Nuttin happenin...

Sorry I'm not writing more, but really it's all same'ol, same'ol. Except for this weekend. Saturday We went to SIDH: The Society for the Integrated Development of the Himalayas. They run schools in villages that are too small to have a state-run school. Interesting philosophy on education: very holistic. This visist deserves an update of its own, but I've yet to really coalesce my thoughts on the subject. Sunday: Happy 4th of July! We threw ourselves a little 4th of July party here at Valley View. Just the 8 of us, a cheesy American playlist off of Rob's computer ("Proud to be an American," "Born in the USA," "American Woman," "Sweet Home Alabama," "Summer of '69," Jimi Hendrix's "National Anthem," "Fortunate Son"), quite a bit of Indian beer (no is the answer to that question), and Gambhir made us all personal pizzas. Definitely the best meal of the trip thus far. The real event was after dinner: good ol' massive fireworks show. We spent, collectively, Rs1700 on fireworks (about $35) and set them all off. There were small little spinny things that were designed to burn down wood-thatch buildings. There were what can only be described as fire geysers. There were excellent bottle rockets that went a long, long ways down into the valley. Then there were these two mystery cylinders, about a foot and a half long, with gruesome looking graphics of what could happen if you messed these things up. Mike, the crazy pyro, lit the first one off and ran like hell. About 5 seconds later there was a huge, HUGE boom and we couldn't figure out why these things were so expensive. There was nothing. Another 5 seconds, maybe 300 feet up, a huge firework exploded in air. It was blue and white and looked like a massive flower of some kind. A huge round of applause. Mike lit the second one. BOOM. No dice. "Misfire?" BOOM. Another massive, professional looking firework several hundred feet above Valley View. God Bless America. Other observations... to follow. I've been thinking a lot about America, in general, and I need to finalize them before I post them here. Be safe, all of you. Much love.