The good news is, I've got the remote con back for my projector. The bad news is, it took me all evening to check the last place I would look...
Today was a bit of a wash. My partner in crime was in Dubai trawling for jobs, so I really didn't have anything exciting to do today. I went to church for the first time this week in the Mormonmobile. Yes, that's right: the Mormonmobile. One of the plethora of Mormon RAKESS teachers decided it would be a GREAT idea for us to engage one of the school vans to take us to church and back every Friday. I'll admit it has its good sides - like the fact that we leave (approximately) a half hour after the meetings end, rather than, oh, two hours, and it only costs 15 dirhams each. But on the other hand, I'm enclosed with even more people but less legroom. Oh, and I spent the entire ride back entertaining the Heusners' three year-old. Sometimes the fact that every child loves me can be a burden. However, since I had to teach Sunday School this week and didn't have the money to rent a car or take a taxi, I took - for the first time in my life - the church bus.
I should have started reading my next lesson when I got home. Socrates once told me that the elder Vigliotti girl is too smart to be Mormon, and while I disagree because I've known some fricking smart Mormon kids, she is definitely going to keep me on my toes. But no - I got home and went to the computer, where I'd downloaded the first episode of the last season of Lost, got it on the memory stick, and plugged it into the projector, only to realize I had no idea where my remote con was. I started to turn the living room upside down, but I was lethargic in spite of the fact that I slept through sacrament meeting. Also, I was fasting, and as the locals will tell you, sleep is a great way to make the experience more pleasant! So I slept about two hours this afternoon, and woke up to look around for the remote again, and, failing to find it, went in search of food and a few things from Carrefour.
One of the things was alternatives to "fizzy drinks." I keep failing to give them up, but I'm going to try again. Don't ask why. I like coke. Maybe I'll just become a social drinker - I'll go on my Thursday night binges once a week. I kind of like that idea. In the meantime, I've got Tang. Orange tang for the nostalgia of it and fresh baked crybabies in my great-mom's house as a child, although I was pleasantly surprised to find that it comes in mango and pineapple and I think one other flavor, as well.
The other thing was ice cream, which seems to have survived in spite of the fact that I forgot to put it away for...uhmmmm...two hours after I got home. I finally gave up on finding the remote and managed to manually load Lost. Five minutes before the end, Socrates called me back and so I had to restart it since I haven't figured out how to pause or fast-forward the damn thing manually, and let it play through again until it got to the right spot. Then I started looking for the remote again, incidentally finding the ice cream was sitting on the counter. I was upending furniture, which apparently involves me tripping backwards over my upside-down end table (again, I found myself cursing the fact that no one was there to be amused by it and/or be in awe of the fact that I managed to do so gracefully and with a minimum of self-damage - MAD NINJA SKILLS!!!) when my eye landed on the bag of cheetos I munched on throughout my sick day, and I thought, "Surely not." Surely so. There on top of the cheetos was my remote con, a little cheesy but none the worse for wear. Yeah. That's what my day has been like.
Yesterday I had my first sick day in five years. I probably could have toughed it out, but I didn't. Sometimes you just need to stay home and take care of yourself. So I did, and it was good.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Masalaam
This morning saw me sending the Evil One off to the Dubai airport in a bright pink taxi with a female Romanian driver. This afternoon saw me dragging my sick ass out of bed long enough to take the money she didn't have on her downstairs for her driver. Yes, I am now sad as well as sick.
It was a really good weekend, so good that come Saturday night I found myself having the Back-In-RAK blues again. I got turned around a lot, but Evil and Socrates both have excellent map reading skills, so we always got where we needed to be, although consequently I did spend a lot on SALIK tolls. We went to church and she got to experience white people giving talks again (ie, longer than 5 minutes), Filipinos singing along softly to a solo intermediate hymn, and MY fabulous youth Sunday school lesson (honestly? probably the most enjoyable calling I've had in a very long time). We went from there to Dubai Mall where we met Socrates (probably the most disorienting, surreal moment during my travels abroad...seeing Evil in a foreign land I've gotten used to, but having two completely unrelated yet significantly important individuals from different eras in my life meet up as if it ain't no thang in a mall in Dubai??? A small bit trippy, teacher, to say the least).
