Language lessons and living...

Again, I must apologize I will get pictures up some time!  This is so increadiably frusturating for me because I can't use my own laptop to get pictures up...there are problems it seems interfacing with the system here and my laptop.

I have taken pictures of my text book (which I will post soon - yeah right).  Hindi is a great language, of course the only other language I studied was German which is very gutteral.  Hindi only has some gutteral sounds that are actually Urdu words which are rarely used OR are just flubbed becasue the Hindi speakers do not care if they say it correctly - very unfrench like.  The bar across the top of all Urdu/Punjabi/Hindi etc is just a way to connect all of the sounds together.  The actual letter(sound) is written below or above the bar across the top.  There are several similar vowels a i o u and e but then they also have au, ai, ah, r, and one more I think.  Most of the typical vowels a i o and u have the short sound as well as a long sound, whereas they only use e in the long form as in "feet", you would never find "fed".  I am on chapter 5 and still have not learned all of the consinents and we usually learn 4 a day.

I have 2 more chapters before I stop learning the alphabet.  As any of you know who has learned a different language, congigating the verbs is an important part.  In hindi the verb is always at the end of the sentence.  So, think of Yoda and how to speak in the other language....as in, should you want to say "The book is on the table" this would translate to Kitab mez men hai or literally = "Book table on is".  They do not use words like The, There, Them, A, An...

Mussoorie is a small hilltop village (called a hill station) where I walk to school every day up hill - and in some cases I could actually say that silly saying of going to school uphill both ways - it is a freaking maze of roads and cow trails.  You can use google earth to zoom in and look.  I am staying in a guest house/hostel thing called Ivy Bank House.  I have my own room and bath and little receiving area. They feed me every day (which I need to leave for here soon).  The food is interesting, lots of Dahl every day....Though yesterday I went into town and ate pizza at Domino's.  Being that we are in a culture that does not eat beef, I am willing to break my rules of not eating in a WESTERN fast food chain becasue I am rather curious as to what McDonalds is like (no burger = what??) and was curious as to Domino's with the whole pepperoni thing (pig is filthy animal and only eaten in secret by poor people).  The pizza sauce tasted like ragu + ketchup and had chicken and onion on it.  It was the BBQ chicken pizza.  It was just so nice to eat cheese!

They do have peanut butter (locally made) as well as yak cheese (which I am looking forward to eating).  They have locally made cheese as well, but it is very expensive and really only foreigners eat it.  I have eaten at a Tibetan place and had Momo's which are these amazing dumpling things with chicken and - CHEESE!

OH and OH MY GOSH!  I ate a potato dish!  Yup, you do not need to rub your eyes, you read that correctly...potato and KERRY without gaging!!  As I keep saying to byron - you must try different variations because sometime somewhere someone may actually find an interesting way to cook the food you have never had before.  Well, the cook at Ivy Bank has found a way for me to eat a potato dish and enjoy it.  I have also enjoyed eggplant like never before as well as pumpkin.  It is strangly easy to stop eating meat and then when I do have it - its like christmas!  YUMMY.