Oh deary me...

This will be a quick post. Tomorrow I leave for Udaipur. I am very excited to be in a new place, but I'm also very sad to be leaving my host family. Lately, I've been spending a lot of time with them and it is making me realize that I did not come to India to see old buildings--although they are beautiful and plentiful. I'm really a people and animals person, not a place person. I hope that Udaipur will have as many wonderful people as Jaipur.

I'm very excited about the group of people travelling with me. I've already made hiking plans with a few other students set up at a nearby NGO. Now, I just need to get better Hindi and I'm set. This past weekend was very confusing and wonderful at the same time. I went to the Old City again, a movie (which was everything you could want from a drama plus dancing and singing,) got a massage, and went to a festival where huge effigies of the demon Ravan are burned. Crackers (fireworks) and Catherine Wheels were also set off ridiculously close to the crowd (some of my friends encountered sparks.)

Problems started when the crowd got bigger. Emily and I were very excited that our Mummiji allowed us to bring our sister Chetna to the festival. But it quickly became apparent that the crowd was mostly younger men, who began to get way too close to Emily and I. Both of us had to do a lot of slapping, punching, scratching, yelling, and everything else that Chetna probably never saw before. She asked me later if a man had touched my hand when I elbowed him. I did not have it in me to tell her that he was reaching for my chest. What is actually uplifting about the experience is that a lot of my friends went to the festival, and all the girls experienced the same thing. BUT every girl also felt confident defending herself. I feel like that is one of the most important lessons that we've learned. Once you bring attention to someone's misconduct, people are mortified. Once, my friend got her butt grabbed. When she turned around about five men started pointing at each other. She just yelled, "Shut up" and slapped all of them.

All in all, it was a good experience. I feel prepared to take on Udaipur, which is supposed to be very relaxed anyway. I will miss my family, the stray dog who I feed crackers (biscuits, not fireworks) to, Gudo our rickshaw walla, my professors, my Mummiji's cooking, and of course the other students. But what I also want is to meet and spend time with more Indians. I have not felt confident to go out and meet people in Jaipur because of situations like the one above. But if I'm in a village working with people's cattle, I feel like I'll be more comfortable being friendly.

I've got to go. I've spent too much time online trying to organize my classes for next term. I'm not sure if I would have attempted Principles of Chemistry before India. But being here has really made me see that I should never complain about having the chance to do something. Even if it's hard, at least I have the choice to do it or not to. Also, I know that I want to go to Vet School. And they kinda have a policy about knowing Chem.

Goodbye for now!

Erica