How We Do

Let's talk logistics.

India is a really interesting place to live, and I think we have some really interesting solutions to logistical issues and how we do things, even the most mundane chore.

MEALS.

Our hostess Renee is currently in New York for her son's wedding (although some of her other family members are here), and since she's gone, we don't have access to her cook. So how are the fabulous people of the commune surviving? Tiffins. The tiffin service in India is widely used. A tiffin is a set of small stainless steel containers complete with a hot meal. Everyday we call our tiffin service provider, and for a small cost that Renee is supposedly taking care of, we have a hot Indian meal (daal, roti, rice, and a veggie) delivered hot in the evening at the time of our request. In the morning, we leave the tiffins outside for collection, and the process repeats itself. Millions of Indians use tiffins everyday as a means of getting a hot lunch or dinner delivered home or to their place of work.

I myself have been avoiding the tiffins because I'm not particularly fond of daal or roti. I am basically subsisting on muesli and mangoes. Not true. I've actually fallen madly in love with chicken sandwiches from the likes of KFC and McDonalds. I would never "crave" fastfood in the United States, but I can't tell you how good American fastfood tastes in India. Words cannot describe it....

LAUNDRY.

Laundry is done by our dolbiwallah (probably misspelled that) who charges 5 rupees per piece of clothing. For 5 rupees, your shalwaar (or whatever) gets washed, dried, and pressed. Not a bad deal when an American dollar is the equivalent of about 47-50 rupees.... It's cheaper and better quality than my options at an American dorm.

TRANSPORTATION.

Cycle rickshaws have become a staple of my existance in India. It's super cheap transporation, and it's generally pretty reliable. For about 10-20 rupees, a friend (or two) and I can get where we need to go. The ride is thrilling, fun, and sometimes a wee bit dangerous, but motorists and motorcyclists are generally cautious about the slow-moving rickshaws. The cyclist rickshaw drivers themselves are often sad sights--the one Aqilah and I used this morning to get to school was probably just 12 years old. Most are skin and bone with teeth stained by the remnants of cheap legal narcotics. If you're out and about early in the morning and late at night and traversing the city, it's not uncommon to see a dozen or so rickshaw drivers sleeping on their rickshaws throughout the city.

COMMUNICATION.

I have an Indian cell phone. I paid $20 for it, and it's just a basic cell phone--doesn't do anything cool whatsoever, and then I load money on to it. It's about 9 rupees a minute for an international call, 1 rupee a minute or so for a local call, and 1 rupee per text message.

Getting the phone, however, was the biggest hassle. A phonewallah came to the Institute to distribute phones and what-not, as this was supposed to be the quickest way to get everyone a mobile.

Not true.

The phonewallah was like the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld. I was at the Institute, along with other students, every afternoon for THREE DAYS. On the first afternoon, I was able to start my paperwork, as they want photocopies of your passport, passport photos, proof of residency, etc. as part of your phone application. On the second afternoon, the same wallah came back to continue the phone process, and he wouldn't even let me get my hands on the paperwork to finish the process. On the third afternoon, I finally was able to complete the process. It was ridiculous.

PESTS.

My tolerance for rodents and insects right now is ridiculously high.
What have I seen running around our apartment, you ask?
Spiders, ants, mosquitos, and other insects? Check.
Cockroaches? Check.
Lizards? Check.
Rat? Check.
For the bugs and cockroaches, we've been using pesticides and what-not designed to keep them away. I found some pretty lethal cockroach/mosquito repellant at Big Bazaar (BTW: I HATE Big Bazaar) that has a list of side effects from inhalation listed on the side of the can.
As for the lizards, we let them be. They come. They go. But how do you kill a lizard? No idea. And they eat the bugs, which we certainly like, but they are apparently poisonous. Someone told me a story when I first arrived about a couple in India that had one of these lizards fall into their soup while it was cooking. Unaware of the mystery ingredient, they ate the soup and died of poisoning. So, we're mindful and careful about that, but you know, it's India.
As for the mouse, that attack is on our to do list. We just found the bugger the night before last, and we think he's hanging out in the kitchen....

CLEANING.

The home we live in has a house boy, who I estimate to be about 18-20 or so, who assists with the daily maintenance of the property. For us, this means that he does the cleaning. He periodically comes and washes the floors and otherwise tidies up the apartment. He also disposes of our trash if we place it outside. As the house boy, he lives in an apartment above us that I imagine to be of significantly lesser quality than ours.


