Mother Russia Rain Down

I'm about to head off to St. Petersburg; I'll try to update this while I'm there. In the meantime, I'll let you all know what I've been up to. I've been seriously considering law school, and I'm taking the LSAT in October. My practice test scores have been in the 165-176 range, so I'm confident that I'll do well and may even get into a decent school. I'm leaning toward international and environmental law. I've been learning Mandarin Chinese, which will be my fifth language, although I don't know if I can still count Hindi since I'm very rusty at this point. I still have the basics swimming around in there; it just needs a little practice. I've been taking acting classes for fun, and played in Animal Farm. I've also been writing again, and started what may turn into a longer work, perhaps even a novel someday. I haven't been hanging out or talking with very many friends, which I'm not thrilled about, but I blame that on my withdrawal since coming back from India. I've gone to some concerts recently with my youngest brother and my girlfriend: Covenant, which was decent, and Project Pitchfork, which was awesome. Before that I saw Baby Venom a couple of times before they broke up. I've been trying to get into photography, but have not had much time. I've.... also been reading some.... analytic philosophy.... *shudder*....

Cuz It's Hot... Cuz It's Hot... Cuz It's Hot Baby, Cuz It's Hot

As you might know if you're reading this, I will be trying to keep a public record of my travels through India at the request of friends and family. In the morning I will leave, and I should arrive in Delhi early evening on Wednesday. I'm not bringing my computer, or a phone, or much of anything really. I've learned from past travels that those things rarely come in handy, and I go pretty light these days. This will be my first excursion into a non-Western country.

My primary purpose will be preliminary research regarding an ethnographic research proposal I wrote as an undergrad. The proposal was an attempt to combine my academic interests in anthropology of religion, symbolic anthropology, urban anthropology, neoliberal "globalization," and the history and philosophies of India with my personal interests in the occult and Ganesha. The idea is to collect ethnographic data via the method of long-term participant observation on Tantric sects devoted to Ganesha/Ganapati, especially ones who have grown in or relocated to urban environments. My efforts in the next six weeks will be devoted to answering the following questions: