You can feel the air change

It has been a week to remember. Boston was amazing and it was great to see everyone, EVERYONE again. It was Shia Laboeuf's balls to the spring break walls and I had a blast multifisting boston.

Then I went to New York and stayed with Dickyi for a couple nights before heading to India. Dickyi and her brother live in Jackson Heights in India/Tibetan town and their apartment is huge and a veritable free for all. There are always people in and out, visiting or dropping something off--it's social and it's friendly. Dickyi showed me around New York--we walked all over Central Park and Soho and Union Square. We wandered around Soho like paupers eating Cozi bread and my favorite part was probably going to Strand, which is the most amazing bookstore ever. I was really impressed by New York--I think I'd like to live there for a little while some day. New York is dense in every sense of the word, but I was shocked by just how commercially dense the city is--the amount of stores packed into tiny blocks took me by surprise.

Our trip to India went really smoothly besides luggage fiasco which I will not go into because I was just informed that I have 10 minutes left. When we got to India, Dickyi's friend was supposed to pick us up but forgot/was sleeping because it was 5 am in the morning, so we got to MT (the Tibetan district, where our hotel is) ourselves and checked in. We took showers and proceeded to multi-fist Delhi such that every of its orafices contained a corresponding one of our appendages. We explored the area we were in which is rife with Tibetan culture and people and the most amazing, self-sustained little walled community. We met up with Dickyi's friend and then went to Janpath by metro! The metro system in Delhi is new and beautiful, smooth and very very clean. I was accosted, however, when I took a picture of it and was yelled at by a menacing police guard who was not amused. When we got to Connaught place, which I went to last time I was in Delhi, we went to Palika Bazaar which reminded me a lot of Al-shula in Saudi before it burned down--lots of fake names, lots of cheap stuff, lots of pirated dvds. We went shopping in Janpath and ate lunch at this South Indian restaurant, which took me back to the days of Chennai. We had thali and it was really good but I am trying to be careful of what I eat so I couldn't eat much of the curd, which is my favorite part. We went to an eyeglasses/contacts store for Dickyi and then decided to watch "Metro" with Dickyi and two of her friends who live in Delhi. BUT when we bought the tickets we realized we couldn't bring our backpacks into the theater so Dickyi's friend brought us to his apartment to drop off our backpacks. It was a long rickshaw ride and I was uncomfortably and probably dangerously hot by this time. I mean the heat in delhi is unbelievable right now. It is an impenetrable heat and it seeps into every corner it can find and stays there. It's hard to take a deep breath. On the rickshaw ride back I kind of started falling asleep and the heat was making me a little delirious. I found myself longing for trees because when we would drive past groves of trees/tree lined streets, the air got noticeably cooler because of the vegetation. I slept through most of the movie because the movie theater was lovely and icy cold, but I got the gist. A very modern Hindi movie with a bunch of new stars I've never heard of. After the movie we went all the way back to Dickyi's friends' place (they were all SO nice) and took a two and a half hour nap. I could not keep awake--it was a mixture between the oppressive heat and the jetlag me thinks. When we woke up,I felt a little out of it and a little bit sick from the change in food? But I sucked it up and we went clubbing anyway! We went to Gorgow (sp?) district, which is a compound-like community where all the young IT people live. It's modern there with lots of high, commercial buildings, beautiful apartment buildlings, shopping malls, and a TGIF. Haha. Apparently they treat it like a bar, not a restaurant. We went to the Metropolitan Complex and went to a club there, which apparently is a "last resort" club, but it was still pretty cool to see what it's like to go out in Delhi. Their laser lights were really impressive, I have to say. There was a suprising amount of people for a Thursday night and they music was good and we stayed out until about 3 or so. I was glad we were there with a couple guys, but people seem to generally leave each other alone here. There was a couple fights between guys but I felt pretty safe.

We took a taxi back (the taxi guy who had dropped us was waiting around for us for like four hours!) to get our stuff and then Dickyi and I headed home. Her friends were SO helpful and nice and insisted on paying for things--I felt grateful to have them around showing us the ropes. Not to mention that it was an incredibly exciting change to see how people who live and work in Delhi actually live since last time I came everything was touristy. Their apartment was pretty cool and in an area with lots of young, working Tibetans.

The auto ride home was nice--the air was cooler and where there were trees, the air was actually chilly. It's incredible how thick the heat is and the palpable difference a few leaves can make. We got to bed around five, but only slept for a couple hours, I guess because of the jet lag? Today we're going back to Connaught Place and then we're going to hop on a bus to Dharamsala! The bus ride is 11 hrs with a couple stops and I am really looking forward to getting out of Delhi, I have to say. Tendor, Dickyi's brother says that you can feel the air change as you ride in Himachal Pradesh to Dharamsala--it gets colder and clearer and more beautiful.

I really have to go--I'm sorry if this blog is boring but I just needed to get everything down before I forget. I'll revise with details later.