Listen, my children, and you shall here, of the rest of my time in Varanasi. I desperately need to upload more of my pictures onto my computer, and then onto Facebook, but I shall put that off slightly longer because I'm trying to simultaneously watch Slumdog Millionaire, complete a homework assignment, and update this blog. Apparently Slumdog Millionaire was not very well received in India because of its harsh portrayal of social issues, but I think despite its dramatization, Indians are probably displeased with its scary level of truth. I have not personally experienced anything like that in the movie, obviously, but I know it's there and it's openly talked about. Bollywood movies, for the most part, show a glowing, overly westernized and wealthy version of Indian society, but everything I've learned here has shown me that that isn't what it's actually like for the vast majority of the population. It's also cool to watch, though, because I understand the Hindi phrases used throughout the film.

But let's get back to Varanasi. On Wednesday, we went to the arti at the main ghat on the edge of the Ganga Ji. It was larger than the arti in Rishikesh, but also a very lovely ceremony involving devotional songs, the holding up of lamps, and praying. On Thursday, we were very lucky and were able to go to Goutam Ji ki Mata Ji ki ghar (Goutam Ji's mom's house!). It's also the house where Goutam Ji and Archna Ji (reminder for my non-regular readers: Archna Ji and Goutam Ji are my married Hindi teachers who took the eight of us on the Kiran Centre workshop to Varanasi, formerly called Banaras) live when they're not in Delhi. We sat in their bedroom and ate snacks and looked at baby pictures of Goutam Ji. It was generally very enjoyable, and I was introduced to Mata Ji as "loving child," their favorite nickname for me, other than "Carboholic."

Post-home visit, we went to Hanuman's temple that Goutam Ji always used to go to. Hanuman is the monkey god that features heavily in the Ramayana, that classic Indian epic that I went to see (that Rachael wanted to leave in the middle of). Because it's Hanuman's temple, however, people feed the massive, red-butted monkey families that populate the area. So with the constant reminder not to EVER look them in the eye, we walked to the temple, checked out things, and entered the temple area. There was a pathway covered in a plastic roof, and about halfway down it, EVERY SINGLE MONKEY IN VARANASI (aka approximately 48,537 primates) decided to screech and stampede across the roof. It sounded, however, like a thunder storm/giant monkey war, so needless to say I had another monkey-induced life-flashing-before-my-eyes moment.

Every day after class, we would go to the Kiran Centre bakery in Varanasi city and buy jam biscuits and peanut biscuits and pumpkin jam. They were delicious, so we bought 100 jam biscuits to bring back to hand out during our presentation, and I bought 50 just for myself (and I'll give some to my host parents for Diwali, which is on Wednesday).

Next post: a boat ride, a six-hour delayed train ride, and a legitimate party!

Earlier this semester, we learned that Archna Ji, our beloved Hindi instructor and surrogate mother for the time we're in India and need someone to listen to us whine, can read palms. Apparently it is a family thing that is passed down from person to person. Archna Ji has always been slightly reluctant to actually read our palms, but she agreed on this trip!

She prefaced the palm reading by saying that she generally believes that these future predictions are by no means set in stone, and it is very possible to take them as a challenge to change some aspect of your supposedly predetermined future (and she, in fact, likes to think of them in this way). According to my palm, I:

-Will make and (more importantly) save "so much of money," which she said a lot
-Have strong luck and life lines, meaning I will have a relatively healthy life and good luck
-Am very close to my family and will continue to have a strong family life in the future
-Will be successful in my educational endeavors but will be bad in business (darn, no Wall Street for me!)
-Will get married in my late 20s to an attractive man, and we will have one or two children
-Am fairly flexible but also fairly emotional
-Really need to work on taking initiative
-Have a "strong sun," which represents strength and positive energy
-Have a "stronger Saturn than Jupiter," though I was never 100% sure what that meant
-Will travel a lot

Overall, a pretty happy life outlook I think! I decided that if I want more kids, I will trade some of my money for children with my friends who are apparently going to have a whole gaggle of rugrats running around.

