The End of All Things

i have no pictures

so to be interesting

i will write haiku

i leave in one day

though there's more i want to do

i'm ready to go

for the past five days

i have had food poisoning

damn bombay street food

sick in my hotel

sitting and wasting time

lame last few days, no?

could be at the beach

could be exploring mumbai

but no, vomiting

went to the doctor

gave me lots of medicine

now i feel better

tomorrow: enjoy!

will go to the big market

and dinner with friends

i will see you soon

my fellow americans

'til then, namaste!

इस शीर्षक हिन्दी में है

Question: Since I'm American, and was born in America, do I have to wait until it's July 28th in the US to officially be 20? I should have flown back to the US tonight, so I could have had all day here as my birthday, switched time zones, and had more birthday at home. But then I would have flown right back here, because I'm not ready to leave just yet.
In addition to it being my birthday, today is exactly 1 week from when my Indian adventure will be coming to a close. With that in mind, I'm stepping up the exploring mode. Sometimes, it happens unintentionally. For example: today I was trying to get back to work after an exceptionally long interview (90 minutes, as opposed to the usual 30-40). As I was getting onto the train to head north, my parents called to say happy birthday (thanks guys! sorry the train was so loud). I can't blame the fact that I got on the wrong train on them, technically, since I got on a train on the Harbor line instead of the central line, but I might have noticed earlier if I hadn't been talking. In any case, as soon as I realized, I got off at the next stop and just started walking in the general direction of work. I wandered through a slum area for a while, then through an industrial neighborhood, and finally through a taxi ghost town, where every taxi in the city seemed to be parked, but their driver's were no where to be found. Finally, I found a taxi and got in, only to discover that I was about two blocks away from my hotel.
A more planned adventure was this weekend, when Sanjay and I went to go see a Hindi movie, Tere Bin Laden. First of all, neither of us speak Hindi, but we figured it would be entertaining anyway, and the plot wasn't too complicated. A Pakistani guy happens to find a chicken farmer who very much resembles Osama Bin Laden, so he and his merry gang trick the chicken farmer into making a fake video addressed to George Bush. Hilarity ensues. Sanjay and I got the last two seats in the theater, but they weren't together, so I had to keep all my questions and snide remarks to myself the whole time. I was disappointed to find out there was no song and dance in the movie, but it was full of enough slapstick comedy and easily translatable jokes at the USA's expense that I enjoyed it.
Anyway, thanks to everyone for the birthday messages, via facebook, ecards, phone calls, etc. I look forward to celebrating my birthday at least 5 times with various groups of people, starting with dinner tonight in Colaba (fancy shmancy south bombay) with my friends from work.

Crunch Time

One of the strangest parts of being here for two months has been trying to balance the “I'm here for two whole months, I'm basically living here” feeling, and the “Holy Cow I’m in India isn’t this an awesome vacation” feeling. As I reach my final week and a half here, I’ve definitely shifted toward the vacation feeling. I’m making lists of all the things I want to do before I go, and very quickly realizing I’m not going to fit it all in. I tried to convince Effie to fly to Agra this weekend to see the Taj Mahal, but, wisely, he declined, so I’m just going to have to wait until next time to see it.

As it turns out, I have three interviews planned for Saturday, so it’s good that I didn’t leave. The frequency of my interviews has picked up considerably. I did three this week, have another three planned for this weekend, and at least three already planned for next week. I realized this week as I drew a map on my leg in pen that I know Mumbai incredibly well, due to meeting strangers in coffeeshops and offices all over the city. The only place I know better is Ithaca, but that’s not much of an accomplishment, given the relative sizes, and time spent on location.

Last Sunday, our weekly Hebrew class met in a coffee shop where we couldn’t speak any English (or Hindi, for that matter [Spanish was occasionally permitted]). It was fun, although I think the three students (Adir, Ronan and I) spent more time asking Jeanine for vocab than anything else.

Throughout the week, my project at Sanctuary has been to take the thousands of books around the office and try to make sense of them. With help from the other interns Raghav and Shonalie, I started sorting them into 13 categories, then typing up every name, and finding a place for them back on shelves. It’s taken the three of us 5 dust filled days, and we’re about half way through.

