I have arrived continued and loos motionz (no, not a song title)

So, just to make sure everybody doesn't get the wrong idea, no, I haven't seen anything like what I described in the previous post since I arrived here in India. It has been hot, it is dirty, but I don't see nearly as many impoverished people or beggars either, though I have a lot more reading to do on that. I do think India is looking better actually, and it changes every two years that I come here.

Actually, it's looking a lot more materialistic too, especially with the youth. There's actually a lot of money in India, it's just being stolen or not being used well. The new iphone is out in India, and while it is selling for 300 dollars back in the states, it's selling for 800$ here. Do Indians have that kind of disposable income? Apparently they do, but it's pretty ridiculous when people have that much money but the streets aren't even paved. What's going on when people can afford those kinds of phones?

So you knew the delhi belly was bound to happen. First of all, Indian time moves slower. Nobody has any conception of time here. It seems like somebody is always waiting for somebody else to get something done before he or she can get their own thing done. Did I already write about this? It's crazy. My neighbor asked me to go on a walk with him in the morning the day I was about to meet Mark, my college friend, in Delhi. So I'm thinking I'm going to go for a half an hour walk, a little sprucer up for the morning. We go and meet his friend - the police commissioner or somebody with a job that must require you to be busy - at around 8 o'clock. Yo, we didn't finish till 10:30. The police officer told me that that day was his day off. He seems to have a lot of time on his hands.

Anyways, I go to delhi, meet my friend, have lunch at subway, buy a hindi book, drink a 3 dollar snapple when I can eat a feast for that at any Indian restaurant (disposable income?) and go back. After my hindi lesson, they order some "chinese fast food," except it has tons of mirch, or red chilli powder, in it. Well, I'm not sure if it was that or the morning walk in 100 degree (-maybe) weather that caused it, but yeah, while talking with my friend Emily from Saitama on gchat I had to abruptly end my conversation for a run back to my toilet. I think I went like 10 times after that.

Actually, it's quite fitting that the day I get the Delhi belly is the day I went to Delhi. The funny thing is I ate in an air-conditioned Subway restaurant and drank coca cola. I guess Delhi belly penetrates all walls. According to Mark, it's called Mao's revenge in China, and Montezuma's revenge in central America.

One last note-

2 kg of rice - 2 dollars
1 kg of salt - 25 cents
1 kg of oil - 1 dollar
1 kg of moong dal - 75 cents
1 bar of soap - 50 cents
2 liter soda - 75 cents
1 hour autoricksa ride - 3 dollars
1 haircut with ridiculous massage in which the same thing cost 30 and sometimes 40 dollars in Japan at my local barber shop - 1 dollar and 25 cents here in India (the guy's name is Rishi-raj too!).

I thought I might have to get a job but I might not have to for a while ; )

p.s. diarrhea is called loose motions here in India. Clever appellation I think.

hope you all are well, in india and america, and trust me, I do miss you.

I have arrived

Yes, I have arrived. So I'll just jump into it, I mean what happened as soon as I arrived. I wondered how India would welcome me this time, and it hit me with an extremely saddening sight as soon as I came. If you don't want to read something that might bother you for the rest of the day, please don't read on. But after getting picked up, we drove down the highway to our destination, Faridabad, Haryana, about 1.5 hours south of Delhi, where I'm living now. On the way, I saw something laying on the street, which I first thought was some sort of deer. It was way to big to be the usual roadkill, like squirrels or cats, but as we passed by, I saw that it was a man. Legs covered in blood, and no head. We just zoomed by, and that was it.

I know that this was an unfortunate and rare sight, and I haven't seen anything like it since, nor have I seen nearly as many beggars or poor people as I remember seeing in the past. I have seen things so much better. But still, you see what you see, and it's hard to get over it. Maybe it just happened, the ambulances hadn't gotten there yet, but, people were just driving and by the driver's reaction, I knew that they weren't all to taken back by the sight. These things they are used to.

Sorry, I had to write about it. Some things I have to write about. It's been two days since that, I got in on the 21st of August at 1 in the morning, and, well, life goes on. Back to my life since I don't want to reflect on that anymore (I remember seeing a man bleeding on the street, with nobody helping him and people just passing on by, when I first came to India as a kid, imagine how long it took me to get over that when I was a child) Indian time moves much slower, and I find myself always waiting for somebody. It's just part of life here. Thank God I learned in Japan that when you're in another country, you just have to accept their different ways and you'll be much more likely to make friends and enjoy your experience. So when I can't get things done, I just wait, and enjoy the time.

Of course, my neighbor is taking such good care of me. I go over their house for breakfast lunch and dinner, and though I want to start cooking on my own, thank God I have some friends here to help me out. It's so much easier then Japan, I didn't have to worry about light and electricity, Dad had that hooked up already, and though it took all morning to make a key that I needed for a lock, like I said, Indian time.

The other funny thing is that I talk to people in Japanese. It's crazy how much 2 years can ingrain a way of thinking into your head. I am also slowly realizing that the same things that amaze Japanese people, like that fact that it takes 17 hours by plane from America to Japan, Indian people aren't as interested in. They kind of don't care actually, as their blank faces have told me.

Ok, signing out.