God Given Talent

April 30 11:56am Delhi time
So I'm in the correct hotel. Thank god haha. I had to move from a single to a double room. At this point I am just waiting for my roommate to arrive.
I just tried this mouth freshener that I got on my second flight. It looked like a combination of colored sprinkles and lentils. I hated it. It tasted like black licorice and the texture was terrible. Now that its been several minutes though my mouth does feel rather refreshed.
I slept pretty well last night. Only about 4 hours total but I had slept probably 20 hours while traveling. I had to get up at 9 to take my malaria pill. I meet up this afternoon with the group. Only 2 more hours alone!

12:12pm Delhi time
It's really strange not being able to just fill my water bottle back up.

10:46 pm Delhi time
Ha. Wow. First off, when I was born god definitely did not bestow upon me the gift of skilled bucket showering. I was pretty much laughing at myself the whole time. Pouring water on yourself seems like it would be easy, but I missed myself multiple times. Especially when I was trying to wet and rinse off my back. If I have bucket showers everywhere, I will for sure become a master. Until then, shower time will be pretty humorous.
At 2pm I made my way downstairs to the lounge. There were 3 people sitting there. I said hi and no one answered. Cool... Awkward times followed. Then they started speaking German to each other. Wonderful! And now I wish I had learned Grrman. No idea what they're saying. Then one of the girls turned to me and said our group isn't meeting until 4. The 2 people headed out and the girl stayed. She asked if I had been out yet and we ended up going for a stroll. Not too far because we had no idea where to go or how to get back if we went anywhere. The streets twist and wind all over the place. People stare. drivers come up to you asking if you would like a ride. And then they proceed to follow you and keep talking to you as you walk away and say no. We lasted for about 30 min. Julia seemed annoyed. It didn't bother me too much. I kind of expected that.
Once we walked back in to the hotel, my roommate had arrived. Her name is Elisabeth and she is from Norway. She has been traveling for a while now. She started in Namibia volunteering with animals and went to Cambodia and Thailand. She's nice. 21 years old.
After talking for a while we headed down to the meeting. I am the only American on the trip. There are 2 people who have not yet arrived though. There are people from Canada, Denmark, Germany, Norway, New Zealand, probably other places I can't remember right now. It seems like most people are younger... 19 or 20. They're also mostly European. And they've all been traveling or are going traveling for an extended period of time. Some people are alone, others are with a fellow travel partner.
We headed into Delhi to see where the president lives and the Gate to India. I don't know how much I actually paid attention to the sites to be honest. There is a lot happening around you and it's a lot to take in! There are people everywhere. Cars everywhere. Tuk Tuks and taxis and bikes. A girl came up to me wanting to draw henna on my hand but I didn't want to pay for it. She wouldn't leave me alone and she kept grabbing for my hand. I wasn't startled but I didn't want her to start doing it and then tell me I owe her money. Government officials (maybe?) we're standing around dressed in blue camouflage uniforms. There were people guessing weight, people handing out food, people with blow up toys hanging from flimsy poles.
While we were driving, I noticed females riding on the back of motorcycles but sitting the proper female way with their legs together on one side rather than straddling the seat. It's impressive to me that they can ride like that and not fall off. One mother was even on the back and carrying a child.
There are a lot of dogs around too. Like gross looking, have no home, nasty dogs. Definitely don't want to pet them.
They dropped us off at this market place. I don't remember what it was called. It was white buildings that basically made a circle. We walked around it twice. I didn't see anything that was super intriguing. The girls I was with... Julia, Caroline, and Cecelia... Weren't too adventuresome and we didn't really even end up eating Indian food I don't think. I had pasta in a spicy tomato sauce.
I won't lie. I know it's ridiculous but I'm pretty nervous about the food and the water. I don't want to get sick. But I know I need to eat and that at some point I will get to the point of not caring but I'm not there yet. I was even a little uneasy about the whole bucket shower thing considering you don't want water in your mouth.
It surprised me how many people were out on the street after it got dark.
We had a little uneasiness with getting a cab back to the hotel. First we tried tuk tuks but they didn't want to go that far. A police officer helped us and got us a good price on a cab back. The driver kept saying well go to this shopping center, only 50 more rp. We said no and had to argue with him about going to the hotel. We ended up saying we were late and people were waiting for us.
I'm super tired and am falling asleep as I write this. So I'm just going to post this and head to bed. Early morning tomorrow in riser to get to pushkar.