the rain.

i don't hate the monsoon rains because they make everything muddy: i can dodge the small standing ponds on the road. i don't hate them because we have to dodge the frogs and tiny lizards (and the one tiny mouse we encountered) that love the rain: i think reptiles and amphibians are kind of cute (unless they've been flattened by a sandal, motorbike, or car). i detest the monsoon rains because they encourage all of these disgusting little insects out of their tiny holes and into our rooms. i was alright with the tiny fast moving ants because they're harmless and masses of them could be killed with mosquito repellent. hell, i could deal with the flying ants because they can be pretty easily squashed with my shoe. i can handle the mosquitoes because they're not foreign to me at all. what i CANNOT deal with, however, are these cockroaches. these big, fat, black flying cockroaches. i can't bring myself to kill them and they're kind of scary looking. and because i don't yet have a mosquito net, they're able to climb on my bed. i'm dealing with those in addition to the tiny, annoying, but admittedly harmless, ants that're also in here.

on another note. because i know she's reading this: dear mom, THANK YOU for this industrial strength flashlight. it's been tremendously helpful in helping me avoid small ditches and treading on tiny animals and insects when walking back from the canteen late at night. it's also unnecessarily strong: i can actually put a spotlight on a building from a couple hundred meters away (we learned this yesterday night, and were reminded again tonight when we elicited a "hey!" from within the boys' hostel when i accidentally shined a light on it). also, since the rains have started, rolling blackouts have become more frequent. today when sowmya and i were on our way to dinner, there was no power in the canteen (and of course everyone stared as we walked in because i'm probably the only one on this campus that uses an industrial strength flashlight rather than a smaller one or a the one of their cell phone).

right now, i'm having like phantom insects: it's like phantom limb only i keep imagining that their are insects on my skin and in my hair (which is not at all an unrealistic hallucination). i'm too paranoid to sleep, so i'm finishing typing what minutes i can before i listen to the meeting on tushar's iphone in the morning. i'm on my last points couple of points, so i may as well finish it up and get some sleep. fingers crossed i'm not being devoured when i wake up. AHHH! a moth just flew into my leg...this is going to be a night of extremely fitful sleep with all of these bloody insects in here. this net needs to PLEASE be up tomorrow night.