| | I was in New York for 12 hours and the second place I looked at was the perfect place in the Bronx. You guys, I WIN at Epic Apartment Finding. There is a cat. His name is Oscar Wilde. There is a diner near by. With people I could easily become a regular at, and already feel at home there. There's even a Dunkin Doughnuts. And I am made of win | comments: Leave a comment   |
| So. A week ago I did a grand tour of the East Coast, visiting potential law schools. Things that I was told at each. Paraphrased:
BU: We don't have any public interest students to compete with you for the resources you get to develop yourself!
Columbia: We are amazing and will pay you to go here. By the way, are you looking at WCL?
CUNY: You don't belong here and you won't get into anywhere else. Also, we support our students' quest for employment by encouraging them to attend NYU's career fair. We don't even count them absent that day.
Georgetown: General Patreus is here today, but we'd love to have you! By the way, are you looking at WCL?
WCL: Have you applied for the full ride scholarship that you fit the profile for perfectly?
Also, to apply for the schools one has to be really careful about the answers one gives. If you miss a clause in a question which usually asks if you have ever been discharged from the military in circumstances other than honorable (or fired from a job), you don't get to sit for the Bar when you do three years to get your JD. Also, it seems there are many transcripts I needed to hunt down. I seem to utterly fail at remembering everything I've accomplished. Maybe it's a good thing Boss waited two months to send the letter of recommendation I wrote for her. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Things from India I do not miss:
Beggars
having to hang my clothes for two days in the fog and smoke from trash fires to get it dry
staring
being called madam
having to run for my life to cross a road
Things that freak me out about the US:
Duncan donuts
cops. By themselves. Without enormous guns.
people pulling over for sirens
cars stopping when they see I want to cross
people helping me without my asking first
grocery stores. With many things you can touch
the ability to walk in and out of a store without being accosted by the owner within 2 seconds and pressured to buy
Sounds of New Delhi that I got used to:
call of the subzi Walla as he sells his wares in the neighborhood
being called "didi" by children beggars
being called madam
kissing noises as men walked by
horns
constant flow of traffic
calls to come and see one's wares
perpetual, incessant, talking
Things I miss:
the everyday wonder moment of realizing where I was and what I was doing
The colors and variety of clothing
the bicycle ricks
bartering
the perpetual chaos that shaped me into a calm eye of a storm
people who reply to texts
my people. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| The family just had a goodbye dinner for me. It was really very sweet. Auntie made some delicious daal, paneer and halva. then they brought a small bonfire in a terra cotta pot on the dining room table and we sat around it and warmed our hands. Then auntie gave me a kurta she made for me. It was incredibly sweet. I'm going to miss these guys so much.
I'm going to look up my study abroad options at Law school now... also, Washington college of law is made of amazingly helpful and communicative people. I have three meetings with professors on my one day in DC. I haven't even heard back from CUNY or Columbia yet... Methinks this is a great litnus test as I can't even apply yet. Saving on application fees! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| To ship my books back home they have to be packaged perfectly. There is only one place to get this. No, it is not the post office. They cannot properly package things to be sent through them.
We went to the stationary shop as suggested by the post office itself. Nope.
We went to a gift shop as suggested by the stationary shop. Nope.
I finally found the place to take them. Ladies and gentlemen, I had to leave my packages with a tailor. To get them stitched into a bag. To possibly be opened by customs. To be shipped from India. What. The. Shit. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Save one pesky transcript from SUNY for my time at Oxford, I am ready to apply for law school.
Poking about the professors Washington College of Law at American University for a meeting when I'm there has produced a very sweet and helpful contact. Too bad she's on maternity... I need to finalize those meetings soon.
My google calendar freaked me out today. I didn't have to change to month view to see myself in the US.
Last week I bought a quality chess set with hand carved pieces in Moghul style. I wanted something my grand children will fight over when I'm dying. I've been spontaneously playing with people when I see them for the last time. I've played chess 3 times before in my life. I am learning so much. If I am seeing you when I get back we are playing chess. It's ok, I suck too.
I'm trying to find a place to ride a camel before I leave.
