Note For Anyone Writing About Me

Guide to Writing About Me

I am an Autistic person,not a person with autism. I am also not Aspergers. The diagnosis isn't even in the DSM anymore, and yes, I agree with the consolidation of all autistic spectrum stuff under one umbrella. I have other issues with the DSM.

I don't like Autism Speaks. I'm Disabled, not differently abled, and I am an Autistic activist. Self-advocate is true, but incomplete.

Citing My Posts

MLA: Zisk, Alyssa Hillary. "Post Title." Yes, That Too. Day Month Year of post. Web. Day Month Year of retrieval.

APA: Zisk, A. H. (Year Month Day of post.) Post Title. [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://yesthattoo.blogspot.com/post-specific-URL.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

First Full Day in India

So, I have now had a full day in India, and it is good. I woke up at 3am for about an hour, and that was annoying, but I did stuff. Then I went back to sleep until 7:15, when my roommate's alarm went off.  (We're two students to the room here.) Get up, boil water, wait for her to shower, shower myself, brush and braid the hair- pretty much a normal wake-up routine. My roommate is the only one on the trip who currently knows I'm autistic, though I've had a few ``Oops, my autism is showing" moments and quite a bit of  ``Well, if you're aware that the hand flapping is an autistic behavior, you're gonna figure it out pretty fast... but I am SO SICK of hiding that one that I can't even bring myself to care" moments.
Then we went down for breakfast. Breakfast was awesomeness. They had rice congee and they had sambar and they had jalapeno peppers and it was GREAT. They even had watermelon juice. When it comes to food, I love Asia. Asians know how to do breakfast that fills me and isn't eggs! And they have jalapenos at breakfast. What's not to love?
After that, we took the auto rickshaws (3-wheeled doorless taxis) to the metro, then did some shopping. I got a skirt I like. Since I'm not so great at bargaining to begin with, and doing it in English threw me off, I only got the guy from 300 Rupees down to 275 Rupees. But there's a 50:1 exchange rate, so that's $5.50. I'd say that skirt is worth more than $5.50 to me.
Then we went to the National Museum. I find stonework, sculpture, bronze-work, and pottery more interesting than paintings, and there were plenty of the stonework, sculpture, bronze-work, and pottery items. No cameras allowed, though. (I haven't managed to take any pictures yet, but we're all putting all our pictures into one drop box, so I'll still have pictures to bring home. Also, I will take pictures eventually.) We had lunch there, and I continued in my happiness/flappiness over awesome Indian food. While we were at the gift shop, the teacher jokingly bopped me over the head with a brochure. And I reacted the same way I would have if I were actually under attack, since I'm jumpy like that. The teacher is quite the joker, and I can never tell when he's joking. I'm not sure it's an ``autism is showing" moment on the not being able to tell, since I'm not the only one who can't... but the immediately turning and bringing my hands into a defensive position tipped him off that something was up. On the subway home, he asked if I had actually been scared when he did that. Not sure how to answer. Was my body expecting a fight? Yes. Does that imply having been afraid? Maybe.
Anyways, back to the subway. Or getting off the subway and taking another auto rickshaw back to the hotel. One rickshaw went to the wrong hotel first, and one never got back (The people who were in it walked from the mall they were dropped at, which was about a 2 minute walk.) We went to the pool for a while. Then food, meeting in the lobby at 7:30pm! LATE. Eat, get someone to walk me back to the room since we aren't supposed to go places alone, crash. Wake up around 11:30, wonder why my roommate isn't back, go downstairs to check if she is in the lobby. She's at the business center and has internet. Then I use internets! And that gets us to now.

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