Home...for now

All pictures of this past summer have finally been posted. I have finished the posting of pictures with those from my visits in the Czech Republic, Poland, Atlanta and finally back at home in San Francisco. I'm well into the semester now and already counting down the days. That's all for now. I think the pictures will sustain your amusements for a while!

Back in the US of A

I'm back in San Francisco now and have officially started back at school (booo!). I told some friends before I came back that I was dying to come home but that I probably would be ready head out traveling again only a short time after I was back.... I was right. I'm ready to go back out traveling again and it took all of 3 weeks back in the states before I felt the itch. Oh well, it was a fantastic summer with lots of lessons and lots of fun. Now I'm broke.... REALLY broke! haha! Well, I guess I am supposed to be a poor law student, I should probably start acting like one!

I am slowly posting pictures of the rest of the summer. I know I haven't been the best about it but they will be up eventually. Just keep checking in! I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do with this blog. I think I may keep it up a while and check in any time anything exciting happens. I wont make regular posts from law school because if I am finding law school to be painful, I'm sure the post will be equally as painful and you don't want to read all that boring stuff anyway. But anything fun/exciting that comes along I'll try to relay.

For example: my friend Megha got engaged over vacation! She and her current fiancee Rob went to Hawaii for vacation and he popped the question. The ring is beautiful and huge and she is very happy. They are going to have a decent engagement and wait until she is at least done with law school before the wedding. So there is at least 2 years til the date. Everyone seems to be pairing off and taking the dive but now that I'm a bit older (although not by much), it doesn't seem quite so weird. I am not a big advocate of getting married early but I figure by now most my friends have finished undergrad and are well into or even done with their graduate degrees so I suppose it isn't a bad time for people to be engaged. Its just hard to believe the endless number that have already gotten married and are now popping out kids! EEK! But best wishes to everyone, no matter what their situation!

Intermission

So I'm now in Prague! I've finished with England, Paris and Nice and am now taking my classes in the Czech Republic. This will be very short. I just wanted to let everyone know where I am currently and why I wont be posting many more of these updates until I am in Atlanta at the beginning of August. I do not have consistent access to internet so I use the internet while at school during my break. Because of this, it is hard to find time to do everything and upload pics. I will try to find time but I make no promises.

I know the blog hasn't been all that informative but I hope at least a few of you have read and enjoyed it a bit. I will just have to tell you all about it when I return home (to both ATL and SF).

Hope everyone is well and enjoying summer!

Goodbye India, Hello England!

It's getting harder and harder to post on this blog but I'll keep trying. I am no longer in India... in fact, I've spent the last week in England! My stays in England and France (where I'm headed next) are purely vacation. It might seem odd that I'm taking a vacation from traveling but it has been well needed. I was very sad to leave India. If my blog posts seemed more like complaining rants it was only reflective of my frustrations with work. India itself was wonderful.

We spent our last week wrapping things up at work and going out as much as possible. We hit up a couple more clubs at night and went out to dinner a few times. The professor from National Law School of India also took us out for a final goodbye dinner. I think a lot of us felt that in terms of the internship, we all just paid for a line on our resumes, but most of us really enjoyed our travels in India. I would have liked to extend my stay to visit a few more places like seeing more of Northern India (maybe the Himalayas) and to do a safari at one of the natural wildlife reservations and even go down to one of the many beautiful not so well known beaches off the southern coast. However, I was also excited to start the next part of my summer travels in Europe.

I've spent the last week in England. It is my first visit to England. I am staying with a friend, Rachel (not the same Rachel as the India program roommate). She lives in York which is in Northern England. It is a lovely city - absolutely adorable! I've traveled around a bit. Spent a day in Leeds where I met her brother; spent a seaside day in Scarborough where I tried authentic fish and chips for the first time, walked around the remains of Scarborough castle, and even made our own sand castles on the beach; and Wednesday we went to London! I must say as much as I enjoyed London, I wasn't really all that impressed. I saw West Minster and Big Ben and walked around Tate Gallery and saw Buckingham Palace and had dinner at Covent Gardens. It was a great day but really, I must say that I prefer York. London just seems like a giant shopping mall whereas York is just so charming and quaint.

Other than the day excursions, its been a very relaxing English holiday. We've slept in every day and just done whatever we've felt like doing for the day. Rachel has been an awesome hostess and have found all the very "British" things for me to try (mostly in the food sense). It's been great! Today is the fourth of July! Happy Birthday America! It's a bit ironic for me to be in England for this holiday. I must say I've enjoyed it though.... Rachel and I have had a 'duvet day' = lazy day. We haven't gotten out of our pajamas all day and have been vegging in front of the tube! Hope all of you had a blast with your bbq's and fireworks! No need to feel sorry for me - hehe - I'm loving my travels thoroughly!