I'm practice packing. Yeah. I know. Neurotic. Shoot me. I don't want Taiwan to happen again. You know, where I leave the most important things behind?
4 days. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | The fog in New Delhi is a creature all it's own. No sunlight gets through, it's not snow, it's not rain, it envelops you the moment you step outside. Going anywhere in the morning or evening is an experience in watching dark figures emerging through the mists with a back-light from headlights. It also means that driving at night takes three times as long and the trains crash. 100 people died the night I went to Agra from trains crashing in the fog. It's odd how poetic and beautiful I find it and yet how damaging it can be. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I work for a feminist organization. We have three men who work here. Two of them are house-keeping and general office maintenance. One of the greatest battles from Boss Boss is with the general office maintenance guy. She has told all of us a million times that he isn't a secretary and shouldn't be answering the door or phone. But whenever we try to answer the phone, he runs and gets to it first. It's also made difficult because his desk is right smack dab in front of the door and everyone else is off to the side behind cubicle wall set-ups. The physical set-up and organizational hierarchy screams that he is, in fact, the secretary. He seems convinced that it's his job. She is always angry about it every time it crosses her mind to do anything about it and talks to us like it's our fault. The whole thing seems backwards to me, but it's kind of nice to see an Indian having cultural troubles with getting the Indian staff to understand basic precepts of feminism. Or something.
Also, it seems that the report I was working on, hired to work on, and have been the only one working on for the last 8 months has been hijacked by our person in the NY office. Which is confusing as a) I was told it was done a month ago, b) I'm the only one with the publishing software to edit it and c) I'm the only one with an editable copy. But, hey, to each their own, right? It's not like I could have put my name on it anywhere. There are levels of stupid. I am trying not to participate. I sent her a nice e-mail asking what was going on, telling her where to get the software and offering to e-mail the editable file to her. I've been trying to get the financial report to insert in the document for 4 months. 6 more days of this dysfunction and I cannot wait. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I had a truly epic Christmas trip. It was amazing and wonderful. I got a tan. I got experience with prostitutes, cops, several different brands of touts and tourists, and the ever present male stupidity gene. I will have to write an epic post of ridonculous regarding the way I spent Christmas day, but for now we'll break my vacation into bits:
McLeod Ganj: those mountains are gorgeous
Delhi: <3 Old Delhi. Only in India will a protest march have the women in front, men in back, and men tasked with ensuring the men don't sneak up with the women.
Train to Goa: 24 hours is the official time I can get stared at solid by a guy here. He didn't talk to me. I tried to break the ice. No, he preferred to stare. Did I mention it was 24 hours solid?
Goa: Sitting at a table on the beach, lit by moonlight, candlelight and star light, following a truly amazing sunset, blown about by a warm breeze off the coast of India, some beggars circled my table wearing tattered Santa hats and creeeeeeepy Santa masks singing "Jingle fells, jungle fells.... oh what fun it if to rile in a one hoe ofen sle".
Mumbai: Some guy in a t-shirt walked up to me and said he was "from Bollywood" (you know, the country?) and asked if I'd like to be an Extra in a movie. Just to seal the deal, as I continued walking without saying anything, he said "no, really, I have ID!" Because all of Bollywood issues ID. Has that ever worked?
I had an AMAZING two weeks. I saw another GORGEOUS sunset on the plane. I always like the sunsets on the plane. They last even longer and you get to see them from a new angle. I hope when I'm old and my mind is going, it goes back to the millions of sunsets I take the time to watch. I try not to ever waste even one. Some things are more important than the silliness that is my life.
Also, got a 164 on the LSATs. That means I'm in the 90th percentile. That means I did better than 90% of the other people around the world who took it. Boo. Yah. (Georgetown wants a 167...:P) | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| So, I spent four days in the Himalayas. It was absolutely wonderful! I met a sweet woman on the bus who took me home for lunch and dinner with her son and his American wife on my last day. They also hooked me up with some trekking guides who took me to Triund, which has a gorgeous view of Moon Peak. We did not get rained on once, I made a bunch of new friends, communed with a very sweet old nun, bought a Tibetan dress which I was put into by two very sweet Tibetan women, spent a lot of money (good thing) and saw the stars :) I saw blue skies and gorgeous peaks and a wonky bird with copper tail, purple body, green head and chicken feet. It's called a Monal. I didn't get a picture of it, because we didn't see it very well. But it's such a pretty chicken ;) I even got a skeezy Tibetan guy hitting on me within an hour of my arrival, but that was it, really.
