#i just realized that only the first 2 sprites have the AI's eye color

[shinskinhelp]

A bunch of self indulgent AI Shin sprites!

[interlacedblog]

updates 1/2 - Goa

Our Diwali break started Friday. Our weekly Friday excursion was put aside and we had a party in the afternoon instead. I wore my sari which was finished just in time for the party; it’s a pale blue-grey with gold stripes. I’ll post a picture (I keep saying that. I’ll actually do that today). We introduced all of our host parents to the other students, and our parents introduced us to the other parents. It seemed like everyone was matched with their family really well and everyone is settled now. I feel a little more settled, anyway. I still get homesick, especially lately, but the semester is officially half over. A lot has happened since my last post so I’m not sure where to start, chronologically. I guess I’ll just type and see where it takes me.

The last weekend of September, most of us students took a holiday in Goa since we had that Monday off. We had to book a random, inexpensive hotel last minute because we waited too long to book the original one we were looking at and it was taken by someone else. After a very long, twelve-hour bus ride, we arrived in Goa near Baga beach Saturday morning. We were able to check in early to the rooms we booked: two rooms for the 11 of us. The rooms each came with a pretty large bed, but the people renting out the room gave us extra mattresses to lay on the floor. My room had five people, with me and the other two girls on the bed and two of our three boys on the floor mattresses. Sharing the room, bathroom, and deciding what to do with the air conditioning (everyone but one person wanted it off; too cold) took some adjusting but it didn’t become too big of a problem since we were there only two nights. Saturday we went to the beach, which the room owner said was a mere five minute walk from where we stayed. It was at least 15 minutes, maybe more depending on the heavy traffic that squeezed through the small, very muddy streets near the beach. The water was salty and a perfect temperature. The sand was fine and not too hot to stand on barefoot. We had been told that the farther south you go in India, the less people stare or take photos without permission. I thought maybe Goa was south enough of Maharashtra that we could escape the unwanted attention like we had received at Ajanta-Ellora. Not south enough, it turned out. Later, a friend told me that south Goa beaches, the ones meant for tourists and rich people, are safer and kinder to travelers. Oh well, next time.

Saturday night in Goa was fun though. I went to my first nightclub (ever) after we had dinner at a restaurant which served cheap, strong drinks. I might’ve gotten more than tipsy that night. The first club we went to was very small but being a group of Americans comes with perks, I guess. They first gave us a free round of shots, then a *whole* free bottle of sprite and vodka. I was more interested in dancing, for the record, if my family happens to read this.We stayed there a while and then moved on to the famous club in the area, Tito’s. I broke my shoe while dancing there and the lady checking bags confiscated an apple that I had bought earlier in the night for breakfast the next day. A stray dog laid at the base of the steps going up to the dance floor and I thought it must be so loud for it to lay there, but when we came down to leave later it was gone. The bag-checking lady still had my apple when I left and I took it, proud of intoxicated-me for looking out for morning-after me by providing a healthy breakfast. In the morning, I woke up early and with an unhappy stomach. The first bite of my apple hit a rotten spot, but I thought nothing of it and decided to eat around the spot. A few bites later I realized the apple was inhabited by worms. Many worms. I walked down the road to find a different breakfast.

The rest of the weekend was somewhat uneventful, but welcome after all the work we were doing for our classes. We had lunch at another well-known place and a few of us walked around shops for a while before heading to the beach one last time. The day before I had worn my one-piece swimsuit with shorts over it but that didn’t stop a group of guys around our age from harassing us. They circled around us in the water when we didn’t even look their way and splashed us in the face. The saltwater hurt my eyes but I’m glad they didn’t try anything else. Sunday, I skipped the swimsuit altogether and wore a new tourist-y Goa t-shirt with loose, black pants and just stood in the water up to my knees. Nearby, two of the other girls from our group were repeatedly telling another group of men that they don’t want their picture taken when one of them threw sand at their faces. We left soon after that. A few of us were expertly pressured into buying some anklets from women selling mostly to foreigners. They said things like, “Your skin is so fair and pretty! Not like us, we look like monkeys.” We were all made uncomfortable by this and I wasn’t sure if they believed it as a result of the colorism that came during the colonial times or if it was just a clever compliment to boost sales. I can’t say for sure but I think about it often.

The next morning, we left with our hired bus driver to begin the long drive home. Home, because that’s what Pune is feeling like now. Especially after going out of state where we could not communicate with the little Marathi we had learned. In only three or four days I had started to miss the pace of the city and the routine I had settled into. And I missed my ai’s cooking, and watching Marathi serials with them at dinner. I can’t wait to get home, real home, and see my real mother and my dogs and all my friends at school. But I can tell that leaving Pune will also be very difficult. I have friends here now, and a temporary family. I look for familiar stray dogs when visiting different parts of the city. I know where to find the most reliable rickshaws, and I know how to tell them when they’ve charged me too much. People look surprised when I show understanding when listening to a conversation, and when I even contribute to it. I feel like part of me has rooted here, fed by the daily rains that should have stopped with monsoon season. Before I know it, it’ll be time to dig them up again to board a flight back to the US.