India: Mouse in the House

There has been a mice infestation at Bungalow and I'm beyond petrified. Last night when we returned home from dinner at the grand opening of the new revolving restaurant (very exciting for the citizens of Ahmedabad), Justin's grandmother opened a bag of rice and out came a little mouse. While running for his life, Mickey immediately hid under one of the cupboards. But there has been a few sightings of this most wanted fugitive darting from one corner to another. My head is filled with visions of dark furry rodents crawling all over my body and gnawing on my skin. I don't care how cute they in Ratatouille or Little Stuart, I want that thing out of here!!!

Moving onto my next topic: I would like to make a correction to my Language and Culture 101 post. Thanks to my NRI friend, Shesha, who has kindly pointed out to me that most of the Hindi words I was teaching you are actually Gujarati words. Oops! As I mentioned before, Hindi is India's primary language, and Gujarati is one of its many regional languages (Gujarat is the state where Justin's family and Shesha are from). I'd also like to add a couple more random bullet points on Indian culture:

• When you pinch both your ears and give it a little tug, it's another way to say you're sorry.
• Indians don't use toilet paper to wipe their asses. You'll often find a bucket next to the toilet so you can fill it with water and create your own bidet.
• The education system in India teaches their children three languages from kindergarten on. All their subjects are taught in English while Hindi and their regional language are two additional subjects. They also learn Sanskrit, India's ancient language that is the root of all their languages (like Latin for us). No wonder everyone (especially the kids) speaks English with ease! That is the only method to teach a foreign language - not like Americans who don't require it until high school. It's way too late by then and we're stuck speaking French or Spanish like a retarded 4 year old who can't even get the accent half right.

Pictures: Justin pretending to play the guitar with his 9-year-old cousin Neva. Dinner with Justin's cousins at their beautiful modern home that sits on acres of farmland complete with cows, peacocks, palm trees, a river, and of course, a tennis court. Who doesn't have a tennis court in their backyard?