I met up with one of my new friends yesterday and went on a trundle around Old Delhi. We stumbled across a protest from the Indian Youth Alliance (I think?) that was very interesting. Most of the people were middle age or older, and the women marched in front with the men behind, and there were men tasked with ensuring the men didn't get into the womens' section. Odd. Very India. Also, some guy ran up and tried to hug my friend and ran away while his friends were laughing. I chased him down and thwacked him and his friend for laughing. The shock on their faces was priceless. They clearly didn't expect to get reprimanded for that and ran away with the rest of their friends who'd stopped laughing by that point. Oh Delhi... how I won't miss some things. But the mosques in Old Delhi make me happy.
I'm about to head out to Goa for the week. I'll be back Monday night. 36 hours on this train. Oh boy. I have a book. I might need another. | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| On Saturday, rather than going to Agra with A, I went to the Lotus temple again. I was able to actually get in this time. The place is a gorgeous construction of echoing marble. The jingly anklets women wear echoed off the walls like fairy-bells. Every whisper of walking fabric danced over the stones. I wanted to ohm in there so bad... I was sitting outside, writing in my journal and felt a Presence. Turning slowly, I saw about 5 kids staring at my writing and giggling. We sat and practiced my hindi, and they were the cutest children I have seen since Taiwan. One of them had the ohm I see tattooed on the hands of devout sikh men here. He wasn't more than eight. I need to find out what that's all about. They all ooohed and aaaahed when I showed them my ohm and ran off saying "goodbye didi!" Didi means older sister. I didn't stop smiling all day.
A was supposed to take me to the wedding on Friday. As per usual, this did not happen. Neither did he turn on his phone at all on Saturday. He apologized of course, and upon receiving full explanation I can't blame him for anything save taking on way more than he can handle. This doesn't mean I have any faith that he'll stop. It just means I'm not taking it personally. Besides, it makes for interesting stories. He was in charge of putting everything together for the wedding and apparently messed a lot of it up. I am the least angry at him of anyone, and really, I'm beyond caring.
R was supposed to pick me up for the wedding as well but didn't go after all. He blocked my number for a while, apparently not understanding that I could want to be friends with him without sleeping with him. Apparently it got sorted out somewhere along the line, but I don't even know.
I went to a Christmas celebration with a friend from North India. She gave me a gorgeous necklace in the style of all their jewelry to remember her by. She is such a sweetheart and the food (largely consisting of a lot of pork) was delicious. Being the only white person there I was again a sort of guest of honor. But I had a great time and met some lovely folks whose company I enjoyed. There was cake. There was not enough cake. We had to pull a Jesus feeds the masses with two small cakes and a lot of people. Church is something I'll have to do when I get back to the US. Also, eat cake. There was the clingy puppyish guy from months ago at the party as well. But he ignored me and further drama was avoided. Really... what to do?
Z just told me he's getting engaged on Thursday. I'm genuinely happy for him. And actually a bit happy that it's not me he's getting engaged to. I have many more mountains to climb. My partner is leagues ahead of him.
In an hour I leave for the Himalayas. I'm not taking any of this with me, except in story form. By the way, my life is copywrited. Nobody is allowed to steal my experiences for the inevitably amazing screenplay it would make. I cannot make this shit up.
Really... isn't it a beautiful world after all? | | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
| | I took the LSATs today. I think I did well but I really have no idea. We shall see. In other news, I want to sleep. Sleep is delicious. I miss it. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Divali! And it's only, like... 2 months late... go here! ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) roving_carrot
There's even an extra special treat in that post. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Names have been changed to protect the... innocent?
