one plus one is eleven right? 1+1 = 11?

MATH!!!!

All I can do is find a way to laugh, laughing is my only resource for such topics, yes this is the topic that makes me freeze, gives me the deer in the headlights look, sweaty palms, fuzzy head, and nightmares...I have lost a scholarship I desperately needed and my pride over this topic... what is left but to find a way to laugh about it :)

Yes this is what I've been up to...

Yes, I am a Math Atheist!

And my personal favorite!...

The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Cow Bells...

Welcome to Gruyeres... the land of peaceful rolling pastures, enchanting Castles and Happy Cows :)

Gruyeres Castle surrounded by happy Cows... yes look closely that is not a tree but a bush of flowers strapped to the cows head.

After finishing the last of three final papers and suffering from this disturbing feeling that my laptop has been surgically attached to me, I decided that I needed to head out of town for a day. What do you think of when your brain feels like mush and every thought you have seems to spill our of your head as though it is full of holes?… that’s right Swiss CHEESE! Gruyeres to be exact, the home of the famous Gruyere cheese, and an enchanting castle on a hill surrounded by pastures full of cows with giant bells around their necks and flowers on their heads. All this only two hours away by train… isn’t Switzerland lovely!

I love train rides. All week long my thoughts are scattered going from thing to thing in rapid succession, taking detours or simply hitting dead ends. But there is something about a train ride, with the scenery whipping by, that allows me to take one thought and to follow it wherever it goes, all the way to its end as if it were sharing the same iron rails as the train.

View from the Gruyeres Castle

Happy cows make happy CHEESE! Rows and rows of Cheese! Gruyere of course!

The Rest of the Story...

This blog entry is dedicated to my sister Lyndy who turns 24 today...Happy Birthday Lyndy! You've been begging me to update, and I've been waiting these three months just for your BIRTHDAY!

No, I did not float away in the Monsoon....

I'm sucking on a Ricola coming down off the high of having finished my first final... or is it a low... it was a tough one, a group paper and it was a killer but it is over and I have 15 minutes before I start the next of three finals due this week. Finals you say? ... so this is where I have to give the rest of the story... to rapidly fill in the gaps of the last three months.

Month one July:

A beautiful month in many continents... from India to Germany to Switzerland... yes July is a beautiful month!

After kissing muddy RAIPUR goodbye I made my way solo down the subcontinent to HYDERABAD: easy, fun, lively city with tremendously good shopping compared to where I had been living... 4 quick days, a cooking class and a visit to the mysterious GOLCONDA FORT and I was zipping out of Hyderabad and onto my new life in Switzerland, but not without a stop in FRANKFURT: to grab my visa and get completely confounded by their train system... but I was not the only one, it seems their method of finding and rounding up foreigners... the bermuda triangle of trains tracks... Aaaaahh Frankfurt... once I caught my 130 Euro train, I discoverd that I had only paid for a "space" on the train which meant after 48 hrs of travel I had to sit on the floor.... when I asked the conductor how one could pay so much and not get a seat the conductor responded firmly "Iv you vant seat you must pay for veservation... Vis is Geeermany!" ... VIS IS GEEEERMANY! Ironically a seat opened up just as we were crossing the border... I have to say, the scenery really improved when I got to SWITZERLAND!
GENEVA: Oh I remember you Geneva... bright, clean, fresh, orderly... in the seven years since I last saw you, you haven't changed much, but how will it be to call you home? After so much moving around the last few years it might take me some time to call you or anywhere home. The first test... six weeks of FRANCAIS Class! But lucky me, I found a bosom friend in a Norwegian classmate and those six weeks were packed with shopping trips, field trips, hiking trips and supermarket trips. In only six weeks I managed to taste all and narrow down my favorite chocolate, yogurt and bread. A considerable feat given the vast of the selection. I even discoverd the Ovalmatine bar... a chocolate bar that is packed full of 12 ESSENTIAL vitamins and minerals ... finally a Chocolate bar that is healthy... I think I will eat one every day!