If I think of other things that I find to work differently on a day-to-day basis than in the United States, I'll be sure to post them as well.

Guess what?

I got my nose pierced Saturday.

And I LOVE it. :)

(Cheers to reckless life decisions!)

(But it was sanitary, I swear.)

Cultural Faux Pas Moves by Moi

So, in the first--and maybe not even the first--of many cultural faux pas moves by moi, here we go:

I (unknowingly) wore an Indian nightdress to the Institute.

It was the afternoon after I'd been home sick sleeping one morning, and I found a cotton dress in one of the dressers in our apartment and wore it because I had nothing else to wear. Turns out I was wearing Indian women's pajamas.

Moves like that = Story of my life.

Homesick?

So, I'm maybe a wee bit homesick.

A week of illness, heat, perspiration, and Indian food will do that to you.

Sexual Suppression in India

The title of this particular post may seem a little...off, but this is something I really would like to talk about and focus on for at least one entry on this blog.

India is an extremely socially conservative nation: This cannot be emphasized enough. Men and women are taught from childhood (probably birth) to stay clear of the opposite sex. People don't "date" as most marriages are arranged, although the definition of "arranged" varies widely. Still, the opposite genders are really not supposed to interact, for example:

• PDA is almost unheard of;
• A man and a woman (especially if they are unmarried) will not spend time alone together publicly or privately;
• It's very common to see straight women AND men holding hands with someone of the same gender in public, whereas it's almost uncommon to see a man and a woman holding hands in public;
• A woman's reputation rests almost primarily on her modesty with the opposite sex;
• Women dress very conservatively, i.e. especially in terms of covering one's legs and chest; and
• Because teenagers can't spend time together alone, such as on a date, you can frequently find very secretive-looking duo's at large gathering places, such as the gardens, discretely chatting and getting to know each other.

In light of this, I had a very interesting experience on Sunday.

First of all, let me begin this by noting that as a white female, everyone looks at me. Everyone. All the time. I can be wearing traditional Indian clothing and dressing modestly (salwaar, korta, and dupatta), and I still get stares. As one peer put it: "It feels like we're...royalty." People stare that much and that often. You don't go anywhere without having several sets of eyes following you at all times. You feel like you're on parade as a representative of the Western world, and there are a lot of pressures and stresses that come with that.

But I digress.

On Saturday, a female student who I spent time with wore a calf-length skirt, nice t-shirt, and dupatta (scarf) when we were out-and-about. She seemed to received normally, or as normally as we expect to be received, and so on Sunday I decided to wear a skirt in Lucknow for the first time. It was a skirt that hits below my kneecap, and I wore a nice t-shirt and a dupatta with it, and I went to the mall in this outfit, an outfit that's not scandalous or outrageous in any sense of the word. (Remember: The United Colors of Benetton in the mall is selling miniskirts and shorts.)

I haven't received that much attention is such a long time. I sat in Barista at Sahara Ganj with two classmates who were dressed in Indian apparel (more gals came later), and there would be men who would literally stand outside the coffeeshop's glass windows and stare. Others would make slow down their walking significantly. One set of younger guys was talking to me THROUGH THE WINDOW, and I sat in the coffeeshop shaking my head trying to ignore them.

I was in a fishbowl.

I didn't take it too personally--as I am neither a stud nor a prostitute--but it's an interesting situation that the American woman finds herself in when she steps foot into India. The media portrays a very flirty, loose version of the American female to the world, and when the American woman finds herself in a very socially conservative place, the onlooker automatically assumes that she is (I.) a slut, (II.) easy, and (III.) open to sexual experimentation. These are verdicts that I myself have not necessarily had the experience to justify, but they are verdicts that harmoniously emerge from the monologues American women tell of their time in this country.

It's an interesting predicament the Western woman finds herself in in India when she is more liberal than the average woman in terms of her relationships with other men but not in any way an sexually promiscuous woman.

There is no middle ground here for the Western woman: You are or you aren't, and it's already been decided for you by the media and the cultural powers that be that you ARE.

The Weekend in Review

The last time I posted was Thursday, so I'll start with a quick overview of the weekend.