Next week I head to France!

Rewind: Park 2 - Agra

Continuing on with the weekend story...

After our brief but compact exploration around Dehli, we all woke up early the next morning to make our way to Agra. It was actually cheaper for us to arrange a private driver for the whole day than it was to take the train and find rides within Agra to and from the Taj Mahal. Plus, our arrangements with the hotel for a driver included a tour guide. So off we went.

It is about a 3.5-4 hour drive to Agra from Dehli. At one of the rest stops we were in the car and all of a sudden we hear Jaime scream and a thump on the side of the car. We look out and its a monkey!!! The monkey jumps back to the sidewalk where his trainer is sitting next to a snake charmer! We took picutres and the monkey did a few tricks. Then the trainer tried to charge us a ridiculous amount of money for the pics we already had taken! Cliff gave him a little change before the driver drove off. The driver informed us that although these men look like poor peddlers, infact, they make more money than most professionals in India from the tens of thousands of tourists that pass through every day.

I wish I could describe how beautiful the Taj Mahal is in person. It is not hard to understand why it is considered one of the seven wonders of the world. It is magnificent! The marble is translucent and plays with the light. I've been told the two most beautiful times to see it is during sunrise and full moon. There are 13 chapters of the Koran inscripted into the marble in calligraphy and the other decorative carvings are beautiful as well. The Emperor Jahan built the Taj Mahal for his 3rd and favorite wife. He had intended to build an exact replica of the building for himself with black marble on the grounds behind the Taj Mahal but was prohibited from doing so by his son who imprisoned him for the remaining years of his life.

After walking around the premises for about 3 hours we went to this little place that made the same style of carved marble. They told us that the artisans there were the descendants of the same family who did the Taj Mahal. Don't know if that is true but there work was beautiful! After that we headed back on our long drive returning to Delhi.

The next moring we had a little time to spare before our flight to Bangalore. Cliff had heard that there was a remarkable open market that we should visit called the Chor Bazaar (translation: thieve's market). He described it as this sort of black market with armed guards and exotic items for sale. Only thing is that everyone we mentioned it to laughed at us. We soon found out why... when the driver took us there, it was nothing but a mile long street of people selling old used books! We asked the driver to take us to the best part. He laughed and said, "this is it!" So much for the exotic market! However, we returned to Bangalore happy about our decision to arrange the short trip.

Rewind: Part 1 - Delhi

So my over due update on last weekend begins with the first day in Delhi. We flew in on Kingfisher Friday morning. Kingfisher is one of the largest Indian companies. They own airlines, beer, hotels and probably lots of other things I don't know of! We got to the hotel in New Delhi and played musical rooms for about an hour. The first room we were placed in was fine but only had one bed and we had booked a room with two king size bed as we had 5 people. The room we finally settled with had two king beds and a dinky futon thing but kinda smelled like urine. yuck! But the bathroom was clean and the beds were manageable. We immediately booked our travel with the hotel and arranged for a driver to take us around Delhi as well as a driver for Agra the following day. It cost less to book a driver for the day than to take the train and have rickshaws drive us to and from the train stations - plus, this way we are site seeing on our own time! We were told that we arrived on a day of "good weather." It was over cast and sprinkling. It was not too humid but we were still sweating by through our walks. Delhi has some of the most extreme weather climates in India. It is apparently either bitter cold, or pouring during monsoon season or the most miserable hot humid weather ever. We got to experience the immense heat and the pouring rain through the rest of the weekend. I lived in the South for 11 years and that heat and humidity rivaled Louisiana and Florida!

First we saw the Red Fort. It was pretty cool. A huge fort with a mosque inside the enormous walls. I wanted to walk up to the top but it is chained off and guarded by officials with M16's. They laughed at me when I didn't really notice the gun at first and motioned that I wanted to go up the stairwell. I think the look on my face was quite surprised when I saw the big gun. We also had "picked up" an unofficial guide for the area. When I say pick up, I mean he started following us and guided us through the streets and waited for us while we looked around the stops. He lead us next to the big mosque nearby. It was huge and very pretty. We took turns going in because they were charging for every camera you brought in to take pictures.

While inside a bunch of little kids came running up to me very excited. They were all a little shy but one found the courage to ask my name. I responded and asked each of them their names and how old they were (ranged 6-9). Then the same girl who asked my name asked what caste I was in! I told her that I was from the USA and that we don't have a caste system. She looked confused and a little disappointed. I think she thought I was in one of the higher ones and was just excited.

