I'm becoming increasingly aware of the fact that my time here is quickly coming to an end. After this week, I only have two more weeks of work left before I leave the firm and take a little time off before matriculating at Booth. After I finish work, I have two weeks of travel (yet to be planned - yikes) and then I leave India. How sad is that? Today marks 30 days before I leave the country, and I hereby resolve to make the absolute most of my remaining time here.
I think it's safe to say that I have already been making the most of my time here, so it's not going to require a very different attitude or approach during my last month. Have I danced the macarena at a fancy restaurant in honor of my friend Praneetha's birthday? Have I learned a few words of Hindi? Have I honed my Bollywood dancing skills to the point where my friends no longer laugh at me when I make an attempt? Have I met dozens of new people, explored the different neighborhoods of the city, and woken up every day here with a "yes" oriented attitude? Why yes, I have.
I was reading old blog entries last night for fun, and came across one where I mentioned that I was going to be travelling every weekend going forward. As you all have probably realized, I didn't end up travelling as much on weekends here as I had originally planned. It's turned out to be more like every other weekend rather than every weekend. On the one hand, yes - I've missed out on seeing a few more cities in India. On the other hand, though, I have made such wonderful friendships here, and to do so required time spent on the ground, seeing these people on a regular basis. I'm glad that I ended up spending my time here this way - I feel like I've ended up more of a "local" than I could have imagined. Of course, that doesn't mean that I've done everything in Mumbai that I want to - not even close!
There are a few key items remaining on my to-do list here, and I'm asking all of you to keep me honest and make sure I do them! First I'd like to spend more time in South Bombay and preferably do a photo walk of the buildings down there. The architecture is really beautiful. I'd also like to go to the Taj hotel, just to see it - Kevin keeps talking about a restaurant in the hotel that he wants to visit, so maybe we can kill two birds with one stone. Also I'd like to visit the Hanging Gardens - they're supposed to be beautiful (any of my Indian friends want to go with me?). Finally I want to visit one of the hill stations that are a couple hours away from Mumbai. There are supposed to be waterfalls and beautiful scenery where you can take hikes. Mr. Bollywood Heartthrob and I are talking about going to one of those for a day trip on Sunday - fingers crossed the weather cooperates. I also want to learn how to cook proper Indian food so that I can impress all of my American friends and family with my multicultural culinary skills. After all, how many people do you know that can make gnocchi from scratch and naan from scratch? I'd wager not very many. The guy I went out with last night - let's call him Mr. Prospective Booth Student - offered to have me come over to his parents' house and learn cooking from his mom. Score! I'm so excited! I'm slightly concerned that his mom is going to question who the hell this random white girl in her kitchen is, but I expect he wouldn't have invited me if his mom wouldn't be cool with it :) On a similar note, I want to eat really authentic spicy Indian food while I'm here. I've found that most of my friends tell me that I wouldn't like really spicy food here, but I want to find out for myself! One of my friends joked that they could just take my dinner and pour a bunch of chili powder on it to make it spicy. I rolled my eyes and said that's not exactly the point of my request - I want to see how Indian people really eat, not just measure how much chili powder I can consume before bursting into flames.
As I mentioned, I have two weeks planned at the end of my time here to travel around India. I've been soliciting recommendations from everyone I know about where I should travel. The issue is that many of the places I'd like to visit are inaccessible or at least unattractive during the monsoons. My idea of going on a tiger safari has been nixed for that reason. Pondicherry seems to be a good destination - I've been told by a friend who used to live there that the monsoons don't start there until later in the summer, so the weather should still be nice. I also really want to see the Himalayas and plan on going to Nepal for at least a few days. As for the rest of my time, I'm not sure! Mr. Wannabe Cowboy has invited me to come visit his family in Raipur and act as my tour guide. Ami and some of her friends are going hiking in the mountains in northern India. Part of me wants to go see the Ganges. So many options, so little time. There is only one thing I can confirm at this point - it's going to be epic.
