the "abode of peace"

Hello all! As promised, here are some pictures. The first is, of course, my dear Marmite, the constant companion.

I leave this quiet town tomorrow evening, on a train bound for Darjeeling. If all goes well I will get to ride the Toy Train, which I'm looking forward to.
Today is a holiday for the inhabitants of Santiniketan. In the
tradition of Tagore, this town takes Tuesday and Wednesday off, instead of Saturday and Sunday. Tagore was trying desperately to differentiate his ideal society from all other societies, hence the strange "sabbath days." It is almost painfully quiet here today, but really lovely. I took a walk next to a river and while I was staring off into the distance, meditating on art and nature and being quite "Tagoric" I happened to feel something squish under my shoe. It was, of course, cow poop, and though I tried desperately to remove it from my sandle it's just caked right in. My life in India, a comical experience.

I'm having trouble uploading photos, but here is a photo of the guest house I'm staying in:

It's lovely. Sometimes there are goats and cows that eat the vegetation outside (and you thought deer were bad, mom!). In addition to the cows and the goats, I was standing a food stall the other day and witnessed a HUGE monkey (I mean, the size of a ten year-old child) steal about ten packs of Lays potatoe chips. None of the Indians seem to notice. I laughed and thought it would make a good commercial. Ah, monkeys. As long as they aren't biting anyone they are pretty darn funny.

So, yes. Everything is dandy. I'm going to post some pictures of the countryside too, but not right this minute because the internet is being dumb. I am excited to leave this town, but not because it lacks anything, just because I like being on the move. I get emails often from my dear friends in Delhi, who are all having a great time partying with each other... and sometimes I wish I was there with them... but most of the time I'm thankful for this experience and for this chance to just be immersed in something that is so different than anything I've ever done. It's fun, in a different sort of way.