oh India...

Not too much important happened today. Shibu and I had our philosophical and sometimes highly insulting conversations. Though I felt quite smug when he tried to convert kilograms to pounds and was way off, mathematics fail. Especially because my weight was being referred to again and so it is nice to be superior in both math and knowledge of dog breeds. If I ever get the opportunity to demonstrate my skills at animal restraint I think it would be quite the ego boost also. It was really lovely today to see the chocolate lab who has come in every day which I am there. She sits perfectly for her IV fluids and her owner speaks in English so it is a twofold bit of awesomeness and I am a bit smitten. And BONUS she is feeling better each day and is starting to eat again, yay!

I have made a conscious decision to speak exactly as I would at home to Shibu because he wants to travel and the better hand he has at American slang the better he will fit in when he gets the chance to go there. This has led to the definition of chill as in “I'm usually pretty chill” apparently in India they would say “I'm cool”. We are also covering every state because we realized that Indians pronounce it O-heeyo, with the last bit being said very quickly instead of Ohio so now we must check his pronunciation of every state. Thank god for these little moments where I know what I am doing because, as Shibu likes to mention at least once a day, I am a child and he is my elder and teacher and thus he must look out for me and boss me around. I take the liberty of smacking him when he is being an ass, but I do think it is rather sweet that he checks each time to make sure I have gotten home okay. At first I was really offended, I'm 21 for goodness sake, I can get home, but he told me that because he is my teacher he would feel extra awful and responsible if something were to happen to me.

I also realized my first crush on an Indian man. He has deep drown eyes, touched my face softly, and flirted with me in the clinic. He also about a foot tall and probably 2 years old but we had the best time playing peek a boo. Also all vets have the same joke with little kids, they draw up a vaccine and then pretend they are going to give the shot to the little kid....it is just as lame in India :-)

Little shopping trip today, bought 2 cotton tops and 2 pairs of Ali Baba pants. Ali baba pants are all the rage with tourists because they are SO cool and comfortable and mine are doubly so as they are silk! Mine are printed and all of them have a crotch which is below the knees and elastic ankles that keep the copious amount of fabric from going over your feet, so it feels like you are wearing a skirt but it doesn't show your bum when you go up the stairs. Win. But the shop owner was the first rude one I have met. Most shop owners ask what you want and take great pleasure in pulling out every piece they have and spreading them in front of you. He did not do this which made the experience much less pressured, but then he scolded me for not folding them properly and for putting them back to quickly. Excuse me? I was probably one of like 5 customers today, I think you can manage to tidy a bit after me. He was even a bit rude when I told him I didn't want to buy his stuff because it was too expensive and scolded me for trying things on without asking the price and messing up his shop. Well you don't take the time to haggle on something you may not even want! If I hadn't gotten 3 pairs of pants and 2 tops for about $12 I would have walked out.

Also bought a tupperware box to keep food in, because ANY time I have food in the room the ants go crazy and I had to throw away all the snacks I got yesterday because the ants found their way into the bag. While I was buying this I remember that I haven't explained the Indian obsession not only with my white skin but with white skin in general. This translates into abnormal amounts of products that mention “skin whitening effects”, “lightening”, and “whiteness”. The commercials on TV sound like Crest toothpaste commercials or the opposite of tanning lotion commercials, boasting about how your skin will be up to 3 shades lighter in however much time. It is so odd when the majority of the world values a tan and I personally think everything looks much lovelier when a person is tan!

In another little dose of India, I had to be driven to 2 stores which I was not going to buy anything from, in payment for my rides to work in the rickshaw. This is also how we brought the price we paid for the rickshaw to and from the elephant camp to 300 rupees. The rickshaw drivers who bring tourists to certain shops are given either a coupon for a liter of petrol or 100 rupees depending on the store. Now some drivers won't tell you why they are bringing you there and some will ask you to do it as a favor, but if you realize that they are making 100 rupees for a ride that is only costing about 10, you can get yourself some nice deals. Most will you drive you for free if you stop a shop, we knocked 400 rupees off the elephant trip by going into 6 or 7 shops total, and some tourists I met have even gotten the rickshaw drivers to split the money with them and made 150 rupees and got a free ride to where they were going. It's saved me quite a bit although I do get sick of going into tons of shops and being told outrageous “tourist” prices, and being told because it is the off season they can give me a very good discount. These discounts are usually only about 25% when really the actual price that should be charged is like 30-50% of what they tell foreigners. They get away with it because we are not used to bargaining. But bargaining does get tiring and so shopping in India can literally be a shop till ya drop experience.

Sorry if this post was a bit scattered! I just had pancakes with honey and some tea with sugar in it for dinner and maybe I'm on a bit of a sugar high :-)