It just keeps getting better

Banaras keeps getting better. Katie visited me for the weekend, so I've kind of taken a vacation from work to hang out with her. I'm not taking any other vacations, so I can justify it.
When Katie wasn't around to distract me, I'd worked up a very nice schedule.
I get up at 6:30, meet Pinku-ji (my advisor- best advisor ever!) on the ghat at 7:00, do an interview on the ghat, go to Mia-ji (my academic director in Jaipur)'s Banaras family's restaurant on the ghat (outside patio looking over the river) for breakfast at 8:00, write up the interview during breakfast. After breakfast, I walk down the ghats for a while people watching and often making friends. At 11:30, we have lunch in the guesthouse. I then read/plan out my paper/do more interviews/go to the internet cafe/chill until dinner with Sarah. Sometimes we watch trash tv or HBO (it's so nice to stop thinking for a few hours a day). Sometimes we spend hours going on rants about religious studies or other topics we agree on. Then I'm in bed relatively early and up early for another lovely day.
My research is going really well. I plan on writing a draft of the paper in the next few days (be ready, mom) to see what else I need to get people to say. I'm really getting interested in this ecological religious studies perspective. Who knew?
Yesterday, I went to an astrologer (Sarah's guru- she's studying astrology for her ISP). He didn't exactly capture me, or at least I hope so. He told me that there were 5 people in my family and that my mom doesn't get along with the rest of the family well, but corrected himself when I told him he was wrong. I'm going to marry the man I was married to in a past life- we're going to meet while I travel in May. He'll be a great husband, but I'll have a lot of problems because I'm too bossy. I'm going to be a journalist, but will never be happy. I'll die an easy death at age 72. Good thing I don't believe him, or I'd be pretty depressed in my own future.
The New York program is here in Banaras for a few weeks and has invited me to their lectures. I went to one last night, and am going to another tomorrow. The more I hear about their program, the happier I am with SIT. We are given so much freedom to make this program whatever we want. We are also treated like adults- I'm living and traveling on my own in India! That's really intense, but will be so helpful in the future.
Katie and I are getting up tomorrow to see the sunrise on the Ganges. I'm more interested in the people who are also up to see the sunrise on the Ganges and to watch their pujas.