6/2/08 Arrival

Ok, so here’s a more detailed email as promised. Where to start… It’s hot and very humid. Our rooms have A/C and so do most stores, but you don’t want to be going from cold to hot too much or you’ll have sinus problems. The city is huge and there’s lots of people and traffic. Our rooms are nice. I will try to attach some pictures of my room and the view from the balcony. So far the food has been really really good. Yesterday we had an orientation meeting with our Professor. We just met in a little restaurant. Than after that we went to the mall to buy our phones. They have a raised train here, kind of like the L in Chicago but way nicer. So we took that to the mall which is about 3 miles from here. The mall is insane! It’s huge and it’s the nicest mall I’ve ever seen! Every designer store you could possibly imagine is there. Needless to say I didn’t do any shopping because who can afford anything there?! But we all got our cell phone which ended up costing about $30… we got the cheapest models. It’s the same deal as Africa where you buy minutes and load them onto your phone. It’s about 2 bhot per min for local calls… that’s about 6 cents per min I think. But you don’t pay for incoming calls. Some of you expressed an interest in calling me so the number you would dial is: 011-66-878118676. You can buy calling cards at most gas stations or little convenience stores or Indian or Asian markets. The one I usually get is called Extreme and it’s on a bright yellow background with red lettering. A $2 card will give you about 2 hours of talk time. (you don’t have to use all the time in one call) And remember that I am 11 hours ahead of you if you’re on the East Coast… California I guess would be 14? So far we have been unsuccessful in picking up the wireless in our rooms which is a bit of a bummer. I can’t figure out if it’s a configuration problem with the computer or if it’s a network issue as they just installed it recently. I may try taking my computer to a place with wireless and see if I can pick it up somewhere else. If I can’t then it’s the configuration and calling Dell might be able to remedy that. But there’s an internet café 2 doors down from us which is what I used last night and will probably use today to send this. I was able to talk to a couple people via Yahoo IM and was able to use the web cam and the calling feature with Susan… but something was up with her mic so she could hear me but I couldn’t here her. It was a very interesting conversation of me talking and her typing. I said I felt like a deaf person using one of those services for calling and she said she felt like the guy on Pirates who’s had his tongue cut out and can’t talk… unfortunately she didn’t have his bird to talk for her. I’m not really sure what’s on tap for today. We are meeting at about 9:30 and I guess I’ll see what transpires from there. I’ll keep you posted!
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Love, Jenn