No, Really...We're Back in Business

Alright, I've been kind of lazy when it comes to blogging lately. I mean, we did have another three-day lapse of internet, but that's no excuse for not writing for ten days!

Things are going pretty well here. We continue to study--Jarrod like mad, me not quite as much, but I'm doing okay in lessons, so it's no worries.

I've been a bit sick for the past...two weeks, basically. I caught Jarrod's bad cold, which I believe included a few days of fever, because I felt really stinking bad. Now that that's gone, though, I've been having stomach problems where the smell of food kind of makes me nauseous, etc. I finally went to the doctor yesterday, which was quite an experience. Not the doctor part, that was fine, Dr. Ghosh was very nice and spoke excellent English.

It was the taxi drivers that I had trouble with. The first one asked Rs 100 for the ride, which should have cost Rs 50. I agreed, since I needed to make my appointment and didn't want to argue. Then when I got out, he tried to charge me Rs 200! And then on the way back, it took me forever in the rain to find someone who would take me, and then he took me way far south and I had to walk quite a long way to get back home. Sigh. I guess it was my own darn fault, though, for not finding an auto rickshaw to drive me up to the metro on the way back.

But anyway, the doctor basically told me to avoid fried and spicy foods and gave me a bunch of different pills to take at various times for various symptoms, and if I don't feel better in five days or so, I'll call him and he'll do tests. I think I'll be okay though. Just a little bit of stomach upset, you know.

So we've been losing a battle with the critters recently. I mean, I guess it was bound to happen, but when you find ants swarming your kitchen counter and garbage, it just makes you feel like a lousy housekeeper. Well, it makes me feel that way, at least.

But it makes sense why there are so many critters. We never really keep our windows closed, and I don't think there would really even be a way to keep them out if we tried. It was just a matter of time, and of food. Of course the ants didn't bother us when we toured the apartment--they hadn't found food up here for a few months! But now that we've moved in, they've come out.

We've managed to curb the ant infestation with this magic chalk stuff that you draw a border with and the ants don't cross it. It's funny/sad to watch as they get all hectic approaching the line, and then turn around and walk back, and then come back to the line again, over and over. Jarrod said the other night when he killed a few ants in the kitchen, the colony got really angry and started attacking from their hole, so he chalked off the entrance and they couldn't do anything.

There are cockroaches too, but I've only seen one, plus the dead one on the floor that the ants were dragging away in a massive group effort. That was pretty horrible. Jarrod found a millipede in his sock one day, and I saw another one crawling across the floor a few days after that. There are the occasional lizards, but those guys are pretty cool. And then, oh yeah, there was this random animal turd in our bathroom the other day, which we can't figure out for the lives of us what it's from. I make sure to keep a wary eye each time I use the restroom now.

I'm making our apartment sound like a horrible, infested hole, aren't I? It's really not though; in fact, it's quite clean. But critters are still something I'm learning to deal with. Jarrod says they're nothing compared to what it's like in Silchar and the village, and cites horror stories of huge fast spiders, lizards falling from the ceiling, mosquitos everywhere, little red snakes, etc.

Anyway, I can deal. As my dad always said, they're more afraid of me than I am of them, right? :)

--Emily