First Few Days in Jodhpur!

I got into Jodhpur on Saturday the 3rd and since then there has been a constant whirlwind of activity. This may get cut short because I am in our hotel waiting for everyone else so I can eat breakfast. My stomach thinks it's starving but it's a lie. We eat so much. So much. I haven't had a lot of chai surprisingly and surprisingly I've had beer already at a friend's birthday celebration. We were at an English pub style restaurant that the Indians really like and when we walked in they were playing Kanye and when we left they were playing old school Britney Spears. Delightful.
We are staying in a wonderful small hotel and my room is really a suite. I have my own bathroom with a Western toilet and shower with a tub. However, I have taken a bucket shower the past two days and that's been very nice and refreshing. (Is it weird that when I looked at the tub, which is brand new, I noticed that the concrete was chipping on the side by the wall and water was getting in and I really wanted to caulk it? Speaking of caulk - my first dream in India was about buying caulk and what kind and what color - and this was before my urge to caulk the Indian tub. Apparently my mind has not left construction yet...) My room has a king size bed and a tv and AC, which I enjoy for my computer's sake because it appears to get overheated without any AC. That bodes well for this summer...
We are the only people staying at this hotel and the owners are incredibly kind. When we got here they welcomed us traditionally by giving us lays and putting a mark on our forehead - I don't have specifics yet on that yet...
On the first day we were here there was a Marwari Festival, which is a traditional Rajasthani tribe and many people here still speak Marwari. (Jodhpur is a city in the state of Rajasthan in Northwest India.) I participated in the female tug of war competition which was foreigners against Indians and Gabriel, Andrew, and Garrett competed in the guys'. Both times the foreigners were victorious with two out of three tries. (The "1-2-3 Pull!" strategy is really the key.) There were also tribal costume competitions featuring both Indians and foreigners - some of the foreign men had on fake mustaches that were pretty hysterical. We also saw synchronized camel movements and sort of acrobatics performed while riding a camel - like standing straight up or doing a headstand while the camel runs at full speed or close to it. At the end of the night were fireworks which were shot off from the top of an unfinished building. The children ran right under where the fireworks were going off - they were very close and then one firework didn't even shoot up into the sky - it went off on the top of the building. Hopefully that person who was igniting it is ok. One of my favorite quotes so far: "Someone's going to the hospital! But the fireworks are very nice with the full moon, no?" At the end of the festival there was an awards ceremony and all of us won an award for the tug of war competition! It was my first day in India and I won a prize! It was an ornate temple-like frame of a picture that said Marwari Festival 2009 in it and a certificate of strength. Rock on!
Yesterday I bought two shalwar kameezes - the traditional dress here that are the long shirts with matching pants and a scarf. I bought them at Jodhpur's equivalent of Walmart so I hope to get some better ones once my Hindi improves and I learn where the good tailors are, etc.
First impressions of Jodhpur: The city (and by this I do not mean the Old City which I haven't been to yet that have all of the blue buildings and the Fort overlooking it) is not pretty. It is not Venice nor Jerusalem nor New Orleans. But what the city lacks in looks, the people make up for in their kindness and friendliness and hospitality. I have not met one person who hasn't been kind to me which I think has made all the difference. I have not yet experienced culture shock - sometimes I forget I'm actually in India because so far nothing has varied too much from what I read in blogs. I read a lot of blogs before coming here and I think that helped a lot too. I got to read a lot of the ups and downs and I feel much more prepared because of it.
Yesterday I ate pan when Gabriel's host father drove me back to the hotel. The first time I had Pan was when William and I ate lunch with Umaji and her family. It did not have a particularly pleasant taste and I made a face before I could help myself and everyone laughed at me. I agreed to get some last night before I realized what it was. Pan is something you eat after you eat a big and heavy meal and it is supposed to help with digestion. I don't know what's in it but the kernels and grains and spices are wrapped in a leaf - last night it was a coconut leaf - and you don't chew and swallow it fast - it's a slow thing. But last night was so much better so I'm glad I tried it in India.
That's all for now! Hopefully I will be able to update again soon! Thank you for all of your emails!