It is so hot here! I am sweating all of the time. And yes, that is as disgusting as it sounds. It's a bit frustrating to never look my best either - I want to tell people, "I promise! I look good when there is AC! I can even wear my hair down!" There i basically no point in trying to look nice here though - at least not for me! I just wear whatever is most practical and even those clothes don't last long!

Well enough complaining. I got a request for a few pictures of people and the place where I am living - so here it is!
This is our living room in Vinoba Puri 1. As you can see, the living arrangement is fabulous! Haha but really, we have one of the nicest apartments. It's not perfect, but its fairly roomy and I like it.

This is our kitchen. We have a gas stove, a hot water boiler and a crappy toaster. All the necessary tools to make a low-budget breakfast and dinner. I usually make oatmeal with honey or eggs at least once a day - may sound plain but those are my favorite foods! Then Kylie Maria and I will cook vegetables and some form of carbohydrates almost every night - usually just pasta or rice. Our primary "favoring" that we add is salt since the Indian spices are MUCH different than what we are used to. So pretty much everything is incredibly salty. MMmmm

Now it is time to meet some of the people I have been talking about! The two above are two of my closer friends here: Josephina (left) and Kylie (right). Josephina is from Samoa (an Island in Oceania near Australia). She is pretty much hilarious. So unfortunate that she is leaving in one week!! She was here for about 3 months, just like me, and on Friday she is off to London so see her sister and will continue to travel for about 3 months or so (so lucky!). Early this month I got to meet her sister too when she came to visit and we all went out to eat. Right now she is in Rajasthan on a camel safari with Dennis (Hong Kong) and Karl (France)--if I think I am hot then I can't even imagine how much pain they are in right now!

Kylie, Kylie...where do I begin. Well, she is from Canada! She came here around the same time I did and so we have been doing all of our trips together. We pretty much got along immediately - she reminds me a lot of my friends who arent afraid to say exactly what they are thinking at the time. Its pretty hilarious as well since she is basically gawked at no matter where we go as she is about 6 feet tall. She rows for her university in Canada and plays American football there as well - defense. Theres a small clue into her personality! Here she is teaching English and French (of which she is fluent in as well) at a hole-in-the-wall language place in Delhi. Oh and the Indian men just love her - I have maybe been asked if I am married once or twice - but she is probably asked daily. Since she lives right across the hall I would say I spend most of my time here with her. She is was without a doubt the person that made me start liking India in the beginning. It was difficult to connect with any of the other international interns at first with so many differences and my being shy of course - and then Kylie came along. I was like, FINALLY someone I can talk to.

This is (from the left) Maria (USA), Allie (USA) and Thyjs (Holland). These are the other three people I spend most of my time with. Ill begin with Maria. So she moved into the flat across the hall from mine about 5 days after I did. I was excited to have another girl from the US moving in so close. At first I thought we really wouldn't be close at all. She just seemed so different from the people I usually hang out with. Boy was I wrong. After our trip to Agra (with Kylie and Allie) I realized she was one of the coolest people I have ever met - just took a little to get to know her! She goes to Boulder and will be a senior next year. We have a lot in common with our life plans - she wants to study international law (like me!) and specialize in child rights. She works for a related NGO here and has already been placed on the Board of Directors - maybe its India, but she really has an addicting personality. Her laugh is also hilarious - very hearty. We like to kill time at night and get out of the unbearable heat by going to Cafe Coffee Day (the closest thing to a Starbucks in India) and just sit in the AC for an hour and eat ice cream. Im already thinking up ideas in my head of how i can visit her in Colorado this coming year haha.

Then in the middle is Allie Joe from Minnesota. Yep she has the accent and all! When I found out that there was an American girl who moved into one of the other flats (about 3 days in when I was feeling incredibly homesick) I basically made Alvin (New Zealand) take me to see her haha. Ever since then I see her fairly often (not always since she lives in the flat the farthest away in Delhi) and of course she is our 4th member of the group people refer to as the "North American girls" since we always travel together. She is adorable, so fun to be around, and somehow her hair always looks amazing (still not sure how she does that in the heat but I plan to find out). She works with hurt animals in a shelter/vet in India. She describes her job as playing with a hurt baby monkey all day. SO JEALOUS! Her greatest quality is that she loves everyone ... although her tendency to smile and be friends with everyone comes back to bite her in India since the men take it as she wants to be their bride. eek.

I know she has some problems at work because she is friends with the guys who work there who are apparently of a "lower class." The other girls that volunteer with her there are more wealthy and seem to think they are "higher class" so they tell her not to talk to the guys there at all. This really upsets her. Im glad I dont have to deal with that at my work because I would be incredibly mad if anyone told me not to talk to someone because of their darker skin color or lower caste. Thats bullshit. So she ignores them as far as I know and just continues to be friends with anyone she wants to be. So good for her.

The last guy on the right is Thyjs. Pronounced "ty-s" with an emphasis on the "s." Allie just calls him Taj though and I think I alternate between the two names. He doesn't care. He lives with Allie at the other flat so they are basically attached at the hip. He has already been here for quite some time - maybe 6 months or longer. So he's an expert on everything I am a novice at. He is always incredibly happy and easy to get along with (maybe thats why Allie and him get along so well). Unfortunately he leaves around July 17th - but he has been here for half a year!

Considering I am terrible at taking pictures, I really dont have many of anyone else - whoops! But these are the people I spend most of my time with so this will have to do for now! I am going to work on taking pictures of the office and the people I work with there as well.

Zill out.