Morris Dancing!
With Muddies!
And other peoples!
Awesome peoples!
Singing!
And Kickball!
Rocking-Out!
Big-Ass-Van travel!
I'd never been to Ontario before!
New Facebook friends!

I had a good weekend, I hope everyone else did too.
But I have to work in the morning at 6:30. Darn their eyes.

Butter!

Will she ever stop with the awesomeness? an album of Agnostic Gospel.

I really like this ridiculously expensive bathing suit.

having taken the box set of this out of the library, I now understand why I kept hearing how I (and everyone else) should have watched it so it would stay on tv. Oh well. Now I have to decide whether I should try to watch the entire thing before I leave tomorrow, or buy it for myself, in which case I don't want to rush it, cause its so good. Sigh.

this is totally transfixing

click wear it says click here for video. Its brilliant, and yet, totally inane.

So today I was walking to the library and enjoying the fine spring weather, when a young fellow leaned out of his car window and yelled something at me. This struck me as significant, because today is four days after I arrived home from India, where I was for just over two months, and it constitutes more sexual harassment than I encountered the entire time I was there. I think this brings up several possibilities to consider. Its is very possible that:
1) I may look particularly fetching today, and am certainly cleaner (and therefore maybe prettier) than I was at any time in India. Indeed, I myself thought my outfit today was quite chic (or at least adorable), but consisting of a sweater vest, white button down shirt and jeans, I don't think anyone would consider it provocative.
2) It is possible that this individual knew me in some way. I did not get a real look at him, nor did I understand what he said. Thus, it is also possible that he was helpfully telling me about a sign stuck to my back or something hanging stuck to my show. But I doubt it.
3) I was incredibly sheltered in India. It is certainly true that I never took a city bus, or any of the really crowded train cars. I also spent quite a lot of my time with ethnically Indian people. But I also walked around by myself a lot, especially in the more crowded old city, ate in restaurants by myself, and generally just lived in the city.
4) Eve-teasing may in real truth be a) significantly diminishing in the last couple of decades all over India and b) not nearly as much an issue in Madurai as in bigger cities and in the North.

But here's the thing. I was continually warned about being a white woman in India. That men would masturbate in public while staring at me, that they would grab me whenever possible and stand in my way on the street, that I would be stared at and assumed to be a whore.
What I experienced was different. Maybe I was naive and not seeing it, maybe I was thick-skinned and not seeing it, but my own personal experience was nothing of the kind. Lots of people stared at me, but it was women as well as men, and especially children. I never felt that anyone assumed I was interested in sex. Men standing in groups on the street would chide each other if one of them did not move out of my way because he didn't see me. I felt that the people I met respected me greatly, although I usually couldn't tell why, except that I was American and youngish and had come to meet them.
I don't know what to make of this. I don't know how to respond when people try to engage me in conversations about it. I don't know what advice I will give to other women who will travel to India. It is clearly an issue, I would hate to discount the experiences of others, but I also want my experience to be heard.


In other news, Blooming Dogwoods would make a really great band name. Especially if some of the band members were British and some were East Coast Americans. And the music was kind of punk-y appalachian ballads or something. yup.

being back in boston and all, Mom and I are going (incredibly late) to the river for celebrating.

good morning!

I've arrived here no problem, and everything is lovely, though its a bit odd to adjust to a city where you really need to take taxis to get anywhere, and there are things like McDonalds and pizza shops. Also, I think in the last 3 days here I've seen as many or more white people as I did the entire time I was in Madurai. Admittedly, I've been rather a lot at tourist-type places.

Yesterday I went to Humayun's Tomb, which is a lovely area of old tombs and gardens and things. Humayun was the second Mughal Emperor, but not a very impressive one, and the building was put up by his son, Akbar, after he was gone.

( cut without witty text :( )

And I got pretty sunburnt to a point where I couldn't do much else but sit and drink water last night and this morning. Smart going me!

Yes, tomorrow morning I'm leaving. Bright and early, and I better get to bed soon. But today has been really nice, with church in the morning and then walking around the city a bit and packing. Also, Sunita and Jethro came to the guesthouse because the celebration hall underneath their flat was being very noisy today and all last night, so I got to say goodbye and have some nice time with them.
And now all thats to do is leave the city where I've achieved some level of comfortability and go somewhere else!

and I'm not very happy about it.