After the mosque we headed out with the guide again. He told us he would take us to this market place. He then proceeded to guide us through these narrow dark alleys for about 20 minutes. We were getting very nervous as the sun was going down and were wondering why we were following this stranger through dark alleys. The guys in our group started hovering around the girls making sure no one was left out of reach. Then, thankfully, the narrow dark alley turned into a lit up glittering street called Wedding Street. Obvious from the name, it is where you buy all that you would need for your wedding apparel and accessories. We walked around and went into one of the little hand made jewelry shops. Then the guide took us back to our driver and tipped him for taking us around.

As it was late and many things were closed, our driver took us around to see some of the buildings at night. We stopped first at the Gandhi Memorial Park to see if it might still be open. It was not. It had just closed. So Donovan begged and pleaded with the guard for about 10 minutes to let us in for a quick look. The guard finally looked at all of us and said RUN! So we did! We ran as fast as we could in our flip flops through this dark park to see the memorial spot. I will say that the park was beautiful and I think it made it more so that it was at night. There was no one else there and the lit tourch at the memorial was amazing. We took some pictures (which I don't think we were allowed to do) and ran like hell back out! After that the driver took us around to the Inidan Gate which lights up at night. There are tons of street vendors out and families gather on the long lawns around it to just hang out. The Indian Gate kinda looks a little like the Arc de Triomphe in Paris (as far as shape is concerned)... not trying to make a comparative statement only making sure you know what you're looking at in the pics! He also drove us around to take quick looks at the legislature building, parliament, and the president's house. After all that, we called it a night!

Delhi is split into New Dehli and Old Delhi. Our hotel was in New Dehli which really just looks like any other city in India. Sort of run down but "newer" urban type buildings. Old Delhi is really fun for the things to see and do! Delhi is also one of the few strict air pollution restriction laws governing emissions on cars. Apparently it was instituted because the pollution was getting so incredibly outrageous that the Indian government had to step in and make some changes. So the air is a little easier to breathe than in Bangalore.

It's amazing how fast things change in India. The development and growth are always in explosions so most places rarely have the infrastructure to handle such spurts. Many things that friends have told me about cities that they visited only 3 or 4 years ago are no longer applicable at all! For example, Bangalore is known as the garden city. 4 Years ago it was the place that everyone wanted to go to retire. Lots of leisure money and a beautiful city. Now with the IT explosion in Bangalore, the city expanded to such a capacity that it is overrun with people and poverty. They had to build the new Bangalore airport, which opened the day before we arrived in India in May. The international wing of the new airport is still not complete and has caused some issues for us arriving in India and now in trying to leave India. The old airport was right in the center of the city. The new airport is an hour outside the city and there is only one road that leads to it... foreseeing a lot of problems ahead with that! Most of us have it all sorted though and it is strange to think we are all leaving in just a few days!

Next post: Part 2 - Agra (the Taj Mahal)

Another Day, Another Rupee... Wait, I'm not getting Paid

So before I put up my long post about last weekend's excursion to Delhi and Agra, I thought I might spend some time talking about my daily life. I haven't said much about my roommates and work and how I get about so I thought this was a good time to do such. It's a little weird that we're all leaving India next week. It has been quite a whirlwind and although it's hard to believe it's over, there have been some days along the way where it felt like it would never end!

The people in the group are great. However, it is a very strange mix of people. We all have pretty strong personalities which can occasionally cause little trysts but none of them last long. We are all pretty easy to let things go because these people are our "family" in India. It's a little odd to live in such a group setting (sort of like the dorms again) but it's also a great comfort to come home after work and have familiar faces and people to relate to. Thankfully none of us have gotten sick from food/water here. We've sort of passed around a cold but nothing severe. Water is not so much an issue. We were super cautious when we first got here but after a couple weeks when we were more confident our bodies had adjusted, we stopped using bottled water to do things such as brush our teeth and wash our dishes. If we are in a restaurant and the locals are drinking the poured water we'll do the same (there are a few places where even the locals wont drink the water). We pretty much follow the locals on food stands as well. I may be getting a little overloaded on Indian food but it is still amazing! And there's such a variety in fruit!

Work is work. I definitely have a new appreciation for those who travel and work. I always thought that it would be ideal to have a job that sends you all over the world... then I realized, it's still work! Who would have thought??? The work is tedious and most of us don't get much work at all. So we sit on the internet and pass the time. I probably could have finished my paper requirement by now but what's the fun in actually getting ahead? To be honest, I've tried but have not narrowed down a topic and have somewhat of a writer's/research block! The firm I'm working for is the number one corporate firm in India. Their international clients are huge and it was potentially a very exciting opportunity. However, at the beginning two weeks, the interns were almost equal in number to the associates so work was hard to find. Now that many of them are gone (which is sad b/c we really enjoyed the company of those interns), we've gotten a couple assignments but my head is no longer in it as the date to leave draws near.

