american celebrity visits taj mahal

travelling americans have the problem of explaining to the world where they come from. case in point, by "travelling american," i mean "travelling citizens of the united states of america." when i lived in canada, and people asked where i was from, and i said america, i was greeted with mucho hostility. afterall, america is a continent, not a country. fair enough. so i started to tell people i was from the states. then, i lived in korea. people would ask where i was from, i would say i was from the states, and i would get a blank stare. so, okay, in korea, i have to say i'm from U.S.A. not "the" U.S.A., and not USA (the nice man at the post office chastised me for 5 minutes once about how U.S.A. needs to have dots), but U.S.A. now i'm in india. in india, "U.S.A." i guess sounds like "blurgablurgablurfg" so in india, i say i'm from america. and if i try to be specific and say that i come from the united states of america, i just feel like a gomer. and i've learned that nothing dries up a conversation with a foreigner faster than saying you're from iowa. they have no response for that state. well, except for the few who ask me about potatoes.

so i went to the TAJ MAHAL!!! LALALALALALALAA! yesterday. i'm in agra, and i can see the taj from my hotel window. it's pretty awesome. i went early enough yesterday to troll around and then take a seat and watch the sun set. apparently, the taj is supposed to change colors while the sun sets or rises. now i've watched two sunrises and one sunset, and maybe i'm just insensitive to subtle changes in the light, but i wasn't wowed by any color changes on the taj mahal at either time. it's still awesome though. i think the only thing i've wanted to see more in my life was the eiffel tower (check) and the great pyramids (uncheck). it has been a fantastic few days. there's also a "baby taj," so it's called, that's a tomb for another former indian man and wife. it was built right before the taj mahal and is smaller and more intricate. considerably smaller, actually. they are both amazing to see and i can't contain a squeal every time i see the taj mahal, which is often, because it's right in my huge hotel window.

so while i was sitting and waiting to watch the sun go down at the taj, i was trying to read a book. it was hard, because people kept asking to take their picture with me. i felt like madonna. no, gwyneth paltrow. that's it. i felt like gwyneth paltrow. at first, i said no when anyone asked to take their picture with me because, at first, it was just indian men. packs of young, pretty gorgeous, indian men. so i shook them off. then it was families, so i started to say yes. then, there was a line, a line, a LINE!! of people around my bench waiting to take their picture with me. i just sat there and smiled and answered questions about myself and my family (good old steve) and took pictures with everyone and their children and their friends and their brothers and them again. they put their arms around me. they had me stand. they had me sit. one man even had me take a professional photo with him that he could get printed up by a local photographer. it was strange. it was really really strange. one family became my sort of photo managers and they were in most of the strangers' photos and they organized the lineup and they took some pictures with my camera as well. i've uploaded a nice assortment of these photos on my photo website, but i'd like to share with you the entire collection of "angry girl" photos. i've found that many indians don't really know how to smile for pictures. if you see the photos of unni, my martial arts instructor, you'll see what i mean. sinead had to pretend to hit him on the head with a spoon to get him to smile. okay. never mind. blogger is being dumb. you'll have to go check her out on the photo site. and put some comments on there people. let me know you're out there. :)