The Indian Internet has been experiencing some technical difficulties (thus the jump in days) but don’t worry, we’re back up and running.

 

The last few days at the school have been busy - teaching flash to 4th graders (one of them bit me - a little french girl named Angele who needs to work on her flirting techniques), teaching Dreamweaver to middleschoolers, critiquing short student films, teaching Illustrator and Indesign to Highschoolers, and presenting in Photoshop, Art, and Technology classes.  It’s literally full days of presenting/teaching and while exciting, it’s also tiring.  Mostly after school I have only time to wash up, then go eat (always Indian or Chinese food) then to bed for the next day.  So don’t worry, you haven’t missed much.

 

However, today is Friday.  School let out early (after I met with the Administrators and talked to them about the emergence of technology in education) and it was time to hit the town.  First up was the bazaar - I’d been here for almost a week and hadn’t done any shopping - so it was time to visit the arts and crafts expo.  A nice change of pace from the usual merchants (who seem to pick the most obscure, useless trinkets imaginable to sell - person sized balloons, water filled beads, G.I. Joe keychains) the bazaar had actual handmade crafts ranging from cloths and textiles to furniture, sculptures of all sizes, spices...you name it.  I found a stall selling small figures, mostly Ganesh the elephant headed luck-god, and picked up a few.  Every stall, every vendor, is intent on getting you to buy their things.  They’ll swoop in with a stool and demand you sit, then proceed to take off your shoes to run your feet through a foot massager - or open a bag and place a number of items inside, then give the bag to you and demand you pay for it - they’ll beg, they’ll plead, they’ll shout and they’ll barter.  It’s a bit overwhelming, and one can only take so much before it’s time to head out and catch a breather.

 

Later we went over to Andrew’s place and had a BBQ.   Gathering plates of food prepared by his maid (everyone over there has hired help - 80 dollars a month for full time service...triple the poverty level) we went to their small balcony and tried to light their old barbeque Indian style (pour gasoline on a rag, cover it in burnt wood charcoal, toss in the match, run).  After a few attempts, success! and soon we were gnoshing on shishkabobbed chicken, vegetables, and small little “hamburgers” (silver dollar sized mutton-patties).  After chowing down and listening to some Animal Collective (Strawberry Jam makes surprisingly good party music) we decided to live on the edge and go hit up the circus that was in town and around the corner.  “Rambo Circus” it was called.  It was too tempting to miss.

 

Paying 200 rupees (Yes, that’s 4 dollars, and Yes, just like in the Legend of Zelda) for front row seats, we entered the tent (no pictures allowed...supposedly it makes the elephants go crazy and we weren’t about the test the theory) and sat literally arms length from the stage.  The next three hours were pure circus insanity...every five minutes a new act would appear from rifle trick-shooters, fire eaters, contortionists (including one who “balanced” candles while she contorted but actually dropped quite a few on herself), dog trainers, two guys dressed like spiderman and rolled around in these metal rings, strong men, acrobats, elephants, indian midgets, ice-skaters (!), and more if you can believe it.  It was fun and surprisingly non-threatening (no animal abuse or anything) and well worth the price of admission.

 

We got back after midnight and needless to say I fell instantly asleep.