Sitting in an internet cafe in India soaking wet and slightly cold - bet you're all sweating in the States!!

Hello All!!!
My apologies for the long delay in posts but I've been quite busy since the brits got here as they have only short stays here and feel the need to make the most of it while they still have time - they're all heading off in about a week. It didn't help either that I had a really slow/not working internet connection when I came earlier this week. At any rate....
Let's see, what have I been up to for the past month? I went to see a Bollywood movie a few weeks ago, and this time it was NOT in a really modern western theatre. No, this was the REAL Bollywood experience, complete with roaring crowds and stadium sized theatre. In fact, it was more like a football game than a movie. It was GREAT though! So we saw this film called "Mujhse Shaadi Karogi" which essentially means "Marry me" and had only just opened in theatres. It was a Salman Khan flick - THE Bollywood star to see, probably the most famous and popular. When we got to the theatre and were let inside, we immediately got stuck in a huge crowd of people. In Indian theatres they don't let you in until about 10 minutes before the film starts, so people just gather in the lobby until the doors open and then make a MAD RUSH for their seats (which are assigned actually, like in a real theatre). People start wandering around this literally stadium sized theatre which must've had about 500 people in it at least, shouting to their friends and generally just having a good time. When the film starts the crowd ROARS and whistles, and repeats this for the entrance of all their favorite stars. They jeer and catcall and all the rest as the movie goes on, and it's SO FUN. The movie itself probably would have been considered really cheesy at home, but just because it's Bollywood it's fabulous. There are numerous dancing and singing scenes, and this particular one also happened to have a lot of fight scenes complete with slow motion and sound effects - by which I mean the type of fighting sounds they have in cartoons when people punch each other and stuff. Altogether an enjoyable experience.
For my birthday week (yes, in the Adriance family we celebrate the whole WEEK and I'm not about to stop that because I'm in India) we started off by going out to dinner on Sunday night with all the volunteers and Jimmy and Janak ended up treating us though we protested as we hadn't started out with thtat idea in mind. We all got dressed up in our saris for that, which was fun - and as usual provoked many random complements from complete strangers about how you foreigners are looking very beautiful in your Indian dress. On Wednesday (the actual day) I woke up at 8 to the phone ringing from my parents and then got treated to a breakfast of crepes filled with cinnamon apples which Elisa and Yolanda had gotten up early to make, meaning it to be a surprise of breakfast in bed, only slightly spoiled by my waking up from the phone call before they were ready. Later that day I handed out candy to the girls and staff, as it's sort of an Indian thing to give little presents like that on your birthday, and it's the best thing EVER to get the reaction that some of them give when they see that you have sweets for them. Indians get more excited about candy then anyone else that I know. At least the ones at the Institute do. And then that evening we had a potluck dinner where we all cooked different things. Shide ( a persian volunteer from Saudi Arabia who was here for a short time) cooked persian rice and we made pasta (REAL Barilla pasta which we managed to find in a shop) and made our our marinara sauce. Yolanda made apple crumble, I made brownies (chocolate also was a difficult find) and Elisa attempted to make vegan Gulab Jamun which is this FABULOUS Indian milk sweet soaked in sugar syrup but it got sort of botched. All in all it was a really fun night.
Last night we had quite an adventure - the Institute had a display up in Gandhi hall (on the other side of the city) in an exhibition on alternative energy sources. In case you didn't remember, the institute is big on solar cooking. So at 6PM last night the girls were let out of the Institute for the first time during their stay here, and all 80 some odd of them plus us and some staff walked the roughly 5 miles to see the exhibit. Let me tell you, it was quite the sight walking along main roads and crossing intersections in such a HUGE line. Or at least, it was for me - this kind of thing is semi-normal here as people have wedding parades and stuff.
Apart from that we've mostly just been shopping in our free time. During the day I worked for a while on embroidery as we've been asked to make folders for a daily multi-faith prayer service at the Baha'i temple in Delhi and had to make samples for that (the embroidery was for the front cover on a nice fabric). Since we finished that, I've spent the past week reorganizing the Institute photos and news clippings. It looks like I'll actually be making a bit of a project of writing a story about the Institute from the beginning once I've been through all the photos and news clippings, which should be fun. And that pretty much brings me up to now. I should get going as I'm soaking wet (we got caught in the monsoon on the way here) and they've just put the fans on and I'm starting to get cold. Much love and good wishes - especially to all my friends who are heading back to school for the new semester. I miss you all alot and think of you daily!!
Love,
Me