swasticas

today is christmas. we're in jodhpur. a lot to write about. i'll put up some pictures too. this might have to be a few posts. and also i have major preg-nesia and i'm forgetting so much stuff so i might repeat myself. it's been bad since yesterday - poor josh has to tell me things again and again. we're taking a train soon, or is it a bus? josh says it's a train. wait, did josh say it's a bus or a train we're taking soon? oh, a train. wait. a train or a bus? it's ridiculous.

before i forget (ha ha) there are swasticas everywhere. they mean "good luck". they are everywhere, as decorations. i'm including some pictures.

so we're in jodhpur. we came from a village stay near udaipur, where we stayed in a hut thing. it was cool and totally different from what we're used to. i'll include some pictures of that also. it's a family that lives there and they have 5 little huts and we ate with them and a 15 year old boy there took us on a couple walks and he practiced his english. they sort of showed me in the kitchen hut how to make chapati. we tried on wedding clothes. josh helped fix a roof of a hut with straw stuff, and tied on ropes. there was a 3 year old or something who was eating peanuts. here is how to eat peanuts (in a shell):

so you stand on the cow dung/clay floor, wearing only your shirt. you hold some peanuts. you drop them, try to smash them with your (bare) feet, and also with your fist. you roll the shells around until they crumble and the peanuts inside are visible, in pieces. you pick up the pieces and eat them, and sometimes offer the pieces to the american tourist who's watching. she takes one, smiles, doesn't want to eat it so she drops it and says "oops!" he picks up the piece from the ground and gives it to her again. she smiles and pretends to eat it and says "yum!"