• Friday night was pretty chill. I ran some errands in the afternoon, if memory serves me right, and kept things low key after class. One of my roommates, the lovely Behnaz, bought a hookah, and so there was the inaugural usage of the new blue hookah on a nice-sized balcony that jets off the room she shares with Aqilah. So several of us--i.e. Beenish, Elizabeth, Behnaz, Cayley, Charlotte, and myself--were sitting on the balcony--early evening sun's rays keeping us warm as the sun slowly melted into the West, dance music piping out from someone's portable iPod speakers, hookah fully functional, and girl chatter abundantly flowing. Later, Behnaz, Charlotte, and I went to Mint, a semi-trendy lounge sort of place down the street from where we live, to relax in the air conditioning while enjoying cold beverages. Again, it was super low-key, but it was a pretty good Friday all in all. The funny thing is that because so many people have curfews and because of Indian society's conservatism (especially with regard to women), nights wind down around 10pm, so we end nights early and sleep plenty.
• Saturday was a bit more interesting. Cayley, one of my five roommates, woke up feeling ill, and was taken to the hospital Saturday morning--turns out she has a parasite. Such are the elemental hazards of Lucknow. :) After having not eaten much all week--basically since I got here--I went to KFC (heck yes) for lunch with Azim, Aaron, Megan, Kristen, and Aqilah. It was a bit greasy--of course--but it was good to eat something and actually feel full. That really hasn't happened since I got here. Anyways, after lunch, we went to a new Hindi film called "Paying Guests"--basically ridiculousness, although it was a good use of a few hours and a cultural :) experience at the very least. Following the film, we wandered around the mall that the threatre and the KFC are in (Sahara Ganj is the name of the mall) before going over to Ahdminebad (spelling?), which is more of what you would consider to be a traditional Indian shopping and eating district. We spent a lot of time at a bookstore there and wandering around. I tried coconut water :), which is when they slice open a coconut and hand you a straw. Around 8pm, Aqilah and I left what remained of our group and spent most of the rest of the night chatting. It was a really solid day, though, and I felt like I was able to get to learn more about the people I spent the day with.
• Sunday was more boring. I spent most of Sunday at Sahara Ganj (literally 11am-5pm) studying in a Barista coffeeshop there, although we did look around the mall and have lunch during that time as well. In the evening, a few of us--Francesca, Behnaz, Beenish, Sareesh, myself, and another gal or two--went to the Imambaraugh near our house. (Pictures to be posted shortly on Facebook.)
• And today we were back in class. We started connecting letters today in my Urdu classes--WICKED EXCITING STUFF. The Urdu alphabet has four forms--initial, medial, final, and independent, depending on where a letter falls in a word or if it starts on its own--and the alphabet is supposedly rather close to Arabic, so basically, learning how to actually formulate words in Urdu script is REALLY BIG because we've just been studying the alphabet and common phrases the past few days. MORAL OF THE STORY: I am learning SO MUCH but I have so much more to learn. It's extremely gratifying, however, to be able to tangibly place a measure on how much I've learned. I started at nothing, and now I know the alphabet, how to formulate words, and basic phrases. I've had class for less than four days.

On the Mend!

I am feeling several times better than I was this morning. I ended up decided to miss my classes today in order to make up for the sleep I didn't get yesterday and to just let my body catch up with everything that's been going on. We just got to Lucknow a few days ago, and prior to that, I was on a plane every other day crossing time zones for about a week--not that I'm complaining, but it does strange, strange things to your health.

But I'm on the mend and doing better, and Cayley's almost fully recovered, and now it's just poor Elizabeth who is not feeling well.

Hopefully, this sort of illness isn't par for the course. :)

Today, basically the only thing I got done was filling out a form to go to the police about my presence in Lucknow. Good job done--just not super thrilling.

One thing I did want to talk about, however, is just how refreshing this whole experience has been in terms of seeing "The Big Picture." I think I've been feeling like I absolutely-must-have-to get a full-time job as soon as I get out of college, and after talking to the other students here, I feel a lot more opened to getting sidetracked. Now, don't get me wrong--the 9-5 job will be coming my way quickly, but there are things like the Fulbright, PeaceCorps, Teach for America, and other opportunities--things that you really can only do when you're young. I guess I'm more open now to getting carried away--life's an adventure, not a race to a desk, and I feel more at peace knowing that it's okay to get a little sidetracked--that I can still end up on the "right" track even if I go a different route than most. My story can be my story, and the ending can be the same no matter which way I went about getting there. And it's a really liberating notion that there are several ways to arrive at the same destination.

