slick shoes

time passes here as time tends to do.. i find myself in a constant state of eagerness for the next location and discontent for the current.. on a large scale i cant wait for Tanzania... india has been an interesting experience, but is a constant drain of energy just to exist here... a week or so ago i went to spend some time in a very small village in Nagpur called Jamthi and it was one of the first times i felt connected to this point... a little rural community of about a hundred families all just trying to get by, everyone very eager to talk and bs and goof around... there is a very real phoenomenon here of 'public gaze' which basically means people blatantly stare and scowl at anyone different ie white peoples.. its pretty uncomfortable and i constantly have the unfounded feeling of about to fight everyone but the girls on the trip have it much worse, straight up constant rape-eyes... but my village stay was very genuine and chill... im staying now in gandhi's ashram in Sewagram which is a pretty interesting experience, just because of the history.. ive seen monkeys running around everywhere and ive learned about the evils of globalization but thankfully i am resisting buying into the doctrine.. i miss the comforts of a boring home life alot, and its hard not to think about the time before i can just be lazy again and sit around and drink 40's.. its near impossible to relate to most of the youngsters on this trip but im getting by by just grinning and bearing it and reminding myself i doing all this for basically free and im doing it for myself to be in these places... overall everything is good.. india is just filthy everywhere.. im going to the desert of india for vacation Rajisthan next week whick will be a nice break to clear my shit up... i hope everyone is killin it at home, dont ferget bout me ill be back one of these days...

Bhen K Lode

last full day in New Delhi... my new facebook india buddies Sambhav and Ankit have been showing me the metal sights round here which is rad.. good opportunity for drinking and weirdness.. everything is weirdness.. its hard to keep up with these blogs.. so much happens yet so little happens at the same time its tough to keep track... went out on the town several nights which has always been fun but damn expensive.. at a club called the double dekker some people knew me from skinless and interviewed me on stage before the show which was in teresting although i was drunk and talked alot of shit about the commonwealth games which i thought theyd appreciate buuuut no... ive seen an endless amount of 800 year old mosques and temples, kids missing limbs, autorickshaw mayhem, and endless endless oceans of refuse.. some kida have started to get sick already, looks like Denge fever.. i myself havent been eating much and drinking gallons of bottles water so im cool, ive only shit my pants once which is surprinsingly a good thing in comparison.. we are all supposed to be in homestays at the moment but mine was kind of a douche so i bailed and went back to the hostel.. i havent been taking very many pictures unfortunately, and there is a surprising lack of available monkey paws for sale... macked on a very cute girl about a week ago and have been trying to convince her since then to hook up with me before im gone forever, as oh yet been unsuccessful... alot of this isnt too dissimilar to just livin in a ghetto, same feel for the most part... im actually really looking forward to africa after this, i think itll be cake.. i hear delhi is the toughest part.... tomorrow i spend a week on a farm in  Maharastra, then a week somewhere else, then i take a vacation in Rajistan which will be nice and cheap.. internet will prolly be spotty from here on out, but the way things have been goin aint much to worry aboot.. dont really miss home much except for some of the people and the ability to be lazy, but im now officially one month into this trip with 7 to go...

chilled monkey brains...

so yea, this place is nuts... a conicopia of sights and smells, changing with every step walking through the city.. extreme polar opposites of poverty and affluence...child beggers are everywhere, child like 5yr old children that hang off your legs as you walk, its pretty heartbreaking... the amount of indian people who freely admit that alot of the slumdog millionaire stereotypes are true is weird, but i guess thats how they can relate... driving out of delhi to agra was very off-putting, as the outskirts of the city are some of the worst slums of the world... watching them go by from the comfort of a bus left me unsettled... some of the other cities ive seen so far are clean and organized.. camels and elephants roaming the streets... the taj mahal lives up to its hype, and is easy to get lost in despite thousands of tourists... the amount of caucasion tourists ive seen is alot slimmer that i expected, practically none that are not relate to the commonwealth games, so we are a rare oddity and get constant stares... driving is always knd of life threatning.. car horns are used like sonar... everything else is ok, i dont eat much, not cause im scared but just that indian food really isnt for me i guess.. im spending too much money already.... drinking in india isnt cheap cause the only places to drink are like western resturaunts.. no seedy pubs or anything... ok im out for now, i move to a family homestay tonight somwhere in south delhi, will prolly be pretty affluent...

operation: wipe your ass with your hand...

arrived in delhi... its hot and dirty butnot without its charm.. im tryin to rock the same set of clothes as long as im rockin my moustache,  at least till africa, and theyre both already lookin pretty worse for wear.. have a nice hostel spot for a few days before family stays, sunrised through the smog on rooftops and gaggles of little richards perched outside my window in the mornin... everything here is simultainiously vibrant and filthy, and i still havent caught malaria.. plane trip here was retty great... 15 hours went by like nothing, and for a few hours or so i watched the Aurora Borealis out of the window over greenland.... browsed a few temples today but felt wholly out of place .. maybe taj mahal tomorrow but it seems kind of like a touristy rip off... got a new band gig waiting for me when i get home, might as well take that free time now to start learnin songs... all is wel, im ok.. 2 months here might be pushin it but at least they seem to keep things movin...

"i hurrd that ghandi had a huge caaack"

ok three weeks into this nonsense... spent the first week on a west virginia mountain top basically camping and playing getting to know you games with 19 twenty-yr olds... this is all basically an orientation process to prep for the trip and to familiarize us with what we are gonna be learnin, which is kind of a fanatical progressive tree hugging.. party.. it is what it is and it isnt bad so much anymore.. everyone seems inspired and excited buuuuut its a little silly.. camping was pretty much the worst part so far, being wholly forced to socialize which isnt my strongest quality. once out of summer camp and back to DC things are better with the opportunity to get out whenever i want, go to bars, whatever...academically this trip wil be thankfully lax, but still plenty of opportunity for some genuinely deep discussions with some very inspired speakers and professors. just not too many papers to write, and no tests and whatnot, we are all here cause we genuinely want to learn about these places and the yunderstand that.. nothing too significant has happened yet as far as hilarious mishaps yet.. at least not to me... one guy in the group came out of the closet and one girl quit the program before even leaving to india, so my ratio simultainiously got better then equaled out.. i basically just cant wait to get the fuck out of the country so shit can finally get interesting, cause so far... not so much... anyway shit is good, everyones relatively bearable, some people are rad, i doubt this will be a big issue...  ill keep up once i have interesting things to say.. lates