bunty and babli!!

it's been a while - i know, and i'm sorry.

i got back from our whirlwind trip to delhi/agra/jaipur on weds and have been unusually busy the rest of the week because all of the roommates are leaving this weekend so we were doing a lot of last-minute-before-i-leave-india things for everyone.

the trip: AMAZING. there's a weird LA vs NY type thing that goes on between Mumbai and Delhi - and everyone from Mumbai had been warning us about how 'aggressive' delhi was and how it was too spread out and miserable -- completely opposite from our experience. Delhi was beautiful and fantastic and made me hate mumbai a little bit. we lucked out and it rained before we got there and was overcast the entire time so instead of being 115 it was only 95-100 while we were there. the roads were clean and people obeyed traffic lights and we got a driver so we didn't encounter the "aggressive" side of delhi (apparently dealing with taxi's and rickshaws there is always a huge ordeal and they're very adament about ripping you off)-- and on our first night there at twilight we were taken to the india gate which is a huge public park where hundreds of family were eating and laughing and playing and there was bollywood music playing in the background and men blowing bubbles and selling ice cream and children playing in the fountains - it was incredible. i haven't seen a single public park since i arrived in mumbai and this one in delhi was one of the most beautiful and friendly i'd seen - ever.

additionally, our hotel directed us to a tourist agency that took our previously vague itinerary of tooling around delhi for a day and a half and then making our way to agra to see the taj and completely changed it to site-seeing in delhi, jaipur, agra, the taj - seeing all the important forts etc and putting us in better hotels -- all four days taken care of for $150 each. incredible. also - our driver was awesome and spoke english and was funny and perfect. his name was bunty, so naturally, i had him call me babli all week (oooh bollywood film reference!!!) however - the pace was pretty breakneck and i still feel like i'm recovering/absorbing some of the sights we saw.

all in all - i discovered that mumbai is kind of a shithole compared to delhi, and that when i was thinking about coming to india, all of the things i had anticipated were things found in northern india - the kinds of foods, sites, smells, clothing, culture -- all northern india and NOT found in mumbai. eh - you live and you learn.

best sights:

1) the fort in jaipur was incredible and you ride an elephant up the mountain/large hill to get there so that automatically makes it worth mentioning

2) the red fort in agra was beautiful and expansive, but unfortunately for it, right next to the taj so it's kind of the underestimated, underappreciated little brother of a wonder of the world.

3) the lotus temple in delhi is gorgeous and somewhat reminded me of the sydney opera house for some reason

4) no surprise, but the TAJ -- absolutely takes your breath away when you walk through the east gate and see it. incredible. i have no words -- but fortunately lots of pictures.

now were back in mumbai and everyone is leaving. it's a happy time in the apartment b/c everyone is in that 'make the most of it and laugh i have less than 40 hours left here' state of mind - but incredibly bittersweet for me b/c i have over a month left.....and thinking about all of them going home soon is making very homesick/peoplesick/foodsick/familiar things-sick etc. and- to make things worse - i found out that my new roommates don't come until next weekend so i'm alone in the apartment ALL WEEK. probably going to go insane- my one saving grace is that i purposefully saved the final harry potter book for when this time came.

pictures to be posted - for now you'll just have to make do with these three - just to mix things up, i'm in all three pictures -- can you find me?

i'll probably post a lot of whiny lonely posts in the next few days.

pre-departure pre-delhi post

no picture, sorry --

just wanted to give a quick update/hello before i leave for the week for delhi/agra -- i had the most ridiculous frustrating day so i'm going to try to keep this short so that i can go to bed and bring this day to an end

the week: visited post production facilities, including the editting bay where peter works. interesting to see nice really expensive machines and the people they lock into little rooms to work on them all day, but overall not really exciting and kind of completely underwhelming as a days activity. but - i did get to see the first edit for the Pankh trailer which was interesting -- i can't wait to see it when it finally comes out. and - i did decide FOR SURE that i do not want to do post-production next month. so that's something i guess...