Today we went back to the Kiran Centre and split up into groups of two to rotate through the various units of the rehabilitation department. We took the school bus about half an hour to the centre, but Sarah Kate and I somehow ended up on the bus that didn't actually have any children on it, just administrators and people who are training to be special education teachers at the Kiran Centre.

The rehab department has six sections, but we only went to Mother's Training, Parent's Child Care Unit, Physiotherapy, and Orthotics. All four units were really interesting. Mother's Training involved teaching mothers how to care for their disabled children in the home. There were two mothers there when we were observing, and they both had 8-year-old children with cerebral palsy. They were working with basic toys to teach them sizes, numbers, and colors.

In the Orthotics unit, we watched people work on making artificial limbs and calipers, which are braces used to support the legs of children with polio-induced paralysis. Fun fact: polio is on the process of being eradicated in India. So far this year, there's only been one new case, which is really exciting!

In PCCU, we saw children being evaluated, including an adorable little girl with Down Syndrome who was suffering from hypothyroidism (apparently a common condition in children with Down Syndrome). Physiotherapy involved watching children play with balls, do stretching exercises, and practice walking with walkers. One little boy went in a hammock-type swing for a while, which was adorable because he shrieked and sang Bollywood songs the whole time.

Shower time! Plus I'm exhausted. Sorry these posts have been so sparse lately! I'll try to pick it up.

Somehow it's been five whole days since I've updated, so I will try to catch you up on my thrilling life. I'm currently sitting on my bed with Tania in Varanasi, where we arrived this morning for our week-long workshop with an NGO called the Kiran Centre. More on that later though!

Last time we talked, I had just returned on a grueling bus ride from Rishikesh. After sleeping for approximately three hours on Sunday night because I (obviously) had not done any homework amidst my Himalayan hiking and yoga, Rachael and I kept a low profile on Monday. By low profile, I mean we submitted our Independent Study Project proposals, took an auto home, and basically collapsed on our beds while our host mother took pity on us. We also got our Hindi tests back on Monday, and I was pleased with how I did (not that it matters, since my Hindi credits aren't transferring back to Dartmouth).

On Tuesday, Rachael ended up feeling really ill almost as soon as we got to the program center, and she spent all day in the center's guest room. Julia had gone to the hospital on Monday night because she'd been sick for a week or so, and Molly also felt ill on Tuesday. Rachael really wasn't doing very well, so she went home straight after school, and I went to Lajpat Nagar with Rebecca, Poonam, Sagarika, Liz, and Sarah Kate. Rebecca bought a beautiful turquoise-ish/sea foam green sari with a gold border, and Sarah Kate, Liz, and I got henna done. We all had peacocks done, and Liz's was definitely the best. I was really pleased with mine, because the last henna I'd gotten at New Friend's Colony looked a lot worse. It's already fading (especially where I had a bug bite and I scratched it a lot, whoops), but it looked good!

I don't remember Wednesday or Thursday being particularly memorable, but we had some work due on Thursday so we stayed at the program center for a while to complete that. One of those days, though I'm too lazy to figure out which day it was exactly because realistically it doesn't matter, Khadeeja, Rachael, Imaan and I took a walk to the Jamia Millia Islamia University athletic complex, where Adil was playing tennis with a colleague. This was fun because we were actually getting out of the house, but it was also fairly stressful because we were taking the baby in a stroller at dusk on Delhi streets that don't have proper sidewalks. I think Khadeeja still gets slightly out of sorts when the baby comes out of the house at all (because Lord knows, that child lacks out-of-the-home socialization like nobody's business, which I guess it isn't). So we were puttering down the street slowly and precariously crossing main roads, but eventually we made it to the university and toured the swanky facilities. The funniest part was the table tennis and badminton courts, which were set up with spectator areas (emphasis added by the author) and large margins around them to allow for intense athletic competition. And the people we saw playing were really good! It just wasn't a scene you would find in an American university gym complex.

