Who are you and what have you done with Ellen?

We finally had our camera the same time we saw monkeys. So here are the monkeys we have here. Don't be fooled, they aren't cute.

I'm so proud of myself. Yesterday I did two things that I rarely do and always wish I did more. First off, I caught a rickshaw and went down to the store all by myself. I've been in rickshaws before but had always depended on Jason to tell the driver where we want to go. The main reason I've always been wary to take a rickshaw alone is because although I'm sure I can tell the driver where I want to go, I'm scared that I won't be able to tell him how to get me home.

The problem is, places don't really have addresses here. While a few main roads have names, the smaller ones (and not always that small) don't. So without street names, it makes it hard to have house numbers. The apartment buildings around here have names and then there is the apartment number within the building. So the way anything is found (including mail) is through landmarks. Our address includes "Opp. Setu Bungalows". I have no idea who decided the Setu Bungalows would be our landmark. I'm sure it makes sense to someone. Of course the rickshaw drivers may or may not know where those are anymore than they know where my building is.

I have learned from the other Americans that Jason works with that a hospital near us is a good landmark that people should know. It's also a good landmark because I know how to get us home from there.

So yesterday I decided I wanted to go to the store and explore the mall a little bit. I found a baby store and got Anna some more spoons. I thought about a sippy cup too but I want to start with a regular cup first and they only had the sippy variety. There were some cute clothes too but I wasn't there for that so I restrained.

Then I went to get what I went out for. While the checker was ringing it up, the price was different than I was expecting. So I did the other thing that is out of character for me, I asked about it. This may not seem like a big deal to other people but it is to me. While some argue to the contrary, I'm pretty shy and have a fear of looking stupid/being wrong. As a result, I often just go with what comes up. But this time I asked and after a little bit of figuring out what I was asking, we were able to get thing figured out and explained.

Now it was time for me to get home. Finding the rickshaw wasn't hard but at first, he wasn't sure what I was saying. He repeated it to make sure but I wasn't completely sure that what he said was what I had said (I didn't want to be taken some place wrong) so I repeated myself to make sure. There was a little bit of back and forth and then he called over one of the guards at the store to see if he had a better idea of what I was saying. He wasn't quite sure either so he called over another shopped and his family. In the end, I spelled where I wanted to go and we were able to figure it out and I was on my way. I did feel a little silly with the crowd that we had attracted but oh well. I suppose that's preferable to being taken somewhere completely wrong. Once we got me home, he did charge me a little bit more than the guy who took me out but after everything it took to get me home, I didn't want to argue.