milk has been made available!

So, I'm way behind on stuff I want to say. I suppose it's because I go on forever about each topic so I don't have time to cover them all. Anyway, we had fun that other night at Zara's and at the nightclub Pasha, which was incredibly loud and crowded and expensive, but somehow much more fun than American night clubs, which I don't care for. Maybe it's because none of the Indian guys were leery or creepy (a welcome change from the Indian guy on the beach who told me he was watching me sleeping), and because expensive in India is just normal in US terms. Or maybe it was just the novelty of seeing hip young Indians on a packed dance floor dancing to Indian pop music. Anyway, we danced like crazy, and had a great time. Our British friends have left India and are on their way to Kenya, and we miss them! They were super-cool and fun.

Anyway, we got some more work done in Chennai, and then we went down to Pondicherry for the weekend, which is where I am now. "Pondy", as they call it, is about 2 more hours south of Mamalapuram by bus, and it's an old French colony, so there's some neat architecture and all the streets are called "Rue Blah Blah". I've done some more shopping while I've been here, acquiring a skirt, a dress, a scarf, two shirts, and two gifts. We went to this great department store type place called Casablanca (Muffin, if you're reading, which you BETTER BE, it was a lot like Odels) which is where I got the tops and the scarves and one of the gifts. It's great because I found an adorable beaded and tye-dyed shirt, but the sleeves were too short, so their tailor will just take them off for me for free. And in this heat a sleeveless shirt is better anyway.

But let's get down to the real topic of this post: MILK. As you may know, I LOVE MILK. And as you may imagine, they don't really drink milk in India, at least not the sort of milk we drink in the US. I haven't been to a grocery store yet, so I'm unclear on the exact milk situation, but I'm under the impression that there's milk that comes in a bag and milk that comes in a box (think of a cardboard box like chicken broth comes in). I have no idea what the story with the bag milk is or what it really is. The boxed milk is almost like regular milk. Here's the deal: most of us drink pasteurized milk. I don't know exactly what pasteurization is, but I know it involves heating the milk to kill bad stuff and make it last longer. Certain brands of organic milk sold in the US are ultra-pasteurized, which means they're heated more or hotter or something, and they last longer. It also makes the milk taste a little different. Opinions vary, but I think it tastes better. I drink ultra-pasteurized milk in the states even though I can't really afford $4 a half-gallon. The boxed milk in India is something beyond ultra-pasteurized. Something that will allow it to keep, unopened, at room temperature for quite a while.

So anyway, the other night we went to a restaurant in Chennai called Sparky's, which is owned and run by an American guy named Tom and specializes in Western-style food. I had a burger and fried zucchini. Yummy yummy. After dinner, we were chatting with Tom, and I suddenly got an idea: "Do you have any milk?" I asked him. He seemed a little confused but said that they did have boxed milk, but he wasn't sure if any of it was cold (because you don't refridgerate it until it's open). I said, "I don't care. Throw a couple ice cubes in. I'll pay however much you want. Can I please please please have a glass of milk?" So they brought me a glass of milk, and it was heaven. Cold, creamy, full-fat heaven. I hadn't had any milk in three weeks (other than what they put in our coffee, and who knows what that is?), and I hadn't realized how much I missed it until I had that glass. I was making noises of such ecstacy while drinking it that M and E asked me if I wanted to be alone at the table with my milk.

We're going back to Sparky's for their 4th of July buffet, and I'm going to have at least two glasses.