Just kind of hanging out

Okay, let's see what has changed since last time. My research opportunity in Mumbai has fallen through (but I wasn't counting on it anyway, so no big loss). I have moved to a new place further towards the outskirts of town. It is safe. The biggest dangers are the cheetahs and panthers that are about 15km away. There are also cows...everywhere! When the monsoon started, they were all huddled in the foyer of a building under construction, it was hilarious and really seemed to point to the contradictions that you find here. So I have been spending my days walking around (I went on a 20km jaunt the other day, in the monsoon!) and reading. I am about 600 pages through a 900 page book I bought on Sunday (Shantaram, I highly recommend it, but I don't know if it is out in the states yet). Everyone is very friendly and interested in me because I am an American. However, they all feel bad about how nobody has jobs and we are all starving. Seriously, that is what they think. I have to reassure them that we are all okay. I have been doing my best to stretch my rupee, just to see how cheaply I can live. I found a nice neighborhood place where I can get a plate of veg thali for rs 40 (about 48 rupees to the dollar). And apparently you can share an autorikshaw with 4 other people (5 with the driver) and it is really cheap. You just have to be willing to hang outside a bit. They are only designed for 3 passengers. Other than that there hasn't been too much going on. I visited all of the sights downtown where there were attacks last November and my reporter friend recounted how he was reporting and people were throwing grenades at him from the Taj. Pretty crazy stuff. I would love to post more, but I have spent way to long at this computer and am getting tire of it. Look for more regular updates in the future though, now that I know where the internet cafe is.