Annex

Here's the latest from Fabienne's jokes:

What do you call the Mexican Harry Potter?

Last week nothing of actual importance happened so we'll just skip to the weekend.

Actually. No, that's not true. The student-run paper asked me to write about how JNU is in comparison to the KULeuven.

Once it's a lot less... harsh, I'll be sure to publish the link to it.

This weekend we went to Udaipur.

Udaipur is the City of Lakes.

The Venice of India.

The (insert cliche about water) of (insert famous place). 

No but in all seriousness, Udaipur is located in Rajasthan and was built around the 16th century. If you have a chance to go to Rajasthan then you cannot miss this place. 

The City Palace is a massive building fit for a queen or you know me (but that's basically the same thing anyway). Had it not been for the guide, I'm pretty sure we would still be in there, considering it is the largest palace in Rajasthan. 

Its.... Well, I can't really put words to it. 

(But that may just be because the bus ride back was a wonderful freezing 12 hours.)

It was an imposing piece of architecture though. 

And then of course if you see the City Palace you have to stop by the Crystal Palace. 

Well. I can honestly say I've never seen that much crystal before in my life.  

Come afternoon time we had lunch in the very same place The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel was filmed. 

I may or may not fangirled a bit. A lot. 

And lucky for us, that place had a pool. So this is what the afternoon was like: 

Yes. 

It's alright, you're allowed to be jealous. Especially all ya'll in Europe where the weather is a lovely 7 degrees. 

We also met other travelers from the States. See? Told you guys you'd be mentioned! 

So Sunday we rented bikes (read: scooters). And in case you were wondering, yes my weekly life-risking has continued. 

Don't worry family, it was all safe, the "highway" was relatively empty and the drivers were relatively experienced.

We ended up going somewhere forgotten to the rest of the world.  

Sas Bahu, Udaipur

Sunday night we took the bus back home and yeah fine it was more comfortable than the drive to Dharamshala, I think its safe to say that I'm not going on another 12 hour bus ride in the near future. 

Or any future.

Or just never. 

Thanks guys for letting me tag along this weekend! Where's our next stop? 

Did you guess the answer to Fabienne's joke?

Well, here it is! 

The Chosen Juan 

Yes. These jokes are actually so bad that they are funny. 

Sneezing Panda

Let's start this week off with a joke, courtesy of Fabienne's Jokes (not yet in stores).

What do you call a Mexican without a car?

Keep reading to find out the answer!


Before I get started, it was brought to my attention that I "forgot" to mention something in last weeks' post, namely the fact that I drove on a scooter through Delhi.

Well, I didn't drive.

I'm not mad.

Life risking seems to be a weekly occurrence lately.

This weekend I went to Dharamshala with some friends.

For those of you who don't know where or what Dharamshala is, it's where the Dalai Lama lives (when he's not traveling in Europe like he is now and so we didn't get to meet him and that was sad). It's basically a mini version of Tibet, in the state Himachel Pradesh and borders the Himalaya's.

It was amazing.

Let's get through the gory details first.

Our bus ride to Dharamshala was a wonderful 14.5 hours. I mean it obviously couldn't be the 12 hours it was supposed to be. Why make life easier.

14.5 hours.

...

It was a long night.

After we arrived at the hotel we discovered the town and ate food.

It never ceases to amaze me how much food can just make a persons' day so much better.

Momo's and massive pancakes are obviously the answers to life's problems.

We went to a Buddhist Temple right as the prayer was going on.

I may or may not have illegally taken this picture.

The rest of the day was spent looking at views like this:

The next day we went trekking where we had more amazing views like: 

We were at 2800m and it was a tad bit chilly. It got so cold that random people started giving me their jackets and pants. Yes pants. 

The trek was amazing. The views were to die for. 

Our guide.... not so much.

We had paid for a guide who ended up not being a guide but rather spent his day talking on his phone or listening to music. He then also proceeded to ditching us on top of the mountain. 

However out of that misfortune came our up-and-coming band: Guideless* 

With Fabienne and Ana on vocals, Andrea on drums, Boudewijn on the trumpet and me on the piano we're an unstoppable squad.  

* CD's soon available at a location near you! 

The day after we risked our lives and drove up an incredibly steep mountain where the driver thought it would be a good idea to overtake on sharp turns. The fact that trucks were barrelling down the mountain didn't seem to bother him. I mean it's not like our safety was at risk or anything.   

