Dharamshala to Delhi to Agra to Chennai to HOME!

This last week has been… INSANE.
It started on Sunday, July 29th, when I boarded a night bus traveling from Dharamshala to Delhi. I had two seats in the front to myself, since my travel companion got wounded and had to cancel, but then a man from the back of the bus asked to sit with me because he was feeling carsick. The road was windy, and the driver wasn’t taking it slow, so I felt carsick, too. I curled up in weird positions in order to change the angle at which my stomach was rocking back and forth. Within the first four hours, I totally failed to sleep at all, while everyone around me, including the man in the seat next to me, was sleeping like a baby. When we stopped later in the night, I asked him to move to the back of the bus, since I did have a ticket for two seats. He complied, and then I lied down on the two seats like they were a small bed and was finally able to sleep. Thank goodness. I don’t know why, but sometimes my life feels like a constant battle with sleep. No matter how much I sleep the night before, I always find myself falling asleep in classes, for example. And I’m completely, utterly incapable of sleeping sitting up (except in airplanes and in very smooth roadtrips), sleeping on my back, and sleeping in a few other positions.

Delhi and Agra

I arrived in Delhi feeling like a filthy lagoon monster crawling up onto the shores of Hell. Delhi was hot, humid, and horrendous. I had reserved an un-airconditioned room at a small, cheap hotel (about $3 a night), but when I arrived there, it seemed as nightmarish as the streets: the power was out, bathrooms were shared (this was an unpleasant surprise, since my most immediate objective was to take a nice, private shower, and this objective depended on the hotel supplying me with soap and a towel), and the rooms were tiny cells. So I fled this hotel to a much swankier hotel, where I swallowed my pride and reserved an airconditioned room. This room was $16 a night, still cheap by western standards. The A/C was a lifesaver. And the bathroom was private, with soap and shampoo provided. And the room was big and with a large, squishy bed. I had found a small palace for myself to hide from the heat.

After a shower, it was still early in the morning, so I rented a taxi for the day and went to a variety of places: the Birla Temple (pictured above), the India Gate, the national zoo, the Qutub Minar, Humayun’s Tomb, the Lotus Temple, and the Mahatma Gandhi memorial. The zoo was my favorite part of the day!

The next day, which was Tuesday, I traveled by train for the first time in my life to Agra. My goal: to see the beautiful Taj Mahal, a giant marble tomb built by a Moghul leader named Shah Jahan in mourning the death of his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. I had read in a book somewhere before that the world consists of two kinds of people: those who have seen the Taj Mahal, and those who haven’t. Now that I’ve been there, it’s true. You can look at all the pictures you want, but you really have to go there in person to fully understand: the Taj Mahal looks like it’s connected to another universe. I’ve heard it described as “floating”, and this is pretty accurate. Rabindranath Tagore, a Nobel-prize-winning Bengali poet, described the building of the Taj Mahal as “uniting formless death with deathless form.” After being swept off my feet by its splendor, I ate a thali at a restaurant named “The Food Cafe,” which will forever amuse me, and then I went to see the Agra Fort. This was also a very cool structure.

Other than these two monuments, however, Agra just plain sucks. Millions and millions of people are trying to sell you something and/or rip you off — this includes people offering to be guides, rickshaw drivers, and the salespeople lining the road leading up to the Taj. Right after I arrived in Agra, I took a rickshaw to the Taj, and this was the interaction between the driver and me:
Driver: You’re different from other foreigners… you’re not friendly!!
Anne: That’s because 1. many people I meet in India are trying to rip me off and 2. I’m a young woman traveling alone. It’s nothing personal.
Driver: All five fingers aren’t same. People aren’t same, either. You have to trust somebody. Now, let me give you my tour of Agra. Taj Mahal, restaurant for lunch, Agra Fort… only 300 rupees!

300 rupees really wasn’t a terrible price, but I found this driver so horribly pushy and annoying that I mistrusted him just as if he were trying to get me to pay 2,000 rupees for the tour. So I said no, no, I don’t want your tour.

After Agra, I spent another day and a half in Delhi. During this time, I went to the National Gallery of Modern Art, which was huge and amazing, and to the Indira Gandhi Memorial Museum, which was fascinating and well put-together. They drew lots of quotes, news articles, and other resources together to create a big picture of her life and the life of one of her sons, Rajiv. Also, they indicate the spot on her sidewalk, pictured below, where she was shot by her two bodyguards. I find Indian history interesting and inspiring. I think for a country that has so recently obtained its independence, it’s doing quite well for itself, although it definitely still has some huge problems, like with poverty, education, and women’s issues… I was especially interested in Indira Gandhi’s memorial because she was one of the first prime ministers as well as a woman — a woman who ruled a very patriarchal country. A huge inspiration for my half of humanity!

