This week, our real lives here began. On Tuesday, I moved into my house with my homestay family, and on Thursday, I started classes at our program. Things are all going very well and I am still enjoying my adventures around here.
My family is very sweet. They are an older couple, parents of two girls who have both gotten married and moved out of Jaipur. That explains the appeal of the homestay kids for them- they found an interesting way to battle the empty nest syndrome. The house is a small but comfortable. I have my own room with two twin beds and my own attached bathroom, which is nice. My house is in a more residental part of town which is about 15 minutes away from the program center and the main part of the city. There are eight students in that area, however, and we all share a van that picks us up for school in the morning and takes us home in the afternoon. It's a very cramped ride, but nice to be with people.
My new parents are very devout Hindus, it turns out. On my second night in their house, my mother's sister was having the dedication of a temple to Shiva that her family had constructed on their land, which is call for a large celebration. I went out with my parents, my mother's father, and my mother's aunt. We drove (with me in the middle of the back seat, between two larger Indian women) for an hour out to the country. We took one wrong turn on the way out there, and ended up driving past mud huts and farm land- a real Indian village! There were water buffalos, goats, millet fields, and children all around. The mud huts were just like in movies of long ago.
We got to the shrine when most of the people involved had been there for hours. The ceremony itself involved the women and children bathing the statue inside the temple (the lingum) with 10,000 pours of a mixture of water and milk while chanting the same line with each pour. Meanwhile, a group of men sat outside chanting an entire Hindu scripture (I didn't catch which one), with accompanying hand motions and bowing at certain times. The scene was powerful to watch, with the millet blowing in the wind and hte sun slowly setting.
After the ceremony was finished, the real fun began. The family, an extended group of people of several generations, sat around outside the house and talked. I was a hit with the children who liked to show off their impressive English vocabulary. We ate dinner sitting on the floor off of plates made of leaves, with our hands, as we do in all meals here. After more socializing, we made our way home.

I've been enjoying my classes so far. Hindi is very intense- 3 hours every morning- but I feel like I'll learn a lot from it. The main lecture class is more intensly art history than I was ready for, but Dr. Storm- the director- is an amazing lecturer, so I think I'll enjoy it a lot.

India continues to confuse me at times. While no one seems to care to put any effort into the appearance of the city- the streets are full of trash and dirt, buildings appear to be left half-built, animals scavenge everywhere, and I have yet to find any trash cans in the entire city, they have some beautiful gardens, including a nice rose garden near my house.
Most things go very slow here- I am currently in the process of trying to get a cell phone- so far it's been the most confusing process with the guy helping us leaving often to watch his friends play computer games or talk on his cell phone. I think we're almost there, though. Hopefully I'll be done soon- my mother doesn't want me out past 6:00.