24th August

Well, I survived the night. However, got up for some tea and yoghurt so as to settle my stomach for the day and then promptly threw it all back up. Not pleasant.

Decided to miss class, as may throw up again and there are no bathrooms in Arts building. None of us are going to Hindi class anyway it seems, as having been ill everyone thinks they will just a get a relapse if they spend too long in that god-awful room.

Slept instead.

Went out to AIM and then came home by the time the head ache had set in. Slept a bit more. Managed to eat a cereal bar and some chapatti that has not as of yet come back up. There have been quite a lot of near misses though. Occasionally my stomach makes ominous gurgling noises that do not bode well. I think it plain food for me for the next few days.

My internet says that it is connected, and yet it will not actually connect. Bloody annoying, I have to say. I would love to be able to call home or something but no. Damn this infernal country!

Spent the afternoon in much the same way as I spent the morning: lying around. It is some how hotter in my room than it is outside. Never good.

Went down for afternoon tea and met an Iranian girl, and ex-pat and a girl from Sri Lanka. The girl from Sri Lanka told us that she had met an American once in Sri Lanka, who, by the end of her three month stay, had mastered the language so much that she was even acting in plays. I somehow doubt that we will reach such a level of proficiency by that time. Strangely, the ex-pat girl has been to many international schools, and has the exact same accent as my other friend from an international school. Very weird. It is a kind of Americanised accent, but you still find it hard to place.

I have worked out why my laptop’s plastic coating appears to be burning completely randomly: my mosquito repellent has the same ingredients as nail polish remover. I feel slightly apprehensive about the fact that this lotion I put on my skin every day and night is capable of melting plastic.

Tonight was another exciting dinner of dry chapatti. Went up to Lauren’s room and made use of her internet. Mine is still saying connected and yet not connecting.

Called mum to say happy birthday and so on. I sent her a card, but Christ knows when it will arrive. Perhaps before September, but I doubt it. Apparently granny C has just got the letter I sent to her quite a wee while ago that was meant to take a week and has proven to take two. Oh well, nothing ever runs smooth here. At least I gave her a card and so on before I left. She was telling me about their plans to come and see me, and apparently Trail Finders are going to charge a bomb, and they want them to stay two nights in Agora. I know for a fact that train tickets to Agora for second class AC are under five pounds each and the journey only takes two hours. The Taj is then 750 Rs for foreigners. And, that is basically all there is in Agora, so why you would need to spend two nights there is beyond me. It is a day trip at the most. Also, everyone tells me the food in Agora is the most unsanitary for miles around, and so you should take your own provisions with you. Personally, I think they just come to Delhi and everything that is within a train journey can be done from here, and then if we want to go to Darjeeling or the jungle then we will have to do that from the UK. But once again, possibly not through Trail Finders.

Turns out you can call mobiles via Skype! So instead of costing everyone a fortune to phone me, it now costs a matter of pennies. And the reception is pretty good too. Amazing.

I keep burning more off my laptop so I am going to go to bed and instead burn the dye off my sheets.