=)

I have much good news to report!

1. I have finished reading the MSID packet
2. I have procured a pair of wide-leg khakis, and a cute collared tunic in summer cotton
and most excitingly.................

3. I got an email from MSID telling me with whom and where I will live! (For the first half of the program anyway.) A senior from the U of M and I will have the same host mother and father, who live in an apartment near the temple to Ganesha on Moti Doongri (Hill of Pearls). In this video you can start to see the hill/temple around 0:12. Anyway I'm taking this as an excellent sign; Ganesha is always prayed to first, especially when beginning a journey. He is known as the Lord of Obstacles (removing them or placing them in people's paths when they need to slow down) as well as the god of intelligence and wisdom. If starting my study abroad experience near one of his temples isn't an auspicious sign, I don't know what is ^-^.

I have begun packing; now I have only to finish that, pick up gifts for my host parents, and depart...
(well, and intensively study Hindi...that's the one goal I'm really lagging behind on. If only I could find all my old notes!)