We returned our Burj Khalifa tickets (grr), had lunch,
experienced the wonders of a North American level bookstore in the reading desert that is Arabia, and went on our merry way to see the Palm Jumeirah...or to drive out to Atlantis, take a look around, see the lobby's Chihuly, and walk past the guard onto the back veranda...or rather, I did, Socrates failed the "pretend you belong here" test by incorrectly answering that most crucial of questions, "Are you staying at the hotel?" (he who hesitate is lost!), and the Evil One didn't even try.
We met up again later for dinner and attempted to go out dancing or something, but the music at Long's "School Disco" was not the 80's pop tunes advertised in Time Out and somebody had jetlag, so we left Socrates to his own devices sometime around midnight.
We got up and did some shopping at the Mall of the Emirates where Socrates met us before we departed for RAK (via Festival City - I needed frames from IKEA, and I promised Evil Gourmet Burgers for lunch). The rental, Socrates' Mazda 3 from last fall, was making some interesting sounds and motions, but when he popped into the gas station for drinks just past Sharjah, I made Evil say a prayer (I also made her bless the food last night - as she pointed out, I have been making her say the prayers for most of our long association), and we made it home okay, even with the pit stop at Spinney's for ingredients for Greek night. Returning the car was a bit of drama - at first the woman checking it over had the wrong sheet, and I panicked a little bit because she thought the scratches and dings were my fault. Also, I had a lot of SALIK tolls from driving up and down Sheikh Zayed and over the Garhoud bridge so much...made me miss staying in Mankhool and taking taxis. But all in all, a good time.
Yesterday I was not feeling well, and when Stephanie suggested I leave as soon as my classes were finished, I complied. And when I got home, I chose to do my resting at the beach with Evil. In fact, the beach was so restful that we decided to cancel my little dinner party, eat a late lunch, and have Greek for dinner all by ourselves, and on our sunset walk back from Hilton, we had to agree that this had been an excellent plan. We spent quite a bit of time sitting in my living room, reading our separate books. This probably seems like a boring way to spend time together, but it's just the way we are. Actually, all of our girlfriends have been known to do this from time to time; I think it's one of the reasons we all get along so well. Later I made moussaka, dolmades, tzatziki, and Greek salad, which turned out to be a lot of food for two people, and I anticipate eating it for the rest of the week (oh, darn). And, eventually, it was time for bed, and now, after an afternoon of sleeping, vomiting, and diarrhea, it is time for the same. And all I can say is, Evil better bid on somewhere this go-round that I can get a job teaching, because it would be FANTASTIC to have the dynamic duo in action year-round, although I'm not sure anywhere in the world is ready for it.
It was a really good weekend, so good that come Saturday night I found myself having the Back-In-RAK blues again. I got turned around a lot, but Evil and Socrates both have excellent map reading skills, so we always got where we needed to be, although consequently I did spend a lot on SALIK tolls. We went to church and she got to experience white people giving talks again (ie, longer than 5 minutes), Filipinos singing along softly to a solo intermediate hymn, and MY fabulous youth Sunday school lesson (honestly? probably the most enjoyable calling I've had in a very long time). We went from there to Dubai Mall where we met Socrates (probably the most disorienting, surreal moment during my travels abroad...seeing Evil in a foreign land I've gotten used to, but having two completely unrelated yet significantly important individuals from different eras in my life meet up as if it ain't no thang in a mall in Dubai??? A small bit trippy, teacher, to say the least).
We returned our Burj Khalifa tickets (grr), had lunch,
experienced the wonders of a North American level bookstore in the reading desert that is Arabia, and went on our merry way to see the Palm Jumeirah...or to drive out to Atlantis, take a look around, see the lobby's Chihuly, and walk past the guard onto the back veranda...or rather, I did, Socrates failed the "pretend you belong here" test by incorrectly answering that most crucial of questions, "Are you staying at the hotel?" (he who hesitate is lost!), and the Evil One didn't even try.
