undecided

kingfisher airlines: my favorite way to fly. booked the tickets online, arrived at the airport, had our bags taken care of, waited, got on the plain, relaxed to kingfisher radio, ate some wonderful kingfisher airlines food, got a FREE PEN, tried to forget about my hangover. this was the easiest flight i could ever imagine, and left me feeling refreshed, despite the hangover.

now we're in calcutta and i have mixed feelings about it. it falls in about the middle of my perception of delhi and bombay; almost as hectic as delhi, but with fewer rickshaws, many cabs like bombay, but similar to the disorganised streets of delhi (i.e. horns constantly blaring, cars not sticking to lanes), contains  my 2 saviour coffee shops: cafe coffee day and baristas, both of which i've come to look forward to seeing if not for the coffee, than for the air conditioning.

maybe i'm not in the mood to delve into the dynamics of calcutta right now. later for sure. we're here for at least a week maybe 2 , since we went to the mother theresa house today, and set ourselves up with a volunteer program. next we're off to bangladesh for a week or so. today we went to the bangladesh consulte to get out visas, which is a story in itself. actually, one thing amused me to the extent that it just may have made my day. let me explain:

first of all, it must be said that we NEVER know what is going on in india. i've come to expect this for all matters, whether it be as simple as taking a taxi, or as complex as trying to understand someone who speaks limited english (the HW doesn't help).  so today, we were attempting to get our bangladesh visas. seems simple enough. got the consulate with plenty of time. not supposed to close until 11:30. by 11:15 we had filled out our forms, but all the windows were closed. strange. a man told us somthing about a black door, and pointed to a moving crowd of people, which we followed down the street. sure enough, we arrived at a black door. it was a very large black door. it was also very peculiar, as it did not open. there was however, within the big black door, a very small black door, that was opened and people were flooding into. in order to get through the small black door, within the big black door, most people had to duck. why not just open the big door? upon entering the door, as if in answer to my question, a tiny little indian man was ushering people inside. a tiny little door, a tiny little 4 foot man. makes sense doesn't it? too cute for words, but also too funny that i could not stiffle my laughter. fortunately no one noticed. once inside, we waited while people stared at us and  tried to communicate to us...something about what we were supposed to do, but all i understood was the HW. finally, not yet 11:30 we were told to come back tomorrow to drop off our forms. i said goodbye to the little man, as i walked through the little door, and thought to myself, if i could only begin to understand the innerworkings of this country, i  might just become the first blonde genious ever.