today: i'm feeling completely bogged down by technological issues/obstacles. life here seems filled with simple things that get unneccessarily complicated by one element not working (examples: the key to our apartment only opens the door about 40% of the time, the internet is very spotty, my cell phone only charges if you hold the cord at the right angle and stand there...) little things like that were just building throughout the day leaving me VERY frustrated - today's specific battles included not being able to add money to my phone so that i could call home, not being able to send a letter i had written b/c i discovered the envelopes they sold me only had glue at one end and were basically folded pieces of paper, and my camera card breaking so i had to go buy a new one (which was ridiculously expensive - ironic and odd since they MAKE the camera card in india -- all in all i would say that little pieces of equipment that i can't fix myself and are completely dependent upon are the most frustrating things imaginable - ie cellphones, ipods, and camera cards) - and i was feeling time pressured because we leave for delhi early tomorrow morning and i obviously need a working camera card before seeing the taj/lotus temple/other beautiful things.

icing to the cake: weather forcast for delhi/agra is around 110-115 degrees for the week. i might die. but hey, at least i'll have died seeing the taj, right? now one of the official seven wonders of the world?

i might not have internet in delhi and depending on how things work out with the phone i might not be able to call anyone - so it's a possibility that you'll just have to take it on faith for the next week or so that i'm alive.

pictures to come of beautiful places --
- h

PS: quick clarification for zurowsky: when i use the $ sign i mean american dollars - i usually translate the cost of everything before putting it in the blog - and when i say rupees or rps i mean...rupees....which i think you already understood....anyway the conversion rate is about 40 rps to the dollar - and the gold seats cost 350rps, which is about $8.75

escapism 101

(aka the genius of harry potter and gold seats)

bollywood = escapism. plain and simple that is what the entire film industry of india is devoted to. everything about bollywood is about fantasy; the gorgeous people, the lush sets, the vibrant dance sequences, the fact that they're never shorter than two hours long (the better to get you out of the heat and into AC), and 9 times out of 10 have a happy ending. i knew most of this coming in - the delightfully campy nature of bollywood was what i loved. as a sidenote (b/c this is a whole different conversation) - what i didn't realize until i got here was exactly what they were escaping from.

but let me tell you, this emphasis on escape extends beyond the films themselves and to the very movie going experience. i saw diehard in the regular theater - which was already nicer than most american movie theaters. last night - i saw harry potter in the GOLD SEATS, which is a whole other story. in the GOLD SEATS - you don't go in the regular doors, you enter through the red lounge, which is a separate waiting area, with separate concession stands, bathrooms, massage chairs, and MTV playing on giant plasmas. the theater itself has far fewer seats and rows (no such thing as a bad seat in the gold section) - and each seat is a reclining red lazyboy. during intermission (in india they have intermission during all films -- they're built in to indian films and they just add them arbitrarily into american ones half way through) waiters will come through to see if you want more popcorn or chai or anything and overall it's absolutely the best theater going experience i've ever had. did i mention the tickets were less than $10? and only $3 more than regular seats?? i'm a little in love.

that said - i really enjoyed the movie - against incredible odds daniel radcliffe is actually becoming attractive - and my only complaint was my usual one for those movies which is that because of how much stuff is in each book the pace of the movies feels off b/c you know that they're rushing but they're trying so hard to make it seem as though they're not (example: long slow pauses in the scene where harry is discussing his first kiss w/ ron and hermione). as an added bonus, i LOVE helena bonham carter and thought she was super fun to watch on screen.

update for the week(end)

last week i went to go check out a dance academy and i had really high hope for it --- and was extremely dissappointed. not what i was looking for at all and a really bad fit for me. so the search continues for a studio.

