Hangin around

For many years the EAP group from california has come to Mussoorie for a month to intensively study Hindi at the Landour language school. As a result, the locals of Mussoorie have gotten to know when its that time of year again, and a few of them have gotten to know past students. This is our relationship with Bir. Bir is a 23 year old Sikh who helps run his family internet cafe in downtown Mussoorie. Bir's a homie.

He has a huge house with a ping pong table right next to where we are staying, and is happy to show us around Mussoorie and help us out in any way. It was Bir who introduced me to that beautiful food called momos, and it was he who i dub an american hero, considering how he got us fireworks (and 35% off) for that most patriotic of american holidays. Seeing as I've been an active member of the Jewish summer camp community for the past 10 years of my life, I haven't gotten to celebrate the 4th of July in a long time. Thanks to Bir, we got a bunch of fireworks for 2000 rs, which is about 40 bucks.

This weekend we're planning a trip to Rajaji National Park, as well as Rishikesh. Rajaji is a tiger reserve, as well as having many herds of elephants, so it's a pretty cool place. However, we need to book a jeep safari, otherwise we won't get far in the time that we have. The problem is that when i called to get a reservation, the man that i talked to spoke no english other than 'november 13th". Not quite sure what's significant about that date, but we're going to try to get Bir to talk to the guy and book a safari. That's the plan for this saturday, on Sunday we're going up to Rishikesh - the Yoga capitol of India. It's at the beginning of the Ganges river, giving it a reputation for being a holy city. Hopefully this plan will work out and there will be some very good stories and pictures to match them next week.

On a totally unrelated note, I had my first close-up interaction with a monkey today. They're notorious for being simultaneously dangerously curious and territorial, so the trick is to not challenge them by looking them in the eye, leaving your apartment door open, or having any goodies out in the open. The other day one of them stole a piece of cheesy toast from the picnic table outside while everybody was eating. They're furry devil ninjas. Anyway, I was hanging out in my cottage with a few friends, and the door open. Out of the corner of my eye I see a little face creep through the door. Soon I realize that it's a monkey and eloquently yell, "monkey!". After a good hollering at, the monkey quickly retreated out the door, but not before shooting me a look that said, "you've won this time, humans".

I also have a new website for my photos - flikr won't let me put a bunch of photos up. So check this one from now on - i'm working on getting some videos up also.