08/21/08 – Our first practice with the Bangalore dancers

Oh my goodness! The dancers here in India are real troopers. After the weekend of the Congress, they left at 6:00AM for a salsa cruise on Monday morning and returned yesterday afternoon. To top it off, rather than going home from the cruise, they came straight to the studio to meet us for practice for the entire afternoon (around 1-7:30PM). They are insane! I’d be dead if I were in their shoes.

There aren’t a whole lot of updates from the day. We spent the entire day just practicing and teaching the Bangalore dancers the choreography. They picked it up extremely fast so we got a lot done. We should be able to finish up the choreography with them today before we leave for Bombay tomorrow morning. They will be coming out to join us on Sunday to practice and prepare for the shoot on Thursday and Friday.

The funniest part of the day, for me, came at lunch time. We ate at the same vegetarian restaurant as yesterday so again we ate for less than a dollar. On our way back, I stopped at the kiosk type place to buy some toilet paper. It costs 44 Rupees per roll. That’s a little more than a dollar, more than my entire lunch! It’s the best dollar I ever spent. Lunch - $0.70, Toilette paper - $1.10, a clean bottom – priceless.

In the afternoon, we made our way over to a second dance studio where the mosquitoes decided to feast on my leg. It looks like an acne-ridden boy’s face in the midst of puberty. After practice we again made it back home to another delicious, but gigantic meal. Sometimes it feels like “seconds” is just the beginning of the meal! After dinner, everyone (Giju, Elena, Arieh, & Jon) except for Kristen and I went out to meet our new local friends with Lourd at a pub for a couple hours. Kristen and I have gotten quite sick and need some serious rest with all the long days of practice.