In other news, I may or may not have played hookey on Tuesday, skipped work, and went to Esselworld and WaterKingdom instead. (If anyone from Sanctuary reads this, sorry! I really did have some personal work to do for part of the day). Sanjay (from Seva Niketan) and I are basically the only two people with flexible schedules, so we went up to the largest amusement park in India and the largest waterpark in Asia. It was excellent, and a ton of fun, especially since we were practically the only ones there. That’s us in the front seat of the train, upside down on the Hoola Loop.

Finally: I GOT FISH! I’m still working on the names for them, but I think I should move fast, since I’ve been told they might not live that long. At least temporarily, they’re Padme and Parvati, named after the Indian Patil twins in Harry Potter. I figured since I get told I’m HP regularly, it was fitting. Another option has been Michael and Jeanine, after the two JDC volunteers this year, but given how upset I was when Joel died of Cholera when I would play The Oregon trail and name my wagon companions after family members, I’m leaning away from naming my fish anything too sentimental.

Weekend Update

I don’t have time, nor you the patience, I’m sure, to fill in all events of this past week, so I’ll go through the main highlights and focus on those rare moments when I remember that I have a camera.

First of all, last Sunday’s football tournament was intense. We got there at 10 AM and played until around 5 PM. I can’t say I carried to team to victory, or anything glamorous like that, especially given that Lavanah, a girl on our team, is currently trying out for the national team. But when I was on the field mud, I successfully avoided any own-goals, headed the ball in the right direction a few times, and most importantly, kids, I had fun! My team, the Jewish Spartans, came in 2^nd to the Mojo Express, although the final was marred by fight, after which several of our players refused to play. Please observe the photo of both teams together in harmony after the match.

That night, to watch the final of the World Cup, I went over to Effie’s apartment. Since the game didn’t start until midnight here, and went on forever, I ended up staying over. Effie was a great host, and I enjoyed a strawberry milkshake, breakfast in the morning, and a packed lunch (courtesy of his aunt).

Research wise, I had a decent week as well. I got a few more contacts, and did three interviews. I’m not entirely sure where this all leads me, which is going to be a problem, but in the meantime, it feels good to be talking to the people I meant to talk to, and having the conversations I wanted to have. I need to pick up the frequency of interviews though, since I only have about 16 days left here.

The interviews are interesting for a bunch of different reasons. Some people have unique ideas and perspectives on the issue, such as one person who believes that we shouldn’t act on environmental issues, because they are simply nature’s way of killing off enough humans to keep our population in check. Some people I meet at interesting moments in their lives, like one interviewee who had just quit his/her job that day, and could barely focus long enough to answer questions before going out and celebrating. And sometimes, the mechanical parts of the interview go awry, such as when we did the interview in a coffee shop, and my voice recorder only heard Miley Cyrus on the radio for an hour, instead of the actual discussion.

On Thursday night, Sanctuary Asia magazine hosted a discussion with an American environmental lobbyist about international environmental negotiations post-Copenhagen, which was really cool. A fair bit went over my head, lost in a code of acronyms, but I was still filled with this sudden realization that some of my classes have actually been relevant to my life, and are applicable to the field I hope to go into! After the event, most of us in the office went out for dinner and drinks at Café Mondegar. It’s very cool to be working in an office with fun, enthusiastic people, and even more fun to hang out with them when they aren’t stressed about getting a publication ready for print. (Right: Vidya and I. I'm pretending to be a tiger.)

Finally, I’ve been meaning to show you a picture of my new hotel room. It’s much cleaner than this, now, since the front desk specifically asked me to take all my things off the floor so they could sweep it better. I appreciate that they clean my room daily, but I think I value the privilege to dirty my own space even more. We’ll just have to see what they say about my fish!

A Quiet Week

Hello again! It’s been a fairly uneventful week, but I know I’ll get angry owls (howlers, even) if I don’t update my blog frequently. Plus, I’ve been realizing that even though it feels to some extent like I’ve fallen into a routine, I’m in friggin India, and that’s still pretty cool.

I moved in to Seva Niketan on Monday, and proceeded to sit in my room most of the day. There was a nation-wide shut down, basically, due to a strike by a political party to protest rising gas prices. All the shops, businesses and taxis were basically intimidated into not working, so no one goes to work and I get to sleep a bit, and sit at my new desk reading articles for research. The new place is basically a youth hostel, and it’s about as luxurious as youth hostels are supposed to be. The bed’s a bit lumpy and hard, and there’s construction work two floors below me in the morning, and there’s no cell phone service except by the window- but that’s all pretty minor. It’s clean, there’s a canteen downstairs for meals, and I have an outlet for my computer (which only singles have), so I’m happy.

