This is bascially the email I wrote to my family but it's functional so I'll use it here with additions and other spicy details... Life in Amsterdam sounds hilarious according to Dee's update... Pass the love, ya? Next chance I get I'll eat a watermelon WHOLE to have enough seeds for all of you guys, especially Amy's period four remedial honors english class 04-05 :-p This, oddly enough, is the month of birthdays here at WIS... Today is Mhabeni's, tomorrow is Nayan's, Saturday is Ella's, and there are tons of others too... Mine is coming up I guess... It'll be kinda weird I also guess... But fun anyways. I miss you Amsterdamians even though I'm experiencing a lot of cool things here and changing a lot. It's kinda scary. But fun anyways. It's so bizarre not being a part of that life anymore, not in the same classes, don't get first glimpse of your haircuts and new outfits and nose piercings ;-) I hate when I think of all this stuff to say and then I forget like 3 seconds later, which just happened... Bleeaskdhgskdhg. But whatever. Here's an update. Life's thrills come in crazy things we do, like stargazing on the roof and playing dressup at school sometimes, and bringing purple duct tape to chemistry class... Taking videos and photos and making hilarious horror movies, and finding random places to sit and be poetic. Paul throws powwows sometimes, with tea and guitars and candy and stuff... We throw dance parties outside Duplex while Amit and Ed try to persuade me to sing CCR - Creedence Clearwater Revival - for their talent show (they play, I sing... I told them I'd think about it). (Hah.) On Sunday nights sometimes there are bonfires and on Saturdays we go to Buzz and try on crazy colored hats and look for nose studs and sweaters, and try to convince Amit and Jigme to buy hott suede jackets, and buy sweaters and crazy-colored pens and stupid joke books, and stop for coffee or chai... So anyways, the recent specifics... I'm reallly sorry I haven't been in touch for awhile... Friday I couldn't get on the computer, and since then has pretty much been Activity Week, and yesterday was hectic... So I'll update from there. Anyways: on Saturday I went to Buzz with Nicole, Alisa, Amit, and Jigme and we bought sweaters and looked for nose studs without much luck; the sweaters are realy nice, it's getting to be the season... And then Amit and I had to play for band because some UA-head-honcho guy was supposedly going to show up in Library Buzz - he never did, but we played anyway and it was freezing cold. Boom and Amit almost missed the bus back because they were buying coffee for MungBoi and I. Nice of them though. I love all those guys, they're so fun. And afterward some local guy was asking me all these questions and stuff, about the band and school and everything and Boom and Amit were stifling laughter: "That guy likes you, he was totally flirting." Whatever. Sunday morning early we left for Activity Week: Agra/Rajasthan. We reached Agra in the evening - dirty but lovable city. Our hotel room had A/C, a TV with StarMovies and HBO, and MIRRORS ON THE CEILING!!! We called it the "Honeymoon Suite" and spent an hour lying on the bed making funny poses on the ceiling. On Monday we got up before dawn to catch sunrise at the Taj Mahal. I have to admit I wasn't psyched... But it was gorgeous. All the pictures looked like fake cloth backdrops like you'd get in a photo studio in DisneyWorld or something. Fantastic photos. The architecture is amazing too... On the archways the Morning Prayer from the Koran is written in Arabic in proportion to distance from the ground so the lettering looks the same size all the way up. Isn't that amazing?!!?!? Back to the hotel for breakfast and then we headed off to Agra Fort - my favorite excursion of the whole week. It has such an aura - and a crocodile moat. They used to starve prisoners and then feed their carcasses to the crocs to keep them satisfied... And there were wine gardens and AMAZING cooling technology... The king and his wife used to play board games with concubines instead of game pieces, and had fishing contests which teh queen always won because the king was staring at her the whole time. The Fort reminds me of Aladdin, with the Taj on the horizon and the balcony... Masroor looks like an Aladdin with glasses so Nicole and I and Cheeky were making cracks the whole time about magic carpets and stuff. And Mr Demetro is the genie. Then we went to Akbar's Tomb - there were some really cool sound effects, like you can stand in oppostie corners of the chambers and talk to each other through the pillars, and if you clap in the center of the room the sound vibrates all the way to the ceiling. By that time we were really irritable and hot, so we ran through the sprinklers on the lawn. We drove to Bharatpur that night and stayed the rest of teh week in the Falcon Guest House. The next day we slept in and spent the afternoon at the Keoladao Wildlife Refuge, a bird sanctuary. Incredibly beautiful and relaxing. Our rikshawallah was really cool too and they were all racing and stuff. We drove 4 hours to Alwar, hoping to see the palace, but didn't get to and ended up just getting stared at by locals and eating at this bizarre vegetarian restaurant with realllly spicy food. And then we chilled by a lake for 20 minutes and went back to the hotel. Unsatisfactory, I'm sorry to say... We saw Bharatpur Fort too, a gorgeous and poetic palace with pillars and a Jain sculpture museum and a Persian Bath, or Hamam. Amazing. We also went to Deeg Palace, which is also gorgeous and has amazing technology for COLORED FOUNTAIN SHOWS!! And a cage for a pet lion, among many other fantastic attractions. On Friday we were going to see a Hindu temple but the bazaar was closed for some holiday so we just stayed at the guest house. About half our group got drunk but Nicole and I stayed in our room rocking out, taking crazy pictures and videos, drawing all over ourselves, having bra-snapping Olympics, and throwing TP at each other. Half the time it landed on Cheeky, who was sleeping on the floor. I doubt if she'll ever be roommates with us again. Unfortunately for her she has to sleep next to me until the end of the semester. Mwahahahahaha. On the way back we stopped at Prateek's mansion in Faridabad for a marvy breakfast, and we were in the bus for 17 hours on Saturday... Nicole and I plugged my iPod into her speakers and entertained the chaperones and the other kids around us with oldies and singalongs - Mr Wildman was sucked in. He went to the same school as John Lennon!!! 3 years later!!!! Sooo cool. He has soo many funny sotries from high school,... Like how his nickname was "Wild Thing" and once as a camp counselor the boys put on an "Almost-Full Monty" show :x Hahahahah Crazy guy. So today is Halloween. Happy Halloween. It's not celebrated here so Nicole, Nayan (Joey), Mhabeni, Mel, and I went 80's. Nevermind that my shirt is from a '94 Elton John-Billy Joel tour :x We cut off the necks of huge black T-shirts with random things written on them and safety-pinned or otherwise contained the sides, and wore colorful tank tops underneath, and then sweatpants or thermals, with leg warmers/scrunchy socks and high heels or Chuck Taylors... And put on bright makeup and our hair on top of our heads or swept dramatically over. It's been a fun day. :) Send me pictures OK? My chemistry teacher, Mrs Mann, is from Colorado and she told me I looked weird yesterday. Tom said I was an 80s goddess, Mr Hugg said I look good with lipstick, Mrs Howard made us sing "Flying Purple People Eater", and Mr Crider threatened to dump water on us from the bathroom window. Hahaha. (We went trick or treating last night to all the Americans' and Canadians' houses and to some of the rooms at Hostel Terrace and Duplex and it was the time of my life!!) Well I've got Nayan waiting patiently :x I'd better go. I'd love to hear from you soon!!! My love :-*