teen din aur!

My last week in India is already half way over, but it felt like a long time before the middle of the week arrived. Yesterday and today we did two rounds of final exams. Yesterday's tests were on reading and listening comprehension in which we read and listened to stories then answered SAT-style multiple-choice questions about them. Today 's tests were in grammar and literature which required hours of hand-cramp inducing writing. Having back-to-back days of back-to-back tests was rather brutal, but I actually still get a little "look, Mom! No hands!" kind of thrill every time I form a complete sentence in Hindi, so in spite of the exhaustion, I felt pretty pleased after the last hour of essay writing.

Unfortunately, the hard part is not yet over. Tomorrow we have to give our final oral presentations. I picked yoga as my topic, that way if I really start to butcher my Hindi I can just try to claim to be speaking Sanskrit.

In preparation for my return home I conducted an experiment in which I tried to get all of my belongings into my suitcase. The experiment was a failure. For this reason, I returned to the bazaar yesterday seeking a second, smaller suitcase for my extra stuff. At the saamaan dukaan (suitcase store) the shopkeeper kept bringing out nice-looking options as I kept demanding, "No. Smaller. Cheaper." Finally he showed me a little puke-green duffel bag for 200 rupees ($4) which won me over, in spite of it's very obvious structural flaws, because on the side, in black embroidery it reads "exquise," which is not a word (I checked).

So now, if you'll exquise me, I have a presentation to practice and a little green bag to pack.