As July crept into August we had adventures in MONTREUX for the jazz festival, VEVEY, Chateau de Chillon, NEUCHATEL, ANNESY FRANCE, SALEVE Mountains, ZURICH (twice), and the Geneva fete for Raclette and the most spectacular firework show I've ever witnessed... we did happen to learn some French along the way as well. We learned the imporant stuff, like the words for ice cream "glace" and chocolate "chocolat" and student discount* "escompte d'etudiant". But I had to pass on some of the field trips when only two weeks after arrival I found a job, which ended up keeping me rather busy. I had to work hard to keep up on both French and the Job (working on EU immigration policy) but all the hard work was rewarded with a trip to ROME ITALY the last week of August. Who in the world would have imagined that one could have such a good time traveling alone! What a memorbale trip. Roaming around Rome, the Collesium, the Pantheon, the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel (where I got kicked out... see traveling alone really can be a gas), Italian pizza, St. Peters Basilica, the museums, the Opera (thank heavens for STUDENT DISCOUNTS*) the Roman Forum, the Palladium, the gellato, the Italian men leaving love notes under my door (again, a plus for traveling alone ;-) ... I moved from Rome to NAPLES and onto the aromatic and stunning ISLAND OF CAPRI (yes after the pants but I didn't see anyone wearing them, perhaps they went out of style there decades ago and we are all just really far behind in fashion) then to POMPEII where I became completely lost in the ruins of the past, frozen in time... a whole civilization, a giant city, well endowed with infrastructure, highly organized, elaborately decorated and oddly void of any landmarks to prevent me from getting lost and causing me to change the name from POMPEII to the LABRYNTH-PEII. So I only had time to see MT. VESUVIUS from a distance and not climb it... next time... and there will be a next time, because I AM IN LOVE WITH ITALY!

August very quickly shifted into September and in a matter of 24 hours from returning from Italy I had to move apartments, meet my new roomates and attend the first day of GRADUATE SCHOOL. I loved my roomates at first hello. They hail from Portugal, India and Mongolia and aparently that is the perfect mix for a lot of laughs. My classmates are almost equally as delightful. They come from about 20 different countries and have very impressive backgrounds. I feel completely at home among them and academically they will keep me on my toes. The course starts with a bang! Classes 8 hours a day for the first six days including Saturday. Group presentations within the first few days, impossible volumes of readings... let the sleepless nights begin! Well the stress was becoming evident in my life as in the frame of one week I lost my new cell phone, my student card (bye bye non-existant student discount*) my passport, my laundry card, and an 8 foot long rug... yes, I said an 8 foot long rug. I think duct tape might be the only solution to stress in my life, duct tape and a backrub, cuz darned those pinched nerves are getting pretty regular! Well I must have convinced people I was cute because I got my passport back, found my student card, bought a new cell phone but got my pre-paid credit moved to the new phone, someone got me a new 8 foot rug (how sweet) and my lovely roomates are letting me borrow their laundry cards (although maybe that is not as altruistic as it seems... perhaps they don't like how I smell when I don't do my laundry...hmmmm) bye bye duct tape :)

So this brings us up to Ricola and finals... I got my first cold last week but a classmate encouraged me to put two bunches of fresh sliced garlic in honey, to let it sit for a day, then to put the honey in hot water and drink it like a tea, either she was playing a mean trick (on my roomates who have to live with me!) or she really had something up her sleeve... it turns out it was the latter because my cold seemed to just dissapear, obviously frightened by the garlic I was asphixiating it with. Now I just use Ricola becuase this is Switzerland and it is my first cold and it only seems appropriate that I eat some Ricola now. Cold or no cold, I refuse to give into winter... I still wear my sandals and toering... I WILL NOT GIVE IN, IT IS NOT WINTER YET!

So, now I must move onto final #2...

...hope you have enjoyed hearing the rest of the story... now I am going to put this garlic drinking, ricola sucking, brain dead head to bed :)

PS HAPPY BIRTHDAY LYNDY, I hope you enjoyed this one installment just for YOU, YOU, YOU!

* I usually don't qualify for student discounts as most discounts are for students 25 and under, us "old" students are doubly penalized first for being old and then for being old AND a student... or poor poor me :( ... but on rare occasions I can convince people that I am still cute enough to get the student rate :)

PHOTO GALLERY:

(will do separate Gallery for ITALY photos in near future)

Geneva Ode to Jet d'eau ("water jet" pronouced 'jedt oh')
Jet d'eau
Oh, oh, oh
how high does your water go?
oh, oh, oh
Jet d'eau
you are my favorite water flow
Oh, Jet d'eau

This one STANDS ALONE! No, I am not playing with my food, that really is a giant fork in the lake... VEVEY, SWITZERLAND

Chim chiminy, Chim chiminy... the rooftops of Neuchatel, Switzerland

Zurich by moonlight (without a tripod)
Annecy, France (Okay, so maybe I need to get a tripod ;-)


FINALLY! HEALTHY CHOCOLATE! Only in Swtizerland

The perfect Castle: Chateau de Chillon, hanging over a misty lake offset by a steely mountain landscape... hauntingly beautiful.

GRAD SCHOOL! where adults live like paupers, act like teenagers (yes, the leaders of tomorrow??), work their brains dry for no pay, and hope for the day when they can land a "real" job to work off their newly minted mountains of debt.

How do I end up so lucky to have such delightful roomates! Mix a little US, Portugal, Mongolia and India and you have a recipe for lots of laughs! :)

Monsooon!

Yes, we have certainly experienced the monsoon here. With the heaviest recorded rainfall in 48 hrs in the last 100 years. It cancelled plans, cut power and cased my flip flops to nearly float away (as well as my bed and all my belongings ;)...

