Foreigners in Lucknow!

Summary: Life has gotten a lot more interesting lately, as we have made new foreigner friends through a friend who studied at the American Institute of Languages. (Clubbing, anyone?) The unofficial curfew, however, remains.

Foreigners exist in Lucknow! Apparently, you just have to know where they hang out, and have an “in.” The American Institute of Languages is home to many foreigners / Americans, and thanks to Anna’s friend Amy, we’ve had the chance to meet new people and make new friends.

Meeting new people in your travels is always a blast, because people who do things like this tend to be very interesting and inevitably different from you and your comfort zone. They always have some amazing stories to share or incredible experiences or ambitions, and it makes life so much more interesting.

In the past few days, we’ve hung out through get-togethers, dancing / clubbing, and dinner. Clubbing was incredible! We had a good sized group, and dancing was generally clean at the club, with no sketchiness. (So great!) When we first got there, our friends were sitting on the couch next to a 6-or-7-year-old girl. She was simply sitting there quietly, alone, amidst the alcohol and cigarette smoke. Apparently child-friendly (we saw many other kids there), Zero (in Gomti Nagar) served not only alcohol, but also a buffet that was included with the cover charge. All in all, it was a fun night of dancing with a good group of folks.

All of this has, of course, gotten us in trouble with our landlord, as we’ve come home at 12 am and 1 am on consecutive nights. The only way for us to get into our apartment is to wake up the folks in the back house to open the gate, who then rings the landlord to open the door for us. Sadna says it’s bad for her health to stay up so late, yet refuses to give us a copy of the key or let us put a lock on the outside when we leave. Therefore, we hang our head in shame every time we come home later than 10 or 11 pm, even though we’re grown women who pay rent.