December, WHAT?!?!

Yes. It's true. It's December. It has been for a few days, in fact. I'm as shocked as you are.
Anyway, this past week has been good. I'll try to run through the highlights.
(Oh, I recovered fully from whatever weird sickness I had that caused me to pass out. In fact, I was completely better by the next day. But starting yesterday I seem to be a little under the weather again. I'm gonna skip Sealdah so I can sleep in tomorrow and hopefully prevent real sickness.)
So, the highlights:
When Lauren and I went into town, I had a really yummy, American-tasting veggie sandwich. It had lettuce on it, which is a no-no for foreigners in India, but I was fine.
School and football have been going as usual. Attendance at school is better than it was when I first got here; most kids come most days. And the kids are so much more respectful and just better students in general than they were when I got here. It just takes time to earn their respect.
On Thurday when Prativa, Manisha and Sayani came for computer class, we totally blew it off and had "American culture class" instead. We played some American and Hindi music and danced. And looked through Lauren's hindi-english picture dictionary, especially at the vegetables. We had the girls try peanut butter (they liked it). And I showed them a bikini that I had brought with me (I didn't put it on) Even though I had described it to them before, they were really shocked. It was a really fun two hours.
On Friday, I wore a sari to school. I didn't get as big of a reaction as I had expected, but it was definitely a hit. Though I can wrap them myself, Bobby wrapped it for me because obviously she can do a much better job.
On Friday night, Lauren and I went to a puja for Piya's brother's wedding. Lauren and I were kind of a spectacle; they made us dance in front of everyone. It was really kool though. The rituals invovled lots of smearing of paint and tumeric. The groom was very serious while around him it seemed like people were partying. People were chasing eachother to smear haldi (tumeric paste) on each others' faces. Lauren and I both got hit. It makes Indians glow, but we just looked yellow. We looked rediculous. We had to use peroxide to get it off. So anyway, it was really awesome to be included in the culture that way.
I talked to a girl, Rhea, who is 18 and had been married for two years. I asked her how it was to get married so young to a person she didn't know. She said she was terrified. Her husband is 10 years older than her, which is common. (Piya's brother is 31, but his bride is 18) It was interesting though because she described her marriage as her not having enough time for her husband because she's in school. Rather than her not having enough time for school because of her husband. She said it works out though, because he isn't demanding of her. I was appalled though, when he asked her to ask us to give him a picture of us because we are "very beautiful". Being white wins us that title.
We're gonna go to the wedding reception on Tuesday, but we won't get to go to the wedding itsself, which is on Sunday. I'm still really excited though.

~m