Hope that makes sense to somebody else. :)

PS Last night when I was trying to fall asleep around 9pm, a wedding band started up on the street--a really, loud obnoxious Indian wedding band. It was really awful wedding music, and it was literally right in front of the house. There are literally moments almost every day when you just have to laugh at irony and its timing.

Recovering

I got really sick last night--first time I've gotten sick since I arrived here. I don't mean to be gross, but I was vomiting or having severe diarrhea (or both) about once every hour or two for most of the night. This morning, I'm trying to decide how to proceed in terms of going to class and in terms of breakfast. Anything and everything that was in my stomache has since left, and there's no way that I'm not at least a little dehydrated. Hopefully, this will be about the first and last time for something like this.

Quick Letter to the World

Dear World,

I am feeling a little ill--nothing that sleep, Vitamin C, and Tums can't cure, though. I'm planning on going to bed early tonight. Cayley, one of my roommates, is ill, and I'm hoping to avoid whatever she's gotten.

I bought four salwaar kameez suits today. Feeling a little buyers' remorse, but oh well: I need the clothes. Really, I honestly do.

We started studying the alphabet today. We got through one of the four Urdu alphabets, and then focused on the first 10 of 36 letters. It was really exciting to actually get going and get started on something.

I am starting to like bucket showers. :)

I am super tired.

Love you all!

More information later.

Love,
Jessie

Camping?: A Moment of Discouragement

I just found a cockroach in the bathroom.

It was the first one I've seen since arriving in India on Saturday. It was approximately two inches long, and it was a reddish color.

I am so grossed out right now--you have no idea.

That brings the total cockroach count (in our apartment) to 2, and our lizard count is at 1 so far.

I'm really trying to think of this whole "Living in India" thing as camping at some sort of rustic summer camp. The accomodations are nice, but nowhere that I'd want to live for an extended period of time. The paint's peeling in the bathroom, and there's a really huge fire/water mark in the dining area, and have I mentioned the heat? It was 119 yesterday, and today was a slightly cooler 118, and I don't have "air conditioning."

It's rougher than I'm used to, and it wears on you in strange ways.

I'm also a little unstrung because I haven't learned anything yet, and I feel so clueless. There are about 40 students study Urdu this summer at the Institute, and I am ONE of the FOUR people who have no Urdu language experience whatsoever and who haven't studied Hindi or Arabic, the languages to which Urdu is most closely related. So I basically feel knowledgeless. And the real fun starts tomorrow when we REALLY get to work on the language--so far everything's just been orientation.

And I haven't been eating much. It's taking me a little time to adjust to 24/7 Indian food when I'm unaccquainted with the spices and what-not. Right now, it's 9:30pm my time, and I had a snack at 4pm, but I haven't had dinner yet, and I really didn't have much of anything for breakfast or lunch.

And it's at least 95 in the apartment right now.

And I am sweating profusely.

UGH.

Things will get better, right? This is a moment of discouragement, primarily because I saw the cockroach--a really big one at that--and now I'm scared of little cockroaches meeting the world in my suitcase.

UGH.

The heavy pesticides/sprays are coming out in the morning.

Moment of discouragement.
Rant over.

Life in a Commune and Sauna (i.e. First Post from INDIA!)

I live in a commune.

We arrived in Lucknow yesterday and moved into our homestay after having spent just 30 hours or so in Delhi for orientation which was preceded by a 15 hour plane ride.

Our living situation was originally supposed to be 4 girls in 4 bedrooms, each of us with our own--presumably. When we arrived, we learned that the actual situation is a little different, but here is the moral of the story: A fellow from London named Nareesh is rooming in one of the rooms, Elizabeth and I are in the room with the view, and Behnaz and Aqila are in the back bedroom with the bathroom. So this left us with one bedroom. And when we discovered that our friend Cayley's housing had fallen through, we invited her to join us in the apartment. So, we have a total of four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and six people (five girls, one guy) living here.

It feels like a commune. (Pictures to be posted later!)

And a sauna, too.

Since we arrived, it has felt like a sauna here. Not even kidding. In Delhi, it was hot, but we had A/C in every building, and aside from a trip to a "market," we were inside. However, the moment we stepped off the plane in Lucknow, it was like stepping into a sauna. It was about 100-110 degrees Fahrenheit yesterday, and I think it only cooled down to 80 degrees Fahrenheit last night (if that). I've basically been soaking up water like a fish and sweating like a pig.

Disgusting.