Dear boss and HR director,
First of all, I would like to express my gratitude for the wonderful opportunity I have been given to work with Awesome Org. I truly value the skills I have been able to acquire here and am confident that they will aid me in my future work. However, as I have decided to pursue a law degree, I feel it would be more professionally and academically advantageous for me to seek experience with an organization with more legal orientation. I will be taking my paid leave as planned, and completing my work with Awesome Org on January 8th. I look forward to any future collaborations I may have with Awesome Org, either in New York, or New Delhi. Once again, thank you very much for the wonderful opportunity and valuable experience.
And I assure you this has nothing to do with the incredible lack of support I've have found, professional lacunae or complete lack of assistance with any problem I have brought forward. Let the tongue biting commence...
Oh, and if anyone knows or has ties to any human/civil rights law organizations in the US, anywhere in the US, hook me up! | | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
| | So, here's a moment of surreality for you. Over the last few months, spoons have become increasingly rare. I thought that they were getting hijacked on the trays going up and down from the ground floor to here for Uncle's meals. The other day he asked if I had any spoons in my room, and then explained that they were not going downstairs. Hmmmmmm..... So the maid that's been working here for over a year seems to be to blame for spontaneous spoon thievery. All my stuff is locked up when I leave in the mornings, so no worries there, but the knives and forks seem to be safe. It's just the spoons. I would have thought there was a heroine addiction of some sort going on, but the latest spoon to go missing was an enormous serving spoon. Now that is a mighty heroine addiction if I do say so myself... Uncle plans to deal with it. In the mean time.... Spoons?? Seriously??? What?? | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| The cough is back. We think it's asthma. I will OWN this thing.
In other news, though the morning conspired against me with no water and no electricity, I still managed to get to work on time, fed and clean. I have mad ninja-skills.
The power doesn't usually go out, by the way. I does it just enough to make things a little interesting and exciting.
Also, I think I'll name the cockroaches Wayde. Who says life can't be entertaining? | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| ok, so those of you who have been following my LJ and various conversations with me will be well familiar with the cry of "where do you find these assholes?" I have encountered such an incredible variety - a bouquet, if you will - of jerkfaces the world over that I came to the only logical conclusion: Asshat Bingo!
Who wants to play??
The rules are simple, we'll list all the kinds of ridiculous jerks we can and then whoever manages to check the most off wins!
I'll start the list:
womanizer
old woman prying into your personal life
jerk who can come off as a nice guy
clingy passive aggressive
plain old passive aggressive
aggressive
any more suggestions? | | comments: Leave a comment |
| so, on the way to Amritsar on Monday, I was next to the only person in Awesome Org who doesn't speak English >.< However, she was a complete sweetheart about it, and decided to spend the evening teaching me Hindi! :) I can say, like... five colors now and that I like something. It's way exciting, and there was even a little boy across the aisle for me to practice with. (I really need to use that Hindi book, as it is sad it took me this long to be able to say that I like trains). Speaking of trains, I really do like them. I've never been on a sleeper train before, and it was a bit like camping... right down to being cold and a little smoky from fires outside. In the morning I also had the endless amusement of seeing chivalry/primal urges of marking ones' territory in action. As the doors on the train rarely shut unless someone has shut them to keep out the wind, the gentlemen were doing their morning business out the train doors with a full view of a sunrise over Indian fields, thereby not taking up the bathroom so I could use it. It was... strange and yet made so much sense and I think is one of those things about India. It strikes me as funny, but in the context, why not? I imagine it's a fine way to wake up in the morning...
As I was unable to get any woolens in Amritsar due to sudden onset of winter and a sinus infection, I went out yesterday with the fabulous Delhi-ite to Old Delhi for the experience, then toured many many emporia at CP. Yes, dad. I went to an Emporium. It was wonderful. And I got a ton of shawls for myself and others. And it's a good thing, too. Because cold is eeeeevil. Also, when we were in Old Delhi, I hadn't been planning we'd go there and so was wearing my American clothes (read: form fitting and not likely to cause a curious reaction). I forgot how many stares I get here, especially with stares in Old Delhi being more intense. But I'm less culture shocked now, and actually found it a bit complimentary.
Now to go recover from this death that threatens my lungs... | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
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