Oh, nice story! It really made my day so far...you all should read it too!!!

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=84608&d=30&m=6&y=2006

Finally women considered human beings and not pieces of flesh!!

Lots of new, interesting and learning experiences in the past week. First of all we have new roomates! Well, we have new "real" roomates and finally the black house is full: we have a european supremacy with Netherlands, Finland, Italy, Germany, Serbia, Portugal and Poland...a little auberge europeenne;) but since Asia is growing and expanding in the world picture we couldn't avoid having a whole new asian family moving in! This time they're not though human beings but indian rats! Our lovely beloved rat was hanging out under our cauch one day when suddently we hear a lot of little noises...my Finnish housemate Jaana comes in my room "vitto, vitto!"...our rat just gave birth!!! We called our security guy who was like "no rat no rat". Dude, there are like 10 of them!!! He finally saw the little hairyless rat-babies but couldn't kill them cause in India everything is a god and even rats are gods (I learnt there is also a rat temple!). So he just put them out the door, but u know that it's a tough life out there, their mommy and tons of food is in our cool house...they will be back soon!!!

Luckly we left the house that night. Marsha and I went out for dinner with Adi...very nice! You can imagine how the other indian guys around were looking at him...lucky man with two white pieces of flesh! (I'm just in a mood where I hate every male being in the universe, if you keep reading you'll find out why!) Then we went out for shisha (lovely!) and caught a bus at 11.30 for Agra. Before we left Adi was like: remember, you deserve something like the Taj Mahal....awwwwwwwww! Ok then, not all males are terrible. And we should seriously appreciate much more the nice ones that are out there.

Got to Agra at 5.30 in the morning, at 6 we were the first visitors to get in...WOW! No words, absolutely gorgeous! Indian poet Tagore tried to express the Taj beauty in words: "a teardrop on the face of eternity"...very nice, but still not enough! It's so beautiful and perfect, seems almost fake and surreal...the light was perfect playing nice games with the white marble...the water in the lake reflecting the Taj majestic beauty...no, I really cannot describe it in words!
We then went to the Agra fort and under the rain admired the back of the Taj, this times with the light playing games under the storm....

Took a bus to Barathpur at night, got to a guesthouse where we saw Germany-Sweden from a cracked ESPN that was going on and off all the time...and being with two German guys it was really really funny!
The next day we rented bikes and went to a national park...it was very nice until we got lost for 5 hours, under the burning sun, ran out of water, had to ask directions to a tribe in the park (who of course couldn't speak english), then these guys offered us water but it was of a ugly brownish color and even if almost dying from dehidration we couldn't manage to drink it! A girl almost fainted...but we managed to survive and come back home!!! Except from the sunburn on my shoulders it was a very pleasent adventure, maybe a little too extreme, survivor style...but I liked it!

Then one night while we were eating in a restaurant this guy approached us and gave us his business card. He organizes promotion for a scotch brand and wanted foreign people (aka: white pieces of flesh) to do promotion in bars and clubs of Jaipur. Sounded like fun and a little diverse thing from hanging out with AIESEC trainees all the time, so Jan and I decided to go to his office for a chat. I was waiting for Jan on a bench reading my book when this guy approached me: "are u indian?" Where? Can u use a better pick up line, come on! Anyways, he was a dutch guy who had been in India for a month already doing parachronic healing...sounded interesting and Jan was late so he sat down with me talking bullshit about Karma, energy shields, etc...then at one point he started doing some stuff with his hands "dude, what are u doing?" "I'm feeling your energy"....mmm, I was feeling a little unconfortable...but you expect to meet people like that in India, right? Anyways, while this guy was cleansing my negative energy away a group of curious Indians gathered around us...luckly Jan showed up, but then we started talking to this Indian guy (who by the way was wearing a cheerleading shirt!) who had been to both Italy and Germany playing drums...he's a drum player at night in bars in Jaipur, and during the day he's a rickshaw driver;) so he gave us a ride to the promotion guy's office, and I'm not sure how but he put a huge sound system on his rickshaw, and we were riding around Jaipur with pumped hindi music, and with blue lights coming out of the rickshaw....so funny!!!!

At the guy's office we realized he was doing a real interview! In India, come on! So he wanted me to write my CV right there...the ugliest CV I've ever written, but anyways! He liked it and wanted me to start from the next day. Cool! It was a really nice experience, met different people while selling scotch, had to avoid flirts and people offering me drinks, but my boss was with me all the time so I felt really safe. And then he told me right from the beginning: you work only for me and not for anybody else. I didn't understand at the moment how important that was! As soon as he left for one minute, the guy from the beer promotion approached me and gave me his business card to work for him! Cause of course a white piece of flesh in a bar with Indian men is like water in the desert...but of course I sticked with the scotch promotion and actually had a lot of fun with it!
So I went there yesterday as well (and this job pays pretty good too, and I was enjoying the easy money;), and realized that my boss was trying to set me up with his nephiew! And I have to admit that the guy was kind of good-looking, well dressed, so I accepted a beer and had a chat with him...after word number 10 I realized that he was Indian and there is nothing to do! I'm so sorry, I don't want to be discriminating or culturally close-minded, but there is something missing! Call it savoir-faire, call it charm, whatever, but they really don't know how to talk to a woman...or maybe, really, they just see women as pieces of flesh and that's why they talk to us like that! After having stratigically avoided the second beer and the invitation for dinner with an imaginary boyfriend in the States, it was finally time to go. My boss wanted to offer me scotch and I though "weird!" cause I didn't first of all think I was allowed to drink there while working, and then he had told me how he stopped drinking and became a total vegeterian...anyhow, then he asked me if Jan was my boyfriend, and then the difference between a boyfriend and a friend. Seriously, people here have no idea of the whole "dating thing", and they know that there is something different than arranged marriages out there, but they have no idea on how it works and they just fantasize on it in an extreme way. So here I am, white piece of flesh, who "dates" and "has boyfriends" and why not do that whole "dating thing" with her?
And me, genuinly stupid naif girl, I wanted to give the lesson "dating 101" to my boss trying to make a better world, because maybe one day he'll explain it to somebody else etc and India will be a much more livable country. So in dating 101 I explained how you can have only one boyfriend but many friends, even guys, and you usually spend more time with your boyfriend, you spend time alone and you get phisical, you hug and kiss. "So am I your boyfriend or your friend?" "You're my boss!!!!" (and you're ugly, you're extremely unpolite, you're 39 and you're married) "But I want to be your boyfriend"....I acted like I didn't hear, called Jan who was at Harriet's farewell party and had him give my boss directions to Orange house (where the party was)...my boss gave me a ride there on his motorbike...and I knew nothing would have happened but I was so scared and just wanted to cry and scream and yell to the whole world "I'm not a while piece of flesh!". Then while on his motorbike he was like "hold me as a girlfriend, hold me tight" AHHHHH so disgusting! I just slapped his back and yelled "Just take me home!!!"
Luckly nothing happened but I'm so fed up with it! Of course I won't come back to sell scotch and I don't want to see that guy's face ever again, but I AM SO FED UP!

Oh well, it's part of my learning-growing experience...Since in India my opinion of men has so decreased, and I have so little trust now! It's really a shame, because there are really some amazing guys out there, but I think now I really learnt how to appreciate them much more. At the party Adi and Supreet were there...if it wasn't for them I would seriously hate all Indian men! I'm so glad I've met them and that we're friends...and then there was a new Italian guy!! Seemed a little shy but very very nice...I'm looking forward to know him a little better;) And he said that there is another Italian girl coming this weekend! Yes, Italian supremacy, let's overthrow the dutch regime;)

Tonight there is the match...let's go team, we should make it! But I won't be able to watch it...I'm leaving tonight for Jaisalmer...12 hours of bus, leaving at 11 pm, getting there at 11am...I'll die in in the bus! Once there we'll leave for a camel safari, spend the night in the desert and come back on Sunday....I think the 12 hours will be worthed!

