as of late.

cuties at the jalari.

--saw my first tollywood movie, anaganaga o dheerudu. i don't know why i thought a telugu movie shown in vizag would have english subtitles.. but i was honestly surprised when there weren't any. good thing the majority of the film was in the universal language of dance. the speakers in the theater were BLARING & we all walked out of the theater shouting at each other. oh, & the main character was apparently blind? i missed that minor detail. i had to ask what was going on in the last five minutes when he was being healed.

--several of the students had unsavory interactions with our tailor here... i guess she stole one of the girl's fabric, charged her for it, & returned a couple blouses late that looked like she was plastered while sewing. (to be fair, it was a festival weekend.) she is also constantly hitting us up for u.s. dollars, & asking one of the boys to take her daughter with her when he returns to america.

i keep hearing talk of an impending intervention with the woman. she is now lovingly referred to as "the sketchy tailor." maybe it should have been a red flag when she asked us all for our full names & signatures when we had dinner at her home. at least i didn't give her my phone & address in the u.s., like jaci did... haha.

girlies with the sketchy tailor.

--realized i inevitably pay the white person's tax, no matter where i go. take the price of any unmarked item, multiply it by 8, & that's how much i'm charged. clothing, food, taxi rickshaws.. doesn't matter. i want to feel ripped off, but everything is still SO cheap.

--so i haggle. but it usually blows up in my face. my translator karuna taught me the shake your head & walk away method when trying to get a rickshaw for cheap. in theory, the driver then starts his engine, pulls up beside you, & motions for you to get in. each time i've tried it, no one has followed me, & i stand there embarrassed with no way to get where i'm going.

--found my favorite place in vizag. a pizza place in a resort called the park. wood fired pizza with pesto, feta, goat cheese, & sundried tomatoes? DIVINE. warm blondies with butterscotch ice cream & chocolate sauce? i honest to goodness, literally, licked my plate clean. it was the first non-indian food i've eaten in the last 3 weeks.. so good. AND they turned on britney spears, christina aguilera, justin timberlake, & spice girls for us. AND the bathroom had toilet paper. AND you could FLUSH it.

AMY POWER at the borra caves.

--me & my friend amy (yeah. she's rad.) went to church yesterday morning thinking we were going to be watching a CES fireside. we got home 11 hours later, & never saw the broadcast. instead we were put on an hour long bus ride to an area called "steel plant." half of this bus ride was spent covering our mouths and noses with handkerchiefs to avoid breathing in sulfur fumes. (everyone on the bus either had a surgical mask on or was doing the same thing we were). we then spent the day at a park, acting as the ward members' monkeys-- learning telugu words & repeating them for everyone's amusement. it gets old. fast.

--learned how to play cricket. kind of. two white girls team taught by 30 indian boys. mostly i just ran when they told me to. whenever we would catch or hit the ball, a profound "WOAH" was uttered in unison.

--tall bunny trash cans lined the park. i was stoked to find a public trash can in india.. until i dumped my trash in the bunny's mouth, and watched it slide onto the ground out the other end.

why. even. try.

and that's why you see this on every street.

--my friend pradeepa told me my feet look like an indian person's feet. as in filthy. bad news.

ps. i stole these photos from my friend's camera. thanks amy!

still no camera battery.. curse you, UPS.