Guavalicious

Kate couldn't say no when people asked her to be in their pictures!

I have been pestered to update, and I'm not holding back on purpose- I am actually going to school, and I do have homework sometimes (*cough Mom*) plus my internet has been terribly slow.

The caves were awesome! The trip was long again- another 6 hour drive plus the drive from our hotel to the caves themselves, but it was well worth it. Indian citizens pay 10 rupees ($0.25) to visit the national heritage site while foreigners pay 250 rps ($6.25). There was a decent number of tourists, but we still remained the minority. By the end of the weekend, we were convinced that the only reason Indians went to the caves was to photograph themselves with white people. I cannot even guess the number of times we were asked to pose for a picture, sometimes alone, sometimes with one Indian man, sometimes with a large group of young men, sometimes with 100 school children. Poor Kate attracted the most attention and just couldn't bring herself to refuse, although we tried to drag her away countless times from the insistent crowds.

Anyway, we visited Ajanta Saturday and on Sunday we visited Ellora. Ajanta has over 30 caves of relatively the same size, all in the same area. Most are Buddhist caves with elaborate paintings inside. Ellora is most famous for its largest cave, number 16, which is the best place for Hide and Go Seek I have ever seen (I resisted the temptation- didn't want to be sacrilegious or draw any more unwanted attention to my tall white self). There are a number of other, smaller, less impressive caves spread out. Ellora is known for its architecture. We didn't use a tour guide or read most of the signs, so I apologize for not being able to give you any history on these beautiful sights. We had the most fun on Sunday watching the monkeys leap across the little bridge where we stopped to take pictures of their strangely long tails and funny playfulness, while the Indians took pictures of our strangely white skin and funny behavior.

I'm finally done with police registration! Our program's director was so happy when we came back with our official approved documents that she bought us mango ice cream. There's this complicated process that changes all the time where you have to register with the local police station if your visa gets a "registration required" stamp. I've been there 3 or 4 times, with one visit lasting 3.5 hours (we had to wait an hour while a worker took a chai break).

Didi took Hannah and I to a concert at a school for deaf and mute children where her friend works. The students performed skits, read poems and danced; they were adorable and terrific. One of the skits was about a boy named Bablu who didn't want to do homework- all he wanted to do was watch cricket on TV. He started having bad dreams about school subjects as monsters (cue the math monster with blinking devil horns, face make up and math facts written on his costume) until his parents had his teacher tutor him. He started to play cricket with the math monster until he understood, and then he got his brand new cricket bat signed by a famous cricket player. Totally every little boy's life here...haha.

Breaking news- My internship in April is going to be at the Center for Environmental Education. I don't know anything else about it yet, but I'm happy about the placement!

A post wouldn't be complete without me talking about food! Here's something for you to try- cereal with warm milk. Absolutely delicious, although it might cause sogginess. Also, pb and nutella sandwiches are pretty tight (apparently Colorado's version of "wicked"- thanks Hannah) for picnic lunches inside caves.
Dude, have you ever had a guava?!?! They have an amazing yet indescribable taste. Nothing guava flavored in the US does justice to the real thing. And they're not all pink- the outside is green and the inside can be either pink or white (and you eat the whole thing- waste free fruit). There are so many different kinds of fruit here!