mera juta mai japoni

The days are flying by here in Hindustan. I have yet another cold (arg! India), a product of the 17 hour train ride from Kolkata, I think. But other than that I'm good. Things are winding down at the program center in Delhi. We have one week of finals coming up, and "practica presentations" (we'll be presenting our Bollywood dance which is truly, truly ridiculous) and then it's off to do our Independent Study Projects on November 7th!

I'm getting ready. I'm booking train tickets to Kolkata and from Kolkata to Santiniketan and from Santiniketan to Darjeeling and then back to Kolkata. I got art supplies (expensive, at least by Indian standards) and I'm reading more Tagore than my little brain can wrap around. Sometimes I get these weird feelings that I'm not sure what I'm doing on this project - like I sort of happened upon it and now I'm just doing it and saying, "what the hell." I guess that's the idea. If I kept second guessing myself then I could never commit... and I'm sure this all has some place in the rest of my life, as all experiences usually do.

Message for quasi-brother Walker: Can you please let me know if there are some specific tea houses I should visit in Darjeeling? You and your tea cult must know about this.

But, for now atleast the days are still spent in Delhi. The weather has become much more pleasant - in fact, I was COLD this morning in the rickshaw! Aunty is doing well, she's redoing her uptairs terrace so that guests can stay (she wants me to come with my WHOLE FAMILY - hey family)! She still loves Friends and we eat the best food ever. I will be very, very sad to leave her. It will be a totally different experience in a few weeks when I'm out on my own in gross hostels... but good in a different way, of course.

I'm also already getting panicky about leaving in the sense that I haven't made it to Varanasi or Rajasthan... places I'm dying to go. Although I also want to go to Ladakh and can't do that, so obviously I just need to come back. Right? Right.