The British have stuck up a flag in my country and decided to call it their own!!

Yes, that's right, I'm being held captive by Brits who hang me up by my toenails and force me to spin gold into hay.  Or wait - maybe it's the other way around.... maybe THAT'S why they keep telling me that my work is "mingin'" and making me do it over... Yes, right now they've let me out on a leash for an hour so I can communicate with the outside world. How kind of them.

Ok, so seriously - two weeks ago Monday the Institute was invaded by a pair of boys, one from Essex, the other a Liverpuddlian.  On Wednesday last a girl named Yolanda appeared (who I believe is in conspiracy with them - she's living in our room and probably spying on us).  Immediately upon her arrival she and the boys stopped speaking in normal English and went into "Super British mode" where Elisa and I had our heads on upside down for trying to decipher what they were saying.  

Luckily, we were able to elude them for a few days when we took a trip to Pune. (In case you're wondering where the other 3 Brits are, Jimmy was already there - as I stated in an earlier note he's from Northern Ireland - and while we were gone his sister and brother-in-law arrived for a visit, so when we got back there were six)  We left the day after Yolanda's arrival on the Indore-Pune sleeper bus. Pretty SWEET!  Sleeper buses have seats much like that on the Greyhound buses at home, except they're arranged into alcoves - 4 seaters on one side of the bus, two seaters on the other.  At night the seat-backs can be lowered to form a bed, and 2 passengers go up to the top bunk (or 1 if you're in the 2 seater, but we were not).  The bed that this forms is really rather comfortable, except that it had a built in lump for the "pillow" which was too high (for my tastes) to sleep on your back, and too low to sleep on your side.  So that was unfortunate.  For a while though we were worried that we weren't going to get to lie down at all because there were a girl and guy sitting across from us, and the guy went up but the girl didn't.  We were both pretty tired and ready to sleep and we kept shifting about and making "uncomfortable noises" hoping she'd catch our drift, but didn't want to say anything in case she was just uncomfortable sleeping next to him even though it looked like they knew each other.  Luckily though she went up after the bus stopped for a break around 10pm.  So we got a decent sleep after all.  I think the nicest thing about bus travel in India is that they don't have highways in the sense that we have them in the States, so you're driving through the countryside almost the whole way, plus you get great views because the buses aren't airconditioned so you can open the windows wide.  It was really very beautiful, especially with things getting greener now since the rains have come.

In Pune we stayed with a Baha'i family (whose relatives we know in Indore) and they were absolutely wonderful!  They had two young daughters - Eden who's 8 and Karen who's 4, and they both spoke very good english and were really cute.  Here's a taste of the Indian life for you - Elisa was asking Karen what animals she likes, and she wouldn't admit to liking any - when Elisa said, would you pet a dog? Karen replied with a laugh and a roll of the eyes  (as though certainly we MUST be kidding) "NO one pets dogs!!!"  You see, here, dogs are all strays and quite often rabid and unfortunately suffer much abuse from the general population - I suppose you could say they're almost the Indian equivalent of a raccoon or other pesky animal that gets into things and in the way. 

Pune itself is a nice city - cleaner and older than Indore, so the buildings were mostly that older Indian style which I really like.  We didn't do much there - Friday afternoon we walked around the neighborhood where we were staying and did some shopping, and Saturday was spent at a meeting that we had to attend in place of Janak for the National Open School - though not after an hour long rickshaw ride because we got lost!! Oh well. It was a nice break from Indore. 

As for this week, it has pretty much passed quick and uneventful, with plenty of Britishness involved.... And now I must be off! Goodnight!
  Much love,
          ME