Friends Old and New

Tuesday January 29 10:51 pm

Yesterday was my one-month anniversary of being in India. This would not be a big deal, but as of yesterday I can eat non-boiled dairy products. In just twice this time I can THINK about eating street food.  It was a big day.

Another thing that goes along with being in India for about a month is all the travelers you met and became close to leave, and a whole fresh group come.  Today Rita and Jeremy, the Newton teachers went back stateside, and Prianka, the half Indian half America is about to head back to school. Cora, the German masters student has headed to the Kumbu Mela for a month and the group of people who were studying at the music school are leaving one by one. Others have also come and gone, and the familiar faces I am used to seeing around Assi, my neighborhood, are no longer there.

Straight Chilling in the Gunga.
My legs have reached Muksha

But don’t worry; new friends are coming to replace those faces. The other study aboard group in Varanasi, Alliance, has finally arrived and two of them, Devin from New Orleans and Karen from Philly, moved into the house I am living in.  Karen is a nice Jewish girl who went to Ramah Poconos her whole life, and therefore knows all the Ramah Wisconsin kids. It is nice to have someone around who speaks my language. I have met a few of the other girls on the Alliance program, and because they were all given the same blue shoulder bag you can spot them everywhere they go.

For those of you who were paying attention to the project that was getting to India, Alliance is the program I planned on going on when they told me that my health scared them. After having spent only a couple hours with a few of the girls I am glad that I ended up with the Wisconsin program, for all the Alliance girls are on a “Spiritual journey to find themselves,” whereas the Wisconsin girls are here to do research and learn about a culture. I definitely fit better in the latter group.

Today, while hanging out on the ghats doing my advanced doodling homework I was approached by one of the new arrivals in Varanasi, a French woman who had just returned to India and was moving into the city with her Indian boyfriend. Seeing my sketch book and mistaking my coloring for impressive art, Karen asked to see what I was drawing, and sat down. 2 hours later I know all about her life, the sun had gone down, and she was on the way to the doctor to treat her cough. We didn’t even bother to exchange phone numbers because we know we will see each other around almost daily and it would be pointless.

So the travelers who populated my first month here are gone, but I have new travelers, and the select ex-pats who are here for the long haul to take up my time and entertain me. Also, Mom and Ruth come on Thursday.

Full Discloser:

I though about giving Karen my phone number, but I don’t know it.

Fact:

When you have 1.2 billion people in a country the phone numbers are SUPER LONG, especially when you have to add the country code.