Fighting the good fight...
I am currently battling with yet another computer that refuses upload fotos, but I will win the war. I swear. Even if I have to search all of Jaipur, evading taxi wallahs and cow patties, subsisting only on pakora and chai, until I achieve victory.
Duking it out with the computer aint no thang but a chicken wing compared to coming face to face with low level beauracrats like those we've been trying to alternately charm, evade and bully in order to get that last leeeeeetle piece of paper Josh needs for the Fulbright to be all official and whatnot. They have done their best to squash and stymie us but we are strong in spirit (and desperate to spend the government's money instead of ours:-) and refuse to tap out.
Turns out that the Fulbright folks have been sending a certain form to Rajasthan University for the last NINE MONTHS, but it's only been "discovered" at the university since we arrived and started doing our gadfly routine. Depending on our mood, it's either hysterical or maddening (truthfully, most the of the time it's both) that someone will kindly offer us chai amd potato chips while telling us there is nothing they can do for us when someone else has already assured us that "there is no problem." Come Tuesday though, we will know if we have triumphed or if the dueling will continue...keep your fingers crossed for us...If this continues, I may have to fly my mother to Jaipur to lay the smack down.
But for two weeks, we're not that bruised or battered. In fact, we're healthy (Josh even went to the dentist) and in a constant state of discovery which is mostly pretty wonderous although definately mind-bending and heart-twisting at times--
...the woman who cooks for us, Ratna, loves to dance with some serious sass while she expertly chops gobi and piaz (cauliflower and onion) to make some of the most flavorful food we've ever had
...a lovely rooftop restaurant where Josh and I were the only customers and had a romantic dinner after the electricity went out and we dined by candlelight
...at the train station we were trying desperately to decipher the schedules in order to book a ticket to Kolkatta when a crowd of men got us the right form (they are CRAZY about forms in this country), filled it out for us and ushered us to the front of the (very slow moving) line
...children begging in front of the mansions and decadantly constructed temples that line some of the main streets of Jaipur
...that unavoidable whiff of urine that rises to your nose every time you pass a wall
...successfully buying vegetables and milk and yogurt in (mostly) Hindi!
...cows eating their way through piles of trash while cars swerve madly to avoid hitting them--a rickshaw driver told Josh "if I hit a person, okay...if I hit a cow??!!!"
...two little boys offering to let me fly their kite
More to come of course...
Amor y Paz
J&J
Duking it out with the computer aint no thang but a chicken wing compared to coming face to face with low level beauracrats like those we've been trying to alternately charm, evade and bully in order to get that last leeeeeetle piece of paper Josh needs for the Fulbright to be all official and whatnot. They have done their best to squash and stymie us but we are strong in spirit (and desperate to spend the government's money instead of ours:-) and refuse to tap out.
Turns out that the Fulbright folks have been sending a certain form to Rajasthan University for the last NINE MONTHS, but it's only been "discovered" at the university since we arrived and started doing our gadfly routine. Depending on our mood, it's either hysterical or maddening (truthfully, most the of the time it's both) that someone will kindly offer us chai amd potato chips while telling us there is nothing they can do for us when someone else has already assured us that "there is no problem." Come Tuesday though, we will know if we have triumphed or if the dueling will continue...keep your fingers crossed for us...If this continues, I may have to fly my mother to Jaipur to lay the smack down.
But for two weeks, we're not that bruised or battered. In fact, we're healthy (Josh even went to the dentist) and in a constant state of discovery which is mostly pretty wonderous although definately mind-bending and heart-twisting at times--
...the woman who cooks for us, Ratna, loves to dance with some serious sass while she expertly chops gobi and piaz (cauliflower and onion) to make some of the most flavorful food we've ever had
...a lovely rooftop restaurant where Josh and I were the only customers and had a romantic dinner after the electricity went out and we dined by candlelight
...at the train station we were trying desperately to decipher the schedules in order to book a ticket to Kolkatta when a crowd of men got us the right form (they are CRAZY about forms in this country), filled it out for us and ushered us to the front of the (very slow moving) line
...children begging in front of the mansions and decadantly constructed temples that line some of the main streets of Jaipur
...that unavoidable whiff of urine that rises to your nose every time you pass a wall
...successfully buying vegetables and milk and yogurt in (mostly) Hindi!
...cows eating their way through piles of trash while cars swerve madly to avoid hitting them--a rickshaw driver told Josh "if I hit a person, okay...if I hit a cow??!!!"
...two little boys offering to let me fly their kite
More to come of course...
Amor y Paz
J&J
posted by Jessica Pierce at 5:39 AM
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