I woke up this morning, still smiling from another Northwestern win (one more to be bowl eligible!) and walked down to breakfast. I ate, still happy, and came back upstairs. I got some good studying done, perfect, just as planned.

My first dilemma came when we lost internet for a long time, and I missed Jess asking if I wanted to go to the mall for lunch -we’d planned to go for dinner, but with no phone, I had no way to contact her, so I think I’m just going to order pizza tonight. I only have a few opportunities left to do that 🙂 It’s getting harder and harder to eat the food. I think it’s because my tummy knows that my mommy’s food is waiting for consumption in just over a week. Making it really hard to eat more rice and daal.

My second problem came when I saw Val in the hall, and we saw a swarm of ants eating another bug. This is pretty typical in the hallways, so no big deal. But I looked down at the trail of ants, and realized they were coming from underneath my door. That’s never a good sign. I opened the door, following the ants……

RIGHT INTO MY BACKPACK. EW. GROSS. YUCK.

They’d found my cough drops, and apparently liked them. Ants were EVERYWHERE. I picked up my backpack gingerly and turned it upside down in the hall, shaking its contents (and dozens of ants) onto the floor. I hadn’t used my backpack since Mumbai, so they’d had a while to move in.

After sorting everything, I sprayed the doorway with Off! Deep Woods (amazing ant killer, if anyone ever needs one), and the trail that the ants had been following into my room. After that, I rinsed out my whole backpack, and as I write this, it is drying in the hot Indian sun outside.

I sat outside too for awhile, enjoying my last few days of sun and heat before flying back to the igloo that is Chicago. Bhavani came back from shopping, and gave me a piece of sugarcane. She and Tanvi (who is 3) showed me how to eat it, and told me it’s a natural teeth cleaner. Cool! I’d never seen sugarcane before, so I took a picture. You suck on it, and then when it gets a little soft, you bite pieces off, suck all the juice out and spit out the pulp. It was really tasty! And on top of the liters of Sprite I seem to be consuming, the natural sugar was a nice change 🙂

I studied yoga for a little bit, then I did some yoga, and had tea, and now it’s time for some more studying. The Truman is up next. Go Get ‘Em, Tiger.