Oh and we went paragliding. 

You'd think that the paragliding would have been more dangerous than the drive, but nope. 

The most "frightening" part was the taking off where you're basically running of a mountain into potential death. 

That view. 

I honestly do not have the right words to describe what that was like. 

Well I guess "wow" would be an adequate word. But it doesn't fully encompass how imposing it all actually was.

Most of us napped that afternoon. Okay, two of us napped while the other 3 were being productive. 

But then again, those who say that naps aren't productive obviously aren't living a fulfilling life. 

On our last day I felt like I fell of the mountain so I stayed in bed while the rest went to a Tibetan museum, a waterfall and became bros with a goat. 

Then, we shopped. 

And then it rained.

And then I heard two people speaking in Russian and could understand them and I felt like a spy. 

I also found a bunch of stray dogs that I wanted to take back home but nobody would let me. Something about ticks and not wanting to get sick. 

Anyway, we took the 12 hour bus ride back home and here we are again. 

Thanks for the great weekend guys, now lets go to Udaipur (in 1.5 weeks)! 

Stay tuned for next weeks' Fabienne's jokes!

Answer: Carlos. 

Presley

Dear Rain,

I know. We've had our differences the last 22 years. I don't like you and you don't like me.

But please. I'm begging you.

Please rain! My hair can't handle the excessive humidity anymore! Just give me 5 minutes of frizz-less hair.

Sincerely,
Aditi

Yes this picture is from Instagram. And yes you should be following me on Insta: adje_luykx

Monday was Freshers for the Russian center. Freshers is a party organized by the second year students for the new students, the freshmen. There are three parts: formal, informal and really informal.

Well. That was interesting. The event started maybe 1.5 hours too late, but I mean this is India so that's fine. First up was the introductory speech by sophomores. It's not that it was a bad speech. On the contrary, the speech was decent but just lacked the enthusiasm that it needed.

One by one the new students were called up to the stage to say a few words about themselves and why they decided to join Russian.

If there's one thing I've learned about that day, is that "English language university" does not actually mean "English"-speaking.

I went on stage.

I had a whole speech prepared in my head as to how important it is to me to learn about my Indian side and how JNU is helping me accomplish that goal.

Of course I didn't say any of that.

I mean why would my brain allow that anyway.

I said: Hey guys. I'm from Belgium, a country about the size of Delhi. Okay so that's not true, but we only have 11 million people. I'm here as an exchange student so I'd like to thank you guys for welcoming me and I'm looking forward to the next two months. Thanks!

Clearly I work well under pressure.

Throughout the introductions the students performed songs, dances, etc. And I was actually really impressed with my classmates' performance. If you guys are reading, you guys did really well! For people who only had a few days to practice you guys did very well!

The informal part was next. I can't exactly say I approve of this part. I'm all for embarrassing people, but I mean really? On stage in front of 50+ people? Let them at least have some of their dignity. 

So I left. 

Sorry guys, but I can't sit somewhere when I don't approve of the actions. 

Yes. I'm lame. But I'm cool too, right?

I feel like I sound like the mom in Mean Girls. 

Now lets flash forward to Friday.

The Marines at the American embassy were throwing a party so a couple of us went. But before we went in I met a few Americans who seemed to be a bit perplexed at the idea of people actually going to one of these parties. 

Apparently it's very frat-party-esque. 

And well. Yes it was exactly like that. 

Red cups, Budweiser* and beer pong. 

I haven't been to a US frat party, but I've been to a few house parties thrown by Americans back in the day and its safe to say that I went back in time.

In other news, thanks everyone for the overwhelming response to last weeks' question! I got a total of zero answers! 

.....

Next weeks' post will be late as I'm off to Dharamshala for the weekend. And how are am I going you may ask? 

Well. Obviously by bus.

A whole wonderful 12.5 hour bus ride. My very easily motion-sickness susceptible stomach is really looking forward to this. I also in advance apologize to who ever is sitting next to me. Don't worry I've got my stash of baby approved anti-motion sickness pills ready! 

See you guys in a week and a half! 

*I'm never drinking Budweiser again. That's not beer. That's water (with a rather unpleasant aftertaste). For my Belgian friends, it's basically Cara Pils.