I realized I've written too much about myself and too little about India. And I don't even care if I get harassed anymore, if I have a whole family of rats in my house, if I see the Taj Mahal, when today on my way to lunch I saw two young girls eating from the trash in the street together with cows. When yesterday a girl drawned in a swimming pool because she was swimming in her clothes (she wasn't allowed to wear a swimming suit) and she won't even have a funeral because that's a priviledge for men. When the security guy at my house earns just enough to survive and will probably never get married because he doesn't have the money to (and he got so genuinly excited when we took a picture of him and told him we would post it on the internet helping him find a girlfriend!). When the indian government gives benefits to underpriviledge castes, but most of them live in villages, completely separated by the towns with high walls (because people think that by not seeing them we can forget about them), with no current water or electricity, and they don't even know about the benefits they could have. And even if they did, they have to fill out a form to apply and most of them don't know how to read and write. When school cost too much money and parents send kids to work instead. When women still completely cover their faces when a man that is not their husband walks by. When whenever young girls are asked "what's your best quality?" most of them don't know, and if they answer they say "I'm always quite". When at a wedding a whole family is partying while the bride is in a room crying because she had to break up with her boyfriend since her parents had arranged a marriage for her. When there is an illegal kitchen for people to eat for ridiculous prices with terrible hygenic condition, and this kitchen is right next to the police station and is often visited by the police officers who get bribed to not report them.

Sometimes when you look outside the window it comes as an instinct to close your eyes. We don't want to see misery. We don't want to blame ourselves. But not only should we keep our eyes wide open, we should get out that door and observe what's outside our little bubble, ask ourselves and others: WHY. And then we should function as reporters for those whose eyes are still shut.

What a world would it be with 12 billion of wide open eyes?

