En oor madurai (My town Madurai)

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So, I remembered the main thing that I forgot to write las time which was about America. I have decided this, America is in Europe. I have come to believe this from a couple things. Firstly because of the racial similarities. When you are in India and see a European only once every couple of days let me tell you, they stand out. You may wonder how people see you so quickly and rush to you asking for money. Well, let me tell you, as soon as a white person enters my field of vision even a hundred yards away in a throng of people, I notice. Its like being a peregrin falcon and seeing a mouse from 3000 feet up. Ok, not saying they're my prey but just that white people are so racially similar. Secondly, everywhere I have been people have taken pride in the accomplishments of their neighboring countries and people from neighboring countries. Indians take pride in sports accomplishments of asians, Africans root soooooo hard for any African country, South Americans for their fellow South Americans. imagine this. You, assuming the reader is white and from America are in India surrounded by brown people. You see in the distance one white person and another hispanic one. if in a split second you had to make a decision of who was moren like you... I bet it would be the white one. Nothing wrong with it, just the chances are that that white person is from Eurpoe and Hispanic probably from the Americas.

Im starting to really, really, really feel comfortable here. I mean on that Nyack status almost, at least on par with Ithaca. Yesterday I was walking aorund down in the city and came across these three old women selling fruits on the sidewalk. In certain sections of Madurai the sidwalks are all covered with people selling fruits and vegetables. Each person has the same spot all day every day and although these vendors are working in such close proximity and are selling the same exact items, there is no competition. Instead, they enjoy each other's company talking and luaghing. So anyway, yesterday I came across these ladies and bought some bananas and an orange (actually yellow green in color here) and tlaked to them in Tamil as I ate them. I was ahving so much fun I didnt want to leave so I sat down on the sidewalk among them and shelled peanuts with them for the next hour speaking only in Tamil. Being white here, however, makes you indescribably different which and my actions were so out of the natural sync (aka white tourists actions) that a crowd of perhaps as many as 30-40 people gathered around to see the novelty (me sitting and working with fuit vendors). All these people worked in the neighborhood and knew the women. The women kept telling them that I was a tamil speaker prompting a number of people to come shake my hand with justo as If they were meeting the dalai Llama. When elarnign a language there are peaks and valleys. After I was able to say all the basic things and had said them to the people I encounted many times I hit a trough. This was definitely my peak, for I was able to really communicate for a long time. Oh Ive forgotten to mention how much America is loved here. People really do think of it as "the shining city on the hill" as we here so often in Aemrican political rhetoric. If you say that you are from America people's eyes light up like a dog when you wave a bisquit in front of their face. One old drunk man at a bus stop late at night was so happy to meet an American he actually kissed me on the cheek. However, when you say you are from America people will not leave you alone so....... to all women and young (under the age of 10) I am Nathan from America, but..... to all men I am ....... wait for it...... wait for it..... Mordecai from Belarus. Its brilliant. I say Im from Belarus and no one has any idea where that is. I know they dont know, but they dont want to show their ignorance so they wont ask any more questions about it. Then, when they ask me my name and they cant prnounce that, they wont say it. Thus, they will actually just leave me without me telling them to get lost. You dont know how incredible a feat that is. in fact, Im really getting into this making up stories thing. i see why coimplusive liars get such a kick out of it.

I cant believe up until this point I havent written anything in Tamil. Anyone who has learned a language that doesnt have the same characters as the one they grew up speaking will uinderstand me when I say that it is a whole different ball game. However, so few sets of languages are as different as Tamil and English. They are really just based on different premises. For example Ill say some sentences.

I am in Madurai... nan maduraile irkren.... the ""le is locative. There are no prepositions.
I will go to the store.... nan cadaikka poven.... cadai is store. The kka at end means to.
I really like dosai... ungalukka dosai rumba pidicoom... (to me dosai really grabs)

Now if you want to have multiple verbs in sentence than you must use the adverbial participle, something not even in english

I will go to the store and buy eggs... Nan cadauikka poy mooto vangiven ( I store to goingly eggs buy(future))

I now realize just how pathetic it is that Im not fluent in spanish. Its basically just the same language with different words. For example in Spanish the phrase "I go to the store" becomes "yo voy a la tienda". The same, jsut different words. I am positive that it is going to be so simple for me to learn other languages now for my struggles to understand tamil have given me much insight into the reasons behind many things i never really understood in spanish and english. I was probably the worst at Tamil out of our group of 8 during the summer and have gotten the lowest warks in the class on every test in Madurai, but in terms of actual usage I have without a doubt spoken 5 times as much as all of the rest of the students put together. Being able to recall on the spot and knowing the correct verb tense comes only from practice. I am feeling pretty good about the way Tamil is going and I have been really thinking something. While I am young I plan on learning languages and travelling, for there is no other time when you are as free and healthy and when you have a child and need to start amking money, if you speak 5 languages your never going to have to worry about getting a job. When I get back to Ithaca I plan on taking french the next 4 semesters and then when I graduate I would like to spend a year in a french speaking country... im seriously thinking about Senegal. I will no doubt be able to speak french in that time. Next i think would be Portugese. That would give me 5 total languages Enlgish, french spanish, portugese and Tamil adn the ability to communicate with a significant swath of the worlds population. it really excites me just to think about it.

I know this is long, but one more thought. I think peoplec an be judged by how they travel. The people who feel at home wherever they are and can roll with the punches are the happiest in regular life, for isnt that what life is? Being able to be happy and content with every curveball life throws at you? Those people who are scared all the time while travlling are usually scared of people on the homeostatis status and those who are adventurous and do whatever the locals do are usually happier. Not articlulated well at all... but think about it and tell me what you think?

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