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.