went out on thursday night with desiree's friends from UVA, shefali and anisha - and we met up with these people anisha met through facebook (bombay interns 2007!) at the hardrock cafe for drinks...really overpriced drinks. most of them went to yale and were interning in real offices doing actual jobs and seemed baffled by the idea that desiree and i just kind of...observe and hang out. oh yale. but it was good to meet other english speaking people and a lot of them live near us in andheri so i'm trying to make a friend in that group so that i can still have a life when all of my apartment-mates leave in two weeks...

went shopping in colaba over the weekend - determined to find lenghas for me and desiree (traditional indian outfit w/ short top and long skirt) and we found nothing. however, in searching we successfully refined what we wanted to the point that we figured it would be easier to buy fabric and get it made by a tailor - so saturday we bought fabric and monday our mission was to find a tailor. which we did, and i'll see the results of that adventure on saturday. if it's good then i will get a bunch more stuff made, so fingers crossed.

also, on sunday we went back on set to the song shoot - where they were shooting another dance break in front of this wall of lights (and again with flame throwers - see picture above). it was fun to watch for a little while, but it hasn't rained in a few days and the sun was out for the first time all trip and it was SO HOT it felt like i couldn't breathe.

so... after a few hours of observing and hanging out and sweating, desiree and i left to go see a play with shefali at the national center for performing arts. it was called "Sammy! the word that changed a nation" and was about gandhi's personal life. the first half was really good - especially scenes between gandhi and his wife that highlighted the ways in which he tried to implement his beliefs at home tore apart his family. ie - he never discussed his decision to be celibate and not be in the same room with his wife alone with his wife ahead of time, he refused to let his son recieve a scholarship to go to university b/c he didn't want people thinking he had only gotten the scholarship b/c he was gandhi's son (even though the son apparently deserved it) - things like that. it was nice to see a play and sit in an air conditioned room for a few hours. all in all a good night.

more later - i think we're visiting post production facilities this week and then on sunday we're leaving for delhi/agra to see the taj majal. pictures etc to come....

the streets of mumbai

double picture post! (to make up for my laziness over the past few days)

to start with the shittier picture on the left, i'd like to describe for your entertainment the streets of mumbai. to begin with, you must understand that there are no enforced driving laws here, and no traffic cops to enforce the laws were they to exist. driving in mumbai is a free for all. the roads are all quite wide, and because lots of different things of different sizes use the road, no one uses lanes and everyone just squishes together and around each other and gets in about 100 near-accidents per day. regularly occupying the road are stray dogs, stray people, cows (always causing traffic), bicycles, motorcycles (often with entire families on them - mother, small child, father, small child - and the women all sit side-saddle which is particularly terrifying to watch) small cars, big cars (almost always for tourists, or celebrities), trucks (usually with something that smells awful in the back), buses, rickshaws, and - as you can see from the picture above - the occasional elephant (the picture is bad b/c i was caught by surprise and didn't roll down my window and the flash went off and then we drove away so i couldn't get a better one). oh, and a few days ago i saw a man walking down the street with a monkey on a leash.

\transportation here is a big problem b/c it's a big city with lots of people and everything on the road is at least 15-30 years old so the fumes and exhaust are relentless and its very polluted. i thought israeli driving was crazy - this is absolutely INSANE. in order to turn right (across traffic - they drive on the left here) - they don't wait for lights or turn signals, they just inch into the intersection beeping like a maniac while other people stop short inches away from each other - beeping like maniacs - and then you hold your breath and pray you don't die as your rickshaw driver swerves across the lanes. this is something i deal with every single day. also - pedestrians don't have right of way or crosswalks so i have acquired a very rational fear of crossing the street here b/c cars WILL NOT slow down but will opt to speed up and swerve close instead.