First an odd reddish hugh is cast over everything... (my camera took a true color exposure... this is really what it looks like)... the wind picks up, birds fly away and water buffalo mooan out to their young and begin moving.

Then the lightening begins, like flashbulbs across the sky, followed by claps of heavy thunder and large swollen rain drops, that ploop, ploop at first inches apart and finally in a heavy pour. At this time we know to go check the drains, which very rapidly become clogged and caused rivers of water to come cascading down the stairs from the flat roof and into the second floor, creeping right into my bedroom where my floor mattress just soaks it up like a sponge! What do we do???

We sweep it out of course!

And when that doesn't work we fill buckets with water and throw them over the balcony....

... and when that dosn't work we put our mattresses and things on tables and chairs and play in the water for awhile... say till about 4 in the morning... nothing like and all night puddle party! :)

Then the next day we watch the aftermath from the balcony.

Replay about four times and you have my last few weeks!

Baranwapara and stuff...

Baranwapara Sunset

The Wild Dogs of Baranwapara

Just a mini-updated here...

Its been pretty busy, mostly writing trying to get this big report done. I went to a wildlife park called Baranwapara with a friend last week just before they closed it for rainy season. It was pretty amazing and more amazing because the Monsoons were just starting and the sky was heavy with charcoal clouds, it made the forest seem mysterious. All of a sudden a giant Antelope came running through the woods at us, we jerked to a stop and realized it was not one but two, and they were being chased by a pack of wild dogs. Quite a sight! But one that will only be saved in my memory as you can imaine it is impossible to catch that on camera. We ran into the pack later (they had not caught the antelope) and caught some photos of them then. I was very glad to have my telephoto lens! I was told that more people see Leopards than see wild dogs and that we were very lucky to see them, even our guide had not seen them before. Funny since I had the same experience in Tanzania, we almost immediately ran into a pack of wild dogs in the Serengeti and were told it was exceedingly rare. I suppose if I were native american I would be told that wild dogs were my animal guides. We also saw wild Bison... Beautiful creatures! The night following our wild dog sighting the clouds became heavy and the wind picked up. Before we knew it the power was out but the ground was lighter than day all night long as lightening made constant strikes through the sky. The bullfrogs came out and took turns keeping the night alive with their music. Oddly enough I thought they sounded like livestock. Most of them sounded like giant Bull cows and a few others sounded like bleating sheep. A moment when I wish my camera could record sound. A very memorable experience!

I have been sitting in front of the computer writing so much and I think the sleeping on the floor is not helping, but I have had a horrible pinched nerve for two weeks now. Then I clumsily slammed my finger in the car door while getting out to take a picture of statue of a 9 headed 24 armed man on the way back from the wildlife reserve. There was no electricity in the village where it occured so no ice, but I was taken to the village doctor who kindly cleaned and wrapped it up for me. After that all my pictures turned out crooked since it was my trigger finger that was damaged. Now my finger is fat and colorful but I am happy to say that it is back to doing it's job of typing! It is the end of Mango season and they are all soft and mushy. Lychee's are coming in season though and they are a beautiful fruit! The rains have lowered the temp, to an wonderful bearable 94' but the added moisture has invited the mosquitoes back in swarms and armies. And everyone is planting their first round of rice paddy. A friend (the one who took me to the wedding) came over yesterday to show me his toe. Aparently he was walking down the street not too far from here and a car avoiding potholes somehow managed to NOT avoid him and ran over his leg. It was dark and it wasn't until he turned on his mobile phone (everyone uses them as flashlights) that he realized that his little toe was missing. Yeah, grody! And he told me this story in unflinching graphic detail! So once he found his toe he wrapped it up and took it home. Eventually he went to the doctor to get it stiched back on and now he has a nail through his foot to keep it on. OK enough of that, but these are the realities of life... Uuuuugh! When I asked him if the driver stopped he said no, but it was probably best that way because everyone on the street would have drug him out of his car and beaten him. I guess that is how it is done here.

Well I expect to be finished with all this writing that i have been doing by this weekend, then it is time to wrap things up, eat some more of my favorite Chili Paneer and leave India. So much has happened here that I couldn't write about but I will fill in the blanks at a later date. My life on the other side of the pond is already getting into gear. Visa's are ready, apartments secured, bills paid and all I need to do is arrive with great expectations for a new life (and lot's of European chocolate!... and jogging ;-)

The man who resulted in my crushed finger... it looks like maybe he can spare a finger ;-)

In the Village...

Down in Dantewada

Baby Dog

After a week and a half of a horrible illness (likely some sort of food poisoning from eating rubbish off the street) Baby Died yesterday. We tried really hard to save him, the vet came several times, we gave him electrolytes, special food and water, but he couldn't keep anything down and he was in so much pain. Today we buried him in a peaceful place at a friends farm.

Indian Wedding