welcome to india, namaste

we're in pushkar now. it's kind of hippyish and very backpackerish. lots and lots of foreigners. it's very small and it feels nice. there's no autorickshaws here. there are lots of cows wandering the streets. as we passed someone in the street just now, they said, "welcome to india." and another woman put her hands together and said "namaste" as she passed us. on our bus here (just 20 minutes long) we were talking to someone about india and the caste system and when he told us his name, he included "raj singh" at the end, which makes it clear he's a high caste. and he invited us to his friend's wedding tonight and tomorrow, and we're gonna go hopefully and that should be really fun and interesting!

yesterday we went to a little part of jaipur that is known as the textile area and we took a 5 hour long block printing class that was very cool. the teacher called himself Guru, Master, and even Champion at one point. he didn't speak english except to say "i am the guru! i give you knowledge!" and he could count. so he showed us what to do and would say "one two! one two!" to mean that we would do the first step and then the second step... he could also say "next project!" we made some cool stuff! that was really good.

my belly is growing in spurts sort of. right now, i'm definitely showing and it's getting big. i'm 18 weeks old. it feels like a presence. like i'm full. also my feet and ankles are fat. i think that's a pregnancy thing. if we have a girl, maybe i'll do what i see all over here - put bindis and eye makeup on the baby. nah i won't. it's just funny to see.

we've taken metros and trains and busses and autorickshaws and sometime soon we'll take a bicycle rickshaw. the train we took the other day had a padded bench bed thing, and blankets and pillows. we got on and it was maybe 6 pm, and by 7 pm everyone's lights were out and everyone (including us) were sleeping. it was really nice. we arrived around 10:30 or 11.

pushkar is different, but elsewhere until now, we mostly see men. it seems like 80% of the population we see is male. maybe less, but it is mostly men. there are men peeing on the sides of the road, but there are also urinals right ON the side of the road. there was one in delhi that had a sort of partition thing, and i almost walked into the urinal. for some of the museums and for the metro there is a security line/metal detector thing you have to walk through, and there's a separate one for women. it's labeled "ladies line" and "men's line" and us ladies just walk through, because there are hardly any of us. i leave josh behind while he waits behind 100 men to go through the security thing. the women are always ALWAYS so colorful and beautiful. no matter how much money they have/don't have, or what's their caste, they are wearing such bright colorful clothes. saris and salwar cameezes and sometimes even burkas but always so colorful.

something else interesting is that people burp loudly and proudly and other people seem to appreciate it. it's like they say "oh good." or "good job" or maybe just "i'm glad." kind of funny.

we met sadiq the other day, from england, and went with him to amber fort and a couple other places and that was cool. hopefully we'll meet up with him again soon, because he's planning on going to a lot of the places we are, before he goes to nepal and climbs to base camp.

so eliza lent me white tiger, which i just read on the way to india. it mentioned a lot of little things that i've seen and it's been interesting. one thing in the book is the author talks about two kinds of people in india; the big bellies and the no bellies. rich and poor. that has been interesting to see but there's also zillions of middle bellies. the haves, the have-nots, and the have-somes. so that's been interesting. it is also interesting, like i said before, that even the no bellies, the have-nots, are dressed in bright beautiful colors.

about to-lets - we see signs all over, like billboards, that say "to-let" with a number. i thought they meant "toilet" but it's actually saying it's for rent. the sign is for rent.

the last thing i wanna write about now is about money. autorickshaws might say that it costs 60 rupees to get to a place we ask about, and we argue (or josh does) and say we'll pay 40, and then they insist on 60 and we start to walk away, and then they say the'll use the meter or maybe 55 rupees is fair. we are arguing about20 or 30 cents. so i feel like it doesn't matter and it's fine and i can afford 30 extra cents so let's go. but josh really bargains and insists and doesn't want to be taken advantage of or cheated. and he wants honesty and fairness from the rickshaw driver. and i feel like we'll hurt the feelings of the rickshaw driver, and i don't want to upset him. and josh thinks we're giving tourists a bad name, or telling them it's okay to cheat tourists if we agree to pay too much. it's been an interesting thing to see this difference with josh and i.

no one more last thing. we've seen a lot of people flying kites, especially from rooftops around 5 or 6 in the late afternoon. the sky is totally full of them. it's so cool. that's kite time.

i'm gonna figure out how to post pictures now.