OK -- update for the week! we've been visiting random sets all week - monday we went to a TV set where they were shooting a sketch comedy show (as one actor described it to us - "it's like SNL, only not live, and it doesn't air on saturday, and we have a lot more censorship...and we're not as funny...") and that was a fantastic day - the set was really relaxed and the actors were hilarious and really fun to hang out with and talk to. we had a long discussion with one of the girl actors, purbi, about her impressions of america when she visited (people were surprised in NY that she spoke english, one person remarking, "oh but it makes sense you speak english now that i think about it -- isn't india under british rule??" - no surprise people think americans are ignorant....) and how she felt about being a non-bollywood actress in bombay (now here's something interesting: people in the city above a certain income mark and involved in things that are seen as "western" - ie cinema - all call mumbai bombay -- odd, no?) and lots of other things and she was very articulate and funny and hopefully we'll be seeing more of her later.

tuesday we visited the set of a white feather film called, "Pankh" which is their first 'art house' film and looks really good and interesting. when we asked the directed what it was about he just waved his hand at us impatiently and said "oh - it's a mindfuck----" and then didn't elaborate. laster on he explained to us that it's about a little boy whose mother forces him to dress and act like a girl so that he can act in bollywood films (a really common practice here in the 70's/80's - not so much now), and the film follows him in his early twenties as he struggles w/ identity and as his mother is trying to push him back into film but this time as a male actor etc etc --- actually sounded really interesting and the lead male actor was really cute.

weds - ben came back from his trip to delhi and since it was his last day our friend robby (owns the bar across the street and a hotel in juhu) decided to take us all on a scenic drive outside the city to a resort town called lonavla (picture on the right). it was SO NICE to get out of the city and breathe fresh air and see green living things -- b/c it's monsoon season the landscape was just ridiculously green and lush with waterfalls everywhere and monkeys congregating all over the side of the road. it was a really nice drive and break from the city/road/noise/pollution. i was happy for the occasion to get out of the city, and not particularly sad to see ben go.

today: so far somewhat dissapointing - we went to the movie theater to get tickets for harry potter and they were sold out ALL WEEKEND. it's ok we'll go back on sunday and get tickets for monday but it's sad b/c i was very excited to see it tonight. oh well. we were supposed to go back to the pankh set but instead they set up a meeting for us (well, me really) to talk to Farah Khan - one of the biggest and most highly respected bollywood choreographers. i'm trying to convince him to let me enroll in his dance academy for six weeks (even though the term is six months) and just generally i'm excited to talk to him. when choreographers get respected enough they also direct and produce -- so for song sequences in the bigger movies the whole movie is directed by whomever, but for the songs they completely hand the reigns over to the choreographer - they set up the budget, book locations and dancers and decide everything for those scenes (another reason why songs sequences in the big bollywood films seem incongruous iwth the rest of the film)


that's it for now - more later...

weekend update

very frustrating/exhausting weekend. we were supposed to go on set on saturday - but they never called or came to pick us up...and by the time we figured out it wasn't happening it was too late for us to go back to our original saturday plan - which was to go into calaba and shop etc. so we sat around. ALL DAY. i thought i was going to go insane. the downtime here is killing me. plus - i was on kind of a vonnegut kick (man without a country, slaughterhouse 5...) so i started to read breakfast of champions when i found it lying around the apartment (there's a very bizarre "library" of books here left by past students etc) and i started hating it but didn't want to abandon it so i didn't feel like reading so i really just did nothing all day. however, to compensate i made desiree and eric go out to dinner with me to this restaurant eric had heard of called "the rice boat" where i had shrimp in the BEST coconut curry i have ever imagined. absolutely incredible.

sunday desiree and i headed down to colaba - we took the train on the way there (an experience by itself - the trains are all ridiculously overcrowded and notoriously agressive - even in the women's only carraiges. the day after we arrived i read a story in the paper about a guy getting beat up and then smothered to death during rush hour on the train -- people's commentary were things like "he probably deserved it" and "the trains are aggressive - if you can't handle yourself you should find other transportation" -- very scary. we however went on the first class ( a few rupees more) women's carraige which was basically empty - plus it was the middle of the day - and had no problems)

we went shopping through the street shops (like market place shopping everywhere - same shit repeated every three booths or so, only here it's cool indian shit) and around various stores. you have to argue every price aggressively or they rip you off insanely. if they say 400rps to start, odds are you can walk away with whatever it was for 150rps or less. you just have to play the game of talking them down and then pretending to walk away and then coming back and then talking them down etc etc etc.

