It's just starting to stink sink in that I will be living in Bombay Mumbai until January. I spent the day wandering around, trying to get my bearings... could have chosen a better day, as it has been pouring all day. I am consequently soaking wet and covering in mud splashed from passing buses/taxis/cycles/rickshaws/oxcarts.

As soon as the rain starts, it seems that all of India rushes to stand under the shelter of whatever is available (usually resulting in 50 people crammed into a shop that normally holds one person comfortably). In between showers, everyone goes back to whatever they were doing, but by unspoken agreement, as soon as the rain starts, everything else stops. I showed my north american-ness, marching determinedly (perhaps dementedly) to my destination, doing my best to ignore the horizontal rain that rendered my umbrella useless. People thought I was crazy. I know this because they told me so.

And they were right... why was I rushing? I reached my appointments to discover that they were running on IST (India Standard Time, which is anywhere from 45 min to 3 hours after the scheduled time. A friend tells a funny story about arriving on time to attend a wedding - a WEDDING - that was supposed to start at 6, but no one (including the bride and groom) showed up until 9.)

I'm getting better at figuring out which puddles are just half an inch thick, and which are actually half-mile deep lakes formed in the many potholes along the roads.

I'm also getting better at jumping off still-moving buses. When i got home tonight, I only hesitated briefly before leaping gracefully into the air, landing lightly on the sidewalk and then smoothly proceeding to my apartment.

[The true version of this story has me clinging frantically to a pole, hoping that the bus would miraculously stop, then the guy behind me getting irritated and slowly edging forward until I had no choice but to jump onto the ground which seemed to be rushing by at 50 kilometres/hour. I then miscalculated the depth of a puddle and waded through shin deep water on my way to the pile of rubble that is the sidewalk. Tried not to think about all the urine, phlegm, and garbage simmering in the run-off (due to the fact that the world is everyone's dump and toilet. I won't talk about the hawking onto the street). Promised myself that I would treat my feet to a relaxing soak in bleach when I got home....which took way longer to reach than it should have because I got disoriented and walked a mile in the wrong direction.

I'm sure that tomorrow will be easier.

7:11 p.m. - 2003-08-22