The first couple days we were in Mumbai it was rainy most of the day, just not pouring, just generally rainy, and then it was pretty sunny for two days. My impression from reading about Mumbai and Monsoon season was that it would just downpour constantly. But in the beginning of my time here I was starting to think that Monsoon isn’t actually that bad. Really though, the past couple days it has actually started to Monsoon in earnest. There is a reason that Monsoon gets its own season, because when it rains it comes down in sheets and no umbrella will totally save you.

One benefit of Monsoon is that you can blame pretty much anything on Monsoon, TV isn’t working — Monsoon’s fault, feeling sick — Monsoon’s fault, late to work — Monsoon again (this doesn’t work for us though because we live in the same building as the school). Some of this sounds like just a nice excuse but largely it seems pretty legitimate, the TV channels do cut out and the traffic does seem to be extra bad, which is a good trick since it is pretty snarled in the first place.

At first it is tempting to decide not to go outside because it is Monsooning. If you were going somewhere where you wanted to be dry then that is totally legitimate. But a few days ago I braved the Monsoon and went to the American Consulate to do CrossFit outside. Mostly it was actually really nice to be out in the rain, once my clothes and shoes were soaked (which didn’t take long) I didn’t really care about the rain. Plus, its hot out, so its super refreshing. CrossFit in the rain is an interesting task, pull up bars are quite slippery and I’m not sure I would want to do anything with weight overhead but it was super fun to be there and meet some new people outside of school.

After my CrossFit experience I feel less wary of the rain and went out this morning to do my two hour Belt Buckle Run despite the certainty of rain (and it was my longest run here yet!) I was happy to get it done with first thing so I could totally relax and watch a movie until going out with a friend. Of course, when we went out I brought my new umbrella with us and carried it around all afternoon and it didn’t rain at all. Go figures! Despite carrying the umbrella, it was great to get out on our own. We hailed a rickshaw by ourselves and navigated to where we wanted to go, ordered chaat ourselves, found a cute clothing store, bought fruits and veggies at the vegetable market, and navigated our rickshaw back to school. This was definitely the most independent I have felt so far and it didn’t feel hard to tricky in the least.

All my love,

Alexandra