We met up again later for dinner and attempted to go out dancing or something, but the music at Long's "School Disco" was not the 80's pop tunes advertised in Time Out and somebody had jetlag, so we left Socrates to his own devices sometime around midnight.We got up and did some shopping at the Mall of the Emirates where Socrates met us before we departed for RAK (via Festival City - I needed frames from IKEA, and I promised Evil Gourmet Burgers for lunch). The rental, Socrates' Mazda 3 from last fall, was making some interesting sounds and motions, but when he popped into the gas station for drinks just past Sharjah, I made Evil say a prayer (I also made her bless the food last night - as she pointed out, I have been making her say the prayers for most of our long association), and we made it home okay, even with the pit stop at Spinney's for ingredients for Greek night. Returning the car was a bit of drama - at first the woman checking it over had the wrong sheet, and I panicked a little bit because she thought the scratches and dings were my fault. Also, I had a lot of SALIK tolls from driving up and down Sheikh Zayed and over the Garhoud bridge so much...made me miss staying in Mankhool and taking taxis. But all in all, a good time.
Yesterday I was not feeling well, and when Stephanie suggested I leave as soon as my classes were finished, I complied. And when I got home, I chose to do my resting at the beach with Evil. In fact, the beach was so restful that we decided to cancel my little dinner party, eat a late lunch, and have Greek for dinner all by ourselves, and on our sunset walk back from Hilton, we had to agree that this had been an excellent plan. We spent quite a bit of time sitting in my living room, reading our separate books. This probably seems like a boring way to spend time together, but it's just the way we are. Actually, all of our girlfriends have been known to do this from time to time; I think it's one of the reasons we all get along so well. Later I made moussaka, dolmades, tzatziki, and Greek salad, which turned out to be a lot of food for two people, and I anticipate eating it for the rest of the week (oh, darn). And, eventually, it was time for bed, and now, after an afternoon of sleeping, vomiting, and diarrhea, it is time for the same. And all I can say is, Evil better bid on somewhere this go-round that I can get a job teaching, because it would be FANTASTIC to have the dynamic duo in action year-round, although I'm not sure anywhere in the world is ready for it.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Glinda comes to Kiamo Ko
I'm at the Dubai airport. While the international adventures of the Great One and the Evil One (part three) have not quite yet begun, my adventures for the night are well under way (go ahead...ask me about Socrates' powers of distraction). At any rate, it promises to be a great weekend, but blogging on Giancarlo is taxing my patience so I'm gonna wrap this up.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Another Day, Another Dirham
I'm trying to write this between tracing classes of Year One self portraits for tomorrow. Some dumbass scheduled five of her six classes for the same day, and forgot - on the first days of this week, when I was in PYP training - to do the teacher-intensive part (or ask Olga to)...so now I've got a Sharpie high and double vision. Oh, and I'm hobbling like an old lady down the hall, because apparently my back is not up to crouching over the table after biking into work and home again today.
Yeah, that. Came through the siege perilous unscathed. The hardest part of the whole experience was getting BACK on the bike at 4:00 and riding home. The next-hardest part was taking the bridge over the creek (Bronte, Wilmarie, if you're reading...does that sound familiar? Oh, that damned bridge on the way to Yuldong Park!) In fact, Socrates took pity on me when I suggested we take Khuzam Rd on the way home instead, although he insists I've got to conquer it (blerg). Actually, I took so long getting over it on the way in that he was nowhere to be seen when I got to the corniche...which was just as well with me, it meant I could slow down a bit on the final leg, and if - Heaven forbid - he had a hypo along the way and passed out, I was going to come across him shortly thereafter (at least, I think I would have...I cut away from the corniche to take the back roads after passing Safeer, and saw fresh tire tracks along the way), and I was prepared, too - stuck a pack of lifesavers in my backpack along with the five million OTHER things I somehow seemed to need today. Anyways, it worked out well, because I didn't have to do all the ass-kicking. I don't know how thrilled Socrates was to be leaving Sunrise at 6:45, but he walked out the door on time, I didn't have to drag him out of his apartment or anything (ahem, Bronte), and although there was really nothing in me that wanted to ride home this afternoon, especially following my club, I would have rather eaten glass than admitted I was considering taking a taxi tonight and the bike tomorrow.
And since I am fairly sure he's never going to read this, I feel safe admitting it here. No glass-eating necessary.
I mentioned my club, which is the "Middle Eastern" Dance (because belly dance has some negative connotations, remember?) club...can I just say how awesome it was? I have four girls - only three actually came today, but they were absolutely lovely - all enthusiastic and good learners and we just had a lot of fun! I had a headache for several hours before, and Casey gave me some panadol, but I wasn't really feeling up to it until I got into the activity room and started to talk to them and explain what we were going to do during our eight-week session. Then the headache magically disappeared (possibly due to drugs, but still...) Instead of making me more tired, I ended up energized and able to face the 30+ minute ride back to Sunrise. Can't wait for next week!
