your body is a wonderland

If all possible human bodies were collected into an amusement park like Disneyland, and each body were assigned to a different area of the park, and there were themes such as Tomorrowland (for cyborgs), Adventureland (for Steve Irwin), and Somaliland (for people who are underfed), I would be firmly entrenched in Typhoidland. Not that I have typhoid, but I do have the worst case of food poisoning or something that I've ever had. Since no one else who went to Bombay with me is sick, I narrowed the culprit down to one ill-considered decision on my part to have an iced tea at Barista, since that's the only thing I had all weekend which no one else in the group partook of. I really blame myself; while I was waiting for them to make my stuff, I noticed one shady-looking dude pouring water out of a dirty-looking five-gallon jug into a much cleaner and more presentable pitcher--but then I lost track of the pitcher, and I'm now guessing that it made it into my iced tea. The only way that I could have been more at fault was if I had actually filled the pitcher from the sewer myself. No one I know has ever gotten sick at Barista, but there's a first for everything. So I spent last night rather sleepless, threw up about eight times, and still have rather intense stomach cramps. Aren't you glad that I shared? It's awkward to have food poisoning when you're sharing a room with two of your coworkers, but one of them didn't wake up at all (even though I left the bed every half an hour all night) and the other one didn't realize that I was sick until about six a.m.

Anyway, that's not the point of my Mumbai trip. The weekend as a whole was great, and I really wish that I had gone to Mumbai earlier and more often--the city is so cosmopolitan compared to every city in India that it's almost like going to a different country. It's built on islands, and there are gorgeous views of the water from the five-star hotels where we stayed and ate. The British influence is pronounced (i.e. British architecture and double-decker buses), but you can find virtually anything you want in Mumbai.

I don't have time to write since my stomach really hurts and I want to go to bed (I skipped the party I was supposed to go to tonight, very sadly, because I couldn't handle being in a car for so long and then dancing like crazy as well). But here are some highlights:

1) Seeing Vishal!!! We got into Bombay late on Friday night, and he came over to our hotel. We hung out with him there, then went to this amusing club (Insomnia, in the Taj Mahal hotel), before I bid him adieu. It was fantastic to see him, and while he is a bit more sedate than he was in school, he was still crazy enough to be reassuringly-similar to his past persona. He and I had a good laugh over how my group of expat friends is identical to my groups of friends back home, even if the individuals aren't comparable. Yay for Vishal.

2) The taxi drive to the hotel on Friday night. The taxi driver was trying to rip us off, and I would have just paid him because it was only $3, which he could use more than we could, but Matt put his foot down and the driver spent most of the ride alternating between screaming at Matt in Hindi, and then singing him a song about how he'd been driving for 25 years and that he 'loved big man' (meaning Matt, who is rather tall). He also fell asleep at one point. He liked to stare at Matt while snapping his fingers and abandoning both the wheel and the view of the road; he also liked to scratch his entire body and then grab Matt's arm. Best taxi ride *ever*.

3) Staying up until 6 a.m. Stupid, but v. fun. Since we didn't get to Mumbai until almost midnight, we hung out with Vishal first, and then ordered room service around four a.m. I love staying up late, and this definitely gave me the opportunity.

4) Shopping! I bought ten pairs of shoes yesterday, and they were all for me; since the most expensive pair was around $7, I can't feel too bad about that.

5) Indian doctors. Rohit called the hotel doctor this morning, who initially wanted to give me a shot of something, but I categorically refused. So, he sent up some medicine without any dosage or warning info, as well as some electrolyte packets to add to bottled water so that I won't get dehydrated and die. I love trying to guess how much medicine I have to take. As expected, I got back to Hyderabad and discovered that the medicine isn't approved in the US, but whatever. If the food poisoning hasn't killed me yet, this probably won't either.

6) The last weekend with Regina, Rohit, Arod, and the Matts. I'm going to be so sad to say goodbye to all of them, although I still get one more week with one of the Matts. It was a fantastic way to spend a weekend, and I hope that we'll have similar weekends in California in the future.

Okay, definitely time for bed. And, fyi, I was nowhere near the quake, so all is good for me (although v. sad for Pakistan and Kashmir). Goodnight!