thik hai!

I'm not that upset. I was a little upset a few days ago--but surprisingly not horribly so. Because I was going to be sad if I didn't get to go on the Pune program too.

Here are the reasons it's good that I'm going Pune-style:

1. I FINALLY know what I'm doing next year, and can stop doing acting like 2 things are going to happen simultaneously.
2. I will see more of the country this way. I will spend the first three months in Jaipur, which is in Rajasthan, in Northern India, and the last three in Pune, which is in Maharashtra, which is in Southern India. Also, there will be some extensive traveling--the last several weeks in the Pune program are spent traveling all the way South and then back up again. Kerala! Goa! Karnataka! If you check a map, I've got almost the entire Western side of the country down. I'm also experiencing Mumbai and Delhi. And, because the Pune program starts so much later than the Jaipur program ends, I have about a month in between. I don't know what I'm going to do with it--get into the Himalayan foothills? See Vanarasi? Find some sort of short-term job in Jaipur?--but it'll be excellent, I'm sure. I'm also staying a few weeks after the Pune program ends and I'm probably making my way up the coast again during that time (as I'm flying out of Delhi).
3. Civ credit.
4. I'll get to know Mark Lycett, who a) seems pretty cool, and b) will be my Environmental Studies adviser.

So I'm good.

I've also decided I'm taking a year off between third and fourth years. I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet, but I know it's there. Full of potential.

It's probable that I didn't get any money from the government because I'm such a newbie to Hindi. All of the advanced Hindi students, that I know of, received CLS scholarships for summer study, while no one in my class got one. Whatever. I'll try again next year, if I'm planning to go back. Maybe they'll take me more seriously then. For now, things are alright. No; things are good.

Oh, and--I bought my ticket. I leave June 12th (!!) for Delhi. My tentative ticket back is set for December 20th.

It's British Airlines. Because that was cheapest. And I like the British.