oh and the picture above is of the famous gate of india.

love,

- h

fire and rain!

not natural rain this time, fake rain! and huge flamethrowers~! another long night on set (got back at 7:30 again and am again having trouble catching up on sleep -- hopefully i won't get sick but i already feel stuffy from lack of sleep, i'm taking cold meds to try and stave it off so fingers crossed...)

we mostly finished close ups and then shot the main 'dance break' of the song. this song is the second scene in the movie, and the introduction to the main guy character -- the male actor i talked about before, sidanker -- it's his first big role in a film but both of his parents are stars so he kind of has a head start, even so he gets very insecure at times and needed constant reassurance that he was doing well, kind of cute, kind of annoying. the song is an indian pop song from about three years ago that they remixed for the movie (a very common thing here) called "fire and rain" all about how the woman he's talking about is so elemental and beautiful that she has a power like fire and rain over him...or something like that...i think the real meaning gets more than a little lost in translation.

i manuevered my way behind the dancers/choreographer when they were teaching/rehearsing the dance break (a very "western style" (read: hip hop) dance) and was ultimately depressed by how long its been since i've danced and how ridiculously slow i've gotten at picking up choreography - but happy that i got a chance to move a little after just sitting around on set for hours on end.

later on i was talking to an extra while they were re-setting the lights and he asked my what i was doing on set (a common question that i get, no surprise) - and i responded "nothing" (which is true) and he said "oh - me too!" -- only his nothing was being done on screen and mine was off. i still found it amusing. after that he preceeded to ask me questions about what drugs people do in the states:

do they do the E? (yes) do you do the E? (no) what about the cocaine? (we have it - i don't do it) why don't you do the cocaine? (...)

it was odd and amusing.

for the final shot of the night they did they did the showstopping elements - namely adding two huge flame throwing things to the back of the set and soaking the entire set in fake rain at the same time and having the dancers/sidanker dance all crazy-like. it was very intense and fun to watch during the takes - i could feel the heat from the flames ten feet off set so i can't really imagine what it was like to be in the middle of the dance floor - although i guess the rain would balance out the heat...?

we have today off and then we're back on set saturday to finish the scene/film (these have been the last four days of production for the entire film) -- which is good and bad b/c i need today off but at the same time i needed saturday to go to south mumbai and go shopping for clothing b/c i'm out of shirts and even though i'm planning sending my stuff to the laundry service today it's 48hr laundry so that still means i will be shirtless tomorrow... i'm sure i'll figure something out...

YOGA: my instructor is this odd little man, who gave me a signed copy of his book and an exercise map (and then charged me for both at the end of the hour...) -- he definately knows his shit but i've never really thought of myself as a "yoga person" and after the first hour i am still kind of wary but if there's ever a time/place to become (or at least try to become) a yoga person it's in india w/ my own yogi. i need to continue pestering safeena about finding me a dance studio though...that's a definate priority. it's weird that i haven't really exercised in about a year and now that i'm in the most miserable climate imaginable my body is just craving activity. it's a good feeling that i haven't had in a while.

i have more to say about india in general (details unrelated to day-to-day activies) but this post is getting long so i'll save them for later.

exhausted/elated...but mostly exhausted

it's 11:30am and i just woke up. i didn't get enough sleep and i'm hoping i'll be able to back to sleep soon but unfortunately i think that it's one of those things where the more i want to sleep the less i'll be able to. i'll probably just write emails and finish my fourth book thus far (sidenote: dara horn's novel, "the world to come" was absolutely phenomonal and i highly recommend it - esp if you like jonathon safron foer). i only went to bed around 7:30am, after having been on set for 11 hours, and awake for 22 (not counting a nap from 4-5 and a shorter nap from 1:15am-1:45am...which was really just me passing out in a chair on set...).