Vipin, a guy I’d met once or twice before, is staying across the hall, so we’ve been out to dinner a few times, which has been nice. In a true sign of friendship, he also has let me transfer a bunch of movies off his hard drive, which has pretty effectively killed my productivity the past few days. So far, I’ve watched the entire Bourne trilogy, and several Harry Potter movies (thus the own reference, earlier).

In terms of research progress, I had my first interview with a non-environmental expert yesterday! This means I’ve actually gotten started on the substance of what I’m here to do, which feels good. The interview itself went pretty well, although I have to get better at directing the conversation where I want.

The other event this week was that Michael, one of the JDC volunteers, left for a month long trip to the Saravash camp in Hungary. We spent the night at his apartment (before his plane at 3:30 AM), hanging out and playing taboo. Right before he had to go, we all went up to the roof, then those among us who were both brave and had proper footwear climbed the rickety old ladder to the upper-roof, and were rewarded with the most incredible view of Mumbai at night. The new bridge across Mahim Bay on one side and a few towering apartment buildings on another. It was pretty spectacular. Then it started monsooning.

Tomorrow is the big JYP Football (soccer) tournament. Being the aggressive athlete you all know me to be, I’ve joined a team, and I look forward to trying desperately not to look like a fool. I’ll let you all know how that turns out.

Email From My Parents

Gabe,

Mom and I want to see a video of YOU doing the Benny Lava and Tunak Tunak Tun J. (I was going to put this note in a comment on your blog, then figured I’m supposed to have learned not to embarrass you in public.)

Love, Dad

_________________________________________

Dear Mom and Dad,

A) That's a wonderful idea! Maybe someday.... B) I think it's a bad sign for my political career that parental comments no longer register on the "public embarrassment" scale. Thanks for the sentiment though.

Love,

Gabe

July 4th

I’m excited to write this post because for the first time, I’ve actually taken a decent amount of pictures the past few days, so they can go in as part of my post, instead of awkward and over captioned at the end!

It’s been a busy few days. On Thursday, first thing in the morning I took a train up to the northern suburbs, where I met Dipti from work. We went to a local elementary school (something International School), where I watched and took a few pictures as Ditpi did the standard Kids For Tigers presentation to a class of 10 year olds. (See right). I had helped make the powerpoint, and my main job at Sanctuary seems to be helping Dipti, so it was a good chance to see the whole picture of what goes on.

We also went to an older class and showed a video on tigers, after which the lame kids just left, and all the cool ones swarmed Dipti and asked her a ton of questions. Culturally, Indian kids aren’t supposed to ask to many questions, apparently, so when Dipti asked for questions after the movie, it was silent. But as soon as the presentation was over and she started packing up, they all came up to her and started chattering (see left above)

That night, some more people from work came over to Dipti’s apartment to hang out. We played with her cat, Grau (I think, although it might be Growl. I tend to have trouble hearing the last consonant of peoples’ names.) a lot, played some excellent Taboo (see Purab, Swati and Kavya in the photo) and a little bananagrams. It was a ton of fun, and good to get to know my office a bit better. I have to give a shout out to the JYP for teaching me the dance for the Indian pop song Tekh Ta Naah (that’s not ever close to right), because it scored me a lot of points with Dipti, Kavya and Swati, and they’ve asked me to do it on command regularly ever since.

Oh, also!!!! I started singing Benny Lava under my breath at one point, and Swati recognized it, and was really excited that I knew it. Apparently they also think it’s hilarious, (along with Tunak Tunak Tun), which makes me really happy. If you don’t know what I’m talking about (and you’re under 25) shame on you, and you should Youtube it immediately. If you’re older than 25, don’t worry about it.

