Fantastic news! I'm not going crazy. I just triple checked and the semi-insane vivid dreams I've been having are not the result of some until now latent degenerative mental disorder which would inevitably conclude in my being locked up as I immediately assumed earlier this month; they're just a side effect of the malaria pills! Another benefit, my dreams have been playing out like really imaginative full length movies -- terrifying, semi-insane horror movies -- so yes, I have scary dreams about fish serial killers (it doesn't sound scary, but trust me, terrifying), but I could make millions from screenplays.
The non-sleeping portion of the week has been slightly more funfilled. I'm still no closer to a schedule with real, actual classes, but week 3 is going to be the week for me. I can feel it. [I also may be changing my major again in part due to India's silliness. (Suprise!) and yes, I just did parantheses within parantheses. This was bound to happen evenutally]. But I'm a little sick of stressing about classes, so instead I'm going to write a brief summary of the greatest film in the history of the universe: Main Hoon Na, a Bollywood film so ridiculous that it makes Troll 2 look like a cinematic masterpiece. Imagine a combination of Bourne Identity, Days of Our Lives, and Never Been Kissed (We have carry out this secret military operation! You are the half brother I never met?! We have to pick out Becky's prom dress!), then add dance numbers including the random use of fireworks and electric guitar, and make the dialogue awkwardly translated English slang from Hindi. Also, bear in mind that the main actor, Sherukh Khan, is a guy in his 40s playing a guy in his 20sundercover as a high school student. Also the main character's super cool heart throb brother wears a awesome 80s outfit including leather jacket, giant belt buckle that says JUSTICE, acid washed jeans, and rambo bandana to keep his long super cool heart throp 80s hair out of his face (Sidenote: the film was released in 2004).
I finally found the women's football (soccer) team, which I'm really excited about because I've been otherwise unsuccessful in finding people that don't live in the international dorm with me. (It's a grad school so there are no clubs or sports teams, and I still don't really have classes). The girls seem really cool, and best of all Becca, our new frisbee friend Kate (yes, we immediately hunted down and befriended the only other frisbee player in the whole country. And by the way, her team has a lifesize carboard cut out of her that they take to tournaments), and I brought a frisbee to football/soccer yesterday and they all found the "flying plate" extremely fun and would like to learn to play (I can't wait to show them turkey points). I have no idea what anyone is yelling on the field when we play because most of the girls on the team are from Kerala, so they're usually shouting in Malayalam (sometimes English though) rather than Hindi or Telegu (the two languages I've been attempting to learn because they are the most widely spoken in Hyderabad), but this just adds an element of suprise to the game. I also have no idea how to pronounce our team name, which poses as a slight problem during our team cheer, so I've just been shouting nonsense sounds (people laughing at my inability to do things sounds the same in every language). I'm also hopefully starting sitar and/or Hindustani vocal lessons at some point next week, or month... some time in the unsure Indian future.
This weekend was Pongal (which my parents have reminded me time and again rhymes with my imaginary friend from when I was 4, Congal, who looked a bit like the monster from Trilogy of Terror, but that's besides the point). Pongal is a four day harvest festival celebrated in South India. People dress up cows, fly kites, make kolams (really awesome intricate designs made from colored rice flour that keep flies from coming inside) outside their homes, and other such exciting festivities. A group of us went back to Shilparamam (the magical market place where vendors shout silly things to make you come over and rip you off because you're too cheerful to be good at haggling). I actually thought I had finally done a good job haggling because I managed to talk down a set of bangles, but alas, they stained my arms bright turquoise.
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| Kolam |
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| What is not shown in this picture: Part of this act included the cow standing on top of a man and bouncing up and down. Crazy right? But then the cow decided that it need to pee. But I'm not putting a picture of that up. |
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| These kids are dressed as Hanuman. They were part of a troup of musicians. |
On Saturday, we decided to check out a Hanuman temple on the other side of town. I'm assuming it was the other side of town but it might have been closer. every time I get in a taxi or rickshaw, the driver gets lost for a little while (this is either a ploy to run up the meter or due to the lack of maps and consistent directions from passersby. I'm guessing both). I driver was actually really cool (besides overcharging us, but it's kind of a given at this point). He spoke four languages so he helped us ask the temple operators questions. The temple was beautiful, super old, and as always, contained strangers that wanted to take our picture.
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| You may not be able to see the ominous swarms of flies reminiscent of Biblical plagues, which are buzzing around the banana offerings to Hanuman, the monkey god, but I assure you, they were there, and they're probably taking pictures of us with their little fly cameras. |
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