the night shoot was absolutely incredible and fun. the male star who was working on his scenes was SO MUCH more fun/friendly than the woman from tuesday (neha), and also a much better dancer -- he was actually surprisingly coordinated considering he's 6'3'' and absolutely an enormous person. the picture above is of one of the assistant choreographers going over the opening sequence of the chorus with the dancers on the pub set they created from scratch (and will soon destroy very violently)-- a very fun scene.

we didn't burn down the set last night b/c of the rain, so we're scheduled for another night shoot tonight where we'll get the last of the shots needed and then burn the whole thing down and explode some TV sets. the rain delayed the whole shoot by about 2-3 hrs yesterday b/c right when they'd finished putting this fuzzy white fabric on the walls and hanging heavy red curtains as drapes to make the ceiling of the bar, the tarp that had been the ceiling for the set collapsed with the weight of the rain, making it necessary to make a lot of adjustments/rebuild a bunch of shit. towards the end of last nights shoot (actually more around 3am...4 hours before the end of last night's shoot...) another huge bulge of water was showing through the tarp and threatening to drop right on top of the camera/set/dancers/etc but luckily the wind never picked up again and didn't rain hard enough to send the whole thing to shit.

i had an absolute blast hanging out with the dancers and talking to the choreographer's assistants and just wandering. we have absolutely no purpose on set other than to observe and chat-- which is nice for a little while but it gets a little frustrating being so useless. especially frustrating when the song we were shooting was super catchy and the choreography was really fun and i just wanted to be dancing on camera instead of sitting and wistfully watching the entire time. however, safeena made it seem as though interning w/ a choreographer was not a difficult thing for her to set up so fingers crossed i'll spend the last month here doing nothing but dancing.

also- i'm starting yoga tomorrow~! i haven't really elaborated much on how ridiculously inexpensive everything here is, but i will tell you that to have an instructor come to my flat and teach me yoga three times a week costs 3000 rupees, which breaks down to around $7 an hour. meals rarely cost more than $2, and transportation from my apartment to anywhere in my neighborhood is usually less than that. it's a little ridiculous.

that's all for now. i'm going to eat something and try to go back to sleep.

PS you have to click on the title of this post to be able to see the picture....don't ask why i don't know and can't make it work without doing that...

on set!!

first thing first: HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACOB!!!!

ok -- now to the juicy stuff. i spent the last two days on various sets and want to share. on monday i finally had my orientation, where not a whole lot was said but i got the impression that things were under control and that's all i really wanted to know. the program coordinator, Safeena, is a very nice woman, and the film program basically exists because her husband, Hansel, is one of two heads for White Feather Productions - a company that produces around 4 films a year. Hansel takes us to his sets (he also directs) and around to the other sets that are going on and we hang out. and that's about it.

on monday we visited the set of a film that was just about to go into production and was having its first day filming shots for the trailer and promo stills etc. hansel has an adorable habit of forgetting about us and leaving us in places for hours at a time after saying "back in five minutes" so we hung out aimlessly watching them do one shot over and over and over again for about three hours, trying to find people who spoke english to talk to us and generally just observing the process. it wasn't hansel's set, unfortunately - so i couldn't take pictures. however, the set was just absolutely gorgeous - in this giant bar/restaurant called Shiro in south mumbai, and they take such care to make every shot really color saturated and light the female stars really well it was kind of breathtaking to watch.

