ei ei ei...
So much to write and so little time to write about it...

I was really sick on Wednesday, but I'm all better now. Got my antibiotics and I'm good.

I have two weeks left here in Khardah. Crazy.

I've been spending lots of time with my students, watching movies and playing kabadee and football outside of school. I've been going to Piya's house alot, which I really enjoy.

I have a new friend, a woman who works at a shop near the flat. When I'm on my way home in the evenings I always stop and chat with her (in Bengali). She gave me a gift, a green statue of a couple dancing. Indians have a thing for cheap statues of Westerners. It was really sweet of her.

Elections had been going on in India for awhile, but they ended on Wednesday. Different regions of the country vote on different days. It gets really violent in the areas where the elections are taking place. Kolkata voted on Wednesday, so all CRAWL programs where stopped. The results will be released tomorrow and all programs will stop then too. There was actually a problem in another part of Khardah on Wednesday. I don't know exactly what happened but it was violent and it made the news. It wasn't close to me though. One would have to take an auto to get to that part of Khardah from this part. Anyways, its pretty crazy. A few people I've talked to voted, but most did not. They all say that all of the people up for election are bad and corrupt. America sure doesn't have a perfect democracy or a perfect election system, but it is leagues ahead of India. Here voting goes hand in hand with riots.

Let me tell you about a delicious food to be found on the streets of Kolkata (and Khardah, and probably everywhere in India). Its called fuchka. Its deep fried balls of dough, slightly larger than ping pong balls. They're hollow and extremely thin and crispy, probably thinner than a potato chip. The fuchka-walla makes a mixture of potato, spices, onion, cilantro, and chilli, which he mashes in a bowl with his hand. Then he puts a little bit of this mixture in the bottom of one of the balls. He then dips the ball into one of two pots, one containing tamarind water which is spicy, sour and salty, and the other containing rose water which is syrupy and sweet. With the ball overflowing with this water, he places it in a bowl made out of a leaf, which the customer is holding. The customer puts the whole ball in his or her mouth at once. There is a huge burst of flavor; it is so delicious! I prefer the tamarid water to the rose water, but the most recent time I had this treat, the vendor double-dipped it, in the tamarind water and then in the rose water. That is the best. It is spicy, sweet, sour, salty, crunchy, soft, liquidy, everything all at once! And as soon as you've put one in your mouth, the vedor has put a new one in your bowl, so its really easy to eat a whole bunch of them without noticing, which isn't necissarily a good thing. They aren't very filling, but they surely aren't too healthy either. Anyway, if you ever go to India, you must try fuchka!
(ok, do I sound like a commercial, or what?)
That's all for now, folks.

~m