one way ticket

I woke up this morning to the sound of a hotel staffmember knocking on my door at 9am. He v. thoughtfully decided to hand-deliver my newspaper; apparently, the little bag with the handles on it is meant to be carried to one's room and delivered immediately, rather than hung from the door to await one's attention. There is no placard that says 'Do Not Disturb'; there is a little light outside that is supposed to signify one's desire to be left alone, but I can't find the switch to activate it. Therefore, I am destined to be awoken every morning by a man delivering a paper that I have no intention of reading. Welcome to India, indeed!

Anyway, despite that inauspicious opening, today was brilliant. I went to brunch at the Taj Krishna, which is one of my traditional haunts of old; most of the expats still go there every Sunday, and so I had my usual croissant with salmon, followed by a barbecued chicken pizza, followed by an order of fries that never ever comes, followed by a cup of black tea. Mmm. I had a fabulous time seeing Roy, Leigh Anne, John, Holly, Heather, Salim, Regina, Brian, and the other expats who have arrived more recently. Then, those of us who are here for the week went to Charminar to buy bangles--which is one Indian commodity that I don't need any more of, given the boxes upon boxes of bangles currently inhabiting my living room. I limited myself to one set of four, and focused the rest of my energies on attempting to cross the street without being run over by autorickshaws, cars, buses, motorbikes, regular bikes (always seemingly consisting of more rust than metal), or even a donkey-drawn cart. The area around Charminar is considered the old city, and it is a madness-inducing swirl of people, vehicles, dirt, animals, amazing Technicolor saris, bangles, turbans, and other fantastic products. There are people *everywhere*, mostly staring at the unexpected white people in their midst, unless they are actively trying to run over said white people. Actually, no one seems desirous of running people over; instead, they just don't care if people are crossing the street. This makes navigating the Charminar area v. difficult. The Charminar itself is a Muslim monument in the center of a roundabout, while the only parking area is off one side of the roundabout and the bangle street is off the oppposite side. Therefore, to get to the bangles, one has to navigate the unintelligble traffic patterns of an Indian roundabout, with the disadvantage of not having any wheels or horns. I highly recommend it, and it probably explains why I ended up with so many bangles--the adrenaline rush from surviving the street crossing leads to a lust for life that bangles are strangely suited for.

Anyway, afterwards Darragh and I split off from the group and went to this lovely handicrafts place, where we each bought gorgeous rugs (yay for consumerism). We came back to the hotel, worked on the presentation that we're giving tomorrow, and then I went over to Salim and Heather's. We ended up going out for dinner at this place called Little Italy, which opened after I left; it serves Italian and Mexican food, which I found to be an odd combination. The Italian food was excellent, and I love Heather and Salim, so I had a great night.

Now, I'm going to go to bed--surprisingly, I'm doing really well with the jet lag, considering I made it through the entire day without taking a nap or relaxing much at all. Hopefully it doesn't hit me tomorrow, but only time will tell. Goodnight!