Back to India

It's just shy of a week since our return, and this is the first coherent, semi-productive day I've had.  David started with the stomach thing on Friday, but we've both now recovered.  This week, going through the motions, I've felt like a ghost hovering between two worlds: neither traveling nor fully home.  Like having a baby or moving, I'm going to need some time and distance from our trip (and it's recovery) to feel like it was something I'd do again. I have no doubt that I'll feel that way eventually, but right now I feel like I never want to travel anywhere again. 

All right, let's head back to India.  Metaphorically, of course.  Didn't I just say I wasn't going anywhere?  I'm going to use my journal to catch up on the days I missed when I was sick and without computer access.  Our third day there, we woke up for the day at 2:15 AM.  You can imagine the joy I felt.  We tried for a bit to get back to sleep, but it was a no-go.  By 5 AM the kids were up and doing homework.  After breakfast, David, Juliana, and I went wandering around the grounds and ended up back at the playground.  As the children played on the equipment, I noticed a monkey on the wall that bordered the playground.  It was a pretty good-sized monkey.  It was one of these, which I think is a macaque. Then I noticed another one.  Then a third.  Now, being a mother, my radar is always fine-tuned for danger.  I'd heard a lot of barking dogs (India has a zillion stray dogs) and had already determined that, if need be, we could escape wild packs of them by clambering to the top of the jungle gym.  Somehow I doubted this plan would work to save us from rabid, attacking macaques.  They're called MONKEY BARS for God's sake.  Not being familiar with monkey etiquette, I casually retrieved the children and eased us back towards the hotel without incident.

Mid-morning we went to Sikandra.  Despite the fact that Sarah had to translate the tour guide's Englishinto, well, English, it was an interesting visit.  The kids particularly liked the acoustically perfect archways.  Two people facing the wall in opposite corners can talk in a whisper and still hear each other.  If you saw pictures of Juliana standing like a dunce in a corner, that's what she was doing.  Hey!  I figured out how to add a picture!