Visit to Germany

I visited my host family in Germany and went hiking in the forest.

Hungary

So far CEU seems great. Here are some pictures of my dorm room and the
main building which is right down town.

A Trip to the Old City and Pasta Dinner

Today I went with my language partner and two of his language partner
friends and their language partners to Bapu Bazar in the old city. One
of the Indian girls was looking for presents for her parents'
anniversary. It was a lot of fun.

Tonight we celebrated my friend Pandita's birthday by making pasta and
tomato sauce from scratch. She and another girl live down the street
and are friends with Zoë who is in my house. It was great to have them
over.

My House

We live in a hotel and here are some pictures of it:

Working at the dining room table

Fourth of July

We had a small 4th of July party where we had dinner on the roof and
lit small fireworks.

Saturday in Calcutta

I spent today in Calcutta with a friend from Brown. We met her best
friend at the mall for lunch. The mall was huge and very fancy. We had
a delicious meal. Then we went to a famous Kali temple in the south of
the city. We went from there to the National Library. After that we
drove to Princep's Ghat named after the famous cartographer who also
deciphered the Ashokan inscriptions. This is where the enormous bridge
in the picture is located. We went to an area where boats do river
tours on the Hooghly but were disappointed to find that they do not
run on weekends. Then we visited the area where I stayed last time I
was in Calcutta. Finally we went to Park Street where we had a nice
meal and then went to the south of the city to attend a small Buddhist
puja.
In Calcutta people go by nicknames rather than there real names. My
friend goes by Choti and her family's driver goes by the name Mithu.
He was a great driver and kept us out of a lot of near accidents. When
we were driving from the airport we saw another car rear-end a
rickshaw hard and then continue, plowing into a cycle rickshaw full of
bags of onions. Luckily no one was hurt.
I also booked my flight through an agency called Harsh Travels. Harsh
is Hindi for happiness/excitement.

The World's First Dogman

There is an article in the newspaper about a Brazilian man who had his
face surgically transformed to look like a dog's.

On the Plane

I am sitting on a plane filled with boisterous Indian men.

Welcome to the Trtiy Rajya

Today a friend and I bought a knockoff version of scrabble. We hope to
use the board but play with Hindi letters which would be a lot of fun.

I am flying to Calcutta today to visit a friend from school. I think
it will be a lot of fun. The airport is little but clean.

Play

I went with our director and some friends to a play that was a Hindi
adaptation of the Rāmāyana.

Working in the common room:

Kuch kuch hota hai

Today we spent most of our class time watching a Bollywood movie from
the nineties called "something is going on." Most of the movie takes
place in a flashback and tells the story of Rahul who is unaware that
is best friend is in love with him and breaks her heart when he
marries a new girl at school. Luckily she dies in childbirth and Rahul
interrupts the wedding of his old best friend to marry her himself.

Field Trip to the Old City

Today we met at the institute and then took a bus ride around the
university where we went to the university book store where I got an
abridged Hindi copy of Moby Dick and David Copperfield for children.
After that we went to the Pink City, the older part of Jaipur, where
we spent some time walking around in the 100 degree heat. Finally we
went to an Oxford Press India book store and to a mall for lunch. I
spent the rest of the day booking a flight to Calcutta.
I will try to take some more photos this week to show you but I am
also making sure not to include too much personal information about
where I live and when I do what.

First Day of Classes

We had our first day of class yesterday. The program is very well
organized and the teachers were good. I had a private tutorial lesson,
public speaking, roll playing, and they brought in a Rickshaw driver
and we asked him questions. They also serve us a good lunch everyday.
Because the rain started early, it is only 100 degrees outside, but it
is still uncomfortable to walk around in the sun, and rain keeps
coming and going suddenly.

Life OK

I am in my room at the guest house where I will be staying and
watching a police drama on a channel called Life OK.

Monsoon

It is raining a lot in New Delhi but luckily I have an umbrella. Rain
through a bus window at the American embassy:

Arrival

In the Airplane

We are currently passing south of Greenland as I write this. Our plane
flew directly over Martha's Vineyard and the outer Cape but
unfortunately I am in the center row and could not see out. There are
about 60 of us on this flight. We will be arriving in Frankfurt in 4.5
hrs.

This morning I had time to visit the National Gallery with Sam and
Natalie. We only had an hour and we spent most of the time in the
Italian Renaissance wing. When we got there the museum was practically
empty.

Our layover in Frankfurt will be about five hours. Some people are
talking about going into the city but I don't think there is enough
time. Hopefully they will have some good airport food. This will be my
first time in Germany in five years. Our flight from there to New
Delhi will be another eight hours. We will stay at a hotel in Gurgaon
called IBIS for the night, go to the embassy in the morning, and then
take a bus to Jaipur, which is just a few miles away, where we will
also be staying in a hotel for the first night before meeting our host
families.

More updates later, and this message will not actually be posted until
I find Internet somewhere.

In the Hotel

We just had our orientation in Washington. It went from 9 to 4 with a
break for lunch. Unfortunately there was no time to visit the museums.
I will be meeting Sam tomorrow morning and we will try to fit one in
before checkout, which is at twelve. Our flight is leaving for
Frankfurt later that afternoon, and we will all be going to the
airport together. I will post again next time I have Internet.

To celebrate graduation and before going to India, I went on a trip to New Hampshire with my high school friends Sam, Rocky and Kenneth. We climbed Mount Lafayette:

ate at Polly's Pancake Parlor:

and stayed at Sam's house in North Woodstock:

I will be leaving for India in nine days so I am trying to pack and get ready.