What's Going on In Chennai??
So I think the events of the last few days deserve a synopsis, sort of like one of those bulleted "The Buzz" columns you might find in my grandpa's newspaper from the cosmopolitan metropolis of Phillips (population 775 all over the age of 75) Anyways maybe I'll call it "Chennai's Loose Change" or something, in any case, here goes:
Bulleted Point Number 1 (*) Last night I met a girl. From Italy. In India. In Chennai for one night sleeping in my room. She studied in my tiny hometown of Green Bay for six months our senior year. What the deuce?? This girl is in Chennai for one night, like less than 12 hours, she's from Italy, the only reason she is here is that my roommate is from her hometown and she studied in my hometown....woah....small world after all?
*I watched an Indian dude nearly get in a fistfight at the movie theater last night because a bunch of white kids accidently sat in his seats. There were 8 of the kids and the dude was only with his wife but he shouted at them until they moved across the theater and then continued shouting about how rude they were and how no one should tell him to calm down and how he was the polite and decent one...wow...ease off the testosterone buddy...he also pretty much hit his wife in front of all of us, really cool dude....
*We had a Halloween Party the other night that deteriorated (some might say unraveled in honor of the mummy at the table) when I happened to mention the extreme inequality of India to two (very annoying and creepy) Indian men who invited themselves to our party. I received in turn an earfull of shouting about how the poor are lazy and swindling the government and how they have boatloads of opportunities here but they just prefer to take advantage of the system
what system you might ask? I for one never heard any glowing reports of India's social welfare programs, it must be the same program that lets the man starve on the street to the point that he cannot move even though he is within feet of a grocery store, the system that lets kids sleep naked under the highway, the system that provides for all of the crippled old woman I see digging up shit in the streets...but yea why listen to me? After all I'm just a pair of boobs to these guys
*I have devolped a chronic case of the Chennai cough. There is also "Chennai eye" but that is another disease altogether (and much more disgusting). I'm glad I only have the cough...
*Auto driver last night asked us rs 150 for what should have been an rs 80 tops. This is pretty standard, what happened next was not. We low-balled him at rs 50 hoping to get a ride for rs 70 or 80 except then something really really strange happend. We said 50 and he said ok. He didn't even ask us for more when we got to our apartment...
I think that might have been my most surreal moment of all this week....20 seconds to go down rs 100 in price??? I sometimes spend 10 minutes arguing over 10 rupees...there must be something new in the water....maybe its getting cleaner?
Next stop: Pondicherry for the weekend and Kerala all of next week, I can't wait to hike in the jungle, stay on a houseboat, drink alcohol that is not made in Tamil Nadu, and see a bunch of new places with two of my favorite people here..stay tuned for more stories of trains, buses, boats and autorickshaws...
Bulleted Point Number 1 (*) Last night I met a girl. From Italy. In India. In Chennai for one night sleeping in my room. She studied in my tiny hometown of Green Bay for six months our senior year. What the deuce?? This girl is in Chennai for one night, like less than 12 hours, she's from Italy, the only reason she is here is that my roommate is from her hometown and she studied in my hometown....woah....small world after all?
*I watched an Indian dude nearly get in a fistfight at the movie theater last night because a bunch of white kids accidently sat in his seats. There were 8 of the kids and the dude was only with his wife but he shouted at them until they moved across the theater and then continued shouting about how rude they were and how no one should tell him to calm down and how he was the polite and decent one...wow...ease off the testosterone buddy...he also pretty much hit his wife in front of all of us, really cool dude....
*We had a Halloween Party the other night that deteriorated (some might say unraveled in honor of the mummy at the table) when I happened to mention the extreme inequality of India to two (very annoying and creepy) Indian men who invited themselves to our party. I received in turn an earfull of shouting about how the poor are lazy and swindling the government and how they have boatloads of opportunities here but they just prefer to take advantage of the system
what system you might ask? I for one never heard any glowing reports of India's social welfare programs, it must be the same program that lets the man starve on the street to the point that he cannot move even though he is within feet of a grocery store, the system that lets kids sleep naked under the highway, the system that provides for all of the crippled old woman I see digging up shit in the streets...but yea why listen to me? After all I'm just a pair of boobs to these guys
*I have devolped a chronic case of the Chennai cough. There is also "Chennai eye" but that is another disease altogether (and much more disgusting). I'm glad I only have the cough...
*Auto driver last night asked us rs 150 for what should have been an rs 80 tops. This is pretty standard, what happened next was not. We low-balled him at rs 50 hoping to get a ride for rs 70 or 80 except then something really really strange happend. We said 50 and he said ok. He didn't even ask us for more when we got to our apartment...
I think that might have been my most surreal moment of all this week....20 seconds to go down rs 100 in price??? I sometimes spend 10 minutes arguing over 10 rupees...there must be something new in the water....maybe its getting cleaner?
Next stop: Pondicherry for the weekend and Kerala all of next week, I can't wait to hike in the jungle, stay on a houseboat, drink alcohol that is not made in Tamil Nadu, and see a bunch of new places with two of my favorite people here..stay tuned for more stories of trains, buses, boats and autorickshaws...
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