Then, after her memorial, I visited the Jama Masjid mosque, pictured below. As of now, it’s the largest mosque in India. Unfortunately, it seems a bit overrun by tourism. I didn’t see much worship or religious activity going on, and maybe this is because there are so many female tourists going around taking pictures of everything in the mosque. Admittedly, I was one of these tourists myself. Tourists who aren’t dressed extremely modestly (like me – my forearms and ankles were exposed) are given these horrendous-looking robes sewn up out of what is probably the fabric that the cloth stores realized would never, ever sell. This means that tourists are easily identifiable in the mosque — just look for the people dressed like clowns. Despite the fact that tourists flood the mosque and dampen its beauty with the goofy modesty robes, they (we..) are definitely a good source of money for the mosque — it costs 300 rupees ($6) for anybody bringing in a camera.

My stay in Delhi ended in a fury when the hotel charged me for four nights instead of three. I only stayed three nights, but I stayed on until late in the day based on broken communication with hotel clerk, who doesn’t speak very good English, and the signs that read “NOON CHECKOUT TIME” and, right below, “10% SERVICE CHARGE EXTRA.” Turned out to not just be a 10% service charge extra — they charged me for a whole extra day. I fussed and fussed and fussed, but also trying to be as reasonable as possible so that they would take me seriously, but they didn’t, and I found no way out of paying. So I gave up $16 more than I should have and told them “I’m not happy. I’m never coming here again, and I’m going to write to Lonely Planet.” (I had found out about the hotel from Lonely Planet.) Of course, I’m not actually going to write to Lonely Planet, but I am annoyed — yet at the same time, $16 is not a huge deal, and the room was quite nice, and the people who work at the hotel probably don’t make as much money as I do (and I don’t even have a job!! I just get a stipend from my school every semester..). So, life went on.

A 33-Hour Train Ride

I went from the hotel, feeling almost as if I had just been dumped, to the New Delhi Train Station, where I boarded a train for the now second train journey of my life — a 33-hour ride from Delhi to Chennai. I was thinking this would be a nightmare. 1. The journey was to be 33 hours long, and 2. just two days before, there had been a fire on the same trainline (Tamil Nadu Express), killing more than 30 people on coach S11, and people in the adjacent coaches had had to leap out of the train windows before the fire spread. I had reserved my seat in second class A/C, which means lots of space, a bed, and A/C, so it was very comfortable. However, this train was extremely bumpy. I had a hard time falling asleep and kept preparing myself to die, constantly expecting the train to derail. Luckily, disaster never came, and time put me to sleep. I managed to read two entire books during the day as the train rattled on, and then after another pleasant night of sleep, that time without fear, the train arrived in Chennai. Hooray!

Chennai, CouchSurfing, and Mamallapuram

Somehow, Chennai (in South India) is currently much less hot than Delhi (in North India), and it’s monsoonless. And much less like Hell, and with dramatically fewer people trying to constantly rip me off. I checked into a cheap, A/C-less hotel (because I’m strong again!), and the clerks, who speak even less English than the guys at the rip-off hotel in Delhi, made their checkout policy clear to me right when I checked in. I hate you, Delhi! And oh, how I love you, Chennai…

It was already looking like my few days in South India would be better than those in the North, but just as a safety check, I went friend-hunting to make my stay even better. I went on CouchSurfing to find some sort of female person to hang out with. Otherwise, my only interactions would have been with hotel clerks, restaurant employees, and rickshaw drivers — which, in India, are men almost 100% of the time. Luckily, I found a young, successful Indian girl, named Suravi, who works for an IT company here in Chennai. She invited me out with her and two of her guy friends for drinks. At first, I was confused — does going out for drinks mean tea or alcohol? I was anticipating tea. They picked me up by where I was staying and took me to a place that, like the Taj Mahal, seemed to be part of another universe (or at least part of a different continent). It was the bar of this hyperfancy hotel, with funky zillion-dollar chandeliers of clear and gold glass and with a security check-in at the front of the hotel. The food items at the bar (things like potato wedges) cost no less than $7 or $8, and the same went for most of the drinks. This didn’t feel like the rest of India I’d seen. Anyway, we each had a Kingfisher beer, and then, sadly, the girl, named Suravi, wasn’t feeling well, so she went home while the two guys and I went out for dinner. At an almost equally fancy place. I had thought it was going to be awkward, but it wasn’t at all. We talked about movies, books, music, family, etc. They insisted on paying and then insisted on dropping me off right at my hotel and then refused to take any compensation for gas. I’m not sure if they are Indians or chivalrous southern gentlemen with disguises and accents.

