Friday, June 5, 2009

Quitb-Minar (World Famous Tower)



Aren't we fabulous? (Below) Lol. Ttly kidding. So gross and sweaty. Eiiiiw! What a great picture. Isn't this stone pretty? Kids wanting their pictures with us. Craaaaazy. So the story here...I was down on my hands and knees trying to take this crazy picture of Sarah and when I stood up, Quinn tells me these guys were taking a picture of my booty with their cell phones! Uh! I feel so violated. lol.

I suppose I'll get over it. Ha ha ha.
Love, Janelle

Girl Stuff in India

Last night Melissa and I went for a walk and talk, dinner and Baskin Robins. The Chinese food in India is to die for. And we laughed our asses off of me in this photo because of how terrible I look. Seriously, look at how beat up I am. Lol.

Anyway, Melissa and I have lots to talk about the next two weeks. I am really looking forward to it.

Love, Janelle

Fabulous-ness

Gemstone necklace I bought yesterday. Isn’t it amazing?!Can wear it with aaaany color, well just about. Super psyched about this…

Love, Janelle

Lime Water

Yuuuuummmmyyy!!
This stuff rocks.

Love, Janelle

Drinking Water

Tid bit: here’s our drinking water source. Room temperature water with this heat has been so refreshing. uuuuuggggggghhhhhh. Ok honestly, I'll try to stop complaining - lol. My dad says to me yesterday, "Well, what the hell did you expect?" Lol. "Not this." I replied. I don't know... I expected posh-ness like we had last time. I don't always think everything through.

Love, Janelle

The Norwegian Girl

Lol. Here’s Maria. Such a doll. 19 years old and has traveled all around the world. Am quite envious of actually… Someone…ah hem… Sean... is a little nutso over foreign money. Maria gave me some from Norway to give to him.

Today she was saying how she just really wanted to wear a dress. So by damn she put on her dress. Lol. If only to sit in the dungeon, oops, I mean basement of the house.
Love, Janelle

Farewell to the House

Sheena, I thought I might take a departing photo of the bathroom – slightly different view from last time So you could add this to your collection, next time you know whos come to the office. Yeah… aren’t you jealous of my luxuries this week?

Then to top it all off!!!!!

When Pria (Rajiv’s wife) asked me why I was leaving a night early, I told her:
1. It’s too hot here.
2. I can’t sleep, it’s too hot.
3. My body’s not used to this weather, with no relief from the heat. We are outside during the day and here during the night (YOU DON'T HAVE AIRCONDITIONING).
4. My joints are flared up from no relief and no hot shower and lack of sleep.
5. The hotel will do my laundry – as my hands will not allow me to do “bucket laundry” at her house.
6. Being around all these people all the time is stressing me out. I need some alone time.

She simply stared at me like I was a lunatic. Like none of that registered or like none of them were valid enough. To which I replied, “Also, I guess I’m spoiled, that could be a reason.” She laughed and instantly said, “This I can clearly see.” To which I’m thinking… “Bitch!” Omg. She made gestures to my earrings and ring. Then says, “Your husband and father have spoiled you your whole life, this I can see.” (!) OMG! THEN she tells me, “We are very much annoyed with you that you are leaving.” OMG. (!) Anyway, that was a pretty good one. I enjoyed that being my parting conversation. I told her I was grateful for their company and letting me stay the week in their home and that I was sorry I had to leave a little early. Ah…. As you know what I was really thinking.

After Rajiv called for my cab I went up to get my luggage and as an added bonus for me, I found a special treat waiting for on the stairway. See photo.
So here’s me saying “Are you fucking kidding me?” Because I got to haul my luggage down through this.

Driving away from there and knowing I was on my way to this resort = zen.