I have gotten a couple really interesting assignments but none of them last for more than a day, if that. I have re-affirmation that I enjoy working on drafting agreements and contract but absolutely do not enjoy research in the least! You're probably wondering why then am I going into law? It's so much research! Well, I can do the research if it means that MOST of the stuff I do when I'm an actual attorney is the agreements. Besides, doing research in the Indian legal system is a whole different monster in itself. If you can believe it, I really miss and have a new appreciation for US law and research. At least we have a uniform body of laws and statutes and case precedent that can pretty much all be found through Lexis or Westlaw. Everything here is a mish-mash of Acts (there is an Act for everything), Treaties, Statutes, Circulations, and Orders that are all basically googled! It makes things very frustrating! Their version of a legal database (Manupatra) is really not helpful at all! They also use court precendent from the US and the UK as authority. I feel bad for the interns that have to try to look up American case law and they end up with random cases that are not very significant because they don't have access to our complete legal database and Manupatra doesn't seem to provide the cases that we would consider the most important. Apparently courts have only recently started using e-docs which further frustrates the system and not all of the courts are even on board with that yet. Otherwise, the firm I work for is pretty typical of a corporate firm in the US.

We've learned quite a bit about what law school in India is like as well! Besides being DIRT cheap, it's also pretty lax. You go into law school straight out of high school (so a few of the interns are quite young). It is a 5 year program in which they earn their bachelors as well as their law degree. We've had to explain a couple times that though we are only first year law students, we have had 4+ years of college and that most of us had worked for law firms and othe organizations before. The law schools in India are also not very intensive. There is only a minimum requirement set by the bar counsel to atten 35% of classes (whereas the US is more like 80%) and there is no real weed out process. The other interns told us that students rarely went to class and pretty much only showed up for the minimum and the exam! You just need the good grades to get in. If you ever want to see an Inidan person almost faint, just tell them how much you pay for school!

As for home life. We all get home around 7 or 8 and either order in or go out. We spend a lot of time going back and forth from the tailor for multiple fittings and re-fittings for the suits we've ordered. The Indian food is amazing and often very cheap. It is common to pay one to two dollars for a full meal! However, we have become Rupee sensative because now many of us feel jipped or ripped off if we pay slightly more for a meal (even when it comes out to only a dollar or so more)! We quabble with rikshaws over 20 cents and we really feel the dent when we go into a nicer place or a non-indian restaurant (we've found a couple we like) that has comparable american prices. This trend will not do me well when I fly to Europe next week!

We've managed to go out a couple times to different clubs. It is quite fun to see Indians dance and go out. Like the US, many clubs have an imbalance of more males than females. However, here a lot of places limit admission to couples only (which doens't so much apply to girls). But once you get in, it's common to find that the ones who get into dancing are the guys! They dance in big groups together like girls do back in the states. And they get REALLY into it! I'm sure it has a lot to do with the fact that it's still looked down upon somewhat for women to go out. They are not nearly as liberated though you do see the changes that are happening in the culture and ideals, especially when you are hanging out with the younger generation (our age) and those who have a lot of westernized contacts through work (such as the attorneys at my firm). Rachel and I even got to catch a movie here. Tickets are way cheap and we went and saw Sex in the City. They play quite a few American films and Sex in the City is VERY popular here. We weren't expecting much (which is probably a good things as it wasn't all that great) but it was something we really wanted to see because we are both fans of the show. However, I think it made it even worse b/c there was quite a bit of editing out (there were still some hints of sex scenes) and there was a big intermission in the middle! The intermission was also oddly timed and they played house (club) music for the duration. Although, I'm sure it only adds to the stigma that western women are all loose and immoral. Here the movie stars don't even kiss on screen! It's funny how we see it as liberated and strong - not to say that we don't get our shit dealt in the US, we're no where close to perfect but I'm thankful for what I have and the progressive society I live in. But it was a nice break for familiarity. I actually miss movies and tv. None of the internet shows shows work because it detects that you are not in the US, so things like netflix or even the tv station websites cannot be accessed to watch movies or shows. I've come to use certain websites to stream tv shows online when I'm REALLY craving some TV.

I think that's a pretty decent update. I'm only giving you glimpses and I'm not a very good story-teller but I hope you're enjoying the posts. I'm collecting a few photos from other people here so that I can post a proper update on last weekend (some of the places charged to take pics so we took turns bringing in cameras). But you'll have something to look forward to bc the next post will have a lot of actual stories of little events and encounters we had! Til then!