Honestly, I'm really, really sad to be going home tomorrow. There's a lot more I want to see and do here, and I could really use at least another weekend to get to some of the sightseeing stuff just outside town. Like the Snake Farm! Or the Lion Fort! LION FORT. Hello!! On the car ride home, I was trying so hard to memorize everything we drove past; all the signs and people and stands and models of cars I've never seen before like the Toyota Qualis and Hyundai Getz and that corner that's always filled with the lazy white cows with huge curved horns painted red. I think the red washes off, and stains their foreheads a sort of pale pink. I wish that I had more of that visual-art gene, because I have to tell you, I suck at taking photographs. I always realize something would have made a really awesome picture after it's already long gone.
Tonight I got home just at dark, so I walked down the street to where a coworker told me there was a bookstore that also sold music. I realized that I've neglected to buy anything here for myself, so I picked up a great big stack of CDs at the low, low price of about $3 each. I have no idea if they'll play in my home machine, because I have no idea if CDs are regionally coded like DVDs tend to be. Anyone know?
I walked down a few side streets on the way home, and came across a whole row of stores selling meat, with their wares (read: whole carcasses) just hanging up from the eaves of the building. I admit I didn't explore down that way more than a second or two, because I don't really have much interest in seeing meat before it's been nicely packaged and put into styrofoam trays, and even then it's kind of icky. There was a group of kids hunched down on the sidewalk playing something that looked pretty intricate, with a bunch of different rocks, so I hopped over the railing of the sidewalk with everyone else and went around them on the shoulder of the road.
And now I'm back in my hotel, freshly showered and waiting for the bathroom to de-steam so I can shave my scruffy face and go down to dinner. For dessert, I have a pile of my last five (oh the weeping, only five left!!) fresh Indian mangos. Thank you thank you thank you for the link to order them! I'll be arranging a tasting when I get home.
I still have a bunch of work left to do (seriously I could be here another month and not finish everything I need to get done), I'm avoiding checking my work email, and I have to figure out how I'm going to pack all my stuff. Have I mentioned before just how thrilled I am that my mom bought me an amazing big sturdy suitcase for Christmas?!? She had NO IDEA how handy it would be -- she was just embarrassed to see my walking around with my grandpa's old wheel-less Samsonite.