Yesterday was rather fun. After landing in Lucknow around 11am, we went to the Institute (American Institute of Indian Studies) where we met some of the teachers and got a brief intro to the school and the program. After that, we saw the apartment and got an idea of the housing situation. From there, we had lunch with everyone at a hotel down the road, and then went back to the apartment to move in and chat more with our hostess, who's super nice.

Then, because some girls needed some toiletries and because Elizabeth and I were in desperate need of Indian-style clothing, we headed to the mall.

Experience #1: Rickshaws. SO MUCH FUN...while also being a little scary. Word to the wise: A rickshaw is most comfortable (and safe!) with 2 people rather than 3, and when you are not of Indian descent, you will feel like you're in a parade. No joke.

Experience #2: Indian Mall. The funny thing about Indian malls is that 80% of the people there are men. And you have to go through security when you enter.

Experience #3: This is what I feel this experience is really all about: A little girl--about 3 years old or so--came up to the girls and I that had gone to the mall. She waved, and I knelt down to her level and gave her a high five and waved to her. And when she walked away with her mother a few minutes later, I felt that I had really represented myself and where I come from really well. It's this sort of "America" that people here need to see and that the world needs to see. At the end of the day, we're all people, and we're people with more in common than we realize. Reaching out to her like that really made me feel like I'd made a difference.

Anyways, after the mall, where all the clothing was lovely but really high priced (i.e. $20 for a tunic), we went to FabIndia. I love FabIndia. It's premade Indian clothing, as opposed to the traditional clothing where a tailor makes alterations and basically builds the top out of fabric you've purchased. Anyways, I LOVE FABINDIA. I bought two pairs of salwaars (read: balloon pants), a green top, and a dupatti (scarf thing), and this combined with the three tunic tops I bought in Delhi is a good start towards my Indian wardrobe. The things I packed to wear here aren't really things that women--or even other Westerners--wear. The Indian clothing really helps to make it a little less obvious that I'm a foreigner, although that much is really not hard to figure out in the first place. I just feel a little less "out in the open," persay.

Anyways, but the real highlight of yesterday was the birthday party we had for Elizabeth, whose actual birthday is today. About 20 of us ended up going to a place called Mint, which is a really trendy--or trendy for Lucknow--restaurant/bar, where we, between the 20 of us, went through 3 hookahs. It was a really great way to start our time here and to just hang out after so much travel.

Anyways, I should be going. Pictures will be up soon!

And PS I took a bucket shower this morning. That's when you know you aren't in America anymore.

Last One from America

It's a beautiful morning in DC, and we're to depart in just a few hours. At 1pm, we'll leave the hotel for our late afternoon flight to Chicago. From Chicago, we'll leave directly from India and land after a 14-hour flight in Delhi at almost 9pm local time. We'll spend Saturday night and Sunday in Delhi before departing to Lucknow via plane. I think we'll arrive in Lucknow on Monday, but it could be different from what I understand, too....

Once in Lucknow, I'll arrive at what I think is going to be an apartment. I'm living with three girls (Aqilah, Behnaz, and Elizabeth) in a flat that's supposed to be near some beautiful gardens and have a terrace which will hopefully overlook the gardens.

I'm nervous, and I don't even know why precisely I'm nervous, but I'm excited to finally be there. I'll be happy to finally arrive in Lucknow on Monday, and I'll be happy to finally be in Delhi tomorrow night.

Again, the people I'm going with are super fascinating. I will be in Lucknow with a group of about twenty other students, and they're ridiculously fabulous and cool. One just spent a semester studying at the Sorbonne in Paris. Another just wrapped up a documentary project in India. Another has assisted at a human rights summer camp for middle schoolers. Another studied abroad in Morocco this past semester and has some wild (not exaggerating) tales about Dijoubti, Ethiopia, and Somaliland (the semi-autonomous state in northern Somalia). Another has worked for Pakistani interests at the United Nations.

Again, I'll be with super fascinating, interesting, and intelligent people this summer who have a knack for exploration and interaction with the world they live in. They've all been super nice and congenial, so I think I'm in for a good trip. :)

Last night, after a day of meetings that were semi-useful and a delicious dinner at DC Chophouse that surprisingly didn't involve beef, a few of us headed out to the Mall. We saw the Washington Monument, World War II Monument, and Lincoln Memorial by moonlight, and with the lighting unique to each, they absolutely gleamed. It was so lovely and beautiful.

Love you all, and I'll be writing next from Delhi!

