More thoughts

I have developed a habit here in Calcutta that I need to kick. I don't get out of the house till the late afternoon and it doesn't feel good. Tomorrow is the wedding, so after that I am committed to making plans for my days.

I finally arranged for a tour through " Kali travel home" (website: traveleastindia.com). They do walking tours through the city for a really affordable price, and the more people who join, the less it costs per person. They also cater the tour specifically to your and/ or your groups preferences. What a great idea! If I ever settle in India, I would definitely consider doing that.

I also finally went to new market in Calcutta the other day. What an adventure. It is a humongous bazaar, both outside and inside. Inside it's a totally nonsensical maze of a building and covered stalls. In the top floor there are bunch of tailors who make the clothing that is for sale downstairs. The top floor is also totally dilapidated, the corners are full of cobwebs, and entire sections are in heaps of rubble and loose metals.

Because it's just after christmas, there are still bizarre set ups of trees, lights, and pasty Santa Clauses. Very kitchy, creepy, and silly. Rebecca's family is in town and a lot of them have good cameras that take excellent pictures, so last night her brothers girlfriend took some funny pictures of us in the downtown park street area of calcutta. There were giant plastic, electronic santas and reindeer and, who would have figured, giant white electronic elephants intermittently rearing their front feet in nightmarish squeaking creaking moans. The photos come out sooo much better on a nice camera than they do on my iPod. Which brings me to my next topic.

I could just kick myself for not bringing my computer! It's really made things more difficult. Typing on my tiny little iPod is starting to drive me totally crazy. And it's not ideal having to coordinate using other people's computers. How did I ever survive without a computer!? How did people write before typewriters!? I mean, wow, the things I take for granted - not long ago everyone had to handwrite everything!

I think I might be starting to hit the point where I am getting accustomed to certain things in India that I welcomed with eyes full of curiosity and awe when I first got here. There I things I picked up right away that I had wanted to talk about and now I brush past these thoughts and observations as if they are an every day occurrence - which they are, it's true. For example, I still want to talk about Indian bathrooms and kitchen paraphernalia. (they're not related in any way, of course! I just happened to put them in the same sentence just now, lol)