just another day in the maya devi girls' hostel

cultural exchange is fun.

yesterday after hindi i had chai with byarma (the russian mongolian with whom i study hindi in tibetan). i like byarma a lot, because we have the same sense of humor. we entertain ourselves by hurling insulting stereotypes about each other's countries back and forth. i call her an angry, vodka-drinking communist; she calls me a fat, stupid imperialist. so yesterday as we parted ways at the chai stall, she made a gesture that, in russia, apparently means "i want to hit you." in america, however, it means... well... something much more obscene. it was fun trying to explain that to her.

and then last night my friend shanti asked me what typical american food was. i blurted out, "hot dogs and apple pie!" then i had to explain what a hot dog is, and why anyone in their right mind would want to eat something like that. you try explaining ground up scrap meat encased in a tube to a tibetan nun. it's not easy.

and last night, after i went to bed, i woke up to a loud banging noise. it wasn't the usual banging of residual diwali fireworks, though - it was a rythmic pounding sort of noise. then i noticed that there were lights flickering outside of my door. i opened my door to find my neighbor and two other girls, crowded around the outside of her room. it turns out that my neighbor left her key in the library, and was locked out of her room. this happens sometimes, and, indian locks being what they are, if you bang on them for long enough with something hard enough, you can usually break them open. so they were pounding on her lock with a hammer to break it open. and, indian circuitry being what it is, if you happen to be banging on a door, and said door happens to be near a set of light switches, all of the lights connected to those switches will turn on and off every time you hit the door. brilliant.

i talked to my mom yesterday and she said that people from home think that my blog is funny. i promise all of you, i'm not trying to be funny. this is my life. i couldn't make this stuff up if i tried.