This past Wednesday, I had what may have been the strangest, grossest, and most embarrassing experience of my life. Involving a mouse.
I was at a nice bar in Pune called Swig to celebrate the birthday of another volunteer, Lara. I was sitting at a booth (INSIDE, mind you) with several other volunteers, talking about how exciting it was to be in a place with air-conditioning.
While sitting down, enjoying the luxury of A/C, I feel something scamper across my sandal-clad feet. Just as I jerk my left foot away from this thing, I start to feel it crawling up inside my flared jeans onto my ankle. As you can imagine, I freak out and cause a major scene. I jumped up out of the booth, screaming, running around the table trying to shake what I've just realized is a mouse out of my pants. I'm also aware that the ENTIRE BAR is staring at me. By the time a manager comes over to me, the mouse has attached itself to my inner knee, and I can feel its tiny nasty horrible little mouse body on my skin.
I frantically tell the manager, "There's a mouse in my pants and I don't know what to do!" Somehow I manage to let go of my leg that I've been clinging to out of fear that the mouse is going to make its way up further, and the manager scuttles the mouse out of my jeans and it runs away. I'm left standing in shock, realizing that about 20 pairs of eyes are all staring at the girl who just jumped around a screamed for approximately 30 seconds. I decide I don't want to be indoors in the vicinity of the beast, so I go outside and sit on a beanbag.
You'd think the weirdness of the evening would end here, with me chilling outside with my free mouse attack beer. I then look at my foot and realize I'm bleeding. At first I thought it was blood from the mouse, which really grossed me out, but then noticed a cut on my foot. A manager suggested I get a tetanus vaccine, since I couldn't remember when I had my last one. I'm guessing the cut happened at some point when I jumped out my seat. I was freaking out so much I didn't even notice at the time. Turns out, this bar just so happens to have a doctor on call. They call him in, and I then receive a tetanus shot outside of the bar. What can I say, got me a free shot at the bar! Buh-dum-da!
But really, WHO ON EARTH HAS A MOUSE CRAWL UP THEIR PANTS? EVEN IN INDIA? This is what happens when I travel to foreign countries.
Onto a lighter note, Ganesh fest is still going on. It ends this Wednesday with the procession of the Ganpatis to their immersion in the river. I'm also off work on Wednesday for that. India really knows how to celebrate, and seems pretty okay with taking lots of holidays. I dig it. I walked around my neighborhood recently and got to see all of statues lit up at night, and several people let me take part in the ritual and eat some modak (this sweet treat that Ganesh is fond of). Here's some pictures of Ganpatis and me in my neighborhood:
Don't have any pictures from the mouse incident though. I was told by one of the other volunteers that my interaction with the mouse might be good luck. Since we're in the season of Ganesh, who is often depicted with a mouse at his side, it might be good fortune that one wanted to be so close to me. We'll see.
I was at a nice bar in Pune called Swig to celebrate the birthday of another volunteer, Lara. I was sitting at a booth (INSIDE, mind you) with several other volunteers, talking about how exciting it was to be in a place with air-conditioning.
While sitting down, enjoying the luxury of A/C, I feel something scamper across my sandal-clad feet. Just as I jerk my left foot away from this thing, I start to feel it crawling up inside my flared jeans onto my ankle. As you can imagine, I freak out and cause a major scene. I jumped up out of the booth, screaming, running around the table trying to shake what I've just realized is a mouse out of my pants. I'm also aware that the ENTIRE BAR is staring at me. By the time a manager comes over to me, the mouse has attached itself to my inner knee, and I can feel its tiny nasty horrible little mouse body on my skin.
I frantically tell the manager, "There's a mouse in my pants and I don't know what to do!" Somehow I manage to let go of my leg that I've been clinging to out of fear that the mouse is going to make its way up further, and the manager scuttles the mouse out of my jeans and it runs away. I'm left standing in shock, realizing that about 20 pairs of eyes are all staring at the girl who just jumped around a screamed for approximately 30 seconds. I decide I don't want to be indoors in the vicinity of the beast, so I go outside and sit on a beanbag.
You'd think the weirdness of the evening would end here, with me chilling outside with my free mouse attack beer. I then look at my foot and realize I'm bleeding. At first I thought it was blood from the mouse, which really grossed me out, but then noticed a cut on my foot. A manager suggested I get a tetanus vaccine, since I couldn't remember when I had my last one. I'm guessing the cut happened at some point when I jumped out my seat. I was freaking out so much I didn't even notice at the time. Turns out, this bar just so happens to have a doctor on call. They call him in, and I then receive a tetanus shot outside of the bar. What can I say, got me a free shot at the bar! Buh-dum-da!
But really, WHO ON EARTH HAS A MOUSE CRAWL UP THEIR PANTS? EVEN IN INDIA? This is what happens when I travel to foreign countries.
Onto a lighter note, Ganesh fest is still going on. It ends this Wednesday with the procession of the Ganpatis to their immersion in the river. I'm also off work on Wednesday for that. India really knows how to celebrate, and seems pretty okay with taking lots of holidays. I dig it. I walked around my neighborhood recently and got to see all of statues lit up at night, and several people let me take part in the ritual and eat some modak (this sweet treat that Ganesh is fond of). Here's some pictures of Ganpatis and me in my neighborhood:
Don't have any pictures from the mouse incident though. I was told by one of the other volunteers that my interaction with the mouse might be good luck. Since we're in the season of Ganesh, who is often depicted with a mouse at his side, it might be good fortune that one wanted to be so close to me. We'll see.
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