Yeah, that. Came through the siege perilous unscathed. The hardest part of the whole experience was getting BACK on the bike at 4:00 and riding home. The next-hardest part was taking the bridge over the creek (Bronte, Wilmarie, if you're reading...does that sound familiar? Oh, that damned bridge on the way to Yuldong Park!) In fact, Socrates took pity on me when I suggested we take Khuzam Rd on the way home instead, although he insists I've got to conquer it (blerg). Actually, I took so long getting over it on the way in that he was nowhere to be seen when I got to the corniche...which was just as well with me, it meant I could slow down a bit on the final leg, and if - Heaven forbid - he had a hypo along the way and passed out, I was going to come across him shortly thereafter (at least, I think I would have...I cut away from the corniche to take the back roads after passing Safeer, and saw fresh tire tracks along the way), and I was prepared, too - stuck a pack of lifesavers in my backpack along with the five million OTHER things I somehow seemed to need today. Anyways, it worked out well, because I didn't have to do all the ass-kicking. I don't know how thrilled Socrates was to be leaving Sunrise at 6:45, but he walked out the door on time, I didn't have to drag him out of his apartment or anything (ahem, Bronte), and although there was really nothing in me that wanted to ride home this afternoon, especially following my club, I would have rather eaten glass than admitted I was considering taking a taxi tonight and the bike tomorrow.
And since I am fairly sure he's never going to read this, I feel safe admitting it here. No glass-eating necessary.
I mentioned my club, which is the "Middle Eastern" Dance (because belly dance has some negative connotations, remember?) club...can I just say how awesome it was? I have four girls - only three actually came today, but they were absolutely lovely - all enthusiastic and good learners and we just had a lot of fun! I had a headache for several hours before, and Casey gave me some panadol, but I wasn't really feeling up to it until I got into the activity room and started to talk to them and explain what we were going to do during our eight-week session. Then the headache magically disappeared (possibly due to drugs, but still...) Instead of making me more tired, I ended up energized and able to face the 30+ minute ride back to Sunrise. Can't wait for next week!
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Chapter Six
In Which I Somehow Manage To Get Back To Hyderabad, Meeting Up With A Surprise Friend From Another World Along The Way
This is the end. The end of the road. We made it into Delhi from the hellishly long train ride through the misty night at about 4:30. Since the driver fell asleep waiting for us to get in, it was well past five before we got to the Hotel Regent Continental (another winner for Narendra - gotta give it to the guy, he's good). We basically collapsed, and I was still sleeping (best bed of the trip, although maybe I was just THAT exhausted), when the Evil One started showering just before 11. At 11:10, she informed me that I'd need to wait before I tried the shower - the geyser (water heater, pronounced "geezer") needed time to reheat. So I whipped out Giancarlo, looked up the contact numbers Divya sent me earlier in the week when I asked about her being back here, and called her before hopping in the shower.
Upon finishing my shower, Evil informed me that she needed to be at the embassy at 12:30 to get a prescription for therapy in the states. Now this was not the plan we discussed at 5 a.m. that morning and I wasn't in the best of moods, anyways. Then she told me that there was a chance I might not be able to get IN the embassy. WTF? So I called Divya and we made a tentative plan to get in touch after Evil's business was concluded - she had to do some work, anyways, so it worked out. We called her as we were leaving the embassy, but since she didn't answer we headed out to central Cottage Industries on Janpath...which, it turned out, was where she was planning to have me meet her, anyways, and where, eventually, we did meet up.
Now, if you haven't had the opportunity to come together with a friend from one part of the world halfway around the globe from where you are used to seeing them, let me tell you: it is a surreal experience. Here is this lovely Indian woman I belly danced with in Omaha, but in Delhi. It made the crazy world in which I had catapulted myself seem so much more familiar and reassuring. We did a little shopping and I was blown away by how she strongarmed the merchants into giving me fairly reasonable prices. I whinge and say I don't have the money and this, that, and the other, and get some money knocked off the total, usually, but when I try her tactics, they fail miserably. The price of the priviledge that normally goes with white skin, I guess. Anyways, it was good to spend time with her, but I stayed a little too late, and I was afraid, when she told me it would take an hour to get back to the hotel where I was meeting back up with Evil, that we were going to miss our flight, which was just not cool because I HAD to get back to RAK.