Finally, I want to continue to spend as much time as possible with the friends that I've made here. Tonight Ami, Kevin and I are hosting our second house party, which promises to be even better than the first. I may have made the mistake of inviting several different guys that I've been on dates with to the same party - after all, they're all cool guys who I think would get along well with my friends - though I'm wondering now if I'm setting myself up for unwanted drama. Fingers crossed nothing goes awry.
Speaking of the men I'm dating, I learned a lesson this week about telling them about my blog. On the one hand, I haven't felt the need to censor anything I write here about my dating life because I'm telling the truth. If I really like a guy and have a nice time with him, I don't sit down and give a recap of the date here on the blog. I might mention him in passing when discussing other topics, but there's no blow-by-blow of the good dates here. After all, good dates don't make very interesting reading. You guys don't want to read here about me saying "oooh he's such a gentleman, so sweet, made me laugh, etc." Booooooooooring. Instead I've been spending more time giving the details of the bad dates - and I think we can all agree there have been some spectacularly bad ones - because those are entertaining (at least for me they are - hopefully you concur). Therefore, I haven't worried too much about being friends on Facebook with some of the guys that I'm dating or with any of them having the link separately. After all, if I like them and actually care what they think, then I haven't said anything here that wouldn't be appropriate for them to read. I'm not using people's real names, and the guys who have read the blog think that the nicknames I'm using are hilarious.
The issue arose with a guy that I was friends with on Facebook but hadn't met yet. I mentioned in my last post about how I am screening guys before I meet them, sometimes using Facebook to do so. The one in particular that I mentioned yesterday - the guy who didn't pass the "sniff" test - is my Facebook friend. After all, if I wasn't friends with him on Facebook, then I wouldn't have been able to gather enough data to make a decision about whether to meet up with him! After I decided that I wasn't going to accept his invitation, I forgot to de-friend him...and I'm pretty sure he read my blog. Awkward. He texted me an out-of-the-blue "Thanks" today, which I have to assume is for writing about him and/or not responding to his last 10 text messages. Like I said, awkward. From now on, I'm going to make sure that I de-friend people on Facebook once I've decided not to meet them.
One final note: family and friends in the US - please keep sending me emails! I miss you all (even though I may never come back - after all, Booth will let me defer for a year, right?)
I think it's safe to say that I have already been making the most of my time here, so it's not going to require a very different attitude or approach during my last month. Have I danced the macarena at a fancy restaurant in honor of my friend Praneetha's birthday? Have I learned a few words of Hindi? Have I honed my Bollywood dancing skills to the point where my friends no longer laugh at me when I make an attempt? Have I met dozens of new people, explored the different neighborhoods of the city, and woken up every day here with a "yes" oriented attitude? Why yes, I have.
I was reading old blog entries last night for fun, and came across one where I mentioned that I was going to be travelling every weekend going forward. As you all have probably realized, I didn't end up travelling as much on weekends here as I had originally planned. It's turned out to be more like every other weekend rather than every weekend. On the one hand, yes - I've missed out on seeing a few more cities in India. On the other hand, though, I have made such wonderful friendships here, and to do so required time spent on the ground, seeing these people on a regular basis. I'm glad that I ended up spending my time here this way - I feel like I've ended up more of a "local" than I could have imagined. Of course, that doesn't mean that I've done everything in Mumbai that I want to - not even close!
