Was that a Monkey! WOW!

Well here in Nagpur, India. Monkey sitieings are pretty common, and for the American Blonde this is very amusieing! Yesterday i was walking with Chloe, my friend from Wisconsin, down the road to the main part of town, and on the way A HUGE MONKEY! jumps right in front of us! It was HUGE, about the size of Geoffrey around two years ago (5 foot somthing, and 100 pounds!). I was so amazed and imideatally shouted MONKEY! and i know it is rude but pointed right at it! It was just so cool, and as for the pointing bit i am sure a monkey would love to be noticed! But i ended up pointing right at this maid who was walking down the street and the monkey was behind her, and so i shouted BANDER (the hindi word for monkey) and she was so confused, i felt a bit sorry, but still seeing a monkey on a mid afternoon walk is pretty sweet. It is somewhat like a midwesterner spoting a deer on the drive to school. Which is no big deal to a local. But if an Indian spoted a deer on a drive home they would react the same way as me seeing a monkey. Hypothetically if you came to India and saw a deer and well good ole Bambi saw you in the driver seat and hit you, well this would not be a good thing. Just as if you saw a monkey attack your car and it accidentally died in USA. Well if you hit a deer in India, you would end up in a three year jail sentance making tea cozies for rich families to give relatives for the next halmark holiday! It is pretty crazy, that is all I have to say.

So I am In Nagpur, India. A city about 700km (i think?) away from where i stay in Pune. Nagpur is several things for sure. It is much smaller, Much quiter, and MUCH MORE TRADITIONAL! There are no Mcdonalds in sight, along with no pizza places, and very few places that serve meat. People live the way that Pune did 10 years ago. Slowly and with no reguard for just about anyting (such as monkies) It took me around 17 hours on a bus to get here. Bus was not so bad, i thought it would be much worse with all the government bus experinces i have with the Rotary traveling. Not only did this bus have push back seats, it gave you blankets and pillows and had AC! Which was a big treat! I did not have to stick my head out the window for the whole ride or sit next to some creepy Indian guy asking me four hundred times which country i hail from. It was quite nice, they even showed Om Shanti Om, which would be about the 15 time in the past two months i have seen that film, and i still love it!

New Observations of a New City.
There are almost no white people here. Which is diffrent Pune has the tourist aspect to it so we have the westernized side with white people. Here there are only the five exchange students, who everyone knows. It is very strange and also a bit nervy. Because you will be walking across the street and everyone from Grandma in her car to Mr. Thinks he is a God because he has made it to 22 and not yet married, will stare right at you and normally swerve to almost hit you but then realize they are going to hit a white person and back off. Or you just get an amazing array of catcalls, which is annoying.

Power is scace. Power goes out often and almost everyday. Power which is genareted half way between Nagpur and Mumbai if there is a shortage (which is almost always) will always get sent to either Mumbai or Pune, not Nagpur. Generators are everywhere, but often fail, and are noisy!

Internet is done at internet cafes, that is where i am chilling now. Going to an internet cafe is one of the few things that the Nagpur kids have to do for fun. Internet cafes can be a diffrent experince I was in one for the first time in Nagpur and i sit down get a computer and the guy next to me was laughing up a storm and then yelling into his mobile. And the nutty Indian girls next to me where transcribeing their text books.

Students in Nagpur care much more about school. Julia one of the girls here joined a football club (soccar) for girls. She played one game and got really pumped, and then was asking the girls on the team for practices, they told here something that Americans would flat out laugh at. "Well we have exams coming up, so there probally will not be anymore for a time." "When are Exams," Julia asked. "Starting Feb. 26 and then through March." We have had a couple of students claim the study over 20 hours a day. Which i find rediclious (i will after my medical wonders of India blog entry, write an education of India blog, lets just say India and Education, makes me laugh these days when they brag they have the best education in the world). Why should anyone study for 20 hours, I will never know, but apperentally it is not the key to sucess, in my own personal openion. It is the path to a mental house and an early marriage.

Real Rickshaws are way sweet! I have been rideing around in real rickshaws, when i convince everyone else that they are cool! Real Rickshaws are the bicycle man powered rickshaws, they take forever and the seats are normally pretty small, so you can bearly squeeze two american girls (though we have all lost weight, we are still not very tiny) into the tiny seat. We did squeeze three into on, on Christmas Eve, it was very amuseing!

Christmas!
Yes we did have Christmas! All the exchnage students gathered at Adia (from Minnestoa)'s house. We had an early morning present opening party, and shopped for gifts the day before, Chrsitmas Eve. We spent both days dipping in sweat cuz it was around 95 outside! We made pancakes for Chloes family Christmas morning, and convinced her host father that Hawaian Punch is a christmas drink. (hehe) Her host mother on the other hand took one look and the pancakes and said she was fasting....

Well that is all for now, i have more Nagpur Stories (specifically one about Pasta Salad...) But my internet time is up and the power will probally go out in about 10 minutes anyways!

Best New Years Wishes to Everyone!