I feel kind of silly about it, but I'm also just really grossed out and freaked. Also, the advice I have gotten from everyone (and followed, obviously) seems so different from the American way. I remember hearing about people whose kides got lice having to throw away everything in the bedroom, superheat and then supercool everything, blah blah blah, and all they're telling me to do is wash my hair with this special shampoo every week for four weeks. My understanding is that it stuns the lice, and then when you carefully comb through right afterwards, they just fall out. And they certainly did fall out when I combed. Yuck. Sensible, I guess, but I do think I'm going to try and do it every couple of days, not once a week.
Also, I can't figure out how I got them. Obviously, they could have been in any number of places, and jumped to my head, but its not like I've been wearing hats or rubbing my head against anyone's or anything. I don't know, plus there's a whole stigma of being dirty thing, which, I know, isn't true at all, but still freaks me out a bit.

Anyway, this was supposed to be a post with lots of my pictures from the last while, but I got sidetracked. Some are uploaded already, but I'll post them later, with a little explanation.

Oh, and I have less than a week left here. Its only just hitting me. Then I'll be in Delhi for a little, then home again, home again, clippity clop.

Today they didn't really know what to do with me at the skill training center, so they painted my hand with henna. Its pretty cool, but I didn't really know what was going on until they pulled my hand up and started painting. It was a bit like having brown icing piped onto me, but it smells different, and dries, and dyes your hand. Yeah, I'm coherent tonight.

It was Sam's last night here before going on to Chennai, so we had dinner and went up one of the Kashmiri shops to look at the temple from above.

Also, tomorrow I start running my first programme alone. Not freaked at all, thats me. But actually, I met with the principal of the school today, and she seemed very nice, and quite forgiving if anything goes horribly horribly wrong.

Well, Erin's gone. I don't know how I feel about it. Obviously, I knew she was going, and so did everyone else, but it still feels a lot like none of us are really prepared, especially with what my programme will be. I'm just a bit freaked, I guess.
But I also think I'm having a really hard time because I haven't had any time until now to deal with myself. In the past week or so, we've just been constantly in one of two modes: Erin's freaking out, or she's temporarily fine and I can't do anything that might make her go back to it.
Anyway, its all me now, and as long as I can figure out my flight situation, I should be fine.

( here's some snaps from lately )

ps- can anybody remember all the words to the 'dwarves are short' round?

Well, I know when you go to India you're supposed to get sick. But you're supposed to get sick to your stomach. I didn't seem to get the memo, as I am fairly miserable, but with a ridiculous head cold. Seriously, a head cold. Its the hot season, and its India, comeon. But I shall persevere.

some things I love and don't love about being here:
+ there's a fabulous ad on tv with butterflies digitally added to a wedding scene. Lots of the ads are much longer than on American tv, and at first I thought this one was a music video. Also, they seem to love digital effects in ads.
+ last night Serenity was on hbo here. Also, the history channel here plays 'historical' movies as well as documentaries like at home
- the other night I was watching Sharpe's Battle on the history channel (!), when it went to commercials like normal, but when it came back, it was an entirely different show, something about dogfights in the Korean war. humph.
+ I really like the way the light looks here. ( here's a picture I took to illustrate a little )
+ all the students we have had are really fantastic. The boys at the boys home are adorable, and the teachers for whom we did an English course gave us cucumbers and little figurines and dressed us up in Saris so we could learn how to wear them.
+ getting to know Erin better is great
- Erin being the only one here I can lean on (I'm not very good at leaning on anyone anyway) and being with her almost all the time is a little wearing.
+ I like being able to be barefoot. Pretty much whenever I want.
- I miss home a little, and am sad I won't be able to go to Neffa, and all that kind of sadness.

- I HATE fans. I think it probably had to do with my head being all stuffed up, but I can't stand having that kind of direct air on my face. I also really dislike a/c, always have. On the other hand, its crazy hot in the midday, and its only going to get hotter while I'm here.

And there are always plenty of other things, of course, but I'm pretty tired, and can't really think of them.