On tuesday hansel picked us up and we went to his set, which is in its last few days of production and is just finishing up the song and dance numbers (!!!) - in the car on the way over (it took three hours to get to the set b/c of flooding), he handed us an indian newspaper, and on the first gossip page were pictures of all the actors we had been hanging out with yesterday. apparently they were very big time and we just had no idea. his movie was being shot in this amazing dilapidated old abandoned mill that's right on the water in south mumbai and we watched while they finished up the last of the shots they needed of the lead actress (a huge bitch - but very pretty and extremely photogenic). however, she was a horrible dancer, and at one point as it started to pour on set and rain came through the ceiling the director commented, "she's so bad even the ceiling is crying" - it took about 15 takes for him to be satisefied with less than two eight counts of choreography.

were on set for about 7 hours (add three hours there and two and a half back) so it was a ridiculously long day -- especially since i am still jetlagged - but it was sooooo much fun to watch the dancing. i was talking to one of the dancers (a tall lanky guy with light blue eyes -- very attractive - - he's been working and dancing in bollywood for ten years.) and he was telling me that they rarely have rehearsals for any of the scenes, they just go shot by shot learning two or three eight counts at a time - which is pretty ridiculous.

today we're supposed to hang out and rest, because we're going back to the mill for a night shoot to finish a song that has 5 guys and 5 girls dancing in this pub we saw them building into the mill and at the end of the scene they're going to light the entire set on fire (the dancers literally "burn the place to the ground") and then explode a wall of television sets. i'm ridiculously excited - but a little nervous that we're being picked up around 5:30 and he told us not to expect to be back at the apartment until at least 3 or 4 in the morning. which will really help my timezone adjustment...

more later (and pictures! - hansel gave me permission to shoot tonight!)

LOVE - h

more details...

Still pouring -- so i thought since i'm apartment-ridden i'd give some more details:

to start, mumbai is....dirty. lots of high rises and shitty housing, lots of homeless people. we're at the ass end in that we are NO WHERE NEAR the tourist centers, so places to shop / eat / etc are all at the other end of town - calaba, which is where most westerners visit, is about an hour and a half away when you include traffic.

To add some fun to the jetlag/timezone equation, apparently, in order to distinguish/separate itself from pakistan they decided to add that extra half hour in as a bonus, so i'm only 11.5 hours ahead instead of 12.

quick rundown of apartment mates:

ben (accidentally called matt in the previous post: leaving, has been here for a month and cannot wait to leave, from somewhere east coast. he knows his way around really well so that will be a loss.

peter: british, been here for a month and is here interning for another month. really nice and funny. actually really likes tea. and cliches.

desiree (roommate): goes to UVA, from that area, just graduated and this is her grad present. here for a month. nice, she seems neither here nor there but perfectly drama free and livable. no complaints there. i think we're going to buy plane tickets to go to delhi and from there agra (taj mahal) together, maybe with peter as well (if you buy more than 2 weeks in advance it's basically the same cost as taking the fast AC train - only minus about 14 hrs of travel time).

eric: goes to villanova, just got here today, is part of the medical program, seems nice enough - reminds me of scott...sort of...not really... he's been in penn for a month (rural piece of shit town) doing med work w/ townies and now he's in the big city for his intern part - also here for a month

apparently people come and go and rotate on a fairly regular basis so someone should show up to keep me company around when all of these people start to leave. i hope.

i didn't get orientated again today b/c of rain so we just bummed around the flat, and then met up with this guy ben and peter befriended who owns the bar across the street, a bar downtown and a hotel in the middle - sounds shady, should've been shady, but wasn't shady -- who took us to his apartment where his SUPER NICE wife had their maid prepare us/order in this feast of a lunch and we talked and ate for four hours. he's mid-40's least with an adorable 4 year old daughter and an apartment that is really really nice and upper class despite the deceptively shitty exterior of the building - which is basically what all buildings look like.

after that we went to the mall and saw DIE HARD 4 -- which was AMAZING. i love bruce and ADORE justin long and it was just a super enjoyable experience.

apparently i shall have orientation tomorrow and then be on set (a set, i don't know what set but i do know it's a musical) tues/weds/thursday.

love - h