"Thanks but no thanks!"

Today is July 29th at 12:32am I am writing this, I was lying down in my bed and thoughts were flowing and i said to myself i better get this down before I forget like my brother told me i will. Shereen, have a safe journey! Shout out to Corpus Doodey!
So yes, “thanks, but no thanks” is what I said to the Geiko Lizard as i shewed him out of my bathroom in Jodpur and into somewhere in my room in Jodhpur (you follow? A lot of ‘ins’)... “I don’t want to save 15% or more on my car insurance”.

Finally, after a logistics disaster as per Canadian standards and flawless planning as per India’s standards I have safely arrived to Jodhpur. Oh the people you meet though...The night before I left, I finally made friends with some others staying in the hotel including other NGO workers so conversation was far from dull...kind probably for ALMOST everyone though. Great timing of course, but whatever I’m grateful. I met a lady named B (to respect her privacy), she is a jewellery trader and an expert on Jaipur. After talking for a while she invited me to join her for a jog (some new fad...yogging...) and a yoga session. I thought to myself a yog and a yoga how could I resist? So I woke up the earliest I have for this internship to date and went for a beautiful jog around central park in Jaipur and went through the most intense yoga session of my life, of course it was my only yoga session of my life, but still, all this up dog down dog stuff is hard stuff to do. After yog and a yoga, I went back to the hotel and we went out to dinner at Mawa Mahal Palace, now this place is piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimp even moreso than Canadian high end resteraunts, and... I had a chance to eat meat for the first time since...well...i don’t know since when. A very generous lady, she paid for everything! Then we still had the taxi for a couple of more hours so she took me around to see some of the palaces and other sik hotels in Jaipur as well as a temple where the metal detector goes off but the security waves you through anyway.......i was just as confused as you probably are right now.

This brings us to dinner. I was sitting there and when this guy walks in with his dinner and he was alone so I was just like “have a seat, alone can be boring”. Chuckles exchanged (me: haha, him: haha) and he sat down. Started talking;
“so what brings you to Jaipur?” I asked
“well I just wanted to disconnect from the world before I start law school”.
I said “hey, me too kind of, but for a little longer, what kind of work did you do that made you want to ‘disconnect’?”
“I worked for the former vice president, Al Gore”
“.....................”
“.....................”
“Cool?” I finally said. “It just so happens that I am reading his latest book ‘the assault on reason’ (Thank you anon friend for buying me it), have you read it?”
“Actually I did the research for chapters 1 and 3.”
“Well my first and last name are the same, I ate at a fancy restaurant for free, I work out A LOT and I have my own blog” (I didn’t say any of this, only thought parts of it) The conversation carried on about the book and law school, finally Elliott and I shook hands and exchanged emails, so by association I am a former employee of Al Gore. (Oh Gorey, good times pal..)

Finally, 11:30 rolls around and I am ready for my midnight train to Jodhpur, 7 hours. The taxi is there on time, I get to the station with some time to spare and a rolly guy comes up to help me with my luggage, he checks my ticket and starts laughing, I thought, “yes, thats my name rolly guy, lets go”, but he was laughing at the fact that the travel agent booked me a ticket that is for a waiting list on the midnight train. So here I am, ditched by my taxi driver, rolly guy laughing (probably at my name and how i am illiterate in Hindi), hundreds of people, my 2 over weight bags, a carry on, knapsack and dirty laundry bag that I punked from the hotel. At this point, rolly guy is my only hope so I try and act calm (far from in reality) and I start talking to him, we exchange what we have in common (Muslim, SWEET!) and he takes me under his wing for the next 45 minutes. He really helped me out, got me a seat on the train, loaded my bags, bought me Chai (Tea) and played me Hindi songs that I don’t even like on his cell phone. In return I listened to him vent about his ex-girlfriend and paid him a little extra for his help. Fair deal, no? The train ride was amazing, one of the overweight bags was on my bed in my cabin and I had the middle bed of a “triple bunk bed”, so for 7 hours I half lied down, half slept and fully heard the wonderful sounds of farts, burps, snores, sleep talkings and phlegm collecting, despite listening to my IPOD.

I arrived in Jodhpur, slept for two hours and was picked up a co worker to go to the office, but what we Canadians would refer to as the ‘desert’. It is literally in the middle of nowhere without internet. The feeling of homesickness, loneliness, overwhelment (not a word) and isolation started to really break me down. And it happened, I really broke down. But I didn’t let India beat me, not yet, hopefully not ever, a few phone calls here and there and with great support from my family and friends and I feel better than ever. I did however; gain an appreciation for how all of my fellow interns may be feeling, and if you guys are reading this, you’re not alone. Things turned around in the evening after I grew acquainted with my host family, there is a guy my age here so he took me around on his motorcycle to show me what is where (helmet on my head as per my contract), turns out I have a really good location here. He is a cool guy too, he did the same program in undergrad as myself but here in India (honours Commerce, they really emphasize ‘honours’ here, they always ask ‘honours?’ if I just say ‘Commerce’).

Part of my good location included a salon for men only. So I said I’ll go splurge. I went there, got a haircut, without saying what I wanted; he cut it the way everyone else does their hair-side part. Then the weird part happened, he started putting baby powder on my face and I was like “Kya Karta Hai?” (what are you doing?) He showed me thread...implying they thread the excess hair on the face here...and I thought to myself “when in Rome..”. So now, 30 rupees later (75 cents, BALLIN!), excess hair free, looking more Bollywood than ever I am ready for my real adventure to finally begin in Jodhpur. If you’ve read this far, I want you to know how much I appreciate you reading my blog, I know everyone is busy, but it feels good to know how much support I have back home without you guys being here.

Hum Baad mai Bhaate Karangay (We’ll talk later) I had a few minutes of internet so I thought I would make a post, I’ll have regular access next week!