phone and clothing matters

i've been feeling really blah ever since i got back from the village, so kelley and i left the acsa (embassy) gym after a wimpy workout and headed home last night. i then had to go find an STD booth (where you can make long-distance phone calls within india) to call patna to talk to santosh. pappu had some messages for me to tell santosh, and i also wanted to find out what was going on with people there in patna and when santosh is returning to delhi. it took about 30 minutes of walking, waiting and dialing to complete my 5-minute phone call. part of the problem is santosh is staying with the professor (guddu's cousin's husband) who has no phone. so we call the people across the street who, in good weather, yell up to santosh to come to the phone, or, in bad weather, go fetch santosh themselves. it is a time-taking process.

once that was done i went home and started ironing piles and piles of clothes. this will make it easier in future mornings when i am searching for something to wear. while i was ironing, khalid the kashmiri tailor came to do business with shakti. shakti was very late, so khalid and i chatted about kashmir and how delhi girls have no morals. shakti finally arrived, and until 11pm at night, he tried on clkothes and instructed khalid on how to have them altered.

after khalid left, shakti showed me the phone bill he received bc he thought it was for our house landline phone. can you believe they are charging us for local calls to the embassy and they didn't even tell us? this will hopefully be worked out. i am afraid i am going to get a scary bill from motorpool as well.

tonight is another "girl's night." enchiladas-- i hope there is salad. i haven't had very many non-oily vegetables lately. the problem with the salad is that the americans bleach all their vegetables to sterilize them.