There are a few key items remaining on my to-do list here, and I'm asking all of you to keep me honest and make sure I do them! First I'd like to spend more time in South Bombay and preferably do a photo walk of the buildings down there. The architecture is really beautiful. I'd also like to go to the Taj hotel, just to see it - Kevin keeps talking about a restaurant in the hotel that he wants to visit, so maybe we can kill two birds with one stone. Also I'd like to visit the Hanging Gardens - they're supposed to be beautiful (any of my Indian friends want to go with me?). Finally I want to visit one of the hill stations that are a couple hours away from Mumbai. There are supposed to be waterfalls and beautiful scenery where you can take hikes. Mr. Bollywood Heartthrob and I are talking about going to one of those for a day trip on Sunday - fingers crossed the weather cooperates. I also want to learn how to cook proper Indian food so that I can impress all of my American friends and family with my multicultural culinary skills. After all, how many people do you know that can make gnocchi from scratch and naan from scratch? I'd wager not very many. The guy I went out with last night - let's call him Mr. Prospective Booth Student - offered to have me come over to his parents' house and learn cooking from his mom. Score! I'm so excited! I'm slightly concerned that his mom is going to question who the hell this random white girl in her kitchen is, but I expect he wouldn't have invited me if his mom wouldn't be cool with it :) On a similar note, I want to eat really authentic spicy Indian food while I'm here. I've found that most of my friends tell me that I wouldn't like really spicy food here, but I want to find out for myself! One of my friends joked that they could just take my dinner and pour a bunch of chili powder on it to make it spicy. I rolled my eyes and said that's not exactly the point of my request - I want to see how Indian people really eat, not just measure how much chili powder I can consume before bursting into flames.
As I mentioned, I have two weeks planned at the end of my time here to travel around India. I've been soliciting recommendations from everyone I know about where I should travel. The issue is that many of the places I'd like to visit are inaccessible or at least unattractive during the monsoons. My idea of going on a tiger safari has been nixed for that reason. Pondicherry seems to be a good destination - I've been told by a friend who used to live there that the monsoons don't start there until later in the summer, so the weather should still be nice. I also really want to see the Himalayas and plan on going to Nepal for at least a few days. As for the rest of my time, I'm not sure! Mr. Wannabe Cowboy has invited me to come visit his family in Raipur and act as my tour guide. Ami and some of her friends are going hiking in the mountains in northern India. Part of me wants to go see the Ganges. So many options, so little time. There is only one thing I can confirm at this point - it's going to be epic.
Finally, I want to continue to spend as much time as possible with the friends that I've made here. Tonight Ami, Kevin and I are hosting our second house party, which promises to be even better than the first. I may have made the mistake of inviting several different guys that I've been on dates with to the same party - after all, they're all cool guys who I think would get along well with my friends - though I'm wondering now if I'm setting myself up for unwanted drama. Fingers crossed nothing goes awry.
Speaking of the men I'm dating, I learned a lesson this week about telling them about my blog. On the one hand, I haven't felt the need to censor anything I write here about my dating life because I'm telling the truth. If I really like a guy and have a nice time with him, I don't sit down and give a recap of the date here on the blog. I might mention him in passing when discussing other topics, but there's no blow-by-blow of the good dates here. After all, good dates don't make very interesting reading. You guys don't want to read here about me saying "oooh he's such a gentleman, so sweet, made me laugh, etc." Booooooooooring. Instead I've been spending more time giving the details of the bad dates - and I think we can all agree there have been some spectacularly bad ones - because those are entertaining (at least for me they are - hopefully you concur). Therefore, I haven't worried too much about being friends on Facebook with some of the guys that I'm dating or with any of them having the link separately. After all, if I like them and actually care what they think, then I haven't said anything here that wouldn't be appropriate for them to read. I'm not using people's real names, and the guys who have read the blog think that the nicknames I'm using are hilarious.
The issue arose with a guy that I was friends with on Facebook but hadn't met yet. I mentioned in my last post about how I am screening guys before I meet them, sometimes using Facebook to do so. The one in particular that I mentioned yesterday - the guy who didn't pass the "sniff" test - is my Facebook friend. After all, if I wasn't friends with him on Facebook, then I wouldn't have been able to gather enough data to make a decision about whether to meet up with him! After I decided that I wasn't going to accept his invitation, I forgot to de-friend him...and I'm pretty sure he read my blog. Awkward. He texted me an out-of-the-blue "Thanks" today, which I have to assume is for writing about him and/or not responding to his last 10 text messages. Like I said, awkward. From now on, I'm going to make sure that I de-friend people on Facebook once I've decided not to meet them.
One final note: family and friends in the US - please keep sending me emails! I miss you all (even though I may never come back - after all, Booth will let me defer for a year, right?)
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