Another morning without the internet…good excuse to upload a post on my blog! I’ve been very very busy lately with my job and haven’t had time to write that much…mmm, what’s new? Tonz of new trainees, very cool people as always…few farewells (the Brazilian gang and Lidia from Poland:(), but that’s life. People come and go, leave something with you, you leave something with them and it’s beautiful…and I know that I’ll see some people in the future and that makes me happy enough! During these weeks I got much closer to Harriet, a trainee from New Zealand who works in Jaipur for a NGO. We just connect so well, I don’t think I’ve ever met anybody so similar to me! All of my good friends are pretty different from me and that’s why we get along (Stephanie, Ivana, even now Marsha), but Harriet and I could be soul-twins! We even like the same kind of guys (and that could be a problem in the future!) so whenever we watch the worldcup is always like: mmm, hot one, ok one…also, we realized that when Harriet Marsha and I hang out we always end up with two main topics: food and boys! I guess those are the two things we miss the most about our countries:) And the funny thing is that we use the same body language, the same expressions, the same verses to talk about those…hahah! Good way to get stared at even more!
So Harriet and I have plans to travel together (ah, la voyageytis!). We’re gonna go up to Himalaya the second week of July and that will be AMAZING! I still have to ask my boss a week off but come on, I’m in India not only to work! And then for next summer (and that’s our ambitious plan:)) we’re gonna take a driver license for motorbikes and we’ll travel around South America for two months and then one month in the Caribbean…motorcycle diaries style! good way to say goodbye to student-life and start real-life!!!
But let’s get down on Earth…my job! So what I do here in India is selling weddings in royal style (in amazing lavish palaces, with royal procession, elephants, camels…really really lavish!) to foreigners and non-resident Indians who come to Rajasthan (the region where I live) to get married. Being a start-up company there is SO MUCH to do! Actually the company for which I work for (KGK) has just celebrated its 100th anniversary, and they deal with diamonds and gemstones. But they also have tons of other projects (cinema multiplex, five starts resort, etc…) and KGK Royal Weddings is one of those. I’ve done some marketing so far, but mostly I’m working on the webpage…it’s hard to sell abroad without one! And I’m also going around palaces talking to sales managers to collaborate with us, asking them about fares and services…and that’s the best part of my job! I go around seeing those amazing places, doing marketing with important people in the hotel-management sector, and here I am, a 20 years old student who goes there and sells to them…it feels really cool! And also I don’t think they see me as a young student trying to get some experience, but more as a foreigner who probably knows more than them…what skin color can do! But really, I've been so lucky with my internship! Most of the people here are not really satisfied with theirs, but I don't think I could have found any better...I know of people in the US who are just making photocopies and get bored...thank god for AIESEC!
So, what else is going on in my life…I’ve been in India for a month…wow! It really doesn’t feel like it! I had no problem whatsoever getting used to this kind of lifestyle, I haven’t gotten sick yet (they call it Delhi-belly cause it usually starts right away when you arrive to Delhi airport) but nop, my immune system kicks ass (or as Jan says, “That says a lot about your lifestyle in the States!”) maybe, who knows! But I really feel energetic here, I never sleep and I’m always pumped up! It might be the “wow effect” of being in India, I don’t know…but I work during the day until 6, I walk back home for about an hour, shower, cook dinner (by the way, the rat is still there! It’s our “Indian” roommate:) and now it doesn’t even bother me anymore), party at night, watch football games until 2.30, and never go to bed (now I learnt how to say bed, seven, eleven with a New Zealandish “e”) before 3…during weekends I just jump into a train or a bus right after work and wonder around Rajasthan, come back on Sunday nights very very late, and then ready for another week! It’s amazing, I need to take advantage of my body and my health right now cause it’s not gonna last forever!
Last weekend I went to Rantamborgh, a national park 2 hours by train from Jaipur. It was 5 of us girls: Silvia from Germany (she’s my big sister now! She was born in 74 as well as my real sister and that was an instant connection for me!), Vera Wieske and Marjolein from the Netherlands (dutch people just come all to India I think! We’re invaded!) and me of course! As we got down the train we felt like famous pop stars (we felt a little like the spice girls!): we had about 50 people or more around us, following us wanting to give us a ride by rickshaw to the hotel…well, why not taking advantage of that? So I started “who’s taking us for 50 rupies” mememe! “who for 40?” mememe “who for 30?” “20?” “15?” “10? Anybody? Good boy!” So we got a ride to the hotel for 20 cents!!! The hotels where we sleep here are the “budget” ones on the lonely bible (the lonely planet, which has become our bible in India! Is it bad when we start quoting it??!?!), so they really are the cheapest shittiest things that we can find! But we don’t care cause we’re young and healthy…but anyways, we got to the hotel, and to cross a creek on a wooden board, one at the time, then we slept 5 of us in a room, on the floor…but I loved it! The alarm went off at 4.30 in the morning, I asked Robby and my sister to send me the Italy-US match score…so that wasn’t a good awakening! As a real Italian I get too passionate about football and I let it affect my mood way too much…but well, as I saw my travel-buddies, so full of mosquito bites, and me (that I hadn’t even put anti-mosquitoes on!) without any…I felt much better! I’m telling you, my immune system really kicks ass!!! I think I am immunized to mosquito bites after spending six summers at the Caribbean…I'm really lucky!
The rickshaw driver picked us up at 5 in the morning…we rode with him for like 2 minutes and then the rickshaw broke down! 5 in the morning, in the middle of this desert street with nobody around…we started laughing so much, I think it was an hysteric laugh! What else to do, right? Take life with some philosophy and sense of humor! All around just cows, the rickshaw driver trying to fix his rickshaw (by the way, I’m pretty sure that the motor of a rickshaw is the same as a boat! It’s so funny how they start it the same way) but luckily a jeep drove by and trusting in life we got in and got a ride from them…the jeep safari in the national park was AMAZING! There are 27 tigers in this park but we didn’t see any…oh well! It was worth it anyways!!! So beautiful to be in nature again, so quite, pure fresh air (when you live in Jaipur traffic everyday you appreciate that even more!), lots of dears, antelopes, monkeys of course, peacock in love season, beautiful birds, some scary lizards…really really beautiful! Too bad for the tigers…next time! The safari ended at 9.30 and at 10.30 we were already on a train back to Jaipur…so my dinner the night before was chocolate biscuits, breakfast that morning was coconut biscuits, lunch on the train was ice-cream…but we were too much in a rush to think about food! Got back to Jaipur, took a shower and then ready to go!!! Felt very energetic, went to a nice café to have a proper meal, then to the University campus to play football (oh, and Robby gave me a ride there on his broken Vespa…two Italians riding in the crazy Jaipur traffic on a broken Vespa with Robby cussing in Italian…it was one of those moments!) We finally had the game AIESEC trainees-against AIESECers…much better than the world cup!!! In our team we had Italy, USA, Germany, Belgium, South Africa, Netherlands, Serbia, Japan…against India! So who do you think won?!!? Eheh, I’m too mean! We’ll see next time when we play cricket, they’ll kick our ass!
But after the football game Adi, one of my Indian friends, picked Marsha and I up to go and see MI3…we went with him and his cousin…it wasn’t supposed to be a double date but it felt a little like it and it actually felt kind of nice! Both of them are really nice guys, quite handsome for Indian terms, and finally NO GUY was staring at us or trying to get our attention!!! That was amazing!!! Because here in India when I walk anywhere it’s impossible to avoid people trying to talk to you or touch you or yell at you or even just stare…we’re DIFFERENT, I know, but sometimes it gets so annoying!!!
Anyways, the movie was nice, then we went to Tablu, a nice expensive bar on a rooftop, to celebrate Harriet’s birthday and watch more football games…at the end of the night I found myself in a different double date (how I do that I really don’t know, but that’s the way it works!) with Harriet, Supreet and one of Supreet’s friends who knew my name and was talking to me like we were best friends…and at one point I was really too curious and couldn’t pretend anymore: “have we met before?” so apparently he sees me everyday walking from work to my house with my ipod and knows who I am…kind of scary, isn’t it?
So that was my long Sunday!!! You know that I’m gonna keep writing until this stupid internet will work! Ah, another funny thing that happened at work! I put a picture of me and Steph as my desktop and one of my coworker saw it and was like “is she your sister?” hahahah “how?” so Stephanie, somebody really thought we were sisters, how cool is that? I didn’t know I looked Chinese! People here tell me that I’m blonde (somehow!) but nobody had ever thought I was Chinese…cool! (ah, even with no Internet I just got a phone call by the sales manager of a very important hotel group in Rajasthan and he invited me for lunch to discuss business tomorrow….ah, I love this field!!!! And since I learnt not to trust Indian men EVER, I told this guy that I would come with my boss tomorrow! Of course he doesn’t know yet, and I’m planning his schedule for him…oops!!!)

