Since coming to India I have heard—and spoke—more French than in years. Of course, it was very little in Dharamsala, as I was still feeling quite assailed and Korean was slipping out all the time. But today I spoke with a French couple for a while, and right now in the next booth a French couple is discoursing about times for their travel plans, and I understand a fair bit of it. Whee.

As for my own travel plans, the bus-route to Fatepur Sikri is ridiculous, so I am going to catch a train tomorrow afternoon and sleep to Agra, and then catch a cab to Fatepur to see the ghost city in the morning. That means I only have a half day to do shopping tomorrow, as my train’s at 1 pm. But that’s okay. I kind of know where I wanna go, and I’ve done most of my sightseeing already. A nice rickshaw guy DIDN’T rip me off today, but took me to a ton of nice places for only 200 ruppees. First truly nice and trustworthy autorickshaw pilot I’ve met. It did me good to see that.

I was starving for something familiar for dinner, so I had a pizza at Pizza Hut. A nice, but slightly weird, freshman law student from Bangalore struck up a conversation and had dinner with me. Then he wandered off, telling me he’d be back but paying his bill and leaving. I didn’t wait more than 2 minutes for him, anyway, whilee thumbing through my Lonely Planet. Man do I feel like a white man with that thing in my hands.

I’ve decided Ritu was right, I have lost weight and it’s neat. I think I may look younger because of it.

Tonight I’ll be seeing a movie at the Raj Madir, which is basically a palace-sized theater. I’m seeing the late show, at 9:30pm, and will then head back to my room and sleep till about 7am; then I must rush to Old Jaipur, do a little shopping, and hire an autorickshaw to take me to the train station. I lost a few hours getting my ticket today, and it’s disappointing to find the night train full and having to take the afternoon train, but what the hell… I’m still enjoying my trip and I know now what sorts of things need to be planned (and checked for myself—the travel agent in Dharamsala told me getting from Jaipur to Fatepur Sikri is easy but it’s not!).

For now, I have a few hours to kill so I’ll go to the Pink City—it was painted pink as a sign of hospitality when Price Albert visited, and somehow the tradition’s been kept up—and wander among the bazaars a little, and maybe see an astrologer. I requested a past life horoscope out of snide amusement from the Tibetans in Dharamsala, and I’d love to have something to compare it with when it arrives. I’ll have to give them an approximate time of birth, but hey, it’s all hokum anyway, so what the hell.

By the way, Ritu, the movie I’m seeing is the one I said I’d see with you—it’s the only one and I wanted to see the inside of the cinema—but I’ll see it again with you, you know I don’t mind as long as it’s BOLLYWOOD. Heh. (But don’t tell John, he’ll look at me funny forever and he already does thanks to my weirdo music. Hahaha.)

So: tomorrow frantic shopping and a train ride to Agra, and a cab to Fatepur Sikri. Thursday, the ruins in the morning and a cab back to Agra, probably to see the Taj. Then the Agra Fort on Friday morning, and then back to Delhi. Thank goodness I got all my rooms booked this morning, though it took an hour—mostly because of some weird number-dropping protocol that was necessary to call from Jaipur to Fatepur Sikri and Agra. I’ve heard of leaving off first numbers, but never numbers from the middle. It was weird.

Off I rush.