Latest Update

I apologise for neglecting my blog for the last two weeks, I have no excuse. The last few weeks have flown by! I can't believe I left home nearly a month ago now! I don't feel as though I have left people behind because I have been in contact with my friends and family quite regularly. I managed to Skype home at the weekend for the first time which was lovely even though my sister repeatedly fell asleep on camera. I will forgive her only because she was so exhausted from her dance rehearsal. I'm so proud of my little ballet dancer! It was so lovely to see my family's faces, and I was able to give them a small tour of the campus. If anyone wants to add me on Skype my name is megaanraistrick (I think).

So the last time I wrote on here I was 17, now I am 18! I had a really nice birthday although it was very strange not being at home and seeing my family and friends. Holly and a couple of friends organised a cake for me and dragged me out of bed at midnight to take me outside to be greeted with cake in my face. Apparently that is a tradition here! It was so nice of them and they made my birthday special. Holly also got me some nail varnish (as I had to bin mine at the airport) and some nice Indian bangles which I haven't taken of since because they are stuck on my wrist and also they are very pretty! Somehow she managed to sneak out to the shops during one of my lessons without me catching on. In the evening our hosts at the hospital took us to a fancy Chinese restaurant which was lovely. The food was incredible and made a very welcome change to curry!

My teaching is going well although we still don't have many classes as we are waiting for the timetable to be organised. Our students are so sweet and they all say English has become their favourite class since Holly and I started teaching them! I had a slightly embarrassing moment yesterday when teaching my vision technicians class because I actually didn't know how to spell technician! I felt better after though when I met Holly in the corridor because she had done her whole lesson with toothpaste round her mouth! Very amusing. It's so nice being here with someone else so that we can laugh about the things nobody else her would understand.

Me and Holly on Saturday night, loving life.

On Saturday night there was a freshers' party at the hostel. It was not quite the same as a freshers' party in the UK but it was still good fun. Basically the second years organise the party for the new first years and get them all up on the stage to introduce themselves and make them do stupid and embarrassing things. And along with that there are lots of singing and dancing performances. The dancing was incredible, I wish I could dance like that! Holly and I were called up onto the stage to be introduced and they gave us a rose which was nice. They also made us dance which was not so nice. It was thoroughly unpleasant in fact! Holly was also called up on stage by one of the freshers as his task was to propose to her. This was very funny for me, Holly was less amused. After all the performances they had a rave in the car park which was pretty insane. Everyone just went crazy with the dancing! But then the police arrived at 1.30 because the music was too loud. So much fun!

My rose!

Holly's proposal!

The freshers looking beautiful in blue.

The weather hasn't been particularly hot the last few weeks but it has been raining a lot. There were lots of storms with crazy thunder and lightning! Our new friends were shocked to hear that we don't like rain as they all love it. I can't imagine why someone from Scotland doesn't like rain?! All the wet weather made the mosquitos really bad and we are getting bitten all the time, it's such a pain! Now that it's getting hotter they seem to have gotten batter though which is good. Holly actually got a little bit sunburned yesterday! Strangely after being in India for 4 weeks I am yet to use sunscreen or sunglasses. We just don't get the opportunity to go outside much.

On Monday we had to go to the foreign registration office which was so boring. It took 6 hours because they were having some sort of problem with the system. Nightmare! It is sorted now though so we are officially allowed to stay in the country for more than 6 months. In other news, I swallowed an insect the other night. I will be sure not to yawn outside again without covering my mouth!

The food is starting to annoy me. It doesn't taste bad but after having the same thing every single night for almost a month I am a bit sick of it. Yesterday Holly and I went to KFC for lunch because we needed a change. That's the first time I have been to KFC but I don't think it will be the same as in the UK (unless they do rice there as well but I highly doubt it). We had a chicken rice bowl, it was delicious! It's so tempting to go out looking for different food every day but it would get too expensive. However, the KFC was only 80p so I can't really complain.

Something strange I have noticed here is the way people greet each other. In the UK we would say, 'hello, how are you? What have you been up up?' Here they say, 'hello, how are you? Have you had your breakfast?' Sometimes they don't even ask how you are, it's just straight to asking about food! Very odd.

Anyway, I have nothing else to report just now except I am very happy!

Another cow on the road.

People dancing in the streets on the day of a festival!

Me, very happy!