Mother Theresa's mission house and the zoo

Today has been really good so far, and I don't forsee anything terrible happening between now and when I go to bed. Walking home, watching a movie, having dinner, taking a shower, reading, writing in my journal, turning out the light... none of it is too risky. So, I think its safe to say that today will end as a good day. (And the "so far" part won't be necissary)
So I got up at 7:15 (that was the worst part of the whole day, though setting my alarm for 5:30 for tomorrow will be worse) and got ready to go into Kolkata. Breakfast was Wheaties (yum!) and banana (with milk). Trina and I caught a relatively un-crowded train. The pushing was minimal, and I actually had a little space to move. The metro was also fine.
When we got into Kolkata, we began walking toward Mother Theresa's mission house. I thought it was within walking distance, but Trina said it wasn't, so after several blocks we decided to hail a cab. The quizzical look on the driver's face was explained when he only drove about two blocks away from where he picked us up. Humorously embarassing, but whatever.
The motherhouse was pretty neat. Mass was going on when we got there, so we were being serenaded as we walked through the exhibit that narrated her life story and work. It was really interesting; I honestly didn't know very much about her. We got to see the room she lived in for most of the years she was in Calcutta (its also where she died). Lastly, we visited her tomb, which was decorated with flowers. Being there made me feel the closest to Catholic that I've felt since the first or second grade. Mother Theresa was an amazing person; she's extremely inspirational.
Before I came to India, when I would tell people what I was going to do, they would often say something linking me to Mother Theresa. I would usually give some kind of nervous laugh or smile while thinking, "Don't put that kind of expectation on me. I won't make a fraction of the difference she made." I have to say I agree with myself. I guess its an honor to be compared to her, but an undeserved one. She gave her entire life, I'm giving a few months. And she was a devout Catholic, which was extremely important to her. I really don't know why I'm rambling on this. What I mean to say is she was an amazing person and I look up to her, but I do not strive to be her. I am awed by her work though.
The humbling, awing experinece of the Motherhouse was sharply contrasted with the emotions evoked at the zoo. If I were to walk through the zoo and not look at the animals and cages, I would say that it is a nice park, though not very well maintained. The buildings, like most in Kolkata, once had great splendor, but are now crumbling. The cages were depresssingly small. A large majority of the animals were birds, but they also had giraffes, tigers, lions, elephants, deer, rhinos, hippos, monkeys, a bear (possibly the saddest sight), crocodiles, snakes, etc. The water for all of the water-borne animals was green with algae. The chimp was sad to watch: someone would throw a package of food to it, it would eat it and then extend its hand in a way that was all too remeniscent of the beggars on the other side of the wall.
After the zoo, we went to grocery store, where I bought peanut butter (you'd be amazed at how much PB I consume here), cheese, and some kind of indian-italian herb seasoning.
Then we had lunch at a pretty nice restaraunt with an all-you-can-eat vegetarian buffet. It was pretty good, though I must say the place where we ate last week was better.
We ran into the Oxford Book Shop and I bought a "teach yourself Bengali" book. To our disappointment, they didn't have Time Magazines or Newsweeks, but it was ok because we found a Time at a news stand outside of the metro station.
The metro was really uncrowded, and the train was quite bearable. When we got back, I read for a little while before coming here.
I am quite tired, but, as I said before, it was a good day.

~m