Some "Truth Be Tolds..."

Just an FYI, our days have been full of research, data collecting, regressions, and trip planning to the field. Not much to discuss of particular importance. We really have been working without much fun for the last few days.
We are having a fine time here, but nothing terribly eventful. To re-iterate, before continuing on, we are NOT having a bad time. But there are some things that I want to note that have my head slightly tilted to one side, scratching my head.

My list of items under the "Truth Be Told..." category:

• It is like sleeping in an army barracks. Our bed mattresses are very, very thin. Essentially, we are sleeping on beds comparable to sleeping on the floor. It is better than sleeping on the concrete, but other floors feel about the same as our beds. I sleep on and off all night, having to rotate slightly so that my sides don't get bruised.
• I am not a huge fan of eating with my hands only. We are offered occasional spoons to soup up our rice and daal (and assorted other curried dishes), but it is customary to eat with your hands. Imagine making your hand a pecking device, and voila! an Indian utensil. This is hard to do with liquidy, mushy foods. It's even harder when you're a left-handed person (like 3 of us in the team...), because you are supposed to use your right hand only for food. The left hand is for "impurities" (figure that one out yourself).
  
• I like rice, but not as much as I'm eating it right now.
• It is not that hot here since we arrived. But it rains constantly. So that means it's warm, and humid, and rainy. Rain rain rain. I don't know why we bother to shower sometimes.
• I do like the chai tea that they pass to us while working in the office.
• People really don't know their christmas songs here, I guess. Our mess hall water filter sings when you turn it on...all of the songs being Christmas Carrolls. We've got "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and "Jingle Bells" and other random songs that one normally hears with Santa Claus on the mind. Even some of the men's cellphone rings here are christmas tones. It is quite bizarre to be sitting in an office room working and then hearing "Jingle Bells" ringing on a mobile while someone picks it up. Granted, we are in a Hindu-prominent state, and maybe it is just a standard ring tone, but I still wonder every time.
  
• I am not very good at mastering the Indian head wobble. Instead of nodding their heads up and down for recognition, they wobble their heads back and forth. And I can't do it. There must be some kind of inherent art to it.