Bahut achchha!

Today we went on  a field trip for my Cities of Delhi class to the Qtub Minar, which was amazing. I still can't get over how many historic places are here in Delhi and how OLD they are. It's mind blowing.

The real reason I'm writing is because I had a fabulous experience today. I rode on a tuk tuk by myself for the first time since I came to India!! It sounds silly, but you all know I have anxiety about new experiences, especially alone so this was sadly a big deal. I haggled with the driver, albeit briefly. Once you throw some  Hindi phrases at them they start to take you seriously. I have a few I like to use in partular. They mean "(insert price here) is the right price", "I am a student, I go there every day". When used in conjunction they are magic words! I'm not taking Hindi anymore, but I still do some independent study, for this very purpose. Any way, I get in the tuk tuk and he asks me how I am in Hindi. Normally, this is a courtesy that doesn't occur so one is supposed to treat it with suspicion. However, he was a nice older man and sometimes you can just tell about people, and to me he seemed like a good guy. So we had the following conversation:
Mr tuktuk: Ap kase ho?
Me: Meh tik hain. Ap kase ho?
Mr. Bahut achha! Me tik hain.
Mr. Ap ka nom kya hai?
Me. Mera nom Katie hain. Ap ka nom kya hai?
Mr. Mera nom (something unintelligible) hai. Can we...english?
Me. Ji hain!! (Yes!!)
Me. How are you?
Mr. I am good, how are you?
Me. Very good! What is your name?
Mr. My name is (....)
Then he just smiled really big to himself and we continued the trip in silence. And that wasn't even the best part! Being alone in the tuktuk was one of the greatest feelings I have had since coming here. I just felt like I was on top of the world- I was travelling alone in Delhi after having a conversation in the local language. It was sunny and warm and I just felt freakin awesome- so proud of myself :)

Also tonight at dinner it was just my roommate, myself, one of the new girls, and auntie. It is unusual for auntie to join us at dinner now which I find very sad, so I treasured the time we had with her. As always, auntie was dropping some serious wisdom on me and I just soaked it all in. I really value everything she has to say and offer, and I want to make her proud with what I do, much like my own Mom :) I wish I had brought a nice notebook so I could write some of these things down, but I'm sure I'll scribble them down somewhere.

8 of us are off to Agra in the morning, so there will be LOTS of pictures to come :)

ttfn