On Friday, I again went to Lajpat Nagar after class with people, but this time I bought a little more. We stopped at a shop for black dupattas, at which no one actually bought black dupattas the first time around, but I picked up a dress for home and some other people bought long skirts (all with elephants and camels on them!). We walked around the market while people hunted for kurtas and shoes and such, and then I bought 10 postcards and a beautiful yellow notebook for my ISP notes. After contemplating a lot of other things but not buying any of them, we walked to a fabric store (with a stop for ice cream along the way, of course!) and I almost bought tie-dyed fabric that had marijuana leaves printed on it (accidently!). After being informed that it would look like I was a walking weed legalization ad (which I had not considered because I just thought the fabric was pretty!), I settled on some different fabric and bought two and a half meters for Rs 375.

On Saturday, we woke up early to go to an early showing of "Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge," a new Bollywood film based on the idea of love triangles on Facebook (essentially). We went at 9:50 A.M. so that we would only pay Rs 150 per ticket instead of Rs 250, which I wanted to do because I wasn't sure how could it would be and I didn't know if I would understand anything. It turns out the movie was 1) really good! 2) largely interspersed with English phrases, and 3) inclusive of quite a few understandable Hindi phrases. Plus the lead actors were attractive! Generally it was a much more enjoyable experience than I expected. We then went back to Lajpat Nagar to get get chat (snacks) and walk around. Rachael and I headed home to rest, and then I met back up with Sagarika, Liz, and Lauren at Select City Walk Mall. I bought a book (Pride and Prejudice because I just watched the movie) for myself and a little Winnie the Pooh book for Imaan. It was a much-needed break from the chaos of Delhi (and the fact that my host father basically convinced me that I was going to get kidnapped on my way to the mall).

On Sunday, we spent a relaxing day at home before boarding an overnight train to Varanasi. We arrived this morning and checked in at the guest house, where there is another group of SIT students (from a program in Jaipur) staying. We later had dinner with them after going to the Kiran Centre, but I think that will go in tomorrow's blog post because I should sleep. Night!

After spiced chai and naps, the seven of us ventured out to the main part of Rishikesh across the Ganges (Mother Ganga) to see the aarti. After receiving directions from a man at the hotel and promptly taking six wrong turns, we eventually popped out on a path paralleling the Ganges that would take us to one of the two footbridges (this is a misnomer — they're more of foot/cow/motorbike/monkey bridges) that crosses the water to the other parts of the Rishikesh area.

As we turned the corner, however, we realized there were several monkeys lining both sides of the path. While they seem cute in theory, they're actually somewhat terrifying and especially like to attack women (apparently). We briefly stopped, Sagarika said, "Do not look them in the eye!" and we decided to quickly walk past. Remembering the words of the doctor who briefed us when we first arrived in Delhi ("If you get bit by an animal, get bit on the foot or leg because the rabies will travel to your brain more slowly."), I subconsciously held my breath, tucked my chin to my chest to make sure I wouldn't accidently provoke them by (God forbid) looking at them, and tried to follow my friends and pass the monkeys. The second I was passing by a monkey on the wall to my right, though, it leapt from it's perch and, it seemed, toward my face. It actually landed in the branch of the tree inches above my head, but its weight made the branches crash into my head and I was very briefly convinced that I was about to have a rabid monkey latched to my face. As this was happening, a German shepherd was passing us and freaked out at the monkey and began running and barking at it. Liz, who was behind me, tripped over the huge dog and we both started running. The incident seemed funny after a few minutes, but both Liz and I thought we were in the midst of some kind of orchestrated animal attack, when in fact neither the dog nor the monkey cared about us at all.

