Mussorie

Right now I’m in the foothills of the Himalayas in a town called Mussorie. We are up here to avoid the heat of Banaras and enjoy ourselves while starting Hindi classes. It is truly beautiful here. The hotel is great! We eat breakfast every morning amongst the clouds! We’ve also been out shopping a since we got here. They sell beautiful shawls here, though as this is a resort town prices are high by Indian standards(200 rupees/ 5 dollars for a shawl)Yesterday we got the chance to see something really cool a religious procession went right by our hotel. They were celebrating lord Krishna, who just happened to have a birthday in the last week too! It was really neat! People dressed like lord Krishna and other gods and demons form the different stories of his life. My favorite float was one which had Krishna, Radha and what looked like a Sadhu interacting. I’m not quite sure of the significance, but I will ask our Hindi teacher Virendra Ji. We start our Hindi class today and I’ve been doing some review. It will be good to have a regular schedule again. I feel as if I’ve been a tourist forever!!! Though this place is beautiful and cool(literally) all I really want right now is to move in with a host family and start my research.