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did you know there's a craigslist Delhi? well, now you know. i found out about it because i'm back on the housing hunt. unlike LA's overwhelming craigslist community, however, there have been no new Delhi apt's listed since Friday. so that means i've told everyone i meet that i'm searching for an apt: i told friends Sunday morning i was added to a list serve for expat housing i have a friend e-mailing contacts from when she lived here four years ago another friend gave me a contact of someone in the States whose sister is renting a place in Delhi i met a fatherly man in the park today who introduced me to his friend that has apts available in short, i've got all the feelers out & i'm just waiting for the right one. at first the task of finding a place in such a big city was daunting, but now i'm getting into it. all this begs the question: "why is Sarah moving to Delhi?" great question! i'm shifting NGOs and my n...

I'm still on the road, traveling, so this is yet another reflection on life in India. Here are a few seemingly large differences between life last year and this year: -Instead of my weekly "tall, non-fat, sugar free, cinnamon dulce latter, no whip," I now consume more Nescafes than I can count -I used to work in a cubicle in SoCal where my computer was wallpapered with mountainous views but in Palampur I stared out my office window at the real deal -Dressing was a chore with too many trousers, shirts, and shoes from which to choose. Now it's a matter of properly rotating my few salwar kameez suits. -30km took 15 minutes to drive but now it's at least a one-hour ride through mountainous terrain or traffic -My Dad, brother, and I summited a mountain in NH a couple days after Christmas last year. This year it's the Taj Mahal. (No, I'm not attempting to summit the Taj.)

So I was on the long bus ride from Shimla back to Palampur today (9 hrs without toilet or chai/meal breaks – read on to learn more), as opposed to the short bus ride (8 hrs WITH toilet and chai and meal breaks) and my eyes went into snapshot mode. My brain started capturing myriad images of quintessential Himachali India. It began with the salwar-clad man riding a horse-drawn cart loaded with mud bricks. Then came the cow patties drying on a stone wall as nature's fuel source to heat homes. We passed a motorbike with a woman riding "side-saddle" in back, her goldenrod scarf called a dupatta flying behind. I caught a glimpse inside a temple dedicated to Hanumant, the monkey god, who stood at the door with his brilliant red-orange coloring. On the grosser side, my fellow travelers left their own technicolors on the side of the bus owing to the winding mountainous roads. And while I'm at it, I know you're dying to hear how I survived the nine hour bus ride ...