Just my luck- A birthday disaster!

Plan for my wonderful birthday:


1. successfully finish my all nighter.
2. Dress up in my JC Penny's summer dress and add a colorful splash of make-up to look too cute!
3. Take my bio exam and do well on it.
4. Chill on campus a bit to show off my cuteness =] lol (It's not everyday I dress up. Trust!)
5. Go home and celebrate with the family
6. Put on pajamas, curl-up in my bed, eat ice cream, and watch Our Mutual friend (a period drama! Love them!!!)


What actually happened:



After studying for 18 hrs straight, with a few random dance breaks in between =], I started feeling signs of a headache, so I decided to take a little nap. Here's where my story turns for the worst lol. You guessed it!!! I woke up 30 mins before the test! "little nap", HA!!!! See, I should of known myself better than that. Smh. When I'm tired, I don't do that fall in and out of sleep thing, nor am I a very light sleeper. Shoot. When I'm tired I sleep!!! Must of been only God who woke me up!


Now waking up 30 mins before a test doesn't seem like such a big deal to some of you; considering you probably live on campus, but for me, that was the worst thing imaginable!!! I live pretty much, 25 MINS AWAY FROM CAMPUS! I got up in a panic, threw on whatever was lying around ( I decided against the dress because I didn't have enough time to make sure I looked good in it), and rushed downstairs to the relief of my mother ready to give me a ride. My mom drove around 75 mph on I-35 and managed to get me on campus exactly when the test was to begin. Sounds not so bad, right? Wrong!!! I had no clue whatsoever which building or room number the test was going to be held in, so I had to go to the Jester computer lab to look it up real quick. Turns out the test was in Burdine Hall, which is pretty much on the other side of campus. To make a depressing story short, I made it to the test about 25 mins late! =[




The story doesn't end here. I only wish that were the case. So I took the test. I rushed through all the problems and managed to answer them all. Whether I got them right or wrong is another story. After the test I figured the rest of my day couldn't be much worst. Uhh....not with my luck. I didn't have time before leaving the house to pay proper attention to my face or anything else for that matter, so I knew I was looking a HOT MESS! I decided to head to the nearest bathroom for damage control. Hahahaha....now this you wouldn't believe. This part is good you guys. It turned out: I HAD BEEN WEARING MY SHIRT INSIDE OUT WITH THE WHITE TAG FLAPPING IN FRONT THE WHOLE TIME!!! WHAT THE HECK!!! LIKE I COULDN'T TAKE A SECOND TO LOOK DOWN!

MAN!!! I had been at UT for a good 3 hours before I made my horrible shirt discovery!!!! What I wanna know, is WHY DIDN'T ANYBODY TELL ME!!!!!!


UGH! But then again, it's just my luck

First full day in Lucknow!

July 15, 2010

Today I woke up at around 8 am and had maggi (Indian noddles) for breakfast with some samosas. Then, me and Shilpi Ji went out to visit the Bara Imambara. The weather outside was really hot when we got there and the area tour involved climbing a bunch of stairs. I didn't feel like climbing and being drenched in sweat, and Shilpi Ji was pretty adamant about not paying the foreigner price of 300 Rs to get me into this fort like structure; thus we just snapped some outside pictures and carried on. Our next destination was the mall because as fate's humor would have it, rain began pouring as soon as we left the Bara Imambara. We decided to get tickets for the film milenge milenge and window shop around until the movie started in a little more than an hour. I bought the tickets for all three of us. Who was the third companion you may be ask. Well, it was me, Shilpi Ji, and none other than our driver.  Shilpi Ji got so disgruntled over the fact that I would buy our driver a ticket to the the movie; but he wanted to see it and he was a nice guy, so why not? Me and Shilpi Ji went into a few shops to browse. The only noteworthy experience here is that we walked into this Macy's look alike shop called “Shopper's Stop”  with all these name brand accessories; for such a nice, sophisticated place the store name did it no justice. We walked in and my foreign face attracted immediate attention. Before I knew it, I was sitting in a chair and a Revlon representative was giving me a total face make over with shades that nobody could deny were too bright for me. She kept calling such shades natural and saying they would make me more fair. Uh...I'm black!!! Even if I bleached my skin I could never be “fair”. I'll always have that brown hue in me =] But yea, she had me wearing shades of foundation and blush that you would find in Scarlet Johansson's make up bag. Then she put on this ridiculously red shade of lip stick + gloss on my lips. I never, I repeat never, wear red shades of lipsticks, because I know I just can't pull it off. I have a baby face with no make up on and an older lady's face with make up on; so I try to conjure up a sweet in between by just applying eye makeup. All I really wanted to try on was the mascara, eyeliner, and the shimmering blue eyeshadow. Instead the lady made me up to be a pale ghostly black person with some extra bright lips. I looked like Chucky's bride for crying out loud!!!! Or like, if you seen Mulan, that part where she's getting ready to meet the matchmaker and her face is all white and made up, like that but more clownish and not as pretty. It was a disaster. And the entire time the lady was smiling from ear to ear like she was doing the most amazing job ever. See, what I don't understand is how come, in a country with people darker than me, the Revlon make up line doesn't have shades for darker people? So annoying. Anyway, because I know what works for me and what doesn't, I knew I was looking a hot mess but I didn't want to wipe off all the make up while in the store. They showed me the finished product, as predicted, I screamed LOL then tried to hide my face from people shopping in the store. They then proceeded to trying to sell me everything they used on my face, and like a fool, I said yes to practically everything. I felt I ought to buy something considering this lady spent some time really trying to “pretty me up”. All the stuff I dumbly nodded my head "yes" to, came out to being around 7650 Rs. Okay, that's about $174!!!! I don't even spend that much on cosmetics in the states. Not to mention, half those things weren't even my shade!!! Ahh!!! So, luckily we had to catch our movie that had already commenced. Shilpi Ji told them that I did not intend to but all those things and that after the movie we would come back to figure out what exactly I intended to purchase. They said okay, they'll hold everything at that particular counter. Hahaha...I bet you can just guess what happened. As an Indian and Black pair, we made the obvious choice of not coming back lol.

