the last days at Vellore...

To get a good deal on airline tickets (they're really cheap domestic unless you want a non-sketchy airline with actual seats), we had to buy our tickets for saturday- day after tomorrow! At this point we have seen alot and feel pretty ready for a move or home. So the move to Delhi. How will we spend a whole week in Delhi? Of course, traveling to Agra to see the Taj will require a full day on the train, but otherwise, we only have enough sites for two days...
I wish we could fly back to the US a few days earlier. We in fact investigated this, but all flights were full. Plus, Delhi will be much more expensive- a bit like staying in a cheap motel in the US for a week, but quite alot for a budget hotel in India. I hope there are not squat toilets!

In the last few days we've heard of locals having very bad experiences with rude Americans from UTHSCSA. Some have encountered us with distrust and misgivings and after developing a relationship they have become more personable and kind. Simply because they have been treated with disrespect by other students from San Antonio. I have also heard from the accountants that several students did not pay the $100 fee to the hospital.
Not to get on my soapbox, but I wanted to write to inform the Brand Scholarship program that it may be a good idea to interview students as a part of their application. I know, I know... this probably won't help exclude the rude students who come and feel entitled to American privilege. But maybe it would discourage those who do not wish to learn and consider their trip to India to be a mission in which they educate and establish superiority. We have learned far more from the health care workers, restauranteurs and hotel staff here than we could have taught them. The girls I'm traveling with are as disappointed as I am to need to apologize for some of the students who have and are participating in this program.

A lighter topic...
Bangle Mania!!
We sought out a bangle shop out of the myriad bazaar streets. In India, streets are themed. There are silk streets, auto part streets, milk container streets, large welded greasy ring thing streets, and, yes, Bangle Boulevard.
The first shop told us they sold only wholesale. The second shop, also filled with large boxes, looked the same, sold anything.
I actually abstained from the mania which followed because I wasn't sure I wanted bangles as gifts, but the comparison of colors, glass, gold, etc.. was entertaining.

As yesterday the other girls came back to the hotel late late late after getting lost on the #2 bus, we decided today would be hospital-lite. Basically, Bharvi summed it up as she hung her head on the back of the seat in front, even as Lauren squealed over the monkeys, saying "I think I am going to die. I cannot survive another single day of medical school."
The Jeep driver had looked concerned about their health, and after this scene was recreated in the hotel and our kidneys kicked back into gear by the night having been tragically depleted of fluid for an entire day, we decided on bangles instead of blinding heat, sweaty shopping instead of swamp-thing-like survival. Monkeys and antenatal clinic be damned. The white people melted. (plus Bharvi)

BTW, we saw a very old man today with a 2 foot trident stuck through his tongue. He also had a white lunghi and lots of ash (painted ash from the temples) all over his crazy white head.
awesome.

also sighted: very black veiled Muslim women with secret bangles underneath buying more super-secret bangles.

Did I write yesterday about the dog? As we ate lunch a sweet looking dog was crying for our food, and I saved all these little scraps thinking I would sneak them to him when no one was looking. Few dogs in these parts cry or vocalize at all- this guy was the most personable I've seen. Funny thing was, when we were done, the health aide at whose house we were eating, took my scraps and as I worried she would toss them, added my scraps to the others and actually fed the dog!!
I was so gratified, poor little thing, covered in mites.