(I don't know WHY I felt that so urgently, because now I'm dreading it again. Oh the impending "joy" of writing reports!)
Through the traffic I muttered under my breath, urging the tuk-tuk driver to hurry. We made it back to the hotel just five minutes after the driver was meant to pick up Evil and I to go to the airport. I paced until she made it back, a good fifteen minutes later, but we made it, off we went, and were at the airport an hour before our flight was scheduled to leave, and amazingly enough, it was on time! There were no problems in the air, or getting back on the ground, and - well, the prepaid taxi thing was a bit of a hassle, but come midnight we were back in the Hyderabad Hilton (long story about that name, maybe I'll tell you some day), and I was typing furiously to catch up this blog. Twenty-four hours later now, and I'm done. No offense, but I'm sick of y'all at this point, so don't expect anything else out of me for a while. Cheersies!
This is the end. The end of the road. We made it into Delhi from the hellishly long train ride through the misty night at about 4:30. Since the driver fell asleep waiting for us to get in, it was well past five before we got to the Hotel Regent Continental (another winner for Narendra - gotta give it to the guy, he's good). We basically collapsed, and I was still sleeping (best bed of the trip, although maybe I was just THAT exhausted), when the Evil One started showering just before 11. At 11:10, she informed me that I'd need to wait before I tried the shower - the geyser (water heater, pronounced "geezer") needed time to reheat. So I whipped out Giancarlo, looked up the contact numbers Divya sent me earlier in the week when I asked about her being back here, and called her before hopping in the shower.
Upon finishing my shower, Evil informed me that she needed to be at the embassy at 12:30 to get a prescription for therapy in the states. Now this was not the plan we discussed at 5 a.m. that morning and I wasn't in the best of moods, anyways. Then she told me that there was a chance I might not be able to get IN the embassy. WTF? So I called Divya and we made a tentative plan to get in touch after Evil's business was concluded - she had to do some work, anyways, so it worked out. We called her as we were leaving the embassy, but since she didn't answer we headed out to central Cottage Industries on Janpath...which, it turned out, was where she was planning to have me meet her, anyways, and where, eventually, we did meet up.
Now, if you haven't had the opportunity to come together with a friend from one part of the world halfway around the globe from where you are used to seeing them, let me tell you: it is a surreal experience. Here is this lovely Indian woman I belly danced with in Omaha, but in Delhi. It made the crazy world in which I had catapulted myself seem so much more familiar and reassuring. We did a little shopping and I was blown away by how she strongarmed the merchants into giving me fairly reasonable prices. I whinge and say I don't have the money and this, that, and the other, and get some money knocked off the total, usually, but when I try her tactics, they fail miserably. The price of the priviledge that normally goes with white skin, I guess. Anyways, it was good to spend time with her, but I stayed a little too late, and I was afraid, when she told me it would take an hour to get back to the hotel where I was meeting back up with Evil, that we were going to miss our flight, which was just not cool because I HAD to get back to RAK.
(I don't know WHY I felt that so urgently, because now I'm dreading it again. Oh the impending "joy" of writing reports!)
Through the traffic I muttered under my breath, urging the tuk-tuk driver to hurry. We made it back to the hotel just five minutes after the driver was meant to pick up Evil and I to go to the airport. I paced until she made it back, a good fifteen minutes later, but we made it, off we went, and were at the airport an hour before our flight was scheduled to leave, and amazingly enough, it was on time! There were no problems in the air, or getting back on the ground, and - well, the prepaid taxi thing was a bit of a hassle, but come midnight we were back in the Hyderabad Hilton (long story about that name, maybe I'll tell you some day), and I was typing furiously to catch up this blog. Twenty-four hours later now, and I'm done. No offense, but I'm sick of y'all at this point, so don't expect anything else out of me for a while. Cheersies!