On Saturday, I was planning on sitting alone at the hotel (still Sassoon, until Monday), doing research and sleeping. Instead, Dipti convinced me to come on a trek with her and a group that leads people on hikes. So I woke up at 4 AM, made it to Dadar Station by 5, then spent the next three or four hours on buses and trains (usually standing) on the way to the town of Roha on the Konkan coast. It was definitely worth it. The hike was gorgeous, green, and a welcome change from the noise and air in the city. The hike to Avchitgad, which means Hurry Fort, because it was made quickly, was really cool, and the view from the top was incredible. At top, most people sat down to rest for a bit, but being the athletic young man than I am, I took the opportunity to explore by myself a little. There was something really empowering about being 1000 ft up by yourself in a foreign country. Plus, I saw monkeys playing in the trees right below me on the hill, and a snake dashing through the grass, which was pretty awesome.

We didn’t get back to Mumbai until 11:00 PM, and I was completely exhausted. The end of the journey took a little longer than expected, since just as we started back down the mountain, it started to monsoon. It was only a light rain while we were hiking, but in the city it was pretty intense. As I was in the taxi on the way back to my hotel, the other side of the street was completely flooded, with water up to the top of the cars’ tires. My side happened to be fine, which was good, because I didn’t want to get out of the car to push, like the people on the other side had to. This was partially because I was only wearing boxers, since my pants had soaked through and I hadn’t brought a spare pair. I tried to get a picture of the water, but when I rolled down the window, a car passed my taxi and splashed a huge wave into the car. The taxi driver and I shared a good multi-lingual laugh, and I quickly put my camera away. You’ll have to make due with this one, which is terrible I know, but I didn’t want to use flash, and well, you’ll live.

Happy Forth of July, everyone! Go eagles, western toilets and potable tap water (unless you’re Boston in May)!

Sleepover!

Hello All,

This is going to be a quick post. I'm currently at Dipti's apartment in the northern suburbs. She works at Sanctuary, and it seems like she's the person I'll be helping out the most over the next month. She invited a bunch of people from the office over to her apartment for the night, basically just for the fun of it. So we're preparing for a night of Taboo, Bananagrams and more! It should be really fun.
In other big news, I'm moving! I met this guy David a few nights ago through some mutual friends. He's from NYC and through the American Jewish World Service is here for a year working in a drug rehabilitation center. He also happens to live in Byculla, literally three buildings down from me at the Seva Niketan guest house. It turns out that this place is cool, nice, clean, and most importantly, 25% of the price of my current lodgings. Being my overly sensitive self, I feel a little bad about leaving Sassoon house. The people who run it are really nice, and I totally own my the space there, since I had settled in for such a long term. I also liked that it was Jewishly run. But after a little internal debate, I realized it just didn't make sense to pay so much, given that it wasn't actually anything special. So starting Monday, I'll move three doors down and start my life in a single room at the new place. This means if any of you were planning on sending letters (YouJean) or considering stopping by for the weekend ( You know who you are), don't pop into the Sassoon house, or I'll be embarrassed. Thanks.

Eventually, It Had To Happen

The past few days have been full of a few things that have been on hold for a while. For example, as I mentioned a few posts ago, the first Shabbat I met a guy named Tov in Synagogue. We traded numbers when we ran into each other on the street a few days later, and have been meaning to hang out since then (he’s a very persistent texter). On Wednesday night we finally got around to grabbing a bite to eat. He’s a really nice guy, and it’s awesome that he lives literally 30 seconds away. He and his six brothers are here for a year learning computer literacy at the ORT school. They’re from the Bnai Menashe community of Manipur State, on the boarder with Myanmar. It was too much to expect that I wouldn’t get food poisoning in two months here, right? Out to dinner with Tov, we were served water in a glass, and Tov asked (in Hindi that he says is as good as his English, which is pretty good, but not fluent) if it was filtered. They said yes. I’m betting the real answer was no. In Lindsay Verola’s apartment this past year, there was a poster that was a collage of “Bathrooms of the Bars in Boston”. I spent Wednesday more or less compiling my own “Bathrooms of Mumbai” mental collage, touring not just my own hotel and work toilets, but also a local university’s bathroom and even the toilet (read: pit) in the Curry Road train station. I’ve had more fun in my life, but I survived, and I learned a valuable lesson: bottled water is bad for the environment, but good for my stomach. In between toilets two and three, I had my first interview! I was getting a little worried that it would never happen, so I’m glad I finally got the ball rolling. I think I did pretty well with my “indirect probes “ (e.g. “I see…”, “Intersting…”) and my direct questions (e.g. “Can you tell me more?”, “What makes you think that?”). I have a lot more of these to go, so I should get plenty more practice. There’s no one any one interview is going to tell me an answer, (nevermind the fact that I don’t know what the question is yet) so there was nothing groundbreaking about the interview, but it was a good snapshot of a Mumbai citizen. I have newfound appreciation for the trains. In addition to being ridiculously cheap and not being capable of getting lost (The Darjeeling Limited excluded), it has made my life 10X easier over the past few days. First of all, in protest of rising prices, all of the taxis and autorickshaws went on strike, making life very complicated for some people. I got to work on Tuesday at 9:30 (early, by Indian standards), and basically no one else got there until noon because they had to catch 5 buses or something. But the trains still worked. Then, Thursday night, I met up with Zoe, a friend of Emma Goldstein (from Tufts) from High School. I got to feel like such a pro when I taught her how to use the train system. “That number there is how many cars are on the train, that one’s the track, and that’s the station its heading to” and “this color here means it will be an all ladies car, so you wait here, and I’ll go up past the first class cars to the main ones and meet you at Dadar Station. Go!”.
Anyway, I finally feel settled in here, which is kind of nice, but also sort of strange that the traffic, goats, and smells aren't shocking and new anymore. The city is still exciting me, but I feel like I've moved past the "Holy Cow! I'm in Mumbai!" phase of the journey. I'm "a regular" at this internet cafe and the restaurant down the block, although I'm still a novelty for them (I was introduced as Harry Potter (again) to the internet cafe worker's friend).

