I can't believe we only have one week left here in Colva - time really has flown by! It is quite relaxing and chilling to be here and I have been able to completely decouple my thoughts from my worries in Denmark - fantastic. But on the other hand it will still be nice to move on and see something different - can't wait to experience 'the real India'. Let's just say that Colva, and Goa in itself, is not a realistic representative for India. There is just too much wealth and even the poor are not so bad off - sounds cynical putting it like that but it is the truth.

In the past week we have visited a college for women where we had a chance to speak to some of the girls there and ask them questions about their life. However, we expected to meet 15-17 year old girls still with fuzzy dreams regarding their future but instead we met 19-22 year olds and there was actually also two ladies aged 46 and 36, respectively. The young girls were in their final year and were VERY westernized. They listened to western music, dressed in jeans and t-shirts and dreamed about their future careers. Two of the three girls I was chatting to actually wanted to go to Europe to work because positions within their particular field in psychology wasn't particularly abundant in Goa. So a little disappointing - I really wanted to ask the young girls how they felt about arranged marriages and the prospect/risk of having to give up their dreams for a marriage. But no. Not that day.

Animals - have encountered a few while here, I have already told you about the dogs (except for the fact that Nikolaj has now managed twice to be passed up by a group of wild dogs growling at him such that he has had to kick and yell his way away from them) but on top of that we have rats, spiders, monkeys and…. First let us start with the spiders. The first week here I only saw some very small ones and I handled that quite well, if I am allowed to say soJ. But still, the night between my first Saturday and Sunday here I had a paranoia attack during the night. Each and everytime I had just fallen asleep I dreamed that a huge spider was crawling on the inside of my mosquito net so I panting woke up and frantically searched my entire bed using my very bright bicycle light. But nothing was there. But this paranoia persisted all night - very frustrating for me how only slept for max 10 minutes at a time and frustrating for the three girls that I share a room with as they sometimes was waken as well by my search light and whimpering. The day after that we went to see a spice plantation (I think I mentioned that in an earlier blog entry). Just after arriving at the parking lot and while walking toward the main entrance a guard stopped and pointed up in a tree while saying "looky a spider!". Fortunately my reflexes are very good so I managed to run away and avoid seeing it but that didn't stop me from shaking all over, hyperventilate and break into tears. My fellow students were very nice and comforted me and then we ran through the trees toward the plantation. On the second weekend while in Palolem, on my way into our beach shack I spotted a HUGE spider crawling along the wooden spires in the ceiling. I sprinted out while yelling 'oh my god' - but this time no shaking and no tears!!! And I think my yelling scared it off because I didn't see it again and I actually managed to go back in the hut and sleep there during the night and have showers!!!! Woohooo progress! And yesterday morning I actually put on my contact lenses while I was aware of a spider, of the same size as that one Jacob removed from outside my window back home, was crawling on the wall next to me. And last but not least, today we went to see Dudhsagar Falls ("sea of milk") - a 600 m high waterfall in the eastern part of Goa - where our guide stopped our jeep and showed the others a very very VERY big spider while I calmly waited in the jeep. Maybe one night I will get myself really really drunk and gather enough courage to maybe glance at the pictures the others took of the monster…. Enough said about spiders.

Now let's turn to the subject of rats. Can't remember if I have already mentioned this but on our first Friday here we had a beer at a crappy place by the beach called 'Kentuckee' (well, doesn't the name just tell it all?) and here I was my first Indian rat - and a quite big one - running along the roof top of the restaurant. Yum yum, But what is worse was the nes we received upon returning from Palolem last Sunday - here our 'teacher' told us that we had had a big rat in our kitchen in the house but now it was gone and all the cupboards cleaned and everything from the cupboards rinsed. Phew…. However, our rat adventure didn't stop there. On Wednesday we saw a rat baby in our garbage bin outside the house - it was soooo cute and just looked like a small dark grey hamster with a very long tail. Still, the owner of the house came with a big stick and smashed it to death while we girls felt very sorry for the rat baby. Damn, the next day there was another rat in the kitchen, again a small one that we caught using a trap. Felt horrible when I saw the poor thing lying in the trap with its back snapped…. Buhuuuu…. But I did not appreciate the big one that we spotted crawling along the wooden spires in our ceiling in the girls room or the rat droppings that Nikolaj spotted in his bed outside the mosquito net. Yuck. And to top it off we saw a big fat rat crawling along the wall of the restaurant where we had our night snack on Friday at 3:30 in the morning. I miss clean DK in the respect.

And finally monkeys. As mentioned above, today we went to this national park to see the waterfall and here there was an abundance of very friendly white-faced monkeys. We had bought some bananas and nuts before entering the park such that we were able to feed them. It was quite funny. We just squatted down and had the nuts in a closed fist and then the monkeys came up to you and pried you fingers open with their hands and then gobbled down the nuts. Tihii. The same happened with the bananas which they ate with the banana peel on and everything. We then walked up and ended up at the bottom of the waterfall where there was this beautiful pool of water in which we could actually bathe. Aaahh bliss. The water was cold and so clean and except for some fish it was free of animals (at least as far as we know). Oh so nice, we could have spent the entire day just splashing around in that pool. Mmmmm. Oh and we also saw an elephant in the park as well! The trip itself was also quite an experience as we was tossed around like sacks of potatoes in this jeep bumping along a very rocky road and crossing water a few times as well. And the smell there was so nice and clean and pure in contrast to the moldy smell of fish and garbage burning that we normally have here in Colva.

Next week I will again try to upload some pictures representing what I have just told you. Hugs Mette