First Email - Scarce Water, Rambunctious Monkeys, and Beautiful Mussoorie

Even though this is my first blog entry I am starting with emails that I wrote to people in July. My cell phone number is 995-399-1044. My Address is
UC Study Center
8-17 Sri-Ram Road
Civil Lines, Delhi, 10054
This is the first email sent out.

July 8, 2008
Namaste from India! I'm in Mussoorie right now, which is about 200km north of Delhi on the foothills of the Himalayas. India is amazing, interesting and frustrating at the same time. Everyday I have no idea what can happen, everyday is a ridiculous adventure. I have been here for about 10 days, but it feels like 10 weeks. In Mussoorie, to flush the toilet I have to go downstairs to get a bucket of water and come back up. I put the water in the toilet to flush it like so. Water comes twice a day. Basically a shower in Mussoorie consists of cold water from a faucet, if Im lucky it will come from a shower head and maybe warm. The bucket picks up the excess water that does not fall on me, and then I take the bucket and pour it on my head.
We have monkeys and black faced monkeys (langurs) walking around. Along with stray dogs. I live in the forest. I have seen the most craziest bugs, birds, and the largest spiders I have ever since in my life. Yesterday there was a mouse in someones house and the girls were yelling, so that reminded me of that one day when there was a mouse in Northrop.
Through all this Mussoorie and India is amazing. The view is gorgeous over looking the Himalayas, and the city below it. I live above the clouds. It rains quite often and it is literally like standing underneath a shower head. It can go from sunny nice outside to a Monsoon. The sunsets are even more epic. Shades of pink, orange, yellow bouncing off the mountains and the green hills. Beautiful! The food is great! Although Curry, Chicken, rice and noodles, and all these different weird sauces get old after a while. I go to this famous Hindi Language school where British soldier used to go to learn Hindi. Its 4 hours a day for 4 weeks and its super intense.
Story:
One day when it rained in Delhi, a swarm of monkeys flooded the street. Not like 5-6 monkeys. About 80-100 monkeys swarmed the street. And only in India do you hear someone say "GET INSIDE THE MONKEYS ARE COMING!" There were monkeys outside our building and we had to stay in the kitchen for about 30 minutes before all 100 of them left. SO many stories like this. Internet access is scarce here, I have to go the internet cafe in town, to use the internet. Everything is pretty cheap here, I bought a "Gucci" belt for 50 cents. A gallon of bottle water for about 30 cents. But I paid about 5 dollars for a small can of Heineken at a bar in Delhi.