Le Flat

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For those of you without facebook, you can view my pictures of India at the above link. Let me know if there are any problems with it.

So staying with Sascha and Anna went well--Sascha is from Germany and Anna is Czech. I stayed with them Monday night and we ended up watching too many episodes of the Big Bang Theory (they had downloaded every episode available). They even invited me to an Indian wedding next week, so hopefully I will be able to go.

I spent the rest of the week with my friend Hanna, the Swedish journalist who I met at Andy's party. She was gracious enough to let me take over her living room for about a week in her amazing tree house of an apartment. I'll take pictures of it before I move out, it is the best flat I've been to thus far--really open and on the top floor of the building, so half of it is roof access (you have to walk outside to go to the bathroom or the kitchen--but its a good thing!) The shower doesn't work at her place, so you have to fill a bucket with hot water and take a bath with that. I really actually prefer this method because you don't waste much water--if you don't use it all up you can even save some for other purposes. I only wash my hair most of the time, anyway.

I went apartment hunting on Wednesday and met a lot of really great people in the process. My first stop was in Jangpura Ext. which is really close to the Habitat Centre where I work. My potential roomie, Shaka, is a basketball coach at the French Embassy School, originally from Camaroon but molded in Paris. He was really great, and there was even a poster of CHE on the wall like at home! The only thing that might have been odd was that I had to walk through his room to get to my room...but I wouldn't have cared, I would have just felt bad for Shaka.

The second flat was in Malviya Nagar, which is pretty far south in Delhi. It's about a twenty minute ride when there's no traffic, and forty minutes in the morning to work. The flat was amazing--very modern and new appliances/fixtures, lots of marble and really high ceilings. There was a wrought iron sprial staircase in the middle of the hallway which leads up to the rooftop. My room would have been ginormous with its own bathroom and balcony. Sukrat, the guy who showed me around, is a documentary film maker who is currently working on a campaign concerning the Bush administration (go figure), and the other woman who is living there is a Fullbright Scholar from Florida--didn't get to meet her though. He was really interesting, and although I really liked the flat, it was more expensive and too far from work.

The third flat was in Defence Colony, belonging to a couple of French. I found the place around the same time as the other prospective roomate, Simond, and his friend Andre, were approaching the gate. We all walked up together and met Antoine and Flavien, the current occupants and had a tour. The flat is really nice and so Simond and I jokingly argued over who would get it. In the end, he let me have the room (what a gentleman). Three of them work at the French Embassy, not exactly sure where Flavien works--he told me but I cannot remember. They ordered dinner and we discussed travel plans for the duration of our time in India. I'll be moving my things out of the cubicle and into the flat later this evening. I'm headed to Jaipur this weekend with Andre, so I'll let you know how that goes. Andre is actually couchsurfing at Wesley's flat, who I had asked to couchsurf with last week--small world.

Rahil, his friend Carol, and I were originally planning on heading to Agra this weekend, but its V-Day and we didn't want to be caught up in the yuppie mess professing their love to one another at the Taj Mahal.

The couch surfing thing is still in effect--I've met several people for dinner/drinks and they've all been really interesting. On Tuesday, I met Rob from Alabama and had dinner in Defence Colony (where I accidentally ate Lamb--so much for my awesome streak of vegetarianism--to be fair, it was hiding in Naan). He's a rotary scholar who did his undergad at UGA, so of course I had to meet him. Right now hes at JNU doing a masters in Economics--he was really knowledgable and told me a lot about the current relgious conflicts in India, which was really interesting. We got a little lost, but it was fine since he has a motor bike, which makes it incredibly easy and enjoyable to get around the city.

Internship is still going well--I have a lot of research to do in the coming weeks to prepare for the World Day Against Child Labour.

Miss you and love you all,
Elise