Monday, July 07, 2003
Weak, but not giving in
OK, I'm feeling a little better and can now write more coherently about the weekend.
We left work at midnight on Friday (yay, 3 1/2 hours early!). My coworkers M., J., and I stayed up pretty late drinking beer in J.'s hotel room. The hotel bar closes at midnight, so we had to order beer from room service. There was much gossip about work and junk. I probably got up to my room about 4:30 or so, and called Victor. Drunken phone calls are the best.
Saturday, J. and I went shopping. He picked up some metal statues of Hindu gods for his brother, and some stuff for his house too. We went to a fabric store so that he could purchase some silk for his mom, but of course I ended up outspending him. First of all, the shop required that you take off your shoes before entering. That is no mean feat when there are two or three beggars trying to get a handout from you. Luckily there was a box for me to put my precious four-year-old Sauconys in... otherwise I would have been worried that they would walk away. The shop floor was covered with big cushions, and we sat on the floor while the attendants brought us fabric to see. I bought some pretty orangeish/reddish silk. I also bought some raw silk in light purple, burgandy, and silver. There was also a stack of sarees that had been brought out for someone else, and I looked through those. I bought a chocolate brown one with gold embroidery on it. All in all, I came out of the shop for only about $40. Not bad!
We also went to a bookstore. I didn't bring too many things to read, so I did a little bit of stocking up. Unfortunately, most of the books there are paperback, so I'm a little disappointed about that. But I bought Naomi Klein's No Logo (yeah I should have read it sooner than this), Bill Bryson's Made in America, and Mary Anne by Daphne Du Maurier, which is about her great-great-great grandmother, Mary Anne Clarke. I've almost finished reading it... since I've been sick the rest of the weekend.
Yes, folks, it's the dreaded "Delhi Belly," or whatever you would like to call it. I'm not sure what caused it, but I've been sick several times after eating at the Chinese restaurant at the hotel, so maybe it's that. I had Chinese for dinner Saturday night, and the trouble started soon after. I didn't really do anything yesterday, except go downstairs for 30 minutes to check my email and write yesterday's post. I did manage to watch three movies... Contact, which I liked, Sugar & Spice, which was pretty terrible, and Save the Last Dance, which I admit is a guilty pleasure.
So anyway, that was my first big weekend back in India. Exciting, huh? Oh yeah, the trip out of town that we had planned... well, we went to the Tourist Office Saturday to get tickets, and unfortunately, that particular trip is not running. We were going to go to a place with pretty waterfalls and take a boat ride... but that's hard to do when there's no water in the lake. Stupid drought!
OK, I'm feeling a little better and can now write more coherently about the weekend.
We left work at midnight on Friday (yay, 3 1/2 hours early!). My coworkers M., J., and I stayed up pretty late drinking beer in J.'s hotel room. The hotel bar closes at midnight, so we had to order beer from room service. There was much gossip about work and junk. I probably got up to my room about 4:30 or so, and called Victor. Drunken phone calls are the best.
Saturday, J. and I went shopping. He picked up some metal statues of Hindu gods for his brother, and some stuff for his house too. We went to a fabric store so that he could purchase some silk for his mom, but of course I ended up outspending him. First of all, the shop required that you take off your shoes before entering. That is no mean feat when there are two or three beggars trying to get a handout from you. Luckily there was a box for me to put my precious four-year-old Sauconys in... otherwise I would have been worried that they would walk away. The shop floor was covered with big cushions, and we sat on the floor while the attendants brought us fabric to see. I bought some pretty orangeish/reddish silk. I also bought some raw silk in light purple, burgandy, and silver. There was also a stack of sarees that had been brought out for someone else, and I looked through those. I bought a chocolate brown one with gold embroidery on it. All in all, I came out of the shop for only about $40. Not bad!
We also went to a bookstore. I didn't bring too many things to read, so I did a little bit of stocking up. Unfortunately, most of the books there are paperback, so I'm a little disappointed about that. But I bought Naomi Klein's No Logo (yeah I should have read it sooner than this), Bill Bryson's Made in America, and Mary Anne by Daphne Du Maurier, which is about her great-great-great grandmother, Mary Anne Clarke. I've almost finished reading it... since I've been sick the rest of the weekend.
Yes, folks, it's the dreaded "Delhi Belly," or whatever you would like to call it. I'm not sure what caused it, but I've been sick several times after eating at the Chinese restaurant at the hotel, so maybe it's that. I had Chinese for dinner Saturday night, and the trouble started soon after. I didn't really do anything yesterday, except go downstairs for 30 minutes to check my email and write yesterday's post. I did manage to watch three movies... Contact, which I liked, Sugar & Spice, which was pretty terrible, and Save the Last Dance, which I admit is a guilty pleasure.
So anyway, that was my first big weekend back in India. Exciting, huh? Oh yeah, the trip out of town that we had planned... well, we went to the Tourist Office Saturday to get tickets, and unfortunately, that particular trip is not running. We were going to go to a place with pretty waterfalls and take a boat ride... but that's hard to do when there's no water in the lake. Stupid drought!
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