Well, maybe being here is going to be what makes me update more often. I certainly feel I have mnore of interest to say.
Today we went to church with one of the YMCA Secretaries. It was certainly an interesting experience, and it was interesting to meet more of the upper middle class and educated people of the city. I am finding it very hard to judge the makeup of the city, and know how much of what I see on the street is really the lives of everyone, or just the lower sorts. (wow, that phrase sounds very condescending, doesn't it?) The church was beautiful, and a nice walk from the YMCA. They had some fun song singing, but most of the hymns didn't seem to have much of any tune. And the sermon was sort of strange, probably just because I'm not part of their community. But it was all very comforting, and I am definitely hoping to go back.

We've not really started all of our programming yet, so we've been watching quite a lot of tv, which is actually very interesting. Almost all the announcers, if not Indian, seem to have American accents. The only exception I have found so far is televised football and cricket matches. There is a remarkable amount of American tv on here, and I do think it is a little silly that this is the first time in my life I have had HBO. But I haven't seen any bbc, except news, and no other tv. Lots of hindi movies, and lots of music videos.

I have a tutoring session tonight with the boys from the YMCA Boys Home (basically an orphanage) who are taking their government exams. They want help with their grammar, which I enjoy, but its been a long time since I've done it myself in school, and I only hope I do not teach them anything wrong. eep.

Well, I am here. I have been here, but this is my first chance at a computer. I got into Mumbai Tuesday night, then flew to Chennai Wednesday, then took an overnight train here to Madurai. And I am finally starting to settle in. I wish I understood the layout of the city better, and I feel very very dependent on others, but luckily the others have been very nice and helpful.
I was doing very well at not being homesick until I got to the computer and thought about who to email. Not that I have very much time. I am taking up too much of the office hére's time as it is.
In any case, I miss you all, and I wish I had enough time to read my whole friends page, but its been almost a whole week.

So I finished the cardigan I've been working on for nearly a year now, but it fits badly and is ugly and really needs to be taken apart and reworked. However, having just finished it and it taking, as mentioned, a crazy long time, I was frustrated and not in the mood to deal with it.

On the other hand, I had bought lots and lots more yarn than I ended up needing, so I decided to do something else with it, to ease my suffering. And a week later, tada! Green Gable.

Knit in Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool, some dark teal kind of color. I had about 2.5 skeins left, so I figured I would knit it in the small size and if it didn't fit, I would give it to someone else. Someone smaller.

And as predicted, I would enjoy it more if it were bigger, so I may end up shipping it to my sister to see if she likes it, but it does fit, and looks pretty decent. And it feels very satisfying. I really liked the pattern, and will certainly do it again, although probably bigger, maybe in the cotton fleece, and possibly with yo's for the raglan increases, because it seems like it would fit with the lacy pattern in front, and I didn't really like the asymmetry of the increases in the pattern.

( several too many pictures )

I've never made any kind of candy before (defined as something where you need to cook sugar syrup to a particular hardness stage and then do something to it) and frankly, it terrified me. So this is way exciting:



( many more pictures, and description, under cut. yay! )

Kate Rusby is so utterly fantastic. Seriously.

today was nice. We went down to the new ICA, and saw the exhibit there, on vision and stuff. It was a nice exhibit, although certainly it had its fantastic parts and its meh bits. But I'd never really looked at the building before, either, and we walked around in the ridunculous weather for a bit.

Anyway, my parents have gone to a party, but the odds of my getting anything done tonight have gone down approximitely 95% when I just noticed that they're playing Band of Brothers on the History channel. Sigh.

I think I am going to Sri Lanka this winter.

Um, okay, all movies need to have chase scenes in canoes. Also, Cora Monro would be an amazing person to slash with Elizabeth Swann. And, there are no rhodedendrons around here.
Tomorrow I'll be 22, but it doesn't really feel like it matters. I won't be an adult until I figure myself out anyway.
The monarch butterflies started to come through on their way South about a week ago, and now they're flitting around all over the place.

Betcha didn't know about that holiday, eh? Well, go out and hack up your local patch of Japanese Knotwood in honor of the occasion. But don't mow it. And be sure you pick up all the little bitty pieces. And by no means throw it away before you let it sit in black plastic bags for a ginormous amount of time. Anyway, um, have fun. Or just pull out any Garlic Mustard you see, I guess.

( And here is a recipe for Scripture Cake )