another late entry

So, apparently I'm not so good with keeping to dead lines, since i was planing to write an entry at the beginning of each month, if not more frequently. But, as you can see, this one is a little late. I just realized how much has happened since I last wrote. I'm going to have to summarize like crazy to fit most of in and I'm only going to included important things.
My family went on a weekend trip to Jaipur about a month ago. i had been planing t devote a blog just to that, but i guess i never really got around to it. We took a night bus to get there and left at about midnight or so. the traffic was absolutely crazy on our way out of Delhi, it was independence day weekend, so everyone was either coming into the city, or leaving it. The bus was really cool, literally. I think that there was something wrong with the A/C or something, because it was almost sub-arctic in that bus! We arrived in Jaipur early in the morning and took an auto rickshaw to our hotel. We had the same auto and drive the whole weekend, so that was nice. i must say that 5 people in one auto for long amounts of time it a tight squeeze, but still pretty fun!
it was SO nice to get out of the city! I've never lived on a city of any time at all. I've adjusted now, for the most part, but it's still hard sometimes. i never really appreciated just being able to walk out my door and go up town, or walk across my street and be in the woods, but trust me i do now!
Jaipur in in Rajasthan, an near by state in India. it is well known for its arts and crafts and we got to spend some time at craft stores and galleries. the land is also painfully beautiful. there were lots of dense green hills and everything seemed so majestic and rugged. one of my favorite parts of the trip was the day we went to the fort and palace. both are at the top of hills and very near by to each other. there is also and extensive wall that runs along the ridge, surrounding a sort of valley that had a lake and temple at the base of it. the wall reminded me sort of a scaled down great wall of China, because of how it ran along and cut thought the hills. we took a jeep up a long and winding road to reach the fort. I'm not one for motion sickness, but our driver was crazy, the road was really steep and spiraled up and up, and i was hanging out the back of a jeep. but the view was completely worth the wooziness! from the walls of the fort, you could see all of the valley and surrounding hills. i also saw some monkeys swinging in the trees below, which was really cool! the fort contains the worlds largest cannon. it was only ever fired once, because the noise was so intense and the walls of the fort actually started to crack! after the fort we went to the palace. it was anther steep uphill drive and then walk to reach it. the people who lived there must have had legs of steel! the palace was beautiful and huge. all of the painting on the walls were original, and still as vibrant as the day they were painted on. this is because of the type of paints that were used. they were (and still are) made from plant extracts. we did some other stuff in Jaipur, including a trip to the observatory, the city palace, and this kind of permanent cultural fair thing, which was all really cool.
After we got back from Jaipur it was back to school, which leads me to the other worth mentioning event that has happened since my last entry, Teachers Day. Teachers Day is a national holiday and all the schools celebrate it. I was told, a week before it, that i had to help organize and dance in a piece for the teachers. myself, and the five other girls involved, had basically only four days to choreograph and learn the dance. it was supposed to be 'Indian classical and ballet fusion', so we just divided up the music between Indian and ballet and choreographed it in pieces like that. I was on charge of dividing the music, choreographing the ballet sections and teaching basic ballet to two other girls. I was so proud of them! ballet isn't just something you can pick up in a week, but they really did their best! in the end, it wasn't as bad as it could have been and we had a fun week of getting out of classes and rehearsing in the school basement.
Now i just have to survive the rest of this week and then i get a few days off from school, before we return for a bunch of tests in the beginning of October, we also get another short break in late October!