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Well hi everyone!

Now I'm sitting here in southern India. An Indian friend from Taiwan helped me get set up in a rented room. I was very lucky, the price is low (like $70/mth) and it's right in a touristy area called Fort Cochin.

Just down the road is the first church built in India (by Portuguese invaders) and it once held Vasco de Gama's body (till they carted it back to Portugal).

I've finally got a computer set up, and will order my books to get my big certification to show I'm up to speed in programming. After that I think I'll return to the US.

Indians are yet another group with yet other mores. I was looking at TinyPic.com (that I use to post pictures to the web) and some people put dirty pictures up there, and the guys who set up my Internet connection couldn't stop chortling when they called to confirm it was set up. The pictures aren't that dirty, so I think it's more like any naughty habits are scandalous. My Indian friend told me that when they are arranging marriages (which most people now do, with the consent of both bride and groom) that if someone says "That guy might smoke." Then that is enough to disqualify him from being a potential suitor to that girl! I don't go to bars much, but here the bar's signs must be in black and white letters and can say only "BAR".

This area is extremely Catholic. Even the buses have signs on from like "Angel", and "Mary", and "Joseph". The land lady is pretty cool, but I think by owning a home she is very snobbish. She enjoys telling me about her "servants" (the poor people who clean her house) and she seems to gloat over how cheap everything is (a fresh caught fish from the ocean fried up for you on the spot is $1.50)

She was real interested in telling me how much everything she has cost, and bugged her eyes out whenever I opened my wallet to buy things (like the computer, and the apartment deposit). When I finally made it clear to her that I'm on a budget and studying to get back to working again she seemed aghast.

After sticking her nose all around (she lives in the house next door), after I played up how thrifty I wanted to be, she had this slightly uncomfortable look on her face like "Uh, yeah, whatever, uh, maybe I'll call you sometime".

It was pretty funny, she's Indian too, but wanted to play the snob, saying you're from the US has an impact around here too, since everyone is studying to work in our industries!

Other than that I'm not 100% comfortable with this country. There are LOADS of creepy people wandering about. And if I workout and stride strongly along the road then one or two Indian men will always say something sarcastic like "Ooooo Hellooooo", and start laughing, then there will be two, or three, or four. I don't feel threatened as they look like major pussies, but I don't like the sentiment either, as you might imagine.

I'm shooting for 6 months here, as I work hard to get my programming certification (I need that since any break is seen as a big negative, and I have been out of it for 3 years now). I'll take some pictures over that time and drop by, but I won't be participating much in the Lair as I'll have my hands full (I must pass 5 hard tests over the next 6 months!).

You may see me participating in some political threads over that same time, though, as I'll be using those discussions for entertainment and sanity purposes! Of course they had such a strong reaction to a few naughty pictures that maybe I'll get evicted and deported for looking at a public site which some people occasionally post dirty pictures to!

So far the Indians seem ultra Puritan, and I can say that I'm not at all interested in learning what their view of things is. That's terrible, I know, but I'm really just here to get my certificates.

In fact, it looks like there are more programming jobs in the US than when I left, and they pay more now! It will be good to sit at a desk and do some professional work to professional standards for a change. But of course, it will only be so satisfying because I took a break to such weird places!

Well I'll check in later,

see you,

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