Oncoming traffic

Here's a quick update, as I sit in my friend G's apartment and use her internet when really I should be reading the Venisamhara of Bhatta Narayana -- with commentary -- and translating for my tutorial class on Monday.

Pune is absolutely nuts. Since I got here I have been both hitting the ground and running. The traffic is unbelievable; crossing the street takes 20 minutes and it's a matter of life and death. Completely polluted: everyone walks around with these huge scarves tied over their faces. I have gone from hotel to G's apartment and (fingers crossed) on Monday I will move into my flat. I rent a bright room on a busy street from a kind, round landlady who rents out the rooms in a three-bedroom apartment to ayurveda students and, apparently, me. Finding this place was an epic journey. I had no idea how hard it could be to find a flat here; the fog of BS (if you'll excuse my language) that I had to navigate my way through was, and still is, thick. Since I've been 5 places since arriving in India 10 days ago, I have a gigantic pile of laundry to do. I've been sick twice. I cried three times yesterday, all for different reasons and in front of different people. I think I've talked to more strangers in the past week than I have in the past sixth months. I filled up four notebook pages with vocabulary words learned in a single hour of Sanskrit class yesterday. It has taken me the past hour to deconstruct one verse of poetry -- and I *still* have no idea what it means.

If it were not for my incredible friends here, who immediately took me in, hugged me, protected me from oncoming traffic, and cooked for me, I don't know what I would have done. Can't believe I've only known them for two days.

I have to get back to the Venisamhara, but there is more to come. I am sure I will need many hours in the internet cafes that line Pune's congested F.C. Road before I can explain everything that's happened to me here so far. Be forewarned.