entry I wrote a couple days ago but couldn't upload: It's been awhile since I have used the internet. Andrew and I ran out of cash and the ATM in Mussoorie was also out of money, hence no money for internet. There hasn't been much going on here. We only have one more week left of language instruction! We'll have class Mon-Wed, then review on Thursday, then a exam on Friday. The final is pretty intimidating; it's going to be written grammar, oral pronunciation, oral comprehension, and reading comprehension. It's also worth 80% of our grade... Andrew is doing really well on all of his quizzes up until now, but it's a bit harder for me. I picked up my shirts from the tailor on Thursday. The total for each shirt was 160 Rs, about $4, 100 Rs for the material and 60 Rs for the tailoring. I like them a lot, they fit well. I'm going to go back and have him make a bunch more shirts. The tailor that I went to is the brother of one of my teachers, and is really nice. I'd rather give my business to him then a random tailor in Delhi, so I'm planning on getting enough outfits to last me for awhile. There is a spot on the green shirt because I just had breakfast and spilt water down my front. I guess some things don't change =). The other shirt (the dark blue one with gold border) I bought in Delhi but it didn't fit well (and didn't have sleeves) so I had he tailor it and put sleeves on it. Sometimes when you travel around in India you have be careful about sleeveless shirts. Goldie wore a sleeveless shirt to Rishikesh and she felt that a lot of people were looking at her because of it. The bag I'm holding in that picture I bought from this women who came to the language school at break. She's part of an NGO called SHRAM-Self Help-Recycling, Altering and Manufacturing-Group. They go around and take all the scraps from all the tailors that they would throw away and make them into bags, scarves, coasters, and anything else they can think of. They even take plastic bags (that are seen all along the mountainside) and put them in between the two layers of fabric so that it is semi-waterproof. I had been looking for another bag, and it was a good deal (175 Rs), so I got it. She kind of reminded me of myself trying to sell my Christmas ornaments. She was a real entrepreneur, and a very good salesman. I think she sold almost everything she brought to the school. If you're interested she has an e-mail at piyusha4@gmail.com. There hasn't been much going on here, just going to school. Almost everyday now at the school the electricity goes out. Although in The States they would stop teaching, here they just get out the candles and keep going. It's pretty surreal trying to learn Hindi in the Himalayas, in a dark candle lit room, while it's pouring rain outside. The electricity usually comes back within 10 minutes. Most people are ready to get out of the mountains. It's pretty hard up here, with little running water, limited food, limited purified water, and no heaters. Also there are "critters" everywhere. One of our friends had an experience. She was about to go to bed, and felt a small itch on her back. She felt her back, and then looked at her hand. It was covered in blood. She had had a leech and not even known it. Of course there was no running water so she couldn't wash off her hands or her back. So she wiped it up with some "wet ones" and went to bed. A lot of people get leeches up here. One guy returned from a walk and had seven on his ankles, and he was wearing socks and jeans! Andrew and I haven't gotten any yet, and frankly I don't think I want to. They sound gross and messy. Another girl had an experience with the critters up here. She went on the hike last weekend and on the second night her ear started to feel funny. She said it felt like there was too much pressure, or if she had gotten a lot of water in it. She thought it would go away after coming back from the hike, but on the car ride home it still felt odd. Then she tried a Q-Tip and everything. Then she was sitting next to her friend and her friend started to scream. A medium sized spider crawled out of the girl's ear. She took a picture of it. Then she went to the doctor to make sure that having a spider in your ear for 24 hours wasn't too bad for her ear. The doctor was surprised at the story. Not because a spider had crawled into somebody's ear, that's common, that the spider actually survived. Apparently they extract a lot of dead spiders from people's ears here. There are also a lot of stray dogs up here. There is no organized pound or neutering service, so they just roam around as they want. There is one dog that has taken particular liking to our group. Everyday she sleeps under the over hang of our hostel. Then she waits for us to go to school and walks us to school. Then she waits outside the school until noon and walks us back to the hostel. Lots of people feed her food, one girl even went to town and bought her dog food. Some people say we shouldn't feed her because once we leave, she'll think she can come back here for food and probably just be beaten. But for now I like to think she's our guardian angel. She has already scared off two monkeys just for me, so I like to have her along. But I don't touch her like the others do; the teachers say she is probably full of leeches. She's a pretty cute dog. She's a yellow lab mut mix. The first day of Hindi class we learned the word for yellow, "Pilli", so that became her name. I'll try to take a picture of her before we leave. Well like I said, there is not much going on up here. We're excited to return to Delhi where we'll have running water all the time, and have a lot more freedom to eat what we want and with our schedules. We already saw that McDonalds delivers... their number is 1.800.066.0666. I don't know what's funnier: that McDonalds delivers, or that their take-out number ends in "666". *Since then* We have our Hindi final on Friday. I was studying this weekend and for some reason I decided to open up the "Hindi Phrasebook" that my aunt Jeannie bought me. It has so much information in there! I don't know why I didn't use it before. There are charts of all the words and things that explain things a lot better than our Hindi book. Our Hindi book is based off of inductive grammer. So each chapter just has a "dialogue" in Hindi then you are supposed to figure out what grammer lessons they are trying to teach you. So there are no charts or simple rules for Hindi. But this little phrase book has it all! So I just wanted to add a note to say thank you again Jeannie for the book, it has proven very useful! Also, here are some photos of me in my shirts! I'm going to go get more today. Sorry, no other pictures, we haven't been going many places lately, just studying.
Comments
Post a Comment