The next day, I used the advice I had sought from my new friends about how to go to an artsy town called Mamallapuram, just an hour south of Chennai. They had told me where in Chennai to find the bus and which bus to get on. By noon, I found myself in Mamallapuram, looking at the Shore Temple (below) and other beautiful stone monuments from the 600’s and the 700’s. A wonderful, leisurely day and a final bit of site-seeing in this humongous, historically rich country. And on the bus ride back, a young woman sat next to me. We started talking, and I learned that she, too, is a painter. WOW! She’s about to have her first show here in Chennai, and in the next few years, she’s planning to do an artist residency in Portland, Oregon. I got her contact information and told her that she absolutely has to visit me in the States when she’s there.

LEAVING!!!!!

That was yesterday! Today, my last day in India (OH MY GOD), I’ve just been loafing around in Chennai. I hunted down a beauty parlor, where I got a 50 rupee ($1) haircut, so that my grandma won’t be disappointed to see horrendous split ends. I also picked up some nail polish and will be taking a bath or two more than I usually take. This is all in preparation for my flight home (OH MY GOD), which is happening at 1 AM tonight. I want my family to not think that I look disgusting or that I’ve let myself go since the last time they saw me — six and a half months ago. Instead, I want them to think — WOW! Look at our radiant, healthy daughter, enriched after so many adventures abroad! Before I catch this flight, however, I’m delighted to be going to Suravi’s place for dinner. I’ll be going straight from there to the airport. I have to thank her for helping me figure out how to get to Mamallapuram and, more importantly, for making the last bit of my social life in India just spectacular. I will be leaving feeling hopeful and happy.

Thank You!

This means the end of my journey and, therefore, the end of this blog, at least until the next time my life is full of exciting travel again. I want to thank everybody who ever took the time to read this and everybody who thought about me and gave me moral support from afar. Especially you, my dear family! I also feel grateful to the many amazing people I’ve met on my travels. To name a few:
-my Malagasy host family – Zo, Livera, and Abdouline. I MISS YOU!!! I will forever remember you fondly. I hope to come back and visit you someday. I wish you could meet my American family.
-the people who helped me conduct an orchid survey in Southeast Madagascar. Especially — my advisor David Rabehevitra (you made the project so terribly fun, and you were so terribly helpful with your infinite littoral forest flora knowledge), Kathryn Theiss (for suggesting my particular project topic and for giving me support), and the people who accompanied me into the forests so that I didn’t get lost (Give, Marco, Nolan, and others).
-my CouchSurfing hosts in Antananarivo – especially Cecile (for giving me an obsession with guava juice), Tahina (for exposing me to your wonderful artwork), and Marion (for all the wonderful French cooking and for letting me cuddle with your adorable fluffy dog). More importantly, I want to thank you for giving me a place to sleep and for becoming my friends. I hope someday you’ll be staying with me, so that I can stuff you with equally good food and make you feel at home like you did for me.
-the people of Sadhana Forest (I only stayed with you two weeks, but you changed my life. I learned about a more open, gentle way to live with other people and about how to make more humane choices in what I consume. Thanks to you, I’ve spent most of my summer as a vegan and hope to keep this going, at least to a large extent, in the USA. The changes you provoked me to make in my diet will probably increase my lifespan by about 10 years.)
-the other volunteers of Lha Charitable Trust – for welcoming me into your English-teaching community and giving me a wonderful social life in McLeod Ganj. You were some of the funnest and greatest people I’ve ever met. I especially want to applaud Katie Youtz, a long-term volunteer serving as Lha’s volunteer coordinator. Your service is invaluable for the other volunteers!
-MY STUDENTS. You’re the best!!!!! Thank you so much for respecting me, despite the fact that I’m much, much younger than most of you and the fact that I’m not the best teacher ever. Thank you for making me feel like I did a great job. I hope I did an at least adequate job and that you someday achieve the level of fluency you’re hoping for. Thank you for blessing me with katag’s (Tibetan scarves give as signs of respect) and for the multiple home-cooked, goodbye momo dinners you prepared for me. And thank you for inspiring me with your kindness, your motivation, and your strength.
-other friends that I’ve picked up here and there. Especially Seebu, Aadil, and Suravi. Seebu, my woodcarving teacher, thank you for teaching me a new trade, for your advice on how to make a living in the arts, and for showing me where to get art supplies in McLeod Ganj! Aadil, thank you for being a true friend to me in McLeod Ganj, for always being there to talk, and for teaching me about precious stones. Suravi, thank you for helping me out in Tamil Nadu and for sending me away from your country on the right foot.

