She's Gone Rogue: A Little Bit of Chicken Fried

There are many things I miss about Amurca. Among them: a little bit of chicken fried, cold (or even warm) beer on a Friday night (or any night), a pair of jeans that fits just right (I could probably remedy that by finding a tailor here) and the radio up. (Yes, these are song lyrics, and yes, I am aware of the irony of putting song lyrics into my blog, but this song has been stuck in my head for a couple weeks now, and I think maybe by writing it down, only then can I fully let it go. Nerd.)

Matt's first (but not last) Indian haircut.

I have done nothing since my last post, but since I left a few things for later, I will tell you about them now. First of all, Matt got his first Indian haircut last weekend. It cost 100 rupees ($2), including tip, and it was awesome. I'm not kidding. I was really impressed with this guy. He did the whole thing with scissors and made it incredibly precise. Also, he cut out all of Matt's weird bushy/curly hair that gets all frizzy in this Indian monsoon-season humidity. I should mention as an example of the kindness of Indian people, the guy getting his hair cut next to Matt was nice enough to translate for Matt exactly what kind of haircut he wanted (medium short was the settled-upon term), and then he hung around after he was finished to make sure Matt was satisfied. All in all, a very unexpectedly pleasant experience. I expect Matt will go back in two or three weeks whether he needs another cut or not. For $2, why not?

I was going to take more pictures, but I got embarrassed when everyone started laughing at me. I'm sure I looked like a proud parent documenting one of baby's "firsts". That's pretty much how I felt.

Centre Square. Fanciest mall in town. So fancy, in fact, they they spell center like the Brits do.

Later in the weekend, we went shopping at the Chroma electronics store, which was having it's annual "Non-Violent Sale". Don't know exactly what that means, but I for one, fully support it. We also went to the center mall where I was treated to some shoes, a scarf and some small pants. ("Small pants" is a term the Russian advisor, Sveta, came up with when she couldn't think of the word for leggings. I liked it so much that I have decided to use it in place of "leggings" for the remainder of all time.)

It is the most peaceful sale I've ever seen.

That is pretty much all I've got for today, and none of it was even about today. Oh, Wednesday was Katie's birthday, and we had a small (and fairly lame) party for her. We tried to make it exciting, but what with "Mocktail hour" (they have it every Wednesday, and we get a letter about it every Monday. We've been once for a total of 10 minutes... that's how long it took us to realize 1. there is no alcohol, 2. the mocktails look and taste like toilet water, and 3. they probably are toilet water.) running late, we didn't get anything started until 9 p.m., and our food didn't arrive until 10 p.m. The quickest way to a bad party is to shove a bunch of irritable and sober people into a room, and don't feed them for three hours. I'd like to take this opportunity to point out the fact that while none of this was directly my fault, I was the only person who had time to make a great party and I didn't do it. So of course I feel guilty. Also, I didn't take any pictures. Just imagine 10 people sitting around a table staring at each other and not talking, and you can pretty much see it.

Different-looking bulls. I don't know what kind they are, but they're way bigger, and look at those snouts. These guys command attention.

This weekend we have big plans to go to Ahmedebad, which is only about an hour (in theory) away. I don't really know what's there and I imagine it will be a bigger version of Baroda, but I hear from a very reputable source (Mary) that it has a really nice market AND an arcade, among other things. It should be interesting. And that's all I have to say about that. My blog posts are seriously declining in content and relevance, I know. Maybe after Ahmedebad I'll have something better. In conclusion, I will leave you with some random pictures from our walkabout on Saturday. Please enjoy.

We thought this was really funny, only because when Sveta bought jewelry here, she couldn't get more than 2.5% off. Now they're literally giving the stuff away.