So a month in India and I survived and I feel so normal and comfortable! Unfortunately I cannot say that I’m integrated here…it’s so hard! I’m happy and having an amazing time cause I’m here with about 40 other trainees from everywhere and they’re amazing people, but I haven’t really connected with any Indians. Most of the Indians I hang out with are people who have been living abroad for a while, cause if not it’s so hard to find a common ground…it’s such a different culture and there is such a big gap in between us! Sometimes it gets frustrating, but I really try to learn and get to know some people…but once again, it’s tough! Women are impossible to approach: either “locked” in their homes by their parents or by their husbands and they cannot go out after 8 pm (considering that I work during the day it gets impossible to see any of the AIESEC girls, for example). Guys just want to sleep with you and they let you know that! I’m not that naïf, I know that even in the western world is often like that, but here OH MY GOD! One of my friends went out with this Indian guy and in the middle of the date he was like “I’m 23 years old, I’m still a virgin and I really want to get some experience, are you interested in having sex with me?” right straight on her face!!! I can’t imagine how she felt! And then (after she said no, of course) he wouldn’t give up! “Please, please, why not? What’s wrong with me? But people in your country have sex all the time!” That’s really what I hate about Indians…they see us and they immediately associate us with money and sex. It’s so frustrating!!! So, indeed, it gets really hard to connect with boys as well…as you can see from my posts I hang out with few boys but I never trust anybody 100%, I would never feel comfortable alone with them, and that really limits the depth of our conversations…I really miss having nice conversations with nice guys!!!
So let’s see what I miss the most about Mizzou after a month:
- Steph Sarah and Landon (sooooooooo much!)
- The rest of AIESEC Exec Board
- My housemates and my messy house:)
- Parties at my house!!!
- Thursday nights bottomless cup at Generic
- Tuesday nights, shisha at the Blue Fugue
- Latin dance at the Blue Fugue!
- Sunday afternoons, coffee and “study” at the Artisan
- Computer labs and wireless everywhere
- “Free” newspapers
- The Rec Center (mostly the Olympic pool)
- Ninth street
- Ninth street video
- The AIESEC office!
- Late night study in the AIESEC office
- Late nights with Steph in her car talking about boys
- Random wine nights at my house
- Making fun of Aleks and her dates (the trucker, the biter, the weirdo…missing anyone:)?)
- Not paying attention at all in Accounting class and taking funny notes with Kara and Steph!
- Laws and the whole international crowd
- Hector and Jessica, Kandice and Luke…my “couple” friends!
- Clean streets with trash cans (or rubbish bins, as Harriet wants me to say)
- Stealing dining hall food
- The Rag Tag
- Eating drunk at the Diner
- Hanging out on my roof
- My messy room!
- Clean public bathrooms (with toilet paper!)
- Walking safe alone at night
- Chats with Brodie
- Cute interesting boys!
- Checking facebook 10 times a day (and actually receiving messages and invitations!)
- Italian dinners at Fabio’s with the Italian crowd
- Random nights after AIESEC meetings
- Chitchatting with my boss at the ARS office
- Sleeping in on Saturdays
- Washing machine, dryer and dishwasher
- And much much more!!!