We continued on to the bridge (I LOVE BRIDGES), took a ton of pictures, and admired the quaint view of Rishikesh. After building up the courage to cross the bridge, which a scary number of monkeys were using as a jungle gym, we walked over the Ganges and poked around in the shops on the other side of the river. We knew Rishikesh is considered a yoga hotspot, and we saw ashrams (yoga centers) all over the place, but we were amazed by the number of soul-searching white people we saw wandering around. Apparently the Beatles came to Rishikesh in 1968 and composed a lot of songs while staying at an ashram there, so I think that perhaps gave the town a little boost in the number of people looking to come and find themselves. It was an almost comical array of prototypical hippies — dreadlocks, loose-fitting and airy clothing in earth tones (likely made out of natural fibers), Chacos/Tevas/etc., backpacks, nose rings, and a general grunginess. It was an interesting crowd because it was more foreigners than we've seen almost anywhere, but they seemed very comfortable in Rishikesh, not like the eager, slightly on-edge tourists that normally see. I was also impressed by the number of free-spirited, middle-aged foreign women I saw walking around, and I was tempted to ask a few of them what brought them to Rishikesh and what exactly their life situation was at the moment.

We took a taxi and walked the rest of the way to the aarti, which was on the edge of the Ganges, facing a large statue of Shiva in the water about 30 feet from the shore. It was a beautiful and moving puja (basically a prayer service involving the offering of a gift to a deity in hopes of receiving a blessing), and Sagarika explained the significance of different parts to us. There were boys singing songs, and then the main part occurred, during which bowls of fire are passed around and moving in a circular motion in front of people's bodies. We swiped our hands through the flames and over our heads, as others were doing, as a blessing, and it was generally peaceful. We dipped our feet in the Ganges and watched as people placed little boat offerings into the quickly moving river. Each one had candles on it, and we watched them swirl in the rapids and eventually go out. The river was moving quickly, and we thought about all the people we had seen rafting, and we decided it probably was good that our program doesn't let us go rafting anyway.

Julia had been fasting for Yom Kippur, so as soon as we got our shoes back and looked at the giant Hanuman statue nearby, we headed to the nearest restaurant. We sat on the roof and ordered Chinese and Indian food, and the temperature outside was perfect. Rishikesh was generally a wonderful break from our normal lives, and I really enjoyed our meal (in the dark) overlooking the Ganges. We took a cab back to the footbridge, and luckily the monkeys had gone to sleep (or were distracted somewhere else infecting other people with rabies), so we had an uneventful walk back to the hotel. An episode of Modern Family later, Sagarika, Rachael, and I were snug as three bugs in a rug in our super deluxe room (about which I wrote my first TripAdvisor.com review ever!) at the Divine Ganga Cottage. Side note: Seema texted me to thank me for the review after I'd written, smiley faces and everything! We were lucky to find her hotel.

The next morning, I woke up early and Berit and I headed out for a walk around Rishikesh before our 9 a.m. yoga class. The owner of the hotel (Seema's husband) showed us the orphanage and primary school that they own next door, and we found a pretty little stream, were charged by a bull, and had a nice look around the property. Apparently a bunch of American college students were staying there building an organic garden, but we didn't get to meet them (we saw them from afar and judged them for the way they applied bug spray, though). We then walked to the bridge and around Rishikesh a bit before heading back. It was even better in the morning because there were less people and no monkeys!

We then took a yoga class in a studio on the roof of the hotel, with 360-degree views of the hills and river. Our instructor was an approximately four-pound man prone to mumbling, but it was a relaxing and well-organized class that left us feeling refreshed and slightly more sore. The class ended up being an hour and a half, and then we went up to the restaurant for banana pancakes with honey. This isn't something I would normally like, but under the circumstances, it was delicious. The staff packed us some cheese sandwiches (literally just bread, butter, and cheese), and we settled our bill. One of the hotel employees led us to an area where we could get an auto to Haridwar, and we were on our way. Some man briefly jumped on and clung to the outside of our auto, but he jumped off a few blocks later and that was that.

