Goodbye to Mussoorie

Well, today is our last day here in Mussoorie! We had our final exam this morning, which most people agreed was fair and not too hard. So it's official now - we speak (some) Hindi! It's amazing how much you can learn in only 4 weeks with a program like the one here. We're far from fluent, but I can read a lot of words by sight without having to sound them out now, and we know enough to get by in a lot of situations.

Now we have the afternoon free before we have a final dinner up at the hotel with all of our language teachers, most of whom are amazing and super friendly and nice. After that, most of us EAP kids and our friend Beer (who runs the internet café I'm typing from right now) are going to a swanky restaurant for drinks. The legal drinking age here is 25, but it is never enforced, ever.

Leaving someplace is always a little sad, especially when it's someplace as beautiful as Mussoorie. Since the monsoon started, the weather has been incredibly clear - at least when it's not raining. But when it rains, it really rains...it starts pouring buckets all of a sudden, and if you get caught in it for even 30 seconds, you might as well have been standing in the shower with all of your clothes on (I'm actually still soaked from getting caught in the rain about two hours ago on the walk down here). It's worth it, though; the weather when it's not raining is amazing, and on a more important note, the monsoon was 3 whole weeks late this year, which had disastrous consequences for India's farmers. It still hasn't really started in earnest, though, so hopefully it will soon.

Even though I'm a little sad to leave Mussoorie, I'm definitely ready to head back to Delhi. When we first got to India, we were feeling totally overwhelmed by finishing up the school year and then immediately flying off to the disorienting streets of Delhi, but after 5 weeks of having our hands held through everything, I'm ready to be in control of my life again. I'm excited to have my own apartment, be able to prepare my own food, and go where I want when I want. It'll also be a chance to really get established here - I want to get involved with the community through volunteer work, and take dance and yoga classes. Basically, I'll finally be able to start feeling as though I'm living here, rather than just visiting. And that is, after all, what I came here for!

We're leaving bright and early tomorrow morning, and our internet access will probably be kinda spotty until we get wifi installed in our apartment, and I have no idea how long that will take. Something we've learned from being in India is that you can't expect prompt service with most things, especially things like internet installation, which require someone to come to your house. Everyone here runs on what they call Indian Standard Time, which basically means everyone is at least an hour late to everything. It's actually kind of nice - one of the first lessons you have to learn here is to accept that things outside your control are just going to be how they are, and you need to just chill out and go with it. Despite the atmosphere being loud, hectic and overwhelming, attitudes here are very laid back.

But anyway, my point is that I don't know when the next update will be. So just bear with us while we get it figured out!