russians, rivers, and violence!

FACT: i have discovered the single most annoying song of all time. it's in hindi, and i have no idea what film it's from, but the chorus is, "just chill chill just chill, just chill chill just chill (repeat 8,000,000,000 times in a high-pitched voice). and i hear it about 25 times a day. it's awesome. and by awesome i mean it makes me want to puncture my eardrums.

in other news:
saturday i went to the ganga with my pal byarma. byarma is mongolian, and came here from russia to do a trial year at the institute before she takes her entrance exam. she's in my hindi class, which is really confusing for her because it's taught in english by an indian man with a really thick accent. so sometimes we do homework together, and it's really kind of ridiculous. an american who knows no russian and a mongolian who knows very little english, studying hindi together, explaining things we don't understand in tibetan. this is why i love CIHTS.
ANYWAY, she had never been to the ganga before, so we went and took a boat ride and did the whole touristy thing. we went with two tibetan girls, who were TERRIFIED of the boat. every time it rocked the slightest bit, they would scream, "ama!" and clutch their seats. but it was great. varanasi is really beautiful from the river.

and then, we spent an hour and a half in lahaurabir looking for an eyelash curler. (that is a sentence i never thought i would ever utter.)

also, i punched a guy who tried to grab my chest that evening. men trying to do sketchy things like that is commonplace here, and usually it's just something that you have to deal with. normally i don't condone violence, but i have to admit it was pretty satisfying to see him swerve and almost fall off of his bike when i hit him.