brief update

not too much more to report, in the light of what I'll be doing tomorrow: going to the TAJ MAHAL, bitches! but I will proceed to relate a summarized account of what I've been doing the past two days. an announcement, though: it turns out that it's a big hassle to import photos to this blog in that it takes a really long time, so instead I'd invite you to view my associated webalbum, http://picasaweb.google.com/lucinda.stroud.
as I take up space I may need to relocate to another server, but for the time being this will work.

in any case, we visited the campus of JNU, which is undoubtedly the largest and most politically active campus that I have ever seen. it remains to be seen whether or not I'll be taking classes there after all - the commute is long and arduous and they don't really have any classes that apply to me - but in any case it's an amazing place. i took pictures of the political posters that cover almost every surface and of the squirrels (well, one squirrel) that frequent the area near one of the outdoor cafes. after JNU was the first bout of "intensive hindi," which was predictably intense but not too bad. what little hindi I had studied on my own proved to be an enormous help in mastering concepts, especially the alphabet. it was tiring though, and i called it an early night.

today involved standing in very long lines. for some reason, only a handful of us in IES delhi have to register at the FRRO office: if you're staying in india for more than 180 days you're required to register with them within 14 days, which makes sense except none of us are actually going to be there for that long. very confusing. anyway, we stood in line for a good hour or so to receive the forms we needed, and after filling them out and preparing to stand in line for at least another hour, probably much longer, we realized that we didn't have the lease or some other sort of necessary document with us. Manoj, probably the only male adult involved with the IES program, seemed uncertain about this, so we vowed to return early on Monday, prepared for the inefficiencies of the office. next lunch and more intensive hindi. and now NOW, in which I am preparing to go to bed and wake up very early tomorrow to be herded off to the TAJ MAHAL, which will be amazing. pictures, I promise.

heart and fuzzles.