Impending doom. The moonsoon, three minutes before it started as I left work last week. The rain jacket I brought is working wonderfully though, thanks Mom!
Just to give you a sense of where I spend my time, here's my room. I'm in the door to the bathroom, taking the picture. Not much to look at, nothing posh, but it's cozy and cold when I want it to be.

The wall at the foot of my bed. I just sort of hang my wet laundry and clothes whereever I want- one of the benefits of living alone. The TV isn't very useful. News in Hindi, the GOD channel (the only all-english one available), and a ton of Bollywood music video channels. I've been slowing adding to the collage on the right, mostly maps and letters.

I've always wondered when it become standard practice to smile in photos. I guess it hasn't, everwhere. Either that or Rajeet doesn't like me as much as he pretends to when I get back every day.

Out to dinner with some of the gentlemen last Sunday after the JCC "debate" on the Gaza situation. The debate also included heated exchanged on whether or not Gaza had booming marijuana business and reasons why the beaches of Gaza might be underutilized by tourists.

It was Kavya's birthday, at work! Apparently it wasn't just Akiv being difficult when he smashed cake in Dana's face on her birthday a month ago, since Dipti did the same to Kavya.

Mission Accomplished

Good news! I'm done! I've finished everything I need to do in Mumbai! Yes, you're right: TODAY I SAW AN ELEPHANT!!!! I'm so happy. I was in a car on the way to Stuti's house, being driven by her dad, when we passed it. It had clearly just come from an elementary school carnival, because it had facepaint on, kind of like this dude to the right (Fig. 1). Unfortunately, we drove by too fast for me to get a picture of my own. I was told that the elephant driver was probably taking him around to different shops to get donations of bits of food for the elephant. It was probably one of the most exciting moments of my life, although I'm not sure Stuti's dad or grandfather (also in the car) truly understood how happy I was.

I should probably explain who Stuti is. Ms. Hannah Matthew Gogel, of Tufts University fame, went to a Harvard summer program sometime in high school. Her roommate from the summer was an Indian girl from Mumbai named Stuti. Fast forward a few years and Hannah put us in touch and we met for a meal on Saturday in the Phoenix Mall, then today I went to her dad's office and he drove me up to their apartment in the north-central suburbs, where I'm staying the night. The whole family is really warm and friendly, and it's cool to see people's homes here. I've also been in a few other people's homes (Jonny, Natasha, Bittu Sahgal, etc), and each one has been completely different. Anyway, so I had dinner here, which was delicious, and now I'm just lounging around using the wireless internet.

Speaking of visiting people's houses, for Shabbat this week I again went to the Magen David synagogue right next to my hotel. Afterward, one of the gentlemen there invited me over for dinner, which was very cool. It was only a block from where I stay, at the ORT school where the guys my age from the Bene Minshe (Jews from the north-east of India) are also staying. Sharon, the guy who invited me over, has three adorable little daughters who have way more energy than they know what to do with, and they spent the evening shrieking, climbing over me, shrieking some more, and then yelling a bit. I actually saw the older two again on Sunday at the JCC when I arrived in the middle of the Gan Katan challah baking session. Anyway, it was a really nice, fun evening, and it's always cool to see how different people do Shabbat.

