Jaipur

Hey all,

If any of your heard, there were bombings in Jaipur the night before last.
They don't know who planted the bombs as of yet, but around 7:20, 7 bombs went off in the old city....all in extremely populated areas. The police were able to disarm two more before they went off, and as of today there haven't been any others detected.
Everyone from our program is safe by the grace of God, and we were under house arrest for around 36 hours to ride out any backlash.
As of yesterday, there were over 70 dead, and 200 injured. The city was pretty chaotic but yesterday there were enforced curfews in the city to avoid communal violence, which emptied out the streets pretty effectively.

It was really strange because we were supposed to go to the old city to buy sari's but ended up going to the tailor instead...amazing how simple things can make such a difference.

So, we are allowed out today, with the SIT staff chaperoning us throughout the city.

So, we are safe, if not a little shaken.
Much love to all

Here and back again

Well, after a tranquil three weeks, Kate and I are venturing back into the great heatwave that is middle India. It is strange because we made good friends with the elective students here, and now have to leave them. We have spent a lot of time debating the many differences, and surprising similarities between cultures, and working very hard at dispelling some of the more erroneous mass assumptions about Americans (mostly due to works of cinematic genius like "girls gone wild" and "superbad"). So, Kate and I are falling asleep to the sound of braying donkeys for the last time together. When I return I might be living in a flat alone for six weeks, so I am trying to soak up all of the company I can while it is still available.
Things here have been amazing, but I am ready to get back to Jaipur to see the group and hear about all of the amazing stories the other students have. Most likely we will be spending each day submerged in the pool at the Raj Mahal hotel, but I guess I can hardly complain about that. I maintain that things here have been calm, and our days have been mostly filled with typing our 30 page papers. My typing has been punctuated with the sound of my cursing, because the power has a tendency to go out (suspect I know) causing me to lose paragraphs with each outage.
The mountains maintain their majestic beauty, and every few days we wake up to a new snow covering on their tops. We went to a town called Naggar to have lunch on a castle balcony. The lunch was "minging" as the brits say, but the view was stunning as usual. The valley had a river and apple orchards with small homes sprinkled in. We were harassed by crows the sizes of pterodactyls, and appeased them by chucking bits of Kate's horrid sandwich over the balcony.
After a quick tour of an art museum, which did nothing but confirm my notion that India might have missed that the point of establishing a museum is not to creep out the customers, we wound back down into manali, and had a fantastic dinner at the charming johnson's cafe.
I think I will sign off now, so as not to keep kate awake all night with the typing.
Much love, and for those rowers who might check this. congratulations!
Love to all.