I feel it necessary to post about the things I'm doing, but none of them are interesting enough to sustain themselves on a post, as evidenced by my last two posts about nothing. So I'm just going to spit them all out in case anybody is interested.
There was a fair here, and I attended that fair. It was 90% shops and a few rides, but I found the best and cheapest gifts there, which was nice. The highlight was the ferris wheel. I've recently learned that ferris wheels in India are meant to be a thrill ride. I was certainly thrilled. They go 10x faster than a ferris whell in the US, and have 10x less safety restrictions. We're not talking about a gondola, we're talking about two connected benches, with no seatbelt or harness. It was like taking the benches from a picnic table, removing the table party, giving it the freedom of motion of an ordinary ferris wheel gondola, and then sending it speeding around in a fiery circle of death. My friend Drew rode with me, and Drew is notoriously straight-faced, serious, and not afraid of rides. When I heard him start squealing, I was done being scared, because i was too busy laughing. Holding on was essential.
Its worth mentioning a visit I paid to Central Park, after a previous visit to the fair. Central Park, the only park in our neighborhood, is a cultural experience worth seeing, but only once. See, they say in India you can never find privacy, and that's absolutely true, so teenagers, who want to spend time with girlfriends/boyfriends like any other teenager in the world, just gave up. In the park you'll find every 10-15 feet a couple making out, in broad daylight. Hundreds of couples, its astonishing. For those of you from SJU, imagine Mary 1, with a couple in every room, but no doors or walls. That's what its like. The only other demograph you will see in the park is a few older men, who really like to watch. I saw a man literally hiding in the bushes, his face sticking out of the foliage. Later, he was behind a wall, and the only thing visible was his eyes and up. But nobody cares. For my more conservative readers: sorry for being graphic, but it just seemed necessary for a total understanding of the culture.... I know my "readers" consist exclusively of my parents, so in this case I'm referring to....both of you.
I went to the Park Street Cemetery today after school. The only thing that makes it worth mentioning more than any other ordinary trip to the cemetery is the quality of the tombstones and the history behind it. It was a burial ground for rich British colonialist when they died in Kolkata, so its quite a spectacle. The youngest grave I saw was from 1805. This was the first time in weeks that I had the opportunity to visually document my life.
The other day I was in a play. My host brother said "hey Adam, want to be in a play?" I said sure. It turns out that the production was for a cultural society, with an audience of about 75. I was Earnest in a 15 minute excerpt of "The Importance of Being Ernest". I had to memorize my lines, we practiced a bunch, it was....much more official than I had anticipated. Its still surprising, even now after its over. The event as a whole was like 3 hours of Bengali folk music and dance presentations, then...a play in English that nobody can understand. It went well.
I'm on a basketball team. That's right, competitive sports. Whoever said I can only play Johnball was....pretty correct.
Service learning is still great. I'll talk more about that....sometime.
Thank you.
There was a fair here, and I attended that fair. It was 90% shops and a few rides, but I found the best and cheapest gifts there, which was nice. The highlight was the ferris wheel. I've recently learned that ferris wheels in India are meant to be a thrill ride. I was certainly thrilled. They go 10x faster than a ferris whell in the US, and have 10x less safety restrictions. We're not talking about a gondola, we're talking about two connected benches, with no seatbelt or harness. It was like taking the benches from a picnic table, removing the table party, giving it the freedom of motion of an ordinary ferris wheel gondola, and then sending it speeding around in a fiery circle of death. My friend Drew rode with me, and Drew is notoriously straight-faced, serious, and not afraid of rides. When I heard him start squealing, I was done being scared, because i was too busy laughing. Holding on was essential.
Its worth mentioning a visit I paid to Central Park, after a previous visit to the fair. Central Park, the only park in our neighborhood, is a cultural experience worth seeing, but only once. See, they say in India you can never find privacy, and that's absolutely true, so teenagers, who want to spend time with girlfriends/boyfriends like any other teenager in the world, just gave up. In the park you'll find every 10-15 feet a couple making out, in broad daylight. Hundreds of couples, its astonishing. For those of you from SJU, imagine Mary 1, with a couple in every room, but no doors or walls. That's what its like. The only other demograph you will see in the park is a few older men, who really like to watch. I saw a man literally hiding in the bushes, his face sticking out of the foliage. Later, he was behind a wall, and the only thing visible was his eyes and up. But nobody cares. For my more conservative readers: sorry for being graphic, but it just seemed necessary for a total understanding of the culture.... I know my "readers" consist exclusively of my parents, so in this case I'm referring to....both of you.
I went to the Park Street Cemetery today after school. The only thing that makes it worth mentioning more than any other ordinary trip to the cemetery is the quality of the tombstones and the history behind it. It was a burial ground for rich British colonialist when they died in Kolkata, so its quite a spectacle. The youngest grave I saw was from 1805. This was the first time in weeks that I had the opportunity to visually document my life.
The other day I was in a play. My host brother said "hey Adam, want to be in a play?" I said sure. It turns out that the production was for a cultural society, with an audience of about 75. I was Earnest in a 15 minute excerpt of "The Importance of Being Ernest". I had to memorize my lines, we practiced a bunch, it was....much more official than I had anticipated. Its still surprising, even now after its over. The event as a whole was like 3 hours of Bengali folk music and dance presentations, then...a play in English that nobody can understand. It went well.
I'm on a basketball team. That's right, competitive sports. Whoever said I can only play Johnball was....pretty correct.
Service learning is still great. I'll talk more about that....sometime.
Thank you.
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