In other news, things are starting to look up research wise. I sent out a bunch of emails today to NGO people working on various environmental issues, and am starting to get a few responses about people I can interview. I also feel like I have enough contacts that I can start trying to talk to everyday people sometime soon as well. Yay for Gabe accomplishing things!

Alright, it's now getting pretty late, and I have to wake up for the commute to work tomorrow, which is a new concept for me, so I'm going to try and resist the power of the internet and get some rest.

Catching Up

I've heard from several reliable sources that my posts so far have been disappointingly scarce on details. I'm very sorry for this transgression, and will do my best to remedy the situation. First of all, here's a post I wrote a few days ago, but haven't had the chance to upload:

1:00 AM on Sunday 13th:

About two hours ago, as I sat in my room reading articles on the qualitative method, I heard several loud bangs. When I went downstairs to ask Rajiv what was going on. Rajiv is always really excited to see me, and starts gesticulating wildly and speaking rapidly in Hindi. I really like that he keeps talking to me as if I could understand a word he's saying; it helps me feel welcome. Anyway, I had noticed that the bangs were fireworks, which Ravij attempted to explain to me..something about India winning a cricket match, a fast bowler, and maybe dinnertime. It was a good conversation. I went back up to my room on the second floor, and almost immediately heard more bangs. This time, it meant the first major thunderstorm, and the start of monsoon season!

In the past few days, I’ve started to settle in more and begun to think about my research. In terms of basic survival in India, I’m feeling pretty good about things. I made my hotel room feel homey; I put up posters and maps, labeled each of the 15 lightswitches in my room, and set up a snack drawer, which consistent of a good mix of American comfort foods (Ritz crackers and Skippy peanut butter (smooth PB, duh)) and Indian snacks (Hippo Masala Chips!) . I’m also starting to get a sense of the neighborhood I live in. Today I found the nearest shopping mall and supermarket! Go consumerism!

On Friday, all the other Americans I’ve been with moved on to explore other cities, leaving me feeling pretty alone. It was really nice to have some time with them to explore the city on our own terms, learn how to direct a taxi, and help translate rapid Hindi and gestures into English. That said, I’m incredibly grateful to have the JYP and a few other connections as people I can turn to for help and, much more frequently, I hope, to relax and have fun with. In the past week, the other Americans and I met up with some of our Indian friends a few times, and it was a lot of fun. We helped (well, mostly watched) Natasha cook lunch, went out on the town for Ofira’s birthday, and hung out with Gabriel for a few hours in the hotel (he woke us up at 9am to say hi. It was unexpected, and we had a little trouble staying awake, but a very nice gesture nonetheless) . I’m excited to keep seeing everyone, both at official JYP meetings on most Sundays, and whenever I have free time.

______________________________________________________________

Okay, so now for today's quick post. I've already been in this internet cafe for three hours.

After a whopping 36 hours by myself, Alon came back to Mumbai on Sunday morning. For the next few days, we tended to do our own things, but it was nice to have someone to check in with, and we were usually hanging out at night. I also function best when I'm doing something new with someone else, so for a few important experiences ( I may or may not have ridden on the back of a motorcycle on Sunday. They told me to stop shaking. It was fun) , it was really nice to have some American backup.

On Sunday and Monday, I met up with Adir in the northern parts of the city and he took me on a tour of Indian cuisine. I wish I remembered all the names of the stuff I had, but a few highlights were Sev Puri (cracker with lots of stuff (veggies, corn flakes, etc) piled on, so you have to eat it in one bite or it goes everywhere), Pani Puri (basically a small breadbowl with a sweet sauce and a sour sauce inside, which you place in your mouth then crush, creating a flavor explosion Gushers only dreams of), and a series of Bengali dessert truffles. We also did a fair amount of wandering parts of the city, joined at several points by Nilly, Doron, and Ilana.