YOU ARE THE BEST. The most wonderful part about all this travel has been interacting with these people. If I travel abroad again, it will be in the hopes of seeing them again or meeting more people like them. Thanks to them, I never felt homesick – instead, I felt like the whole world is my home.

CouchSurfing in Tana Part III

Yesterday, I moved in with my final host: a French woman named Marion. Marion and her mom live together in what is jointly their house and a newly opened restaurant: La Planque.

La Planque is in Ivandry, a residential district of Antananarivo. The restaurant is right across from the Russian Embassy. This part of town seems overall very wealthy and safe. The restaurant, which just opened up a week ago, specializes in French and Italian dishes.

Upon arriving chez elles, I first noticed Marion and her mom’s dog: a fluffy, white walking cotton ball (see picture above). This was the first time I’d ever seen a Coton de Tuléar, a well-known Malagasy breed of dogs. My mom in the States had jokingly asked me a few months ago to bring home a Coton de Tuléar with me. After hanging around Marion’s wonderful, friendly dog, I understand why my mom wants one so badly.

Marion also has pet tortoises, including a rare radiated tortoise. They serve as a sort of decoration in the yard surrounding the house/restaurant. Since I’ve been here, I’ve spent a good amount of time watching the tortoises eat and walk. They are awkwardly beautiful, and they look delightfully silly when they walk.

Beyond the fact that they have cool pets, Marion and her mom have been perhaps the best hosts I’ve ever had (although I’ve had so many excellent hosts now!). They’re extremely open and easy to talk to, and they made me feel instantly at home. I wouldn’t hesitate to consider them family. Additionally, it’s been inspiring to learn about their lives, which are full of travel and of laying down roots in new places. I’m impressed when I meet people who move somewhere and create their own job by opening a business: in this case, a restaurant. It makes me feel like maybe I could do the same!

We’ve talked a lot about the idea of working abroad and creating one’s own job. From these discussions, here’s a list of ideas that could be a huge success in Madagascar: a leather tanning business (zebu hides mostly just go to waste here, and what little is tanned is hard and of low quality due to limited tanning technology), a laundromat (nearly all laundry is done by hand here; people either spend a lot of time doing their own laundry or hire a femme de ménage, a maid, to do it), an art supply store (there is one, but just one, so its prices are high; a competitor could be a huge success), a recycled-art business (there is only a limited amount of recycled art here, and it’s principally just toy cars and motorcycles made out of metal can scraps; there is so much more “cool trash” here, though, that further possibilities are endless: jewelry, unusual surfaces on which to paint, bags, belts, and more), and plant perfumes (geranium extracts have been successful here, and there are many more wonderful smelling smelling flowers, like orchids!, that could also have potential in perfume production). As I’m graduating soon and will be seeking a job, and as I won’t have any student loan debt, and as I’m not interested in either making tons of money or having a boring life, I want to note all these ideas as possible niches that I could fill and make my living in.

Another nice facet of my stay with Marion and their mom is the fact that, as chefs, they’ve been teaching me some recipes and feeding me with luxurious meals — luxurious not just by Malagasy standards, but by American and maybe even French standards. Before lunch yesterday, Marion showed me how to make tarte tatin aux poires (a sort of upside-down pear pie). Then, for lunch, we drank a mixture of white wine with grapefruit juice and ate zebu steak with pepper sauce (containing entire pepper corns freshly grown in Madagascar), green beans, and gratin de pommes de terre (a creamy, delicious potato casserole). But that’s not all! For dessert, we ate what is written on their menu as fondant chocolat-framboise: a chocolate cake with warm chocolate fondue and raspberries on the inside. I can still hear the angels singing hallelujah. This still isn’t the end. After dessert, we opened some champagne and drank to celebrate the fact that Marion’s cousin, Kevin, has just recently found a new job, a new girlfriend, and a new apartment. I lucked out in arriving chez elles in time for this celebration. I hope that they’ll be drinking champagne again soon, and to celebrate something entirely different: the success of their fabulous restaurant!