So this brings me to the bus ride home. We hadn't booked train tickets back because Abid Ji told us it would be nearly impossible to get them since the trains were booked, but he and Azim Ji assured us we would have no problem finding a bus that returns to Delhi whenever we wanted to come home. In Rishikesh, we discovered that the only way to get bus tickets were just to go the bus station in Haridwar, so we arrived on Sunday (a little later than anticipated) at around 2 p.m. The station was chaotic, and after being directed five different ways to get bus tickets and paying Rs 5 to use a dirty bathroom (rip-off, as usual), we discovered that you just go to the berth where your bus arrives and then buy tickets from the driver when the bus arrives. A bus to Delhi showed up and a man got out, with people crowded around him with wads of cash in their hands, thrusting them into his face. After standing for a while, we were informed that there were no more seats, and the way to actually get tickets is to physically get on the bus as soon as it arrives and then get off the bus (or holler through the window, as we later discovered) to buy the physical tickets. We were directed to a different berth, where there was a second bus going to Delhi, and we got on and claimed three seats in the back row, two next to each other in the second-to-last row, and two farther up the bus for the carsick-prone people.

We purchased our Rs 140 tickets (less than $3) and were informed that we would arrive approximately seven and a half hours later at 10 p.m. at a Delhi bus station. The bus itself was a pitiful little tin box, dented and peeling and non-air conditioned. The seat cushions, if you can call them that, were in various states of disarray and disrepair. Sagarika's was an uncovered foam square falling through the frame, and Rachael's had some kind of defect as well. Within minutes of being in the bus, I had sweated through all of my clothing (I'm not exaggerating unfortunately) and was feeling ready to pass out for the rest of the ride. I was smooshed between Sagarika and Kendra in the back row, and the man next to Kendra was conspicuously close to her, peering over her shoulder as she reviewed her pictures. Classic Indian mass transit. Rachael was crunched in a seat in front of us next to Berit, and Sarah Kate and Julia were farther up. The ride wasn't that bad in general, especially when we were moving and there was a breeze. On big bumps, though, we went flying several feet (again, no exaggeration) into the air, which woke me up when I was napping. Thank you, Steve Jobs (RIP), for the iPod, because I don't know how I would have survived without it. We ended up hitting terrible, awful, frustration-inducing traffic in Ghaziabad (a suburb), which increased the trip length to eight hours.

When we got to the bus station, we found out it wasn't actually in Delhi and we'd need to take autos a ways to get home. Sagarika helped us split up and get the autos, and Rachael and I headed off with our driver. He ended up pushing with his foot another auto for about 20 minutes to a gas station because he was out of gas. It was actually quite a feat — occasionally they would go different ways around a truck or something and separate, but then immediately come back together when we rejoined on the other side. Rachael and I were exhausted and uncomfortable and still had a ton of homework to do, so we were eventually yelling at the driver that we weren't paying him to do this, but the message didn't get through.

Dinner time!

On Saturday morning, we rose in the wee hours of the morning to commence our trek through the hills of the greater Rishikesh area. We were met by the owner and several other men by the main office at 6 a.m., and we were handed a bag with packed breakfast and told that we would be driven to the drop-off location and our guide would meet us there on a motorbike. We were all a little groggy but mostly excited to be breathing fresh mountain air, preparing to do something wholesome and active and fun. After some brief waiting on the side of the road while we thought our guide had gotten lost (promising start!), we turned around and headed in the correct direction.

The drive to the temple was stunning in and of itself — the road wound through the hills, steadily climbing and providing spectacular views of Rishikesh and the Ganga below. The hills were huge and beautiful and reminded me why I love living in mountainous areas. They were sharp, lush, and green, and I think we all realized how lucky we were to be out of Delhi for the weekend in this environment. The road had a series of funny safety signs lining its length (for good reason) that said things like, "Speed is the knife that cuts life," and, "Driving is risky when drinking whiskey," and, "License to drive, not fly." We saw cows being herded and a Christian school and people going about their daily lives, as well as a newly dead cow in the road that we all found slightly upsetting. We saw a lot of terraced farms, which I was really excited about because I remembered seeing pictures from Eliza's trip to Rishikesh. Honestly, that's all I could remember from her pictures from Rishikesh and largely what I based my desire to go there around, so I'm glad I got to see the terraced farms and I had such a wonderful experience in Rishikesh.

