Day 10 - One word, two syllables: Demarcation

Ok, so I know that I write a lot. Really I do it for two reasons: 1) so my mommy knows what is going on, otherwise she would worry, and 2) so I don't have to keep a journal. Sorry if you are hoping for something short and sweet. I am neither of those things.

The train ride was great for me. I first talked with the ticket collector for about an hour. I probably would not have spoke with him if it had not been for the mishap with the ticket. Ramesh spoke very good english and is a devout Christian. It really brought be back to Argentina actually. As was common in Argentina, they enjoy preaching and consequently I talked for about 5 minutes as he took the rest of the time. Talking about the Restoration did not interest him. I was then slept well for most of the train ride. Probably a total of 8 hours of sleep! When I woke up, I spoke with Tony and his friend David who are from New Zealand and have been living in Delhi for the past 18 years. Tony is also a Christian preacher and is very adamant about his cause. He wants me to come to his place while in Delhi. Another woman who I was sitting was an English professor at a University near Bangalore. It has been great being surrounded by so many great people.

I went to the school today and had a wonderful time. I saw the 9th standard (grade) kids that I went to Agra with and they were excited to see me. Seeing Naren again was awesome and I was also able to meet his father and he invited me over which I will probably do on Wed or Thurs. Dwarakanath uncle invited me to teach the 9th standard class tennis. Interesting. The court is dirt, no lines, and for me the rackets resembled those used for badmiton more than tennis. I briefly taught them some rules (but I know some of them really didn't understand much of what I said). So we played around the world and then for those that wanted to play against me they formed a line. Needless to say, I felt incompetent as a teacher and I felt like Chris Brander from 'Just Friends' the movie. I wanted to tell these kids, "I know how to play tennis!" I don't think they minded though cause they were just excited to play with the white giant from America.

After school, as I was waiting for Dwarakimama, I talked with some other students. To break the ice, I showed them my 'neat tricks'. Those include touching my tongue to my nose, flaring my nostrils, flipping my tongue upside down, and touching my top lip to my nose. The music teacher then invited me to his room when he found out I played instruments. After butchering some Canon in D on the keyboard, I told him that I was very interesting in learning to play the veena (like the citar). I think that will happen on Wed, so excited.

Alright, I need to let all of you know. Dwarakimama is hilarious! Now that I understand his jokes/humor, he keeps me laughing constantly. I went with him tonight to a rotary club part. He is so gregarious and he introduced me to many of the people there.

THE RICKSHAW RIDE-
Alright, those things are crazy. I was going to talk more about driving in India, but really I don't know how to explain it better. If you can go, you do. If you can fit, do it. The rickshaw maxes out at probably 15mph. It is a 150 cc engine. I have seen 8 adults in one before. Really, the experience was topped off by the driver taking a wrong turn so he decided it would be better to stop and get out of the rickshaw and push it back the 50 yards to the turn than find another way. Mind you, this was in Banglore traffic. I was laughing the whole time.

I now understand cricket. Well, I think I do. Akshay explained to me the rules. I then explained american football to him. I never realized how complicated that game is until explaining it to him.