Hello all

Kem cho everybody, sorry about the long break, but we STILL don't have Internet up and running at my house, so my only access to the internet is my school's creaky, ailing, paralyzingly slow computers. Life is back to normal again - it came as a shock the other day when I realized that life in India has become normal for me! I'm used to the cows on the road, I don't blink an eye at the men holding hands or peeing on the side of the road (they do this A LOT), I barely notice spicy food anymore, annnd I can even converse minimally in Gujarati!! I don't have the guts to ask my family to only speak Gujarati to me though...I am a weak exchange student.
Last Wednesday was the final day of Ganesh Utsav, a 10-day festival in honor of Lord Ganesh (he's the one with an elephant head). At the beginning of this festival, everyone decorates special shrines and brings a Ganesh idol into their home. After 10 days, they take the idol down to the nearest body of water and immerse it in the water. I'm not really sure what the significance of that part is. As we live right by the river, there was a constant stream of people going by the house all day, hoisting their Ganesh idols, banging on drums, dancing and singing. (Not all at once, of course.) Rutvik and his friend took me down to the river to see the huge idols lined up for their dunking. As I was American, we got to go right down to the river bank - a VIP only place. The idols were awesome - some as much as 6 feet tall, and no two were alike. Getting there and back was problematic though, as I was constantly having to avoid making eye contact with hundreds of drunk, rowdy, leering men. Rutvik was less my brother and more of a bodyguard, bless him.
Not much else to report, other than it's been meltingly hot lately. I'm turning into a little puddle in the computer lab. I've finally realized why Indian women don't have bangs - mine are perpetually plastered to my forehead with sweat. Not pretty.
Oh! There's an awesome festival coming up call Navratri. (In case you haven't noticed, September is a month of festivals.) Its name literally means nine (nav) nights (ratri), and it's nine straight nights of dancingdancingdancing until the cows come home. We do a kind of dance called Garba, which is done in a circle and involves lots of twirling and waving of the arms. We all wear traditional cheniya cholis, which is a short blouse and a long flared skirt. I'm not allowed to wear tank tops here, yet I can show my whole stomach and nobody complains. Strange. Anyway, I can't wait! It starts on the 23rd.
Ok, that's all for now. I swear I have lots of pictures, and you guys will see them all as soon as the internet at our house starts working again! (No promises as to when that'll be.)