Another important skill I've learned is how to take the trains! They said it couldn't be done! They said "Don't try it Gabe! I'm Indian and I don't do it!" But I said "No!" and spent a full say learning the different methods of paying, how to figure out which train is going to which stations, and how to survive the trash compacter that is the Mumbai trains at rush hour. Its actually not bad at all most of the day. Its about 8 cents to get across the city, and pretty easy to navigate. Its just rush hour traffic thats difficult. When Alon, Jonny and I took the train on Tuesday evening to go to Bandra to watch the World Cup, Jonny spent the whole time explaining all the things that can go wrong in transit ( I promise I won't stand up on top of the train. Or squeeze between two cars. Or even hang out the door, which is actually fairly common).

Other updates: The monsoon is here. Its mostly a minor inconvenience. I want to take a taxi instead of walk to the train, but all the taxi's are taken since everyone wants a taxi because of the rain, so I end up standing like an idiot in the rain for ten minutes waiting for someone to pick me up. That sort of thing. I get drenched every time I step outside for more than 30 seconds, but everything in my backpack is protected in separate plastic bags, and my top half is dry thanks to a raincoat! I'm just going to have to get used to stepping in puddles of who-knows-what. The rains have gotten in the way some. I was supposed to go to Nilly and Ranita's house for dinner last night, but their station was probably flooded, so we decided to postpone. Similarly, Alon ended up staying at a hotel in Bandra with a friend instead of trying to make it back down to Byculla.

I'm hoping my research gets started soon. Working at Sanctuary Asia magazine is a great in, and I'm learning a lot from being there. Yesterday the staff had a session where one of the top guys at the organization, who is usually too busy to access, spent two hours fielding questions and discussing anything anyone wanted to know about environmental issues, which was awesome. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to have the meetings with people I wanted to have before I got started. Tomorrow morning though, I have a meeting at 9:30 which should be exactly what I'm looking for.

Here are a few pictures of my adventures so far:

The road right outside my hotel. Its one of the central veins of the city, which is really nice for hailing a cab, and for giving directions to get home.

Oshrit and I on the last night of the JDC trip. She's the president of the JYP, as well as a really sweet person. Shout out to Eric for the shirt. We all agreed to wear our Indian clothing, but I'm waiting until later in the summer to get mine, but what are friends for?

Natasha cooking fish at her apartment. It was really, really good. (Yes, skeptics, I ate fish and went back for seconds and even thirds). Her dad owns a fishing business, so it was really good fish. She also showed us down to make daal, and showed us just how much sugar goes into chai (hint: it puts knoerdel to shame).

Ben Brian and Josh magically appeared on Elephanta Island!!!! But seriously folks, the monkey's were really cool. One walked up to a tourist holding a coke bottle, swiftly slapped the bottle out of the guys hand, ran up a tree with it, and proceeded to twist off the cap and drink. I kept my distance after that.

Doron (left), Adir (middle) and I (right) at a northeast Indian (I think) restaurant, where I had some delicious mutton (which they think is goat, here), as well as black daal. This was the 5th or 6th restaurant I'd been to with Adir in the past two days. P.S. Yes, skeptics, I ate mutton. I'm trying to do the whole "adventurous eating" thing, despite the fact that half the country is vegetarian anyway. Don't count on this changing my habits back home though. Kraft Mac and Cheese is forever.

Here we go!

Hello there freinds, family, secret admirerers and more,

As always, I hope you're all doing well! Here in Mumbai, its time to dive in! (not literally, the monsoons don't start until at least Friday). I'll do my best to pack a quick summary of the past 2 weeks into a few minutes. The trip was absolutely incredible. We spent a few days in Mumbai, seeing synogogues and touring a few major sites of the city. The city is compltely crazy. Honking is literally encouraged on the back of most cars, there are cows, cars, people, bikes and more constantly weaving in and out of each other, and there are, of course, people everywhere. The majority of the trip, however, was in the small towns and villages of the Konkan coast. We explored a few places where the Bene Israel Jews have been living for centuries, and got a senseof where the community is coming from. We thenspent 3 amazing days at a resort with memebers of the Jewish Youth Pioneers. These guys and girls were from ages 15 to 25(ish), and were all SO much fun to hang out with. From rock climbing to pool parties, to tons of dance parties, to shabbat services, to just sitting around, everyone was really great to meet.



