Greetings from Boiling Calcutta!!

Hello All!!

Sorry it has been so long since I have updated, honestly I have just been overwhelmed by the thought of trying to write about my ISP experience that I haven't sat down to do it. I think I will have to save those stories for when I return state side (on july 4th!!)

I'm currently in India with two of my friends, Aleeza and Salome (yes, we all have very weird names) from the SIT Program. On the 12th we flew from Kathmandu to Calcutta where we have stayed until today. We are leaving this evening to head to Varanasi on a night train! It is unbelivably hot here, by 7am it is often well over 95 degrees and the humidity feels like it has to be nearly 100%. Air conditioned hotel rooms are really the only reason we are still alive. However, we are having a great time, Calcutta is an absolutely gorgeous city compared to Kathmandu. The British influence is very apparent in the city's huge, wide boulevards and tree lined streets. That said, there are still thousands of people everywhere, beggers and garbage lining the streets and men yelling rude comments to us 90% of the time. The buildings though are so old and beautiful and the city is just much more developed than anythign we have seen since we got to Nepal. We saw our first McDonalds and were so suprised, it was like we had almost forgotten they existed. We have wandered around quite a bit, seen the Victoria Memorial, Mother Therea's tomb, a beautiful planatarium, the Indian Museum, New Market etc etc. We are trying to take the heat in stride, but we literally walk out the door and are dripping sweat, and look absolutely horrible. We have also noticed that no one else appears to really be sweating that much, which has perplexed us to no end. We also have seen shockingly few women on the streets which has been very interesting, and I saw for the first time women wearing Burkas, which I can't even begin to imagine must be sooooooo hot. We have been quite frustrated by the language barrier, after being able to speak so freely to people in Nepal. Nepali is actually quite similar to Hindi so we can undrestand it a big but we can't really speak it. I think our combination of Nepali and english has made it very difficult for people to understand anything that we are saying! Also, the food here -- not so great, something about hot food and hot weather that doesn't fly with me -- though i have had the best chicken kababs ever here.

I will try to better in the coming months about updating (and because many of the net cafes are air conditioned i feel like i will often be taking refuge!). Also, I want to say hi to Grammy and Uncle David, as I hear they are avid blog readers!! I miss you both and can't wait to see when I come back in July!

Lots of Love from India!

Roz