My time at Mizzou has really been great, AMAZING people and very good times! I really miss a lot of things, but in a nice way! I'm so happy about the last 2 years of my life...and I have to admit that India is treating me pretty well too! And I’m really getting excited about Lyon…we’ll see how I’ll handle civilization after so long!

Too long of a post, sorry! Anyone who got this far gets a prize…post a comment if you got this far:) and put your summer address…maybe you’ll receive a postcard from India!!!

India: the country of contraddictions.

As I was going to work today I was listening to the Cure: "I don't care if monday's blue, tuesday's grey and wednesday too, thursday I don't care about you, it's friday I'm in love" Perfect, I felt so great. It's friday, I'm in love with life. Then the rickshaw driver tried to rip me off and asked me way too much and I got incredibly mad (and I usually don't get mad in India because ppl are so calm and quite and it becomes even more frustrating) "FUCK U bastard, I live here I'm not stupid!" and on and on and on...he started laughing (typical Indian, cause he would never get mad at me), he asked for less and left. But let me explain why I reacted like that. At the last party at the Black House (my house) Silvia (a girl from Germany, who - by the way - I found out yesterday is my sister age;) left her bike there so she let me use it to go to work. After work we were supposed to go to the movies (a Bollywood film called Fanaa, in hindi of course with NO SUBTITLES!) but it got sold out so we decided to treat ourselves to McDonald's (and let me tell u, they should have veggie burgers in other countries too...they're delicious!) and then Barista, a very nice westernized coffee place. Then Harriet (a friend from New Zealand) called and she wanted to go to a bar...and why shouldn't Alex go? She hadn't come home since 10 in the morning but who cares! Everyone else went home (smart people my friends!) and I followed the Brazilians (Marisa and Tai) behind their rickshaw driver...and while I was riding Silivia's bike behind them, two guys on a scooter tried to pull down my pants!!! I'm not joking, I'm not joking, I swear. I almost fell down the bike cause of course they didn't succeed in their intent and they were trying really hard...so I had to kick them, and I started yelling until they finally let me go...those are the kind of things that happen in my contraddictory India...MEN ARE ANIMALS, that's my conclusion! We just addomesticate them in the western world, but if you don't teach them manners, THEY ARE ANIMALS. I was so disgusted and felt bad for a while, but now I'm ok. (so that's why this morning I was particularly hirritatable...is that a word?)
But in my contraddictory India things take a different direction all the time. After we were hanging out at the bar with some girls, Supreet (my Indian friend who's not allowed at my house anymore!) called and wanted to hang out with us. He's in business, he's a very cool guy. He's one of the most progressive Indians I know (and he's still ok with the idea of his parents arranging a marriage for him...but that's another story and another post). He's organizing a party in a private club WITH SWIMMING POOL tonight for the world cup, and I'm really excited! He invited some of his friends from Mumbay who just took a flight for the weekend to go to a party! So we hang out with those guys last night, at Jal Mahal Palace (where I had already been for work to ask them about fares and pictures for the website of the company where I work!) and this time I was hanging out at the bar!!! It is one of the fanciest palaces of Jaipur, where a royal suite goes for $3500 a night, and those guys just invited us there, bought us AMAZING italian wine (barolo d'alba) spending more than 3000 rupies a bottle (really a lot for indian terms!) and they were really nice guys, very interesting to talk to...another world, really, very different from the guys in the street who absolutely want to touch me or talk to me...my contraddictory India!

