at approximately 4:30 a small herd of water buffalo is going to emerge from across the street ('across the street' being a relative term here). anand is the dairy capital of the world (and means happiness!) or maybe just asia, but they don't use cows, they use water buffalo mostly to produce their milk. they're bigger and also not holy. i was really miffed until this morning, when i saw my first roadside cow. i guess last night in the dark, when i was driving to vijaynagar (where i'm staying, next to anand...it's a pretty hilar name), you don't notice the cows.

this morning i went for a walk with my host mother at 6:20 am. beforehand we fed the pigeons who roost on the roof of the house. culture shock!

the mother's walking friends laughed at me when i said namaste for hello - apparently here you say devi krishna or something that sounds like that.

i had dominos pizza for lunch. the people in the office suggested it, so okay. starting tomorrow though we are going to have homemade indian lunches.

life is very cheap here. apparently, lunch is about 45 rupees a day - 1 dollar. calling america is purportedly 1 rupee a minute...1/45 of a dollar.

100% deet ftw. more updates soon. back to work. small town india is the best.

sunday means malaria pills means two days until i arrive!

the countdown has begun (though this is all so sudden that there wasn't much time to count to begin with...i will be arriving in india exactly a week after i found out that i could go to india this summer). i am leaving monday night. i have been sleeping very little recently, which is not on purpose, but which might help me sleep for the entire flight to india (my goal).

i haven't had a blog since my embarrassing foray into livejournal. hopefully this will be more digestible in the long run.

to india and beyond! (in two days)

-ruthie