Chapter Five
In Which I Am NOT A Happy Camper, In Spite Of A Rescue By Our Driver And A Roomful Of Devoted New Friends
The drive out of Khajuraho to Jhansi was not as terrible as the one coming in. Really. For starters, it was daytime, which meant we could drive a lot faster into oncoming traffic, and we could actually see what we were passing by. Made life a lot more interesting. However, this calm state was not to last. Our guide had told us that the train was two hours late, so we took our time getting back, but still ended up getting there a half hour before the originally scheduled departure time. Still, no biggie, right? I mean, we had to wait four and a half hours before, we could do two standing on our heads, I reckoned. At least, I did until I checked in and found out that no, actually our train was - at the moment - three hours late. And then, before we knew it, four hours late. Aish.
We did our best to stay calm and happy, and I wandered the platforms a little, eventually broadening out to the area around the station (which was a little bit scary), and two hours after we were supposed to depart we weren't doing so hot, when who should appear but OUR DRIVER - KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR! wanting to know if we wanted to leave the station and get some food. Can I get a "Hell yeah!"???? So we collected our belongings and followed him back into the parking lot. Now, whether or not he, out of the kindness of his heart came looking for us, or whether one of the travel agencies associated with this trip called and told him to come and get us, I don't know, but he did it, anyways. He offered to take us to his house for dinner, which was a sweet gesture, and I hated to say no, because I didn't want to take him away from his family more than we already had, but I really just wanted to enjoy a nice, relaxing meal without providing entertainment for anyone. So Evil and I gently declined, saying we didn't want to be any trouble. Probably missed out on a great cultural experience, but by that point in the game, I'd had about as much culture as I could deal with. So he took us to a restaurant in the city - a local restaurant, not a tourist one. Evil said it was probably the nicest restaurant he usually went to, and I will tell you that it was good food at great prices and reasonably clean, BUT it was a hole in the wall, and I couldn't help being a little sketched out. More than 48 hours later I still haven't suffered for it, so I guess it was for no good cause.
Anyways, we went back to the train station and each added to the tip we'd already given him, and went back to the ladies' lounge, with me stopping to make sure the train was STILL scheduled to depart at 10 (which it was). When I got to the room, what to my wondering eyes should appear but a full contingent of ajjummas? Yes, when I see Koreans my heart still leaps and proclaims, "MY PEOPLE!!!" These weren't the first we'd seen on the trip, but it was the first time I'd had a chance to talk to any of them, and the lady sitting in the corner by the Evil One got REAL excited when I asked her, "Kanchana-yo?" ("Is it okay?") claiming the only empty chair in the room. It had previously been occupied by a girl's handphone, and when she came and moved it I told her, "Kamsa-hamnida," and it was all over. I was officially the most interesting thing in a roomful of Korean ladies; they wanted to know where I'd lived in Korea and for how long and if I'd been a seong-saeng-nim? Evil was highly amused, I was happily using my bits and pieces of Hang-guk-mal with my people, and the ajjummas were delighted. Fun times all around.
Until they cleared out. Evil and I played gin with her Khajuraho playing cards (procured expressly for this purpose) for a while, and then the boredom started creeping back in. She went back to reading, I went back to embroidering my cossie and intermittently going to check on our departure time. It was extremely tedious, and I found myself, for the third time, wondering if the waiting would EVER end.
Of course, eventually, it did. But it grated on my nerves severely, and if I ever see another Indian train in my life, it will be too soon.
The drive out of Khajuraho to Jhansi was not as terrible as the one coming in. Really. For starters, it was daytime, which meant we could drive a lot faster into oncoming traffic, and we could actually see what we were passing by. Made life a lot more interesting. However, this calm state was not to last. Our guide had told us that the train was two hours late, so we took our time getting back, but still ended up getting there a half hour before the originally scheduled departure time. Still, no biggie, right? I mean, we had to wait four and a half hours before, we could do two standing on our heads, I reckoned. At least, I did until I checked in and found out that no, actually our train was - at the moment - three hours late. And then, before we knew it, four hours late. Aish.