There are obviously a million more details I could give, but I'll save those for later. Two days ago the trip ended and most people went home. Nine of us stayed in India, and mosty people are in Mumbai for at least a few days before going north to Jaipur, Agra and Delhi. So we've been having a great time going up to Natasha's house (a JYP member) yesterday afternoon for tea, cooking lessons, and relaxing, and today we took a ferry to Elephanta Island, which is covered in monkeyse (but no elephants, if you're wondering), and has some really cool caves with carvings in the walls.



I'm writing this from an internet cafe down the street from my hotel. I took the worst possible route to get here, but in the process did some cool exploring of a really different neighborhood then I've been inbefore. I'll be living here for two months, so I should probablyknow my own backyard. It was denser and crazier than anywhere I've been. So crazy, people didn't even bother staring at me for being white. Woah. But I did find an excellent chocoatier and bakery, so the detour was 100% worth it.



I look forward to keeping in better contact now that I can venture out to internet cafes more frequently. I have a phone too, but after functioning yesterday, it seems to have stopped today...hmmmmm. Anyway, I hope you're all great and planning on emailing me with cool stories. Talk toyousoon!



P.S. hopefully I'llfigureout how to get pictures up here soon, if for no other reason than to keep Zach happy.

One Week...

As the title of this post might suggest, in almost exactly one week (plus 7 hours) my flight will be taking off from Logan Airport in Boston. With that deadline in mind, I've been kicking into high gear in terms of preparations, and getting a bit of a reality shock. For instance, lunch with Heather (one of my mom's co-workers, who lived in Pune for the summer a few years ago) was the first time someone had really described monsoon season for me. I'm now preparing myself, both mentally and with new sandals, to wade through muddy water up to my knees on a daily basis. On a shopping trip today, I also stocked up on life-sustaining goodies (neosporin, pepto bismol, hydrocortisone cream, antibiotic- waterproof bandaids, etc).

Predictably, I'm ridiculously excited to get started. The first ten days of the trip will be spent on the JDC trip, with 19 of my fellow Tufts students. We'll be meeting up with members of the Bene Israel, a 2000 year old community of Indian Jews and spending time getting to know them and their history. (The trip has it's own blog, http://www.jdcinservice.org/author/tufts, if you're interested in that, since I might not get the chance to post any updates here). The itinerary looks packed with exciting things, from bollywood dance classes, to visiting a synagogue in Alibag, to spending time with the Bene Israel youth group at a retreat camp. It's going to be a whirlwind experience, but I have no doubt that we will all fight through the inevitable jetlag and exhaustion and try to soak in as much as possible.

A note on communication: While I plan on posting on this blog regularly, this doesn't solve the problem of me keeping up with all of your crazy lives. This is a formal plea for each and every one of you to email me regularly with updates on your lives, even if all you have to tell me is what flavor of ice cream you had for dessert ( suggestion: Americone Dream). Thanks in advance.

P.S. I can't wait to be able to post my own photos on this blog and stop stealing them all from Google.

The Dodecahedron

Tonight is my last night at Tufts as a sophomore. While this is simultaneously scary and exciting, I'm sure it won't even compare to the barrage of emotions I'll be experiencing in the coming months. I leave for India in 16 days to spend 67 days in Mumbai. I'll spend the first 10 days (May 30- June 8) on a JDC trip visiting the Bene Israel community, then head off on my own for the next two months to work on my summer research project. In that time, I'll be interviewing Indians about their attitudes and behaviors toward the environment.

Right now, I feel a bit like the dodecahedron from The Phantom Tollbooth (with which I've recently become re-obsessed). I'm obviously super psyched to go to India, eat the delicious food, have amazing experiences, be immersed in a totally different culture, and experience the craziness that is Mumbai in monsoon season. On the other hand, I'm quite terrified of all the things that could go wrong. For my mother's sake, I won't list them all here, but suffice it to say that there are a lot of moving pieces, and I'm very conscious that things don't always go as expected. That said, I'm prepared to figure it out as I go. On the twelfth hand, I'm going to miss the comfort of knowing the people around me, and having them there to pick up the slack when my sense of direction fails me, I need a pep talk (or to be put in my place), or I forget to use an apostrophe.

Speaking of, I want to thank you all in advance for forgiving me for the numerous spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors that will inevitably plague this blog. I'll do my best to keep you all updated on my adventures this summer, however they play out. And I fully expect you all to be emailing me with updates on your lives, wherever you are (Ithaca, Noank, Boston, China, France, camp, etc). Cool? Cool.