Uuuuuuuuuuuggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Well this sucks. I am at the "internet cafe" which is a complete joke. I had to give them my passport and was led up a sketchy staircase to an area with a couple computers. I have posts written from my laptop and a ton of pictures waiting, but the computers are ancient and dirty, and have no capacity for my zip drive. So, now I'm really irritated, because I was relying on this blog for my journal. Very irritated. Looks like my photos can be uploaded, but seems to be taking about 5 min per picture.

I had 3 posts waiting to be quickly uploaded, but since that isn't going to happen.

I'll give the shortened version. (And again I'll say....I'm irritated. This India is so different from last India. I realize now how pampered we were and how good we had it... even here. Because we had working internet, nice beds, a shower, a washer and dryer, and all sorts of other things this place doesn't have. Ya, I just got the memo today that laundry is bucket laundry. Cool, that should be fun. )

The place I am staying at........holy shit. It is very, very scary. I have pictures to prove. Ya, totally freaked out and didn't sleep again last night. Thank god my phone works with texting. I had Sean up 'til 5:30 in the morning (time here) keeping me company over text and calming me down. Turns out today, talking with several of the other girls who traveled here alone (like me) we were all going through the same things in our own separate minds last night. What the hell was I thinking? Why did I come here? Can I shorten my stay and leave sooner? And why does this place suck so bad? We paid to stay here? Really? Thank god, I'm not the only one. The girls/women who are here with me are all pretty cool. View from right outside our room (which I am not complaining about).Stairs going up to our room. And lower (with picture above) is entrance to the main living area.

Our room. At first glance, it doesn't seem terrible.

But then as you go to sleep, you will find, the pillow case was brown with hairs on and I pulled the sheets back to find more brown stains, hair and crumbs lying in the bed I'm supposed to be sleeping in. Awesome. Luckily I brought along a pillow case. I'm on the second floor, no air, no window, staying with two other girls (which are lovely) but........that room has to be 100 degrees.

Then, last night we found a fucking gecko in the room, I flipped out.

Today, I find ANOTHER one in the shower. Eiw, eiw, eiw.

Oh, I must mention, the shower... yes... it isn't a shower. (Do not let that shower head fool you, it doesn't work.)

It's a faucet that you can either duck down under, or use this dirty, and I do mean dirty, (as in brown stains and slime inside it) pink little bucket and use to dump over yourself. There is no shower curtain or anything like that, so the whole bathroom floor gets completely soaked. And with three of us using it, this morning was pretty interesting.

Shot of the ceiling directly over our dining room table.

Here's the kitchen with the woman of the house (Pria) and the family's cook (Brimla).

On the way to the homestay, I got to feeling very queasy, nauseous, hot, etc, etc. Combination of jet lag, dehydration, heat, jarring Indian driving, lack of sleep, overstimulated, and whatnot, anyway............threw up in the back seat of this man's car. Yup. Watermelon all over the window and back seat. That was an awesome start to this trip, I must say.

As you can tell I am not in the best mood, probably shouldn't be writing now because I'll give you all a terrible impression of India. But this has been what's been going on so far. Oh yea, and when I arrived, it was midnight and 90 degrees here. Today we just finished up some sightseeing and it was over 100 in the car. I'm right back to being sweaty, sloppy, and dirty. Oh what fond reminders of Fall 2007 - where I was in this permanent stage for 4 months. Take a look at my foot from just walking around a couple hours.

Appreciate your clean beds, houses, shower curtains/doors and airconditioning.

Love, Janelle