Delhi and a nice weekend in the north

Dear friends,
I've been meaning to write for more than a week now, so there's a lot to tell. I was in the process of writing a long text about Delhi, but I'll shorten it a bit to talk more about last weekend, which was truly wonderful.
But first, Delhi. Once I got over the excitement of the first days, small irritations slowly started to attack my nerves. All this talk of "culture shocks" usually makes me laugh, but after barely one week, I couldn't deny it anymore. I was nervous, mean against everyone who spoke to me on the street, weary. In Delhi, everything is complicated and chaotic. Going anywhere requires bargaining and traffic jams; buying anything requires more bargaining; to get a sim card or a train ticket (in some cases), you have to fill out forms and hand in a copy of your passport. As a result, you need one week to do what you would normally do in one day. I have been in Delhi for 3 weeks and apart from visiting and going to parties I haven't really done anything (except learning some Hindi; I'm learning how to read, it's fun! I feel like a child who wants to read everything there is to read). It's really hard to let go of that idea of wanting to do this-and-this-and-that in one day; I thought I was a pretty easy-going guy (or at least capable of being one), but in Delhi I feel really uptight. Apart from these small frustrations, living in Delhi is like living in a permanent mess. The air is bad, the streets are dirty, there's dogs, cows, goats and other animals runnnig around (though less than in the rest of India, I think), and the sound of horns doesn't leave you for one second. Even at home, it's hard to relax. The first two weeks, I lived with Indian guys (apart from two other trainees). A couple of them became really good friends, especially Arnav, who invited us to his home last weekend. The most difficult part of this friendship is that we seem to have totally different ideas of privacy and personal space. In India (or at least here in Delhi), your room is public property. Anyone can come in any time without knocking, which they very often do. This sounds fun, and actually it is (except when it's the supervisor, the cleaning lady or the plumber), but I seem to have the need to be alone every once in a while, and quitely read a book or play the guitar (I bought a baby guitar) without anyone just sitting there and watching me. What's more, they do not make any effort not to make noise when someone is sleeping. Three men shouting in Hindi in your bedroom because they have to fix something is not the best way to wake up. All of this made that after one week, without really having done anything, I felt like I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. To make things worse, last tuesday we got robbed. Someone came into our appartement (even though some people were home) and took my iPod, my camera, and my Japanese friend's laptop and mobile phone. That was definitely the worst day since I got here, and since then everything got better. But before I get to the positive part, just one last thing. We had a lot of trouble with the housing here. As I told you, I previously lived with Indians. Previously, because they got kicked out. AIESEC Delhi pays a company to arrange for accomodation for the many interns that come to Delhi. What this company did is buy a students house (called a PG or Paying Guesthouse here, actually both students and young working people lived there) and kick the Indians out. The Indian guys with whom I was living all had to leave last weekend. They did get warned a month beforehand, but I find it really hard to accept the idea of Indian students having to leave their home to make room for some foreign trainees. What's more, we really enjoyed their company, so it's sad they had to leave. By the way, people from AIESEC DU (Delhi University) tried to censor me. In my previous post I talked about people having to wait for their internship, and someone from AIESEC apparently read it. They called me and asked me to remove the name of their organisation from my blog, which of course I refused. I have waited for three weeks to start my project (I started yesterday), which will only last for two weeks. In my case it's fine, since I was going to come to India anyway. But other people came all the way to Delhi for 6 weeks just to do a project for only 2 weeks. People need to know that going on an internship with AIESEC India might not be the best idea. To console my would-be censors (hi Sameer and Megha) I should add that some people have really good internships with a lot of responsibility.
Okay, enough negative stuff. Things are quite nice right now. My internship started, so I'm finally doing something (even though it's mainly observation; I'll talk about the project in a later post). And most of all, I had a great weekend. Our friend Arnav invited us (a Russian guy and girl, a Japanese guy, a German girl, a Dutch girl, and me) to his house in the north (in a small town called Roorkee) for the weekend. A long weekend, since monday was Holi, India's biggest festival, which celebrates the end of winter. It was great to get out of the chaos, the noise and the pollution of Delhi. Arnav's house is nice and big, with a rooftop terrace, where we spent much time looking at the full moon. His parents treated us as kings, cooked delicious food, and trying to help out only resulted in a gentle slap on the cheek. We all felt like we were really breathing for the first time in two weeks, so the mood was great. On saturday we went to Mussoorie, the "Queen of the Hills". This town is situated on a ridge at 2 km altitude, offering a great view on the plains below. It was a misty day, but when we went to the north side, far far away, barely visible, we saw them: the white peaks of the Himalaya Range! It made me euphoric, the idea of being on that ridge, with on one side this massive subcontinent I'm about to explore, going south and south and south, and on the other side a glimpse of these mythical, magical Himalayas, where I hope to go at the end of my journey, to rest from all I will have seen and smelled and tasted. On Sunday we went to Rishikesh and Haridwar, two famous pilgrimage centers on the banks of the sacred Ganga. Rishikesh (also famous because the Beatles resided in an ashram there) is very beautiful, but quite touristic. There's a lot of fun things to do, like white water rafting, but unfortunately we didn't get the time. Our stay in Haridwar was short, but interesting. We bathed our feet in the holy Ganga, and I had a truly spiritual moment (yes, me!), bathing in the fast running water of the broad and mythical river by full moon. Monday was Holi, probably the best day of the year to be in India. On Holi, people throw water and colored powder, on anyone and everyone (yes, there are a lot of ecological question marks, but I won't go into that now). We were on Arnav's rooftop, splashing and painting eachother (including Arnav's parents), and throwing buckets of water and waterballoons to people on the street. There was sun, there were colors, everyone was wet and happy, it was a great ending of a beautiful weekend.
It was hard to return to smelly, noisy old (New) Delhi after such a nice weekend, but in the end I was kind of glad to be back. At least I have something to do now, so it's not that bad. The weather is gradually getting hotter and hotter, so I try to enjoy it while it's still bareable. I'll try to write about my internship one of these days. I didn't buy a camera yet, and I'm hesitating to do so. I fell more free without a camera, but on the other hand it would be nice to have something to share with you. Next weekend we're going to Jaipur, the Pink City, which should be a lot of fun. As always, news from your side is more than welcome!