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