Monday, May 9, 2011

9 may-close calls

This morning, Srikanta came a little later and I was grateful for the chance to sleep in! We had a late night yesterday, watching 500 Days of Summer on Joanna's laptop. Apparently on the ride to work we passed an accident, but I somehow didn't see it!

At work, I ordered breakfast and had mini idlis (the little rice cakes) in sambar (I'm going to stop explaining Indian food, it's not that interesting...). Anyways, it was delicious. I also ordered lunch... yum.

After lunch, Ayan gave a talk on Reverse Osmosis and how the process works. It was informative, but a little hard to follow. I wasn't the most focused today! Ayan used to live in the Netherlands, and I recently translated some of his Dutch documents for him and felt so useful! It's amazing how that language finds its way into my life in so many ways.

I worked on my report for the rest of the day, and left work earlier than expected with Srikanta. The ride back was full of close calls today, a cow darting out, a car not honking from around a corner. With a less careful driver, I would have been petrified, but Srikanta is very safe. He lent me a book called "Small is Beautiful", an explanation of economics for the ordinary man. I'm not sure what it will be like yet, but the reading is really piling up so I have to start making dents in these great books before I have to return them all!

There are so many mosquitos biting me this evening! And the power went out again. Those minor frustrations are propelling me out the door to go eat dinner with Jo at a restaurant called Grand Taj. She went there once before with a climber friend and promises it's a good one.

Update: we just got back from Grand Taj! It's literally right around the corner and we stuffed our faces. I had raita, aloo paratha and gobi manchurian AND a roti! I am so full. The waiters were completely strange...when one of them took any order from us, he leaned down really close to the table and my face, and looked at the table while I talked literally in his ear.

Then, a man came up behind me and spoke in my ear, making me jump with fright. He was asking if we wanted cold drinks after our meal. No thank you, just the bill. Talk about too close for comfort. Interestingly, there are different standards for personal space in different countries- apparently Americans are big on it, Brazilians not so much, the waiters at Grand Taj, not at all.

2 comments:

  1. That book almost started it all... Great book indeed!

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  2. oh my!! sleep is sooo important! i discovered that today! i slept for 12 hours straight after coming back from University! feel super!
    I am soo enviouse that you got idlis and sambar!! I am soo craving that right now! You know I had that in my little mini fridge but I kept saving it because I knew once I ate it I wouldn’t have it anymore … then it went bad and I didn’t ever get to eat it…
    But I m eating parlgee with tea soo ha! also reading so much calls for more chai so i will be making some shortly
    i dont like hearing about all those close calls... makes me nervous. that must seem funny after driving in Indian traffic for a while! haha tell Srikanta I am glad that he is such a good driver!
    weird about the waiters! haha i am soo jealous of all that awesome food! haha at school i eat the Indian food so much that besides just knowing my order instead they see me hand me a plate and ask me how my day was while serving the other costumers as i scoop my food my self... its still not as good as your moms cooking.

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