I'm 21.. but that has no relation to this post whatsoever

It's been a month since my arrival in India! Dad mentioned time going slowly but over here time is just indescribable. I kind of feel I've been here forever and at the same time we've already gone through a month, which means the other 3ish months should fly by, particularly with the travel plans in store for the upcoming months ( Ashrams, Goa, Agra etc!). I figured it's been a week so I should update on... something.

I'm going to be starting Tabla classes this week! We finally went to the store with our teacher and bought them. The tabla is a type of drum ( see picture- that one is the one I bought) which is used to accompany the sitar or dance very often.It has a great sound and I'm really excited for class! Even if I can't actually play it well it's fun to mess around with and to have it.

I've been trying to upload more pictures and also organize them a bit. I'll try and separate them out into albums for the future ( see the left side of the page) so here is the link again and also a link to pictures from the bridge school.
Classes are still pretty low key, as in it seems like we are still introducing the class after like 3 weeks, but I guess that's ok by me. It is getting hotter and hotter here every day. This weekend is pretty quite because a lot of people went on trips already.
Yesterday I walked around Old City with Miriam and Dan because I really wanted to get out of the house. It was a bit less insane then the first time we went with our whole group. I like traveling with less people too. We bought a pomegranate off the street because Miriam and Dan had never eaten one before( though Miriam was not inspired to try one). It was pretty good actually though it could have been sweeter.

On a different note, it makes me mad that "fairness" is a standard of beauty here. All the models are white or pale and there are skin whiteners for sale all over the place. I think that it is just ridiculous and makes me angry because it's pushing "westernized" standards and also dark skin is incredibly beautiful. I took a picture of this sign because it was funny but it is also sad. At the mall, the advertisements were all of white people. No wonder Indians are so fascinated by us- it's shoved in their faces all the time. On that note, I've decided that I'm becoming a bit more ok with being stared at since I do my fair share of staring too ( though sometimes it is just creepy). So as tea time is rapidly approaching I will leave you with this picture....