For yesterday’s dinner, we ate spectacular homemade lasagna and then went to bed. I woke up this morning to their dog snuggling next to my feet and to the scent of freshly baked croissants and pain au chocolat. As you might imagine, this made for an excellent breakfast. I can only imagine the three meals still ahead of me here before I leave Madagascar.

I can’t believe I stumbled upon such luxury in what is my last day in the 4th (?) poorest country in the world. I feel like this has provided me with a way to celebrate life and the fact that I just had what was the best semester of my life. Between the two months I spent in Togo in 2010 and the three and a half months I just spent in Madagascar, I’m beginning to strongly believe that there is richness in poverty. In living with people who are much poorer with the average westerner, I’ve continually been struck by the immensity of their pride and the richness of their culture. The fact that they make less money than someone in the States does not stop them from loving life to the same degree, or even to a higher degree! In fact, I feel like poorer people in countries like these are often happier than the average, well-to-do American — the average, well-to-do American has anchors other than poverty that bring him down — loneliness, weak family cohesion, being forever in a rush, and always haunted by an upcoming deadline. The general absence of these sorts of anchors is what attracts me so much to these different parts of the world. I hope I can bring back these ideas to the States and alter the way I live so that I, too, enjoy life to the appropriate degree.

Tomorrow, I leave ny Madagasikara soa for India. My plane flies out of Antananarivo tomorrow at noon and, after a few transfers, lands in Chennai (Madras), India at 8:00 in the morning on Friday. From the Chennai airport, I’ll take a taxi to Sadhana Forest, where I’m staying for the summer. Sadhana Forest is an eco-village that executes reforestation and water conservation efforts in what is an endangered Indian habitat type: the tropical dry evergreen forest. Also, if I understand correctly, the eco-village promotes practices like yoga and meditation that augment one’s sense of inner peace and harmony with the natural world. Additionally, meals are entirely vegan. I’m excited to live in this sort of zen environment and learn habitat restoration skills that could help me in my upcoming job search. At the same time, I’m nervous about the immense quantity of beans that I’m going to have to eat.

The future is now!

A little gift for Marion and her mom — my attempt at drawing their dog. Hope they like it!

CouchSurfing in Tana Part II

Yesterday morning, I moved in with my next set of hosts: Tahina and Cécile. They live in the outskirts of Tana. Upon arriving, I was greeted with walls covered in murals, stencils, and graffiti. Tahina and Cécile fed me some dried guava rolls (the first time I’ve eaten any kind of dried fruit rolls in Madagascar), and then I saw an incredible artistic performance.

Tahina, who is a painter, executed a project out in his yard with a neighbor, Jerome. Tahina and Jerome graffitied on the wall lining Tahina’s yard “Kol’sen,” which is short for the Malagasy word for culture. Two pieces of canvas were attached to the wall so that parts of the graffiti could be removed afterwards. I watched the entire process.

Tahina and Jerome drawing the contours:

The finished graffiti:

The canvases removed, to be mounted and placed in a gallery:

In this way, they explained, they are placing graffiti, a type of art that is usually free and public, into more of a bourgeois realm, where people pay tons of money for small works of art to be hung in houses. This is a really interesting idea, and I hope they are able to make it a success!

In any case, this was a wonderful welcome with this new set of hosts. I feel very at home in their artsy house. There are tons of paintings, decorations, and guitars, and they always have good music playing. And they’ve been feeding me fantabulous, delicious food: homemade cheese, homemade bread, guava juice, solar-oven-cooked cake, zebu with carrots and rice, and red wine. They’re going above and beyond CouchSurfing — I’m very appreciative of all that they’re doing!

Then, yesterday evening, Cécile introduced me to her neighbor, Jera, who has a huge yard with lots of edible and medicinal plants in it. He’s looking for someone interested in botany to help him identify everything. This morning, he took me on a tour of his huge yard. It’s quite impressive! I got to eat some fresh guavas and other strange fruits (whose names I’ve forgotten) in the process. If he would still like help in May, 2013, maybe this could serve as an opportunity for me to come back to Madagascar… which would be excellent!

That’s all for now. CouchSurfing is still going smoothly. I’ll be sad to leave Tahina and Cécile and the wonderful community they have with their neighbors, like Jerome and Jera. At the same time, though, I’m excited to move in with my next host: a French woman who runs a restaurant!