Now I’ll throw in a sidebar, I called the owner directly yesterday on his cell phone that he had given me th e# and chatted it up with him. He offered to come pick me up YESTERDAY and bring me to his house – lol. Said it was just awful we had no air at our house. Told me his servant could come get me, bring me to his place where I could do my laundry and sit and have a cold beer with him and be in the nice air conditioning. LOL. Yea, I am very trusting of others and don’t always make the best decisions, but I knew better here. I told him thanks, but no thanks, but told him he could do me a favor and give me an even better rate than he offered on Sunday. I told him (which was a lie) that I found other places for 4,000 rupees. He instantly replies, “You want to pay 4,000 rupees? So you pay 4,000 rupees, it’s not a problem!” Then I’m like “damn!! I should have said 2,000!” Oh well. He came down quite a bit from the regular price and every rupee has been worth it so far. Read on…


At the resort, doors were opened for me, I walk in and the receptionist greets me, “Welcome Ms. Cary please come in.” “How are you?” I tell him the story. Then tell him:
1. Last time I was here the water in the room fridge wasn’t that cold, to which he tells me they’ve given me the best room, but if the water isn’t cold enough – just dial 4 and they will deliver me a colder one.
2. That I need it to be really cold (air conditioner). To which he tells me he’s given me also the best room for air conditioning.
3. Then I tell them I need my laundry done (by a certain time tomorrow).
4. That I need a ride to the airport.
5. I also tell had one other request, which is escaping me at the moment.

Then I thought back to what Pria told me about a half hour ago (that I’m spoiled and a brat). So I said to this receptionist, “I’m sorry for being so demanding.” He replies (with a smile) “It is our pleasure madaam, we are so happy to have you here. No worries.”


Finally! Sane people. Lol.

(And yes……in case you are reading this and are appalled, I do realize I’m a brat.)


Part of the reason I came here was to be beaten down and to realize. I clearly was…. and am. Perhaps this will instill change, but probably not. I have been going through the mental process though, so it has all been good. I am who I am. It may or may not change. And I’m oh so ok with that:)


Love, Janelle

New Delhi Kicked My Ass

As much fun as it’s been here in the heat, living in the slummed up house, having no real shower all week long, getting no sleep and rooming with 10 – 12 other girls, alas party time is over for me. I cannot tell you, how relieved I am right now to be laying in a nice bed and airconditioned room. I am in heaven. And it’s just me………..ah………. sigh.

The past week’s living arrangements reminded me of basically what it would be like to be living in a dorm at age 30. Holy fuck. Can you say hell? (Yes, don’t get me wrong, parts of it were definitely fun and the girls there were lovely.) Buuuuut…. I’ve realized how important “my” time is to me. I need to retreat and can’t do the constant people thing… at all. It’s way too much for me to process and handle. Way, way too much. I told Melissa last night I came to this conclusion. Also, perhaps I’ve come to the conclusion… I am in love with myself. Ha ha ha. I really enjoy myself. I do! I’m not gonna lie. Lol.

People close to me have said that I am too critical of others and Sean’s always told me I have a hard time making female friends. I realize this week how accurate that is. People annoy me. .. period. I have a short fuse. I’m spoiled and I’m a brat. However, this makes for the most special friendships of those people close to me who don’t annoy me (lol). Like Melissa! Thank god she’s on this trip. Loving her.

Cause P.S. my girlfriends back home - you knooooow how much and often I need you to vent. Lol. Time difference here is kinda screwing that up for us. Lol. Melissa gets to cover for you all now. Haa ha. Miss you guys, btw :(

Love, Janelle

Once Upon a Time 3 Girls Were Watching a Sex Movie in Their Bras & Panties When...

Well I thought that may get some of your attention, Jonathan, you must be reading this one – ha ha ha.

First off I will back up and say:
1. Yes, 1 of the 3 girls was me.
2. Yes, this happened last night.
3. No, it was not a porno – it was a movie called “I’m a Sex Addict”.
4. No, I do not have pictures to go along with this post – lol.

Onto the rest of the story…

So last night about 11:00 my roommates and I were laying around in our underwear bitching about how awful it’s been in our room and how limited sleep we’ve all gotten because it’s had to have been 100 degrees in there every night. (I must say it’s kind of funny how comfortable you can get around other people with being half naked, when you’ve known them for less than a week. But then again, in our situations, we really had no other choice.) So anyway, key elements:
1. Our room is on the 3rd floor of the building.
2. All the rest of the girls (around 10) are in the basement of the building.
3. We were told by our host that we have the entire floor to ourselves (even though there were several other locked doors up there) and that NO ONE else would be coming up onto that floor ever.
4. So… during the day we sometimes would lay on top of our beds in our underwear - with the door open - trying to nap or relax, or just chit chatting, thinking we were the only ones up there, and it’s no big deal to have the door open.

