This weekend proved very therapeutic after the rush of the last few weeks. Dr. Storm (or Mary, as we had to call her all weekend) offered for some people to come to her country house, about three hours from Jaipur, for the weekend. Seven of us took advantage of this offer. We left early Saturday morning and got there by mid-morning. The house itself used to be a hunting palace for the maharaja. Mary and Guy (her husband) have a lease from the local maharaja for the house. It's located in a small village, with amazing views of the hills and countryside all around it. The house itself, due to the climate, is a of very open design: four bedrooms around big central areas, all opening onto big porches. The best part of the house, for us, was the beautiful pool. With the almost 100 degree weather and no air conditioning to retreat to, the pool is very appealing. We spent hours in the pool, reading, talking, swimming, basking in the sun and rejoicing in the fact that we weren't completely covered for once in our trip to India. We also went to a tiger reserve about 10 kilometers from the house. It's actually no longer home to any tigers (they were all poached and were declared gone in 2003, I believe), but we did get to see lots of monkeys, deer, antelopes, other antelope-like creatures, birds, and some others. The most exciting points had to be getting attacked by a swarm of people, mostly school children. They surrounded our jeep while we sat in the back and spoke very broken English and asked to shake our hands and have their pictures taken. My favorite comment was from an older man who did most of the talking to us. He told us "Jaipur is a very American city because Abraham Lincoln came here first". I believe he may have been referring to Bill Clinton's visit to Jaipur a few years ago (something Jaipurians are really proud of and talk about a lot), but you never know... On the way back out of the preserve, we also got attacked by a monkey. It jumped into the car, onto the dashboard, and stole food from our driver. It appears to have been set up, from the enjoyment our drivers got from our reaction (we all screamed- JB, who is afraid of monkeys, was the most entertaining). Besides that, we had the chance to eat fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and corn on the cob (with silverware- not our hands!) while drinking wine and cocktails. It was nice to be out of such Indian places for a few days, but also made us all ready to get back to our houses and families.
Next weekend, we're going to Delhi for a few days, then to Varanasi. I'm very excited about the trip- it's going to be a lot of fun and very interesting. I'm also excited to see Varanasi, since it's probably where I'll be spending most of my ISP month for research.
Today was "Sari day" for Laura and I- the first brave students to wear saris to class. It's more comfortable than I thought it would be. My mother put it on me, thankfully. I would have been a disaster at doing it myself. I now want more saris- useful as they'll be in the US... To celebrate our success in the saris, and to treat ourselves to a good night, some of us are going out to dinner- or we're calling it a Kitty party (something Indian women do sometimes- where they go out to eat as a group)- which should be nice. I haven't really done much without my family or professors since I got here. I was told I can be out until 10:00 tonight! It's better than my normal 6:00 curfew.
The high levels of incompetence here still amaze me. Somehow our cell phones are all getting cut off right now because forms weren't properly filed. Despite five people working at a coffee shop, it still takes a long time to get a drink. Stamps and envelopes don't stick at all, even if they're licked properly.
It's still hot as hell and everyone around me is getting sick (I still haven't had any serious problems, thank god...), but everyone is in better spirits. This may be the beginning of Phase 3!