We did our best to stay calm and happy, and I wandered the platforms a little, eventually broadening out to the area around the station (which was a little bit scary), and two hours after we were supposed to depart we weren't doing so hot, when who should appear but OUR DRIVER - KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR! wanting to know if we wanted to leave the station and get some food. Can I get a "Hell yeah!"???? So we collected our belongings and followed him back into the parking lot. Now, whether or not he, out of the kindness of his heart came looking for us, or whether one of the travel agencies associated with this trip called and told him to come and get us, I don't know, but he did it, anyways. He offered to take us to his house for dinner, which was a sweet gesture, and I hated to say no, because I didn't want to take him away from his family more than we already had, but I really just wanted to enjoy a nice, relaxing meal without providing entertainment for anyone. So Evil and I gently declined, saying we didn't want to be any trouble. Probably missed out on a great cultural experience, but by that point in the game, I'd had about as much culture as I could deal with. So he took us to a restaurant in the city - a local restaurant, not a tourist one. Evil said it was probably the nicest restaurant he usually went to, and I will tell you that it was good food at great prices and reasonably clean, BUT it was a hole in the wall, and I couldn't help being a little sketched out. More than 48 hours later I still haven't suffered for it, so I guess it was for no good cause.
Anyways, we went back to the train station and each added to the tip we'd already given him, and went back to the ladies' lounge, with me stopping to make sure the train was STILL scheduled to depart at 10 (which it was). When I got to the room, what to my wondering eyes should appear but a full contingent of ajjummas? Yes, when I see Koreans my heart still leaps and proclaims, "MY PEOPLE!!!" These weren't the first we'd seen on the trip, but it was the first time I'd had a chance to talk to any of them, and the lady sitting in the corner by the Evil One got REAL excited when I asked her, "Kanchana-yo?" ("Is it okay?") claiming the only empty chair in the room. It had previously been occupied by a girl's handphone, and when she came and moved it I told her, "Kamsa-hamnida," and it was all over. I was officially the most interesting thing in a roomful of Korean ladies; they wanted to know where I'd lived in Korea and for how long and if I'd been a seong-saeng-nim? Evil was highly amused, I was happily using my bits and pieces of Hang-guk-mal with my people, and the ajjummas were delighted. Fun times all around.
Until they cleared out. Evil and I played gin with her Khajuraho playing cards (procured expressly for this purpose) for a while, and then the boredom started creeping back in. She went back to reading, I went back to embroidering my cossie and intermittently going to check on our departure time. It was extremely tedious, and I found myself, for the third time, wondering if the waiting would EVER end.
Of course, eventually, it did. But it grated on my nerves severely, and if I ever see another Indian train in my life, it will be too soon.
Chapter Three
In Which I Realize I Don't Know How to Count (Nor Do I Care) and Have A Temple Experience That Has Absolutely Nothing To Do With Being A Good Little Mormon Girl
We got up early to go out to Khajuraho - I really wanted to beat the tourists, and heading out at 7 was not really what I considered early after my trip with Belinda last year. I've got to tell you, there is a short list of coolest-ever places I've traveled. Until Tuesday, it included only Fushimi-Inari-Taisha in Kyoto and the Basilica Cistern in Istanbul, but I'm adding Khajuraho to the list. And not just because of the erotic sculpture (see, I told you it had nothing whatsoever to do with being Mormon...) which the temples are famous for (seriously, I learned about them in my Asian art history class). There is just something organic about Hindu architecture, and the sheer wealth of detail with which every surface of the temples are embellished is mind-blowing. Me likey. Also cool was the fact that the last temple we came to had a monkey infestation. Literally. The place was crawling with them. It was very reminiscent of the Jungle Book.
Well, I liked the sculpture so much that I decided I HAD to have my own little sandstone sculpture to take home with me, of one of the less explicit erotic couples. During the process of haggling the sales guy kept trying to pawn some of the more exciting ones off on me - he didn't really get the fact that I just was not into threesomes, foursomes...moresomes...bestiality...nope, not really my bag. I also happened to notice that he had miniatures, and I really wanted to buy myself a painting from India, so I asked to see some. Maybe I even asked to see some that were "Kama sutra style," because I was maybe feeling naughty and some of the illustrations are not as explicit. Of course, though, I mean, come on, if you're a tourist and you're buying a miniature, and you want a kama sutra illustration, you're NOT (probably) looking to get something you can put on your wall, right? So they didn't exactly have what I was looking for, and the following conversation ensued:
Me: Hmmm. Well, these aren't really what I was looking for.
Salesguy: Is good.
Me: Oh, yes, very nice, but my mother would freak if she came to my home and saw this on the wall.
Salesguy: No. Sex is natural.
Me: Yes, Sex is natural.
Salesguy: Without sex you not be here.
