so another week has flown by, its seriously gone and I’ve been in India for over a month. Things feel like home, surprisingly, and I know I will have to return.

First off. Friday night was batman. It was pretty great and I am so happy that we have a really sick movie theatre only a couple of minutes away from my house! What caught me off guard was that India still does intermission during every movie like in The Sound of Music or Gone with the Wind) Overall though, Anne Hathaway’s performance was impressive, making me re-think her levels of obnoxious. But I think we were all hoping that Bruce Wayne would not escape from that pit so we could see more shirtless training montages…

But more on India:

Today was the perfect break from the hectic norm. Steph, Allison, Ciara, Michelle, Becca, and I spent about 2 hours at a lakeshore restaurant eating lunch, and sipping coffee and beer. Then we ventured up to the monsoon palace for a gorgeous view of Udaipur and the surrounding mountains. It began to rain as we left the palace, which gave the entire city a misty glow.

Last weekend’s trip to jaipur was absolutely insane, disgusting, stressful, and invigorating. Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan with a population of about… I brought up the trip idea to our group, and from there, was in charge of managing the transportation and the hotel arrangements and payment. Thankfully, Roma and Olivia helped a lot, but making sure that everyone was on the bus, and our hotel reservation was legit, was pretty crazy. I think for the weekend I was sort of the mom of the wolf pack.  I’m glad to say we made it back alive, only one cellphone (Nat) and one camera (Aaron) short.  Our transportation from Udaipur to Jaipur was a night bus with little sleeper cubbies. It was exciting at first as steph and I climbed up into our double sleeper box, but as the hours rolled by and the musty smell grew stronger and the noisy highway outside grew bumpier, it was slightly less fun. We arrive in Jaipur at 8 am the next morning, and found the wonderful Hotel Pearl Palace, where we checked in and ate breakfast at their roof top restaurant. I had my first cup of coffee in several weeks and it felt like heaven.

After a brief rest, the group went to the pink city to see the city palace. Then Jess, Steph, Allison, Michelle, Ciara, and Kelly and I wandered through some back ally ways as we tried to find the best shop for bangles. We got some weird looks, but otherwise felt safe. I feel pretty lucky that we got a “behind the scenes” view of the capital city. At “Little Italy,” woodfire pizza and a kingfisher beer finished off a delightful day. Everyone was happy to have a break from curries, dahl, and chipate.  Most of us returned to the hotel exhausted, except for Jess who came back to Allison, Steph and my room at midnight with a story about the club she went to with her host bro.

The next day, after another great breakfast at the hotel restaurant, we trecked to the Amber Fort, the most spectacular thing I’ve seen in India so far. The giant fort sits on top of a range of green hills, dotted with cows, overlooking a lake. The fort itself is a labyrinth of twisting passages, staggering staircases, mirrored chambers, and great views. After several corridors that smelled like piss and a run in with a pack of bats, we decided to leave. Our rikshaw driver took us to elephant city to meet the lovely she-elephant, pearl. I loved seeing her and stroking her trunk and the spurts of hair on her forehead, but it was sad and slightly uncomfortable to see her holed up in a 10 yrd by 10 yrd pen, waiting for the next batch of tourists to come see her.

The final adventure of the day was to the monkey temple, where we were anointed with a bhindi, and meet “the monkey man” who assured us that we were safe as long as he was with us. At least a hundred monkeys occupy the hill where the temple looks out over the sprawling and dusty capital. Olivia and Nat decided to feed our new friends some bread, but I refrained. Rabies was not worth a monkey grabbing a piece of bread from my hand.

That night, after a confusing trip to a dark ally with our rikshaw driver where he insisted that we needed to “visit his friend’s shop”, then finally being taken to the restaurant Niro’s for dinner, we got on our night bus back to Udaipur. We were all relieved when all 17 of us made it to the bus station on time and were on our way home. Nat accidentally picked up a bottle of pee that someone before him kindly left in his cubby, it was too dark for him to tell what was in the bottle before it was too late.

At work, Steph, Nat and I have been busy planning and preparing for next week, when 4 women from the SHG are taking their products to a trade fair in Jaipur, and we are producing 300 protoype reusable pads for testing and distribution to different NGOs, interns, families, and friends. By the time we will be done with this project, we will have designed, purchased materials, trained 5 women, priced, and marketed an entire product. I am loving the process and cannot believe the experience and freedom I am having at age 21 in a business setting. At a design firm, you would have to wait to be a senior manager before you could pioneer your own product, design, and over see the marketing. My favorite part was wandering through the fabric stores with Steph and two of the local women, Mumptaji and Pinkiji, looking for 100% cotton fabric for our pads.

Unfortunately our team has not been 100% well, as steph has been to the hospital 3 times this trip, trying to figure out her migraine/lightheadedness/weakness. We have grown so close over the last month that its so frustrating for me to see her worried and exhausted. I am so happy that I have bounced back from my sickness, but I hope she will improve in the upcoming weeks. Feeling sick away from home is physically and emotionally draining.

Otherwise the week has been filled with learning more about menstruation and different attitudes toward it through sites like this,

http://fuckyeahmenstruation.tumblr.com/page/6

http://iheartguts.com/calling-all-gynecologists

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jatan-Sansthan/128644517187874

Also, I’ve been trolling the websites of various consulting firms, fullbright programs, gates scholarships, production studios, and policy think tanks. It’s sinking in that I am going to be a senior and that although I am interested in all types of career opportunities; I have little to no idea what I really WANT to do with myself. If anyone has any suggestions… I’m all ears.