Long time no blog. :)

I have been in India for the past few weeks- this is week 4 and a half and I really do like it here. It's not easy, but there is just something about this country that I just like and I can't shake it.

Since I landed, I have spent the majority of my time in two major cities, been in four minor auto accidents, visited the dentist once, worked more hours than I'd like to admit and have managed to almost forget to take my malaria pill every week.

Cities: Bangalore and Bombay. Completely different. It's the same idea as Minneapolis and NYC. Both are great, but different ideas about city culture. Bangalore seemed more 'close knit', or perhaps I just ran into all of the right people. My driver Mahesh (...sounds weird...'my driver'...he was the guy that drove me to work everyday...if you saw how people drove you'd understand why...) was super friendly and tried to teach me phrases in Kannada, told me about his brother and his new wife, and tried to show me what I should avoid. In Bombay, my driver seemed slimey...didn't show up on time and tried to lay guilt trips on me to get a tip. Bangalore is a good sized city, but there wasn't really too much to see. It's just a big city. I did manage to walk around and peek into shops without getting hassled by street vendors. Let me just say, I love that. I absolutely hate getting cat-called and hassled by street vendors. Here in Mumbai, when I took my first cab to work, I ended up paying double the fare. I also get hassled by every street vendor when I walk by because a 5'8" gal with short hair wearing western clothes tends to stick out. At the same time, there is just something about Mumbai that I can't get enough of. It's fast paced, brutally real and in your face. These are the same things I like about about NY. :)

Time to face reality. No one will necessarily speak about the reality of this city because its blatent enough not to. I pass through slums on my way to work. In NY, I will pass homeless people on the sidewalk, but entire communities living on the street is not something I encountered until I got here. It is one thing to think progressively and read about poverty, but it is quite another to sit in an airconditioned car with a driver holding my backpack with a laptop and a bottle of water inside of it and look out onto the street and see entire families sitting on the side of the road- sleeping, holding their babies and washing up.

I'll finish up this blog later. I need to get out onto the street for a while and away from my computer, which I've chained myself to for 12 to 14 hours a day since I landed.