Me: Oh no, you're right, but I'm looking more for something about love.
Salesguy: You love, you sex. They go together.
Me: Of course, but again, not something my mother really needs to see.
And with that I grabbed my sculpture and scampered off to another part of the shop, where Evil was bartering over "pashmina" shawls.
We saw the eastern temple group, and then our guide offered to take us to the old village, where he lives, and he explained about the different castes and showed us around. The Evil One and I emptied our pockets of coins, as the children - and some of the old ladies - who had obviously seen a whitey or two in their day, were unabashed at coming up and saying, "Hello? Rupee? Hello? Rupee?" and having their picture taken.
After that, it was lunchtime (Indian at a roof-top tourist restaurant), followed by a Evil-induced trip to the bookstore up the street (she'd read all of her books, and the one I had that she hadn't read yet, plus one that she'd bought in Agra - which is an emergency in Evilworld), where I found A Short History of Nearly Everything (which came highly recommended by Dougie-Poo, and as books are cheap here, it joined the dozen or so that I am ALREADY bringing back). Thus situated, we were ready to brave the long road back to Jhansi, and it was only 12:30. Not bad. No, BAD would come later on that day. Stay tuned.
We got up early to go out to Khajuraho - I really wanted to beat the tourists, and heading out at 7 was not really what I considered early after my trip with Belinda last year. I've got to tell you, there is a short list of coolest-ever places I've traveled. Until Tuesday, it included only Fushimi-Inari-Taisha in Kyoto and the Basilica Cistern in Istanbul, but I'm adding Khajuraho to the list. And not just because of the erotic sculpture (see, I told you it had nothing whatsoever to do with being Mormon...) which the temples are famous for (seriously, I learned about them in my Asian art history class). There is just something organic about Hindu architecture, and the sheer wealth of detail with which every surface of the temples are embellished is mind-blowing. Me likey. Also cool was the fact that the last temple we came to had a monkey infestation. Literally. The place was crawling with them. It was very reminiscent of the Jungle Book.
Well, I liked the sculpture so much that I decided I HAD to have my own little sandstone sculpture to take home with me, of one of the less explicit erotic couples. During the process of haggling the sales guy kept trying to pawn some of the more exciting ones off on me - he didn't really get the fact that I just was not into threesomes, foursomes...moresomes...bestiality...nope, not really my bag. I also happened to notice that he had miniatures, and I really wanted to buy myself a painting from India, so I asked to see some. Maybe I even asked to see some that were "Kama sutra style," because I was maybe feeling naughty and some of the illustrations are not as explicit. Of course, though, I mean, come on, if you're a tourist and you're buying a miniature, and you want a kama sutra illustration, you're NOT (probably) looking to get something you can put on your wall, right? So they didn't exactly have what I was looking for, and the following conversation ensued:
Me: Hmmm. Well, these aren't really what I was looking for.
Salesguy: Is good.
Me: Oh, yes, very nice, but my mother would freak if she came to my home and saw this on the wall.
Salesguy: No. Sex is natural.
Me: Yes, Sex is natural.
Salesguy: Without sex you not be here.
Me: Oh no, you're right, but I'm looking more for something about love.
Salesguy: You love, you sex. They go together.
Me: Of course, but again, not something my mother really needs to see.
And with that I grabbed my sculpture and scampered off to another part of the shop, where Evil was bartering over "pashmina" shawls.
We saw the eastern temple group, and then our guide offered to take us to the old village, where he lives, and he explained about the different castes and showed us around. The Evil One and I emptied our pockets of coins, as the children - and some of the old ladies - who had obviously seen a whitey or two in their day, were unabashed at coming up and saying, "Hello? Rupee? Hello? Rupee?" and having their picture taken.
After that, it was lunchtime (Indian at a roof-top tourist restaurant), followed by a Evil-induced trip to the bookstore up the street (she'd read all of her books, and the one I had that she hadn't read yet, plus one that she'd bought in Agra - which is an emergency in Evilworld), where I found A Short History of Nearly Everything (which came highly recommended by Dougie-Poo, and as books are cheap here, it joined the dozen or so that I am ALREADY bringing back). Thus situated, we were ready to brave the long road back to Jhansi, and it was only 12:30. Not bad. No, BAD would come later on that day. Stay tuned.
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