Upon our arrival at the temple atop an "almost perfectly conical hill," as my guide book described it, we tumbled out of the car and admired the mountains and small settlements in all directions. A few people felt carsick by that point (especially those facing backwards), but thankfully I've remained remarkably uncarsickable my whole life. India is really not the place for you if you are easily prone to motion sickness. Anyway, the views were spectacular and I had a cup of chai on the mountaintop while our guide had a pre-hike cigarette. We were a little skeptical of said guide because he was wearing a funny orange scarf and we thought he had already gotten lost once just getting to the start of the hike, but he actually turned out to be quite good.

We climbed approximately seven million (or maybe 300) steps up to the temple area itself, which afforded us 360-degree views of the Himalayan foothills. Apparently you can see the Himalayas themselves (DREAM COME TRUE) on a clear day, but there was a bit of haze so we were unable to see the snow-capped peaks. We entered the small temple and received some kind of blessing (the kind involving the red paint on the forehead with rice stuck in it) from the priest and headed outside. It was some of the best time I've spent in India so far because the air was fresh, the scenery was beautiful, and I felt really at peace where I was. We took pictures and our guide cracked a coconut as part of the religious offering, and we all ate a little bit. After descending from the temple (side note: shout out to Julia for doing this hike on Yom Kippur when she was fasting), my legs were shaking a little bit already, but it was early and we all knew we just needed to get warmed up after being so physically inactive for such a long time.

We learned that our hike would be 12 km down, which is approximately 7.5 miles, a fact we hadn't realized when we decided to trek down the mountains. Luckily (or maybe unluckily, depending if you prefer tired knees or being out of breath) it was entirely downhill. We passed through little villages, if you can even call them that, farms, and schools, and eventually we were paralleling a stream. At this point we stopped to eat our parathas that had been packed for breakfast, and then we continued on our way to a waterfall that Kendra, Sarah Kate, and Berit immediately jumped right under. Being the worry wart that I am, I knew I would be uncomfortable in wet pants on the way down, so I just flipped my head over under the water and got my hair wet. It was still lovely and refreshing, and after a few more minutes of frolicking, we were on our way back down. The hike was wonderful overall, and a fantastic change from the chaos and pollution of Delhi. We ended right at our hotel, where we immediately showered and took naps in the sun.

I will finish blogging about Rishikesh tomorrow, but everyone hope that Rachael feels better because she's not feeling well!

Please excuse this break in regularly scheduled blogging about Rishikesh, but my host father bought this Rs 150 ($3) bug zapper that he just brought out, and he's running around the apartment annihilating bugs with this terrifying tennis racket-type thing. You swat the bug ("The best ones are the ones that are in the air! They just fry to bits.") and there's a zapping sound and a zapping light thing that comes from the metal grating and then the bug is no more. It's hilarious and slightly terrifying because I highly doubt bug zappers sold on the streets of Delhi are regulated at all. For all I know that thing is strong enough to kill things bigger than bugs (but hopefully not). Conveniently but confusingly, the zapper also comes with a built-in flashlight, which is useful whenever the power goes out (which is fairly frequently). Keep on zapping, Adil!

While I'm here, actually, let me tell you about a few Hindi miscommunications in the last week or so:

1. Last week, Adil and Khadeeja were giving the baby a bath before we went to the went, so I tried to make a Hindi joke (always, always a risky call with my level of language knowledge) by saying, "Bacchi gundi hai," which means, "The baby is dirty." I realize this isn't really a joke, but bear with me. Apparently "gunda" with a short "u" sound means dirty, but I said "gunda," with a long "u" sound, which means villain or goon, so Adil and Khadeeja thought I was calling the baby a rascal. Sorry Imaan!

2. Later, in the car, we were talking about how most Indian people are fairly short. Again, trying to break out my Hindi (I do this a lot with varying results), I said "chote log," which means small or short people. Apparently, though, it's a somewhat offensive term referring to low class people or people with small hearts, so I unintentionally insulted the whole of the Indian population (all 1.2 billion of them, oops). Sorry Indian people!

3. In Sarah Kate's Hindi oral exam, Goutam Ji asked her the word for dog, which is "kutta." She responded with the feminine form, "kutti," which is used the same way that the word bitch is used in the United States (aka not in a positive way). Sorry Goutam Ji!