Stories and Anecdotes v2

Things are becoming, dare I say it, normal over here. Things like paying $1 for a full meal are becoming expected, or trying to finding drinkable water wherever you go has become like second nature to me at this point. I’ll be a real Indian by the time I leave. Here are some more stories/observations:

· I had my first encounter with true Indian street food the other day. The family I’m staying with decided that they would drive me and Karan around the city one night to show us what many other Indians do regularly. We hopped in the car (air conditioned, man was that nice) and went off through the city. Our first stop was pani puri, which are nothing like anything in the US. The only way I can describe it are little egg-shaped balls of breading. The server lays out a bowl for each of us, then just starts putting holes in the eggs, plopping in different Indian paste-like mixtures, and then dipping the whole thing in flavored water (not tap water, don’t worry). He does this all in about 2 seconds, and then plops it in your bowl and starts the next one for the person beside you. Just as you’ve managed to swallow the first, he has another one in your bowl. Continue this speed-eating for about a dozen more pani-puri each, and finally we managed to tell him that we’ve had enough. My mouth was on fire, so we went and got the Indian version of a snow cone. This was a bit of a letdown, but helped my burning mouth at least.

· Mangos, they are everywhere. There’s a huge mango tree right outside of our house, and you can go outside, pick up mangos that have just fallen, and then go inside and eat them (that is if you can get them before the cows do). You could never get mangos this fresh in the US, that’s for sure.

· I’ve seen two movies since I’ve been here, Pirates of the Caribbean 4, and Hangover 2. Words cannot describe how refreshing a 2 hour respite in A/C is after a full day of 110 degree heat. The theaters here are really nice, with nice seats and big stadium-seating styles. I pay about 150 rupees (like $3.40) which is expensive comparatively, but the facilities are definitely worth it. Indians here are much different movie-goers than Americans, and they laugh at the strangest things. I guess they like slapstick humor more than us, but things that me, Karan and Rachel found hilarious didn’t even illicit a single laugh from the rest of the theater, yet when there’s a monkey doing something silly on the screen, you can bet the Indians are cracking up. They also talk to each other really loudly or whistle/clap/scream at the funny parts.

· The heat here is unbearable, but luckily, there is much less humidity than the rest of India. Everyone that we were talking to before we came to Baroda said something along the lines of, “Baroda, oh my it’s hot there.” It might just be literally one of the hottest places on the planet. Never will I complain about the “hot” 90 degree North Carolina summers. You sweat all the time as well, and you must get past this very quickly if you want to maintain your sanity here. I have to just accept that 30 seconds after my cold shower I’ll be sweating again, and that the next time I won’t be sweaty is the next day directly after my shower.