"Lock your door to keep the monkeys out."

Today marks my 8th day in India. I'm finally settled in my homestay house with my family who I will be living with for the next two months. I live in a house with my host father, 60 year old Chandra-ji, who is an established sitar player and teacher. He and his wife, Bovdra-ji, my host mom, run a music school 15 minutes from our house where Chandra-ji teaches sitar and Bovdra-ji teaches classical Indian singing. She has an absolutely beautiful voice, the delicate nasal-esque Indian sound that is typical of old Indian raga music. She said she'll teach me some time, which is pretty awesome. Also living in the house is Chandra-ji's 85 year old mother, who I call Dadi-ji. (the suffix "ji" is added onto first names to show respect for anyone older than you.) Chandra-ji and Bovdra-ji both speak good English, but Dadi-ji speaks only Hindi, so we usually communicate with hand gestures or by my elementary attempts at Hindi. Although I can't verbally speak with her, I think she likes me. She's a tiny little woman and she likes to touch my face and hold my hands and smile at me. She told Chandra-ji that I'm a "good girl."

The house I am staying is different from any "house" I've ever stayed in. The family actually lives in one section of a large house that hosts over 25 members of Chandra-ji's extended family. The different sections of the house are connected by multiple hallways and stairs. It's pretty confusing to get around, but I'm getting the hang of it. There's always people walking around, which means I get little privacy, but that's okay by me. Since they teach sitar in their house sometimes, the "living room" has no furniture. Instead of a couch or a table, there's two big mats covering the floor surrounded by pillows. They eat, do work, and sometimes sleep in there. I fell asleep in there last nigh next to Dadi-ji. It's like a big comfortable nest. 

My room is on the ROOF of the house. It takes 3 flights of stairs to get to it, but it's like my own little bungalow. On the first day when Chandra-ji was showing me around the house, he showed me my room and then handed me a stick and said "This is to bat the monkeys off with." Apparently, they have a bit of a monkey problem. Since the house is on the corner of a road, the monkeys jump from the trees to my roof. I woke up this morning to two HUGE monkeys hanging out on the railing, so I just waited until they went away to leave my room. #Indiaproblems.

Hopefully now that I have a stable internet connection, I'll be able to post more often!