The view from Tahina and Cécile’s neighborhood:

CouchSurfing in Tana Part I

On Wednesday, I met up with my first CouchSurfing host, Dimby. I stayed with him and his family for two nights. He wasn’t working the day I was there, so he took me to Lemur’s Park, a wonderful zoo and botanical garden where the lemurs aren’t in cages. They’re used to people, so one is able to get really close to them. Here are some pictures from the park:

Bamboo lemur:

Baby radiated tortoises:

Black lemur:

Me next to a Ravinala palm, one of the symbols of Madagascar:

Rice paddies outside of Tana, which are seen en route to Lemur’s Park:

On the way back from Lemur’s Park, we stopped at a roadside restaurant, where we ate pork, veggies, and rice. Doesn’t sound too special, but the way it was prepared was just spectacular. It was one of the best meals I’ve eaten in Madagascar. And the total for our two meals? $5.00. After getting back from lunch, I took a long nap while Dimby went to visit some family on the other side of town.

The next day, I took a taxi to meet up with my host brother, Valencia. He’s the son of my host parents in Fort Dauphin but lives in Tana. It was really nice to see him because I miss my host family a lot. He and I caught a bus to the the High City, the part of Tana where one finds the Queen’s Palace, old churches, and museums. Then, we went to a restaurant and had some fresh-squeezed orange juice, and he talked to me for a long time about safety in Tana.

About one month ago, I was in Tana for a week with the SIT program, and we learned about safety then — one student was pickpocketed, another almost had her camera stolen, and I almost had my wallet stolen. If you are holding anything in your hands at the market, someone will almost certainly try to grab it from you. Luckily, I was holding on to my wallet tightly! The best way to go about walking around Tana is to wear your wallet or moneybelt underneath your clothes. Since I started doing this, the risk of losing it became much lower.

Anyway, once Valencia and I split ways, it was lunchtime, so I found a little Malagasy restaurant near the Analakely market. I had poulet au coco (coconut chicken) for 4,300 AR ($2.15), and it was delicious! I love being able to get wonderful meals for cheap here.

After lunch, I met up with Emily, one of the few SIT students who’s still hanging around in Madagascar. She and I went to a fabric shop, because I had found orchid fabric in Diego. For $2.50, it’s getting sown into a dress. Hope it comes out well! I also ordered a pair of pants, and Emily ordered a shirt. Then, Emily and I went to a coiffeur (hairdresser), and I got a $1.00 haircut.

At this point, I got a text from Rija, a CouchSurfer who had gotten in touch with me so that we could meet and speak in English while I’m here (lots of people in Madagascar are eager for the opportunity to practice English). Emily and I met up with him together, and we sat around and chatted about economics, travel, the education system, and Madagascar for about an hour. He was fun to hang out with and interesting to talk to, and his English is almost perfect. I think we’ll all meet up again.

Around dinner hour, the time came to move in with my second host: Morgane, a French girl who works as a tour operator. She and I were both tired, so we napped for an hour before heading to a crepe restaurant to meet up with a group of her friends. I was overwhelmed to find myself in a crowd of young, French-speaking westerners after only being around SIT students and Malagasy people for three months, but I gradually got my sea legs and felt at ease. The restaurant was delicious, and we accompanied the meal with hard cider. The last time I had a meal like this, I was in Quebec City with my dad — it was nice to have this pleasant memory brought forward. Then, Morgane, her friends, and I went to a pub where we mixed and mingled with each other and with the other people who were there. I was really surprised and confused to find myself in a sort of underground, privileged, white, young party culture here in Madagascar, the 4th (?) poorest country in the world. Morgane and the others went out to a nightclub after this, but I ducked out, as it was midnight (the latest I’ve ever been up in Madagascar!), and I was tired. I’m happy to have been able to go out in Madagascar and to learn about this part of Tana’s vazaha culture, even if I didn’t make it all the way out to the nightclub with them.

I slept wonderfully on Morgane’s couch and am now in the Colbert, a hotel with excellent wi-fi, so that I can give you guys this update. CouchSurfing has been great fun, and I’m excited about hanging out with Morgane more as well as meeting my next two rounds of hosts. I’m also excited to finally be getting the hang of Tana. At first, I was overwhelmed and terrified here because of the huge pickpocketing danger and the huge size of the city (this is the biggest city I’ve ever spent more than a couple days in), but now I feel much more comfortable and confident here. I’m also relieved to be establishing a successful social life entirely on my own and in the span of only one week. Life is good!