rocks, ants and mold

the past few weeks i've notice that a lot of shops have been changing their signs. They've been either added hindi to the sign (that has english) - or eliminated the english altogether. I've been wondering about it and finally talked with one of the employees in a shop i go to often. he said there is a political party who wants less english, and less western influence in general. he said this was one of their stunts. they've threatened to throw rocks at any shops that have only english signs. i guess that's one way to get what you want.

Saturday morning i woke up to an ant massacre. we've been getting lots of ants again recently and i realized that it had been a couple months since i originally put out the ant traps, and that maybe i should put new ones down. boy did they work. there were tons of dead little ants under my couch. it was a truly beautiful sight...and did motivate me to mop all my floors. i love ant traps. i can't buy them here - but we make sure to get a stock when people come this way from the US!

its been monsoon season now since June. its hot and humid...and has been very wet. the city has turned to mold. walls that used to be white are green. mold is flourishing in every nook and cranny. my pillow smells mildewy, our ceiling is mildewy, my leather belt got moldy when i didn't wear it for a week - but to me the kicker was my passport. i got it out the other day since i was travelling - and the cover was moldy. the pages were fine....how does a passport mold!