Home is wherever you make it

So yesterday was...rather boring except for the fact that the coffee man at Cafe Coffee Day got up the nerve to ask me where I was from and what my hobbies are. It was the CUTEST thing. Like really adorable. And facebook cooperated enough to let me talk to people for almost an hour while watching crappy television. I am going to really miss my laptop while I travel because I have grown used to listening to music while I get ready and watching movies while I fall asleep.

Which reminds me I have to pack up all my stuff tomorrow. UGH!!! I hate packing...and laundry...and I gotta do both....

Oh wait! Also yesterday Shibu and I tried to take his car into Fort Cochin for lunch...but when we got there Shibu decided that for 50 rupees more he would rather have the buffet we had already passed, but he got lost and we drove in a GIANT circle back to the clinic and I was biting my nails trying not to laugh as he kept swearing under his breath and we took 40 min to finally get to lunch. Which was not only a very small buffet, it also wasn't all that great. I was very entertained by the whole episode :-)

And today started off very uneventfully with me listing all the states in America to make sure he was pronouncing them correctly. We discovered that Arkansas he had never heard of and everyone in India says EE-O-Ah (Iowa), so that kept us amused until Dr. Sunil got there and we discussed how unbelievably expensive the US is and how Undergraduate school is basically a 4 year waste of time because anything you need to learn for becoming a veterinarian is taught in veterinary school. It was a rather depressing discussion I must say.

Then we got a call for a buffalo (they keep water buffalo as well as cows here) with a prolapsed vagina. In layman's terms that means that the vagina has turned itself inside out and formed a big bubble outside of the body. It is actually a much better situation than it could have been, prolapsed uterus are more common and that means the entire HUGE uterus is outside the body. In this case I stood in a cramped cement shelter with around 15 cows and a few buffalo and watched the processes of cleaning and then pushing the vagina back into the buffalo, while the buffalo is trying to sit or lay down the entire time. It was very interesting, if smelly work.

Shibu is very sad that tomorrow is his last day at the clinic and I am as well. I want to get both he and Sunil a gift but I think I will send something from the US as they can buy anything they want from here :-) But I really will miss Shibu and genuinely hope he visits the states someday.

The best part of the day was when the lady I go home from work with invited me for tea again and her daughter who speaks English came over with her little granddaughter and also a grandson and they were so shy that every time I made a face at them they just collapsed in giggles. The daughter (who's name I CANNOT remember) kept telling me how much they liked me and how sad they were that I was leaving and that I must not forget them and when am I coming back to India? I told them I would come back whenever I could, which I will because I have become completely smitten with this country and want to explore the rest of it. I also gave her my email address and she will email me so we can keep in touch. They have invited me for a late lunch tomorrow and I told them I want to take many pictures with them and she wants to take one on her cell phone and I will send the ones I take via email. Apparently I am the only foreigner they have ever entertained and they just really like me. The lady from work told Shibu that I am much more polite than most foreigners. I just feel so welcome and loved and happy.

You really can make a home for yourself wherever you are and I will be so sad to pack up my home tomorrow night so my bag can be left downstairs with Margaret while I am gone. Besides the fact that you can be at home anywhere you choose, I have learned 2 more important lessons.

1) Always be smiling, even when you don't know what's going on, there is nothing more welcoming and it really does make you happier.
2) laughing at yourself always goes over well. My trials with the language and the mosquitoes has given everyone a laugh, including myself.

To quote a certain group of boys from Apartment 212 (the boys I lived down the hall from all summer):
"Fake it till you feel it"
Smile till you're not faking it anymore :-)