Back to 11:00 PM….. we’re watching the movie, half naked, and we hear someone open the main door and start walking toward our room (!) Carrie jumps up and runs to the door, sees a woman coming toward our room, so she quickly shut and locked the door. Then instantly goes to the bathroom and locks that door. WTF? We have NO idea who this woman is or what she’s doing……….or how she even got in, because we lock the main door to the floor.

Totally freaked out at this point.

Well then, we’re sitting there quietly discussing WTF is going on and what this lady is doing up there. When we start to hear the unmistakable sound of sex coming from the room next to us. !!!!!!! AWESOME (sarcasm)… Yea, total bed shaking and squeaking against the floor – da ta da ta da ta da ta da – back and forth a million times. !!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!! All of our mouths open, we’re in complete silence just looking at one another, looking at our joining wall, then looking back at one another, not saying anything for the longest time. When finally one of them broke the silence and said something like, “Did that just happen?” and the 2 of us instantly confirmed.

Maybe 20 minutes later we heard another noise – which was what we guessed 1 or both of them leaving.

We processed this probably for an hour. Near the end Katie goes, “Ok, we’re all in agreement on this, there was nothing else that could have been right?” Replies, “Ah…. No! That’s a pretty distinct sound.”

So our thoughts were:
1. Rajiv is renting out that room by the hour for extra money (as if he hasn’t made enough on us already).
2. Rajiv himself was in the room being serviced.
3. This person is going to come into our rooms any time now, because apparently they have a key to our fucking floor. Katie replied to that, “I don’t want to get fucked in India”. To which Carrie and I replied with hysterical laughter.
4. This is not what we signed up for.
5. We shouldn’t feel so special as to have had our “own” private floor, when actually we were on like the sex floor.
6. Whatever the fuck reason sex was happening in the room next to us – 3 foreign female volunteers- it was totally irresponsible of our “host” family to allow us to be living in this environment without warning us or telling us to keep our doors locked all the time. Wtf.
7. Rajiv needs to be confronted on this issue and we demand answers and refunds.

So this morning Katie and Carrie go down for breakfast, I take forever in the morning to get moving with my joints, so I never make it down in time. Anyway, they come up and when the 3 of us discussed what happened, I was livid and they were nearly in tears.

1. Aparently Rajiv, his wife, brother and brother’s wife completely denied what happened and tried to make the 2 of them sound like idiots for saying what in fact DID happen.
2. They STOOD over Katie and Carrie – who were sitting. (Not cool at all. I was ttly pissed when they told me this.) They totally felt attacked.
3. They claimed that it was Rajiv’s sister-in-law who came up to do “office work”.
4. Did not validate in any way shape or form that the 3 of us no longer felt safe on this floor.
5. Katie and Carrie asked to be moved to the basement with the rest of the girls. To which they replied “that isn’t necessary.”

OMFG…….. So then I go down and have a little chat with Pria – Rajiv’s wife. She informs me that it was the sister-in-law who went upstairs “just to check and see who was in the rooms.” I told her, “NO – someone was IN the room next to us and something was going on in there”. To which she tells me, “NO ONE was in the rooms next to us, they are locked.” OMFG.

So what do we do about it?

I was planning on leaving today anyway, and am safe in a hotel. My roommates called their Indian friend here who was coming to meet them at the house and discuss wtf is going on there. He was extremely worried about them, and last I heard they were either going to his place or to a hotel, if Rajiv does not let them move to the basement floor.

Katie & Carrie have the contact information of the person who is heading up this (NGO) program and to which part of our money has gone to ensure things like this (and a million other things that have happened at the house) in fact…. do not happen. So the 3 of us are all going to report what the fuck has been going on h ere for us. It won’t make a difference for us, but hopefully it can help future volunteers.

I tell you. If anyone is wanting a true definition of the words sketchy or shady, travel to India and stay a few days in that house. Unreal. I’m so so so so glad to be out of there.

Love, Janelle