Surrealism

So, I feel like my last post was all over the place and not terribly contained or focused, but maybe that's not true.

In any case, I guess I really just want to convey how surreal this is. Arriving yesterday and meeting people who have a genuine common interest in India, in Pakistan, and in related things--it was incredibly surreal. With the application process and the other pre-departure business, we've had a common experience and can relate to each other's visa applications, telephone interviews, etc. It's really neat that way, and this whole thing--waking up in DC this morning in a luxurious hotel room with a view of a fabulous (not exaggerating) apartment building across the way and a Starbucks across the street (read: dangerous) and knowing that today is the day when hopefully a lot of questions about this summer will be answered as I sit in sessions with students headed to India to learn Urdu, Bangla, Punjabi, and Hindi--it's surreal. Wandering around downtown DC before finding the Washington Monument and then hailing a taxi before the steady rain turned into a full-out downpour--surreal.

And I think as a general rule, we feel lucky. We've gotten a super cool opportunity to travel across the world to learn a language that's in relatively high demand, and the State Department and CAORC are picking up the tab.

It's pretty cool, and I feel like I lucked out, and this all feels super surreal.

Love you all.

Commencement

I found myself in four airports today as part of a voyage that involved three flights, the last of which brought me to Washington DC for a pre-departure orientation session.

When I was in the Minneapolis airport this morning, I overheard a young boy ask his father essentially what is the furthest distance a person can go--an appropriate question for an airport.

His father replied: "The furthest you can go is to come back to where you started from."

I feel like there's a lot of truth in that statement, aside from the obvious, and it was a neat quote that carried me through today's long travels (I have been awake since before 3am) and encouraged me to recognize that distance is not the most important aspect of this summer--more so than travel for travels' sake, I have a unique opportunity not only to study a really unique language this summer, but I have an opportunity for some self-discovery, adventure, and exploration.

And so far...so good.

I've really enjoyed meeting my peers who will be accompanying me to India this summer--they are some genuinely fascinating people who bring with them a diverse set of interests and backgrounds, but it's so neat to have so much in common with them from right off the bat. After spending the late afternoon socializing with them, I went to dinner with a few at an Italian restaurant before continuing on a walk to the Washington Monument. As we were walking, it began to drizzle, and before we could continue down the Washington Mall, we were in the midst of a downpour and in desperate need of a taxi. So, most of the monuments will have to wait, but it was an evening well spent. My peers here are fabulous, and I'm curious to see how this summer will play itself out.

This is such a rambly post.

Other than that, the only thing really to report is that my hotel is ridiculously rad.

And my plane landed just as the Holocaust Museum shooting was occuring. God bless that security guard.

Sorry this isn't more substantial.

I need sleep.

Love you all. :)

LESS THAN 15 HOURS TO GO UNTIL THE ADVENTURE BEGINS!

Less than 15 hours until my plane leaves for DC....

Holy bizoli.

I am in the middle of a packing frenzy and am not having tons of luck in that department: hence, I am typing away.

Among the most bizarre/random things accompanying me on my journey:
- Bug repellent with permethrin--so intense that it cannot make contact with my actual skin, and if it does, then I need to get a hold of the nearest poison control center.
- Scott wipes. (I am so prepared for any bathroom that comes my way!)
- Tums. For calcium.
- A wide array of the antibacterial products.
- Oatmeal and fruit strips. Just in case Indian food is not jiving with me, I've got back-up.
- Host gifts including a North Dakota mug, Nebraska decorative plate, strawberry-rhubarb jam, and a North Dakota magnet.

I've also had four shots (against typhoid, influenza, polio, and tetanus) and received a malaria prescription.

It's just so crazy-- I LEAVE TOMORROW AT 5AM FOR DC!!!! GAH!!!!

Last night was my last official night in my hometown since I'll be up at like 3am tomorrow, so I invited some pals to meet me at a downtown coffee shop for a last minute gab fest. SO FUN. About 10 people or so were able to make it, and it was one of the best nights I've had in such a long time. I have really fantastic friends, friends who laugh with me and support me, and I've been really grateful for them in light of everything that's happened in the past few weeks. I forgot how blessed I am to have such great people in my life--really genuinely blessed.

So, since my bedroom literally looks like some sort of clothing volcano--a very rare specimen indeed--native to wherever it is that I am at any particular point in time--erupted, I should get back to the task at hand.

I will be posting as time allows.

Peace!