New fear: monkeys

I GOT MY LUGGAGE!! All intact and nothing (that I know of) was taken out of it. Thankfully I got it about 2 days after I arrived, which is a lot better than previous times when it comes a week or 2 later. I'm thinking by the next time I come, maybe just maybe, my luggage will arrive in the same plane as me haha. 

Over the weekend we went to Mamallapuram, which is a beach town with a bunch of ancient ruins and a sea shore temple. I took some pictures, but I forgot the SD card reader. So pictures will be coming soon! 

At the campus where I stay at with all the other volunteers, there are a TON of animals. Lola the goat, Twinkles one of the ducks, Monnikom  the dog, Chief the other dog, blue birds, monkeys with their young, kittens, squirrels, crows, geckos, frogs, scorpions, snakes, spiders, and more. It's pretty much a zoo here, just not a petting zoo. The other night Lola, the goat, got into a place where she wasn't supposed to be. So I pulled out all the herding skills I know, slim to none, and helped herd Lola out. I've discovered that I don't want to be a shepherd or anything close to that, because the whole time I felt like I was the one being herded and Lola was chasing me at full speed….whoops! Then I was walking up the stairs to dinner and underneath one of the steps was a baby kitten that was so cute, so I stopped real quick and noticed with her big eyes staring straight at me she was eating a squirrel about the same size as herself…I was definitely creeped out!

This week I've been doing things to help get the school ready for the kids, which they come on Sunday so I'm SOOO excited!! I've been entering in their annual scores from the past 7 or 8 years and found probably the longest name known to the planet Earth….M. Mariacatherinedevadhrasini with S. Marudharajamanikam coming in a close second. Imagine trying to learn how to write your name, let alone putting it on a scantron. Crazy! Then yesterday I carried 16 huge bundles of notebooks up a flight of stairs by myself, until my legs and arms started shaking. There are a total of 24 bundles, so I have 8 more to go! 

I haven't even been here a week and I'm already starting to miss food in America…when I'm talking to the other long term volunteers our topics of conversation always result in food. This is going to be bad haha. I seriously cannot contain my excitement for the kids to come, like every time I think about it I just get so excited!

I miss and love everyone so much! 

P.S. I've never had a fear of monkeys before, they actually were my favorite animal growing up, but for some reason I have a huge fear of monkeys now. Especially at night when I go outside, I have to have someone with me. Then the other night I had a dream that I went into the shower and a monkey startled me and he had his fangs sticking out and he looked like he was about to full on attack me.