All right, not to sound like a Whiny Willis, and I'm having a rather amazing time, but I have to confess that I don't think Delhi is that awesome a city to live in. You can't walk anywhere more than a kilometer or two away because of the lack of sidewalks and crazy traffic. This means you spend a good portion of your time in an auto rickshaw (not called a "tuk-tuk" as I thought earlier--not sure what that is). Sidewalks that do exist have been completely torn up for the Commonwealth games. Also, even locals have scarves wrapped around their faces to be able to breathe through all the pollution and bus exhaust, at least when they're in transit. Seeing one woman like that earlier today, with my own head swaddled, gave me an eerie image of the future--that is, for parts of the world that aren't already like this.
I get pretty frustrated by my lack of language abilities too, and I'm starting to look back at my Peace Corps trainers with whimsical admiration. I've been trying to learn, but uh, Hindi is hard. I've never been a "memorize the phrase and use it" kind of gal, but I think that's what needs to happen.
Work is still interesting--it makes the days go much faster. But I can imagine the frustration one might feel if all one worked for was for naught--a colleague told me she spent three months working on a case that it turned out couldn't even be filed because of some rule. So I'm trying to keep a certain amount of detachment.
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