Delhi x2

--- NOTE: these are e-mails I wrote in reply to emails from my madre. May not make sense without reading her emails. i appologize, will fix when I get time. Skim?-----

Yeah, he was there. It worked out great! He j\had a sigh\n with my name on it, and I said
"hey, that's me". And he said "no english" and dashed off into the night. Which I took to
mean, "follow me to this skeytch-looking van/cab. (VERY cool little cars, even if the
steering wheel is on the wrong side. I should bring one back with me for Telluride. Small
enough for good gas milage, can effortlessly avoid bikers without helmets, pedestrians
WITH helmets, by mere inches!) ANyways, was quite a drive from the airport, full of
shortcuts where I wasn't sure if I was being kidnapped or what. Thank friggin' gods for
Jen reassuring me that VTibet was legit. Goodness. It is quite slum-like, and looked even
worse at night. The actual slum (plastic tarp buildings, clothes drying on main
thoroughfare) adjoins the neighborhood. Anyways, was freaky at night, following this cab
driver with no enlgish into a slum-looking place at 11pm local time. BUT it worked out,
hotel was perfectly respectable, just hidden behind sketych loking fronts with dying dogs
and trash everywhere... I'm not used to any cities, let alone ones in India with such
poor, destitute people eveyrywhere on the street.

ANYWAYS, I'm safe. There was a mosquito in the room last night, but I think I killed it
before it gave me Malaria. Victory for Emily! It was indeed hard to sleep. I slept some
ont the plane. THey woke us up 2 hrs before landing, fed us breakfast, and while I was
eating it got dark outside. Breakfast? Crazy time distances.

Also, I've now seen (aerially) Uzbekistan, the Aral Sea, and Kabul Afghanistan, and
surrouding areas. So many sand dunes! Looked like very interesting geology; couldn't see
too much else from the air. Luckily, I'm interested int hat sort of thing. Also, avoided
blood clots Mom. Thanks for your worrying, I'm sure it did the trick to prevent them! I'm
interested what this Bus will be like. THere are busses labeled inter-state transit, and
they are STUFFED with people. But would they really do a 12 hr bus ride, on which some
people have to stand? THat would be CRAZY. ANyways, have my bus ticket. Tipping people is
really friggin problematic!!! I don't have any damn small bills! I feel really guilty!!
Bah! A kid carried my bag to my room and I didn't have a bill smaller than 500 rupees, so
I didn't tip him! Because giving him that much would have been weird (like 2 nights stay
at the hotel). But I didn't have anything else! Exclamation point!
Class-privelaged-guilt! THANK you for giving me a childhood (and currently too) empty of
hunger, begging, and homelesness! THis country is crazy.

Love, emily