Language Breakthrough

For the last few weeks, I have been struggling through the language learning process, but today in praying for my lunch, I used "danyavad" instead of thank you. This may not really mean much but I found it to be rather humorous :)

Unwanted Guests

Almost forgot, I did have a few unwanted visitors in my room. the picture helps explain it, but there were three of them within two days of each other. So I moved.

The Rotary Club!

Many schools around the world have a plethora of extracurricular activities to choose from. I did find one that sounded very interesting. From what I gathered from the translation, it is called something similar to the "Rotary Club" I'm not sure exactly what it entails, but I'll keep you posted.

On a lighter note, my language tutor has a habbit of laughing at me. I'm not sure if it is my pronunciation or the flies landing on my face or what, but I did tell her a funny explanation of what one of the phrases in Hindi means in English: it's pronounced "yeh-tee" and it is the female past-tense. So I told her that in English, that describes a very large, furry animal that walks like a man, we call it either Bigfoot or in these parts, the Abominable Snowman. So if she sees another large furry man she said she would call him a yeti.

Train Ticket...Almost

Much to my dismay, I discovered I am not in the neighboring state of Illinois or even anywhere near Indianapolis, but in fact I am on the other side of the world... I was wondering why no one spoke english.

Since I arrived here, I did get the opportunity to try to buy a train ticket. I simply walked down to the ticket office and and after waiting in line, I asked for a ticket to another town. The man behind the desk asked for my form, of which I had none. So another man behind the desk handed me a small pink paper to fill out. I got back in line and waited for a while and shorly there after a very prideful man of about fifty politely squeezes past me in line and hands the man at the desk his form. Within moments the power goes out and the computer to process the tickets as well. We continued to wait for the following two hours before the office closed. During that time another few men came in and tried to jump to the front of the line, but the man who recently decided to be in the front of the line, in another language, seemed to say "you will have to wait. First there is me then him," pointing at me, "then the rest of these people."

This was my first experience getting a ticket here. Normally I believe I would have been sorely vexed, however, I was overcome with a spiteful humor. I did not get my ticket... but neither did the man in front of me :)

Language School

As of now, I'm in a language school in a small town nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas. I sat with a family one evening who were amused that my hometown is about 80 ft above sea level and now i'm at close to 8000ft. I have found a few believers and even a church or two that I am going to visit.

And not to forget, I did get a monkey in my room, however I was not there to see it :( The (sho-kee-dor)- gate keeper, chased it out, but not before he left a little present.

I Made It!

Aha! I made it to the country of my destination. I'll be in language school for the next month and I should be in the city where I will reside in for the next few years sometime in September.

Things are going wonderfully here, I have picked up a few phrases in the local language and am getting pretty good at bargaining for a rickshaw :) And best of all, I already have a list of names that I should share with and I haven't gotten to the city where they live yet.

I would post some pictures, but I don't have any yet.

Until next time...