Indian Girls and Rakesh Sharma

"You're not from India!" she exclaimed, giggling. There I was, at the "Life on Mars" exhibit, just trying to take a picture with a cardboard cutout of pretty much my very favorite Indian Astronaut ever (well, okay at least top 3) Rakesh Sharma, when I drew these girls' attention.

"What is your country?" she asked. "United States -- have you ever been?" I responded. "No, it is my dream to study there," she replied. She and her other teenage friends welcomed me to India, and asked me what I thought. "Very hot," I said, to which she asked "But it is cool?" clearly wanting to show off her American slang. "Yes. Hot and cool," I told her. I asked her and her friends for their names, and thanked them for saying hi. As I went on my way, I could hear them giggling again in the background-- they were obviously nervous, but very happy to have successfully talked to a nice American.

I have to say, when we walk around in our group of 6 American students we get a lot of stares, as well as a lot of smiles. A couple of people have asked to take pictures of us, and we always try to include them in the picture as well. Though I'm already getting a bit tired of the food (hello day 7 out of 80), it is pretty fun being a pseudo-celebrity.