Homeward bound

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Hello faithful readers,
Yes, I know it's been a while since our last update...this is due to a few things. Mainly, my laziness. Also, while we were in Bangalore, we really didn't do much of anything. Here's a brief summary:

-A typical day for us went like this: wake up, eat, bathe, eat, Oprah, sleep, tea, t.v./reading, eat, sleep. These "activities" were interspersed with shopping, visiting relatives, and more eating. How will we ever readjust to normal life?
-We took a daytrip to Mysore to see the palace and whatnot. Hindu temples = frantic and competitive. Really nice and blingy, though. And, you know, sacred and things. We each got blessed with turmeric by some wise-looking old man, and I thought he was really sweet, but then he made us pay him ten rupees. We also got to touch elephants, much to Liz's unrerestrained delight, although the men riding the elephants also made us pay them ten rupees. I'm seeing a pattern here. Then, because of the elephant-touching (that sounds really wrong to me), we ended up holding up the entire bus, got yelled at by our tour guide, and had to miss the next destination because it closed. Oops. 'Twas a lovely day, though.
-When my uncle picked us up late that night, he took us to Russell Market, the Muslim district in Bangalore. He'd been warning us about how dirty it was, but when we got there, it actually didn't look that bad. As soon as I said, "Oh, this isn't dirty at all!", a rat came darting out from the street, ran right over my uncle's shoe, and disappeared into the tea stall where we were standing. It was pretty horrifying, but the tea was so unbelievably amazing, I didn't even care. Then we had these delicious kebabs that were so good, we could even overlook the fact that the man making them had been touching raw meat with his bare hands before handling our food. Yes, our hygiene standards have lowered considerably.
-We went out clubbing one night with a few of my cousins. The club was surprisingly like one of our clubs, except people weren't as drunk. And the dance floor was closed. And the club closed at 11:30. But other than that, very similar. It's so weird to be exposed to popular music again, after six months of managing to evade it. I dig the new Mariah Carey (don't judge me, it's so mid-90s and fabulous), Liz somehow loves that Black-Eyed Peas song, and we both hate the new Eminem. Just in case you cared.
-And then, shopping, shopping, shopping. We ended up taking back a HUGE suitcase, packed to the brim with glittery finds. When we got to the airport, our suitcase weighed more than the allotted 32 kg, so we had to hastily open it, pull heavy stuff out and stuff it into plastic bags, which we then carried onto the plane. Awesome.
-So, we said goodbye to India, and my family, and made our way back to London via Muscat (where it was 43 degrees celcius). We promptly took a bus to Cheltenham, which, if you remember, is where we started our trip. So it's all symbolic and meaningful and stuff. Actually, I really am glad that we got a chance to come back here; it's sort of made me realize just how much we've done in the last six months. I can't quite believe that we actually did this, but we have the pictures/stories/blogs to prove it. Plus, the emotional scars. Psych!
-So, kids, that's about it. We head back to London early tomorrow morning, and have an afternoon flight to Cowtown. I have no idea what coming back home will be like, but I must admit that it'll be nice to have a routine again. Check back once more for a final blog, and I promise I'll get the rest of the pictures up ASAP. Thanks for reading/caring/commentings (to the few of you who did), and we'll speak to you all soon.
Love,
Pia

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Comments

[K-Ro]

Home, home on the raaaaaaange!
Yeah Black Eyed Peas! Liz, just thought I'd say that I'm loving "Don't Phunk With My Heart" as well. Good call! Well, I can't believe you guys are on your way back to C-Town! Das Crayzee! I'm so excited to hear stories and see photos, and I'm looking forward to seeing you both soon. Liz, it'll be weird to start associating you with Van now. Lemme know when you're heading out there so we can arrange a visit. Toodles and have a safe flight back to the Motherland. Luff!