I have to leave in half an hour or so to go to palaces again and ask for collaboration with my company...then tonight after the party, we have a ride at 2.30 am to catch a train and go to Jodhpur, another city in Rajasthan (where I'm organizing weddings as well!). We'll spend Saturday and Sunday there, come back on Monday morning right before work...oh well, I'll sleep when I die, I promise!

Indian randomness!

oh what an amazing time!!! let's start talking about the party on friday...first of all I met these two French men, they were really nice, we were talking in french and it's really true that when I'm tipsy my french gets incredibly better;) so I asked them what they were here for, and they're like "business"...cool, what kind of business? they say something in french I had no clue of...question mark face...clarification: cannabis. ah! THAT business! so I met two french drug dealers! weird! I should have gotten phone numbers...whatev! but the funny part of the party was when Marisa, a brazilian girl, start singing "asisisimanga asisisimanga manga manga" and suddently Robby, another German girl and I started singing along! AIESEC connection! if you're not in AIESEC you have no clue of what I'm talking about, but it was goosbumping to see how a stupid simple song is being sang in 4 different countries at AIESEC conferences!!! the other trainees were looking at us like we were from another planet...AIESEC planet;)

On Saturday I had to work, but in the afternoon I went to the Pink City, the old "touristy" part of Jaipur that I hadn't seen yet...wow!!! It is so beautiful!!! All the walls around are pink, and it's so crowded, loud, colorful, full of bazars that sell EVERYTHING...there was also a little store with a sign "we sell the best cock!" I was tempted to get in but something got in the way and I didn't...I'm kind of curious on what they meant!!!