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Train ride from Lucknow to Jaipur

Last day in Lucknow

6/18/2010

Night rolled around and Shilpi ji dropped me off at the train station. Okay so this really old lady in a blue sari made it a point to stand like 2 ft away from me and just stare!!!! Like dang!!! I think that was the most bluntness I've had to deal with since being here in India. Shilpi Ji ended up calling her paagal (crazy) and told her to go away. For some reason, this time around, when I noticed she was starring I stayed annoyed. Trust me, It didn't get funny. I told Shilpi ji if she didn't say nothing, then I was about to. Regardless of the language barrier, attitude gets across and believe me that lady was finna catch a case lol. But Shilpi Ji did the yelling for me, so it was all good. So my train came and I got settled. This train was nice; no bugs, air condition, and completely comfortable. I fell asleep for most of the night (train left Lucknow around 12:30 am and was expected to arrive in Jaipur at 11:30 am). When I woke it was around 8:00 am. I stayed up and didn't risk falling back asleep so that I could watch for my stop. Shilpi Ji had asked my train neighbor to watch over me and make sure I get to Jaipur, but this Uncle had to get off early. I got new neighbors and they didn't pay me no mind. Lol. Except at one point, one of my new neighbors, bunking directly in front of me, a guy, started blasting a Hindi hip-hop song with urban English phrases in it like: “baby girl,” “back it up,” and, “work it”. I couldn't help but roll my eyes. Now we all know good and well, if I wasn't his neighbor he would not have been blasting and singing along, like he hood, to that kind of song!!! lol. Anyways so 11:30 am came around and we still hadn't reached Jaipur. I was antsy at this point because I was really not wanting to miss my stop. Jaipur finally rolled around but I didn't see the train station sign until the train had stopped there for like 2 mins. I quickly got up and grabbed my things but I promise you, the train did not wait at that station for more than 3 mins before starting back up... WITH ME STILL ON IT!!! I was flipping out. I ran to the door and looked down at the passing tracks. The train was MOVING!!!! For a sec I stood there deliberating whether to stay on and get off at the next train station; and just call Rakesh Ji (Program leader) to explain what had happened and have him arrange for my trip back, or just jump and hope for the best. I opted for jumping. I jumped and OMG!!! Someone should have been there with a camera. This was totally my old hollywood moment. The caption for this scene would have been: Black girl jumps out of moving train. I landed flat on some guy and we both went down together. My luggage, in the spur of the moment, had escaped my grasped, did a few flips and landed  inches away from me. Whew!!! The guy I landed on was totally pissed, and kept worriedly looking around to see who had witnessed the scene; which is totally justifiable because, I' m sure looking at our positions, the wrong idea could have been easily deducted. I had accidentally grabbed a good chuck of his shirt, lifting it up in the process. So picture this: Black girl lying on top of Indian man with his shirt halfway up and in her hands. Yea...not pretty. Lol. I wonder how do I always get myself in these kinds of situations. Ugh. It's just my luck. I got off from on top of him; thanking God there was no press around. Trust me, the Jaipur Times (newspaper name) loves taboo and prints just about anything. Since it's a local paper, I would have easily made front page, with a botched up headline and a story sensationalizing the truth. Hahaha. I can just see the story now:

“Sameer Khan (made up name) met a girl from Uganda (because I'm black. The Indian press assumes a lot. They wouldn't bother asking) online. They fell in love but his parents have forbidden their marriage. The girl has slaved away in an African diamond mine for 5 years; saving up in hopes of one day meeting her beloved. She flew to India the beginning of this month, and yesterday she took a train from Delhi to Jaipur. In excitement she couldn't wait for the train to stop and she jumped into the arms of her waiting beloved. He had been waiting at that station all afternoon. The two have been rumored to have run away together with Sameer's parents in pursuit, harboring intentions of performing honor killings (sadly an occurence here)! The police have seen no sign of either party since the incident, but will continue investigating”

Yup. That's probably how it would have been told; and all the while I would have been at home, reading the story over toast. I make it a point to read the papers everyday here. It really is quite interesting. Anyways, a lot of people must have witnessed the scene, because I heard a bunch of laughs. I was too embarrassed to laugh. I kept apologizing to the man in Hindi after I retrieved my luggage but he just angrily stared back. Oh well. I caught a overly priced rickshaw back. And, I reached home safely =)

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