It's been a month, lots has happened, so here are the last 30 days of my life in a nutshell.
October started off with a bang! For the first two weeks, my group headed off to central India in search of eroticized temples, Dharma, and the mother of all holy rivers.
Gwalior fort, India's real-life Edoras.
One of many loving couples adorning a temple.
The emerald view from a palace in Orchha.
Unlikely jungle temple dweller (see below).
The little cow's jungle temple, larger view.
And now the fun really begins! Partway through excursion, I came down with a fever and didn't get out of bed for several days unless we were driving from one place to the next. At first I was slightly annoyed at my lack of energy, especially when my friends would come back to the hotel with tales of excitement and wonder--I just wanted to get back out on exciting excursion and explore the holiest city sites in India for myself! After a couple days, however, I realized that I felt really, really terrible and should probably be in the vicinity of good medical attention. The next day I was flown back to Delhi and checked into a clinic as a proud new owner of the Dengue disease strain. Hoo ha! Platelet count: 30,000.
I spent several surprisingly relaxing days at the clinic, with my IV pole, some crosswords, and a book for company. Exhausted by being awake, I slept a lot. When not sleeping, I read a lot. Thank the stars I put The River Why in my backpack before I left for excursion, cause it kept my spirits up when I was sick. Two other important things about the clinic! The sunlight in my room was gorgeous--somehow the perfect amount of leaves filtered the perfect amount of light so that from the hours of nine to six the walls of my room had a faint golden glimmer that I would sometimes just sit and enjoy instead of napping. That was pretty cool. The second thing is cool and also a miracle: I can now sit down in a chair, have a rubber band tied around my upper arm, have my skin swabbed with alcohol, and have a needle stuck in my vain without fainting. In fact, I can watch the whole process without so much as a cringe or an errant heartbeat. Crazy, because a month ago I was a living, breathing needlephobe precisely of the fainting variety. I guess sometimes your mind realizes that some things don't matter anymore.
Released from the clinic, and feeling surprisingly lighthearted and happy, I spent a week in recovery mode. While my group was gone on another excursion, I stayed behind and was able to have my own experience without class or the distraction of my peers. Although alone, I started to feel what it would be like as a living and breathing being in India instead of merely a student on a study abroad course. I spent the week taking extra painting classes, practicing Hindi, exploring my city, and having quality time with my host mom. For all of this, I am so thankful! Not thankful concerning the dengue of course, that particular infected mosquito can suck it. But I definitely felt a major change of mindset pre-Dengue and post-Dengue. My heart feels lighter now (maybe because I have less platelets?) and I have a great fondness for Delhi and for India (two huge, overwhelming, and hard-to-love places) that I didn't really have before.
Definitely a good month, despite the dengue.
Anyway, now I'm back into the thick of things--final exams are this week and then I have four weeks to research and write a 30-page paper. Diwali is on Friday, and Delhi is all in an uproar. It kind of feels like Christmas, actually, because everything is lit up in twinkling white lights and everyone is baking dessert. And as you know, Halloween was Sunday and I'd never miss a chance to dress up. So I'll sign off on that note.
Happy Halloween!
Love love love,
Teddi
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