Rain Rain Rain

The good news is, my karma yoga was moved from 10:45 am until 6:30 pm, giving me a nice long break in the morning after breakfast before my noon chanting class where I can sneak away and go to the internet cafe. Today I had a little less time because I was waiting for Matt to call at 10:30 before rushing out... instead of Matt I got a suprise call from my family! Turns out Matt was on a plane during our regularly scheduled call time and so we got my mom, dad, margo and fat baby sawyer to call as replacements. It was great... although Sawyer got very upset about the whole wet, dirty uniform thing. My mom says in solidarity with me, they have decided to forgo the turkey for thanksgiving dinner and instead they have bought extra jars of mushy green vegetables and rice baby food and will all eat that with Sawyer for Thanksgiving. I said unless they plan to do that twice a day for a week I don't think they are going to have the full experience.
Since I had a little less time than usual, I hopped in a rickshaw instead of walking down the hill to the internet cafe. So fun! They aren't pulled by people the way you think of rickshaws, but rather they are like little scooters with a cab on the back, open to the air. It was my first ride in one and I loved it! Now I am at the internet cafe at the bottom of the hill drinking a hot delicious glass of chai tea for 3 rupees from the walla next door while I type. I have to make sure I leave with enough time to get back up the hill and into my uniform before chanting class begins because that woman who teaches that is a bit of a tiger and I wouldn't want to cross her.
It has been raining pretty solidly for the past 4 or 5 days which I actually don't mind so much because the air is cool and not too humid, and at night its so pleasant to sleep (and as a side benefit, people don't sit outside my window and chat after satsang at night when its raining outside). The major drawback is that our laundry won't dry... we have two copies of our uniform and we wash one while we wear the other but with this weather it takes several days for the wet one to dry, and meanwhile the white pants get dirty the second you walk out of your room because there is much everywhere... so its a bit of a flawed system and we are in dirty clothes all the time. But at least we are in it together. There is a growing feeling of community amongst the TTC students that I am enjoying.
What else can I squeeze in before I run back up the hill? I am still trying to meditate, some fellow students have given me some tips on getting started, which is helpful because the swamis aren't really giving us beginner information. This morning I thought for a moment I was getting somewhere but it turned out I was just drifting off to sleep. But I will keep trying...
Okay, must run back up but I will try to come back down again later this week!