I heart Dilli haat

            It was nice having a cooler weather day today but this storm’s kind of ridiculous.  All the campus grounds were flooded this evening and I keep hearing doors slam open and closed with the extreme winds.  I won’t be surprised to find more fallen trees tomorrow. 

This afternoon ended up being a lot of fun- a hoard of seven men came to fix my air conditioner today so I no longer the serenity waterfall sound of it leaking as I sleep. L  There are so many people in India that labor is extremely cheap.  As a result, there’s an absurdly large gang of people assigned to any given task.  I had to suppress a laugh as I saw all seven of them bumbling over a job that could easily be completed by one.

            After tea, Rehka and the Warden and I went to Dilli haat (I learned haat means market), which was a blast.  It is an open-air market that highlights regional crafts and food from all over India.  I ended up with a scarf, 2 kurtas (shirts), tights (unfortunately the kurtas and tights are warmer than they look to wear but at least I’ll have something culturally acceptable to wear when I accompany Dr. Jolly to the two events next weekend.  I definitely didn’t pack any clothes appropriate for high-profile events and even though these are pretty causal, its better than anything I had), several souvenir keychains, dinner and almond Indian ice cream on a stick all for 1650 rupees (roughly $35 USD).  I love how cheap everything is here- I just wish exchanging money wasn’t a huge ordeal- I’m going to try hard to avoid having to do it again.  Getting receipts here is also almost impossible (that's another thing I took for granted in the US), which is going to make it difficult to get reimbursed through my grant. 

Outside the Metro near Dilli haat

Dilli haat Entrance

So colorful!

Lots of people meandering around

I also learned another visitor from South India will be arriving on Monday to stay at the hostel as she does research at the University of Delhi- hopefully she’ll be a partner in crime for sightseeing.  I was amazed that even though Dilli haat is supposed to be a top tourist attraction, I only saw one white person who was married to an Indian girl and only one person tried to speak English to me.  Asian club prepared me for being outnumbered by foreign friends but I didn’t think it would be this dramatic!