Sunday then we went to Sanganeer, a village that is incorporated in Jaipur where they make hand-made paper...it was very interesting to see the process! Then we saw another factory where they do block-printing...I'd never been in a factory before, and it was nice to visit a non-touristic part of Jaipur...people were incredibly nice, explained us everything without asking any money, they made us try to print images on a piece of fabric...very very nice! then we took a bus back and we were supposed to play a soccer game "AIESEC trainees vs AIESECers". So Jan Marsha and I got there a little earlier, bought some fruit and ate it on the field...we really looked like animals! at one point we all looked at each other, sitting on the grass, all dirty and sweaty, our faces hands and arms completly orange from the mangos (here fruit is delicious, and mangos are heavenly!) and we started laughing...how could we ever come back to the western world if we enjoy so much this no-confort? then we washed ourselves from this little water fountain where the cows were drinking from...it was really surreal! and it was especially quite, which it was the first time in India I felt a quite and calm surrounding! then Marsha and I had to go the bathroom and that was an interesting experience! First of all: finding a bathroom. We were in the University campus (by the way, I'm impressed how much it looks like an american university campus! it really made me feel like at home....home? let's call it Columbia cause I still have to figure out where home is!) so we ended up in the guys dorms (ok, I guess Marsha and I have a particular instinct to find of all the buildings the guys dorms!). It was empty cause the students are on holiday right now, but we found the bathroom and I can only make you imagine the condition of an empty guys' dorm bathroom...I don't know how I did it, but I survived! Anyways, after our bathroom experience we realized we were at the wrong football field and the others were playing somewhere else...so we asked a guy if he knew where the football field was "oh, there is no such a thing" "DUDE, we just came from one!" "oh ok, then it's straight ahead" indians will seriously tell u whatever! they don't care if it's right or wrong, they just like to give directions! so, not suprisely, we got lost...Jan stopped this motorcycle biker to ask for direction and they started talking...so Marsha and I got closer and we heard them speaking in German!!! An Indian guy, randomly stopped in the street, who speaks perfect german!!! Indian randomness! We found out he's the german professor at the University, he invited us at his house to meet his wife and daughter, offered us beer and dinner and it was such a nice evening! His wife made pasta for us and it was delicious...I realized I drink more beer that a german guy and a german professor...oh god! Anyways...he also gave Marsha and I a little german lesson (man, who would have ever imagined...a german lesson in India!), and then Jan asked him to guess our ages...he got Jan and Marsha's ages right, but guess how old he thought I was?!!? 25 to 27!! ahhhhhhh that's old!!! I was shocked and he was pretty embarassed as well! Maybe he even tried to guess younger...I guess it's kind of good cause I usually like guys of that age or older anyways;) but still!!!...the evening itself was one of the best here in India...the professor talked a lot, about India, Europe, people's behaviors, differences, experiences, racism, condition of women...it was so interesting! I realized I'm really a learner...I think the world is dived in two kinds of people: teachers and learners. I just love to learn, listen to what anybody has to say...and that just explains my attraction to the teacher kind! I can just sit down and listen to them for ages, satisfying my thirst for knowledge...After the dinner, we were supposed to meet other friends at Mocha, a hookah bar...I was so excited! Finally smoking shisha again!!! we were waiting for a rickshaw when this really nice guy in a white taxi WITH AIR CONDITIONED offered us a ride for basically free! He was so nice! Basically he organizes sight seeing tours and he wanted us to have his phone number in case we were interested...but in the mean time we got to ride on an AC proper car!!! sometimes confort has its advantages;) in Mocha we had a really good time, smoking shisha again was perfect and beautiful, and then two indian guys who were sitting right next to us joined our table...one of them was a magician and made us tonz of tricks...they were so good! i was like 1 foot away from his hands and couldn't see where the trick was! so good! he changed 10 rupies into 100, made other card tricks...I was such a kid and was so excited! then he had all of us stand and right in front of us he lifted himself from the ground FLYING!!! I'm not joking, and there was no drug in the shisha, I swear!!!

Sunday was seriously one of the best days of my life, so full of nice people and random adventures! I laughed a lot and I really realized how people really can make a difference in your everyday life changing an ordinary day in an amazing time! Marsha and I couldn't really sleep so we staied up talking until 2.30 in our beds...it reminded me so much on Steph and I, or my sister and I...it's so nice to have such a close friend already!

I'll finish today's post with a not very nice experience I had today. Last night Daniela and I were hanging out in our house with two indian guys...nothing weird, just friends and we know that we can trust them (especially Daniela has been here for 9 months already!), but this morning one of the security guys of my house wanted to talk to me, and told me that they cannot come anymore...I was shocked, what did they do? he said that our landlord said that INDIAN GUYS cannot come in the house after 11, but other trainees can! I got so mad and really wanted to fight with him! why? that's PURE DISCRIMINATION! and the security guy is indian as well...doesn't he understand? I hate rules in general...stupid rules then! I just cannot stand them! Only white guys can come in the house after 11, what kind of non-racist reason can u give me to that?I'll need to have a talk with my landlord...

Anyways, today's post was very long cause it's 12.30 right now and the internet in the office is
not working and I really don't know what else to do;) Hope everybody is having a good summer so far!