vanity fair

yesterday i went with two other UMB kids, and our wonderful new australian friends on a field trip of sorts. we were supposed to visit the other rajagiri campus (engineering and technology) and at the last minute were told that we were going to 'stop by' another campus for a 'brief informal meeting with the students.' having been in india long enough, i knew that neither of the above were true. i knew instead that this meant it was going to be very formal (we got roses upon our arrival, the president of the school made a speech and we sat in chairs on a stage in front of about 60 students) and very long (it was about 3 hours). not so good considering impending deadlines of field, but good when accounting the chai and fried bananas, and totally worth it to hear jeremy belt out "a whole new world" a cappella on the stage by himself, because of course, there was a cultural performance and we were expected to do something. jer bailed the americans out (which we love him for), but left the sleep deprived jet-lagged austrians on their own to crank out a... special version of the aussie national anthem.

anyway, all day long i had a feeling of deja-vu. i felt like i was there before and had experienced the same situation. later, only after looking at brochures for the college did i learn this was true. i had done it before. the exact same experience, same room, same roses even. my UMB group from january 2007 was featured front and center of the brochure for the entire school! the greatest part is that this picture was taken during our 'cultural performance', and therefore in this picture, we are currently singing 'lean on me'. if you look really hard you can see a corner of myself on the far right, desperately avoiding the mic for the sake of everyone else in the room. i'd like to point out my love carolyn on the far left, clapping to the beat, julia in the bright blue rocking the mic...and the song, and liz in the middle, singing her heart out. good job ladies, way to make the US proud. it was a hilarious discovery, one that once the principal discovered, made very public. quite an experience. so it just goes to show you that what happens in india...will be documented via camera and will live on for eternity.