celebrity11

i had about 500 photos of me taken on sunday... at a gorgeous piece of architeture, right? HUGE. like Taj-Mahal-huge, and all the indian people wanted to do was take photos of us. of me, or hannah, of jenny. posing, or just standing there. it was like being at a zoo. families sent their kids to sit with us for a photo. it was rediculous! two guys approached Hannah/bracelets and i as we were trying to find a bathroom, asked for a photo, and we were like "uh, yeah i guess... ok? uh he." and suddenly there were like 15 dudes. allll wanting a photo of one of us and them. like solo. We've been stared at everywhere we go, but nothing was like this. people wave at us from buses, on the streets.... it's so strange. i'm not used to being stared at, just for being me. then again, i think to date i've only seen about 6 other white people in the whole city of 14 million. so. i guess i'd be staring to. staring at the gringos. or goras, as i guess we're called. (this info courtesy of Bend It Like Bekham and confirmed by Rekha, my roommate.)

I also had my first day of work today, which was CRAZY. Basically the four of us going to All Bengal (www.abwu.org), which is a non-religiously affiliated women's union that has a big school and orphanage (and an intense program for girls and women who've been victims of sex trafficking) got MAULED by little girls for about an hour. They showed us their secret handshake (which sometimes involves a swipe of the hair (a "diss") instead of the grand friendly finale handshake, and showed us their favorite dance that has the words "rambana ramaba" etc whatever what means. I'll give you a clue how it ends though, and how i could join in dancing right away: the last words of the song to the dance are in english and go "heyyyy macarena!" Some things, like the macarena, are universal. It's a very frustrating program here though, because we are basically driven to All Bengal and dropped off. and that's it. We don't know who's in charge, or what to do, and no one speaks enough english to help us out, and the office is empty, and English classes (when we'd be the most useful) are in the afternoon.... when we're not there. so. Ishani, Kseniya, Hannah and I just faked it, found a room with kids and a "teacher" (she neither said nor did anything all morning) and drew, sung, and danced with them, did some English reading and speaking, and TRIED to learn names and some basic Bengali. This is harder than I had anticipated, as i will explain shortly. The point is, that once we get over the fact that we have NO idea what to do, and feel rather unhelpful, we have a good time. i almost stole one of the girls, but she wouldn't fit in my bag.

Bengali. wowzuh. there are 4 tTs. T (hard), T (soft), Th (hard, aspirated) and Th (soft, aspirated). ok great. so what the hell does that mean?!?!?! there is G, and also Gh. and B, and Bh (which sounds like P, not to be confused with Ph (which sounds nothing like an "F") and there's one of the N's, which is "basically a sound that is impossible for a human tongue to make, so we pronounce it like this....." and he makes a sound that does not sound human at all. Anyway. there are 58 characters total, but the 12 vowels have two written worms each, depending on if they're standing alone or if they're attached to a consonant. GAAAH! This is when we all start screaming, and stick to the basics "bhaalo aache" (I'm well) and "koob bhaalo" (very good) and Jhol (water) and Aloo (potato) and that's about it. today i added "what's your name?" to my rep, but might be (to quote my mother) ordering a pizza. since all we eat is potatoes., rice and bread, i think not though.

One of the boys has been puking for two days now too, so we're NOT excited about that. and Dan gave me a cold. by sharing our tooth-brushing cup. DANG IT. (We have to use a cup to brush our teeth because the tap water is american-belly unfriendly. it's a pain, but better than getting bacteria. SO.

fruit, of course is laking in my diet, so I bought a papaya at the market (we're only supposed to eat fruit that we cut and peel ourselves....) and it was THE BEST THING I HAVE EVER EATEN. well. it was up there at least. big and ripe, and sweet, and no seeds, and only 20 cents! MUST HAVE MORE. Actually, everything is cheap here. bought a gorgeous floor-length skirt with indigo and vermillion elephants and flowers all over it for 5 dollars, and a shirt out of cotton with plant dyes for 8, and earrings for less than a dollar. whee!!! make your requests for presents now!

tomorrow is INdian Independence Day, so there's crazy emails form the US government telling us to watch out for random pakistanis with bombs, but i'm very bored about it. this culture of fear is really disgusting.

some photos: