Hey guys,

So I'm really not sure where I left off, but I'll start off by saying that the last few days have been pretty up and down. For the first time, I'm starting to feel homesick. It's interesting that I'm not missing one thing about home, or really, the West in particular, like the food or the clothes. What I miss is a lot less tangible. It's more like I miss how easy life can be at home. For example, not really knowing my way around is getting really frustrating. I have just started to be able to direct autorickshaws how to get to my house, but it is both annoying and disempowering to be somewhere in the city and really have no idea how close I am to home, the program center, or anything really. I know that this will change with time, but it certainly is frustrating right now. I also miss everyone back home, who I can truly be myself around. Not really knowing people here, and not really feeling entirely at ease with my host family, means that I am always a bit more guarded than normal. This can be both tiring, isolating, and confining. I know that I have it much easier than others in the program because my host family is really modern and cool, but it still sometimes feels like I can't entirely be myself, even around the other students. I didn't expect this, but like with orientation in the city, it will come with time.

I'm not going to pretend, however, that it's all bad. In fact, it's great. I have yet to get sick, and the food is really really good. And the clothes are really interesting. I have finally finished getting my clothes (4 Kurta, 3 pairs of pants, 3 scarves), and I'm really liking them. Did I also mention I'm picking up hackey sack (omg I don't even know if I'm spelling it correctly)? Some of the guys in the program are into it and I'm learning how to do it, and it's sooo fun! It's a totally unexpected new skill that I'm acquiring. I've also done some yoga and meditation. I'm not so into the yoga my host mom does, but i really like the meditation. I defs want to do that more often. I was surprised that I was able to sit mostly still for 45 minutes and felt really relaxed afterward. Miraculous!! Other then that, we've been exploring the city a bit, finding some places where we like to hang out, some good lassi and ice cream places, and just other stores where we can actually buy stuff. Did I mention that going to do almost anything is kind of a big deal here? So for example, say I want to buy a toothbrush. At home, we would walk/drive to the drugs store, get it and go home. Here, I need to figure out where I can buy a toothbrush, ask how much a rickshaw should cost getting there, find a rickshaw, direct the rickshaw, try and negotiate in Hindi/English to tell them that you want a toothbrush, try to get a good price for it, and then get home (rickshaw problems repeated). No good, no good.

Anyway, so some cool stuff. I went to Pushkar this weekend with some friends and it was awesome! It is one of the holiest cities in India with about 700 temples. One of the only Brahma temples in the world is there (I think there is only one more), and we also got to see some great temples on the top of mountains. Great hikes up, terrifying coming down. On the top of one of them we saw the sun set, and it was beautiful. It was nice to be in a really peaceful environment after spending so much time in a noisy city. I also visited my first Sikh temple. I wish someone Sikh (yes, you Kiran) had been there with me to help me understand what I was seeing, but nonetheless it was still sweeeet. I can understand why people would want to build temples on the tops of mountains. There are a ton of israeli tourists there, so we were able to find some great israeli food. that defs took me back to this summer, in a good way.

A few days earlier we had done our first NGO visits. I visited a place called Tabar, which is a temporary shelter for runaway boys found at the main railway station in Jaipur. Many had been sexually abused and were involved in gang activity before coming to this shelter. The aim of the shelter was to give these children education and counselling and eventually reuniting them with their families. It was both extremely sad (some of them had AIDS and were under the age of 10) but also uplifing in that we could see that they were genuinely cared for there. I hope to volunteer there in the next week or so.

So I think that's all for now. Please send me emails with updates from your life, it'll be great to hear from all of you!!!

Love,

Mimi