Rishikesh and Haridwar Mini Trip

After an all night drive in a giant tour bus on bumpy roads, our small group (only a few from our bigger group decided to go on this short trip) arrived in Rishikesh- a beautiful city situated in the middle of green mountains. Rishikesh is a very holy city, as the holiest of all rivers runs directly down the middle- the beautiful Ganges. We arrived around 5:00 a.m., and after a short tea stop we got on our way, stopping at a steep cobblestone drive. This was also the spot where I first laid eyes on the Ganges, an amazing and GIANT turquoise green river rushing down from the mountains.
Our tour in Rishikesh included two ashrams, a jewelry shop, bridge and breakfast at the end. The two ashrams that we visited were really cool. Ever since reading the book "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert I have been wanting to visit one. We witnessed a puja at the first and were given the prasadam (food offered to the Gods) and got a few minutes to walk around through the halls. All around us as we walked were people sitting in silent meditation, and throughout the visit we were to keep as quiet as possible. The jewelry shop was a stop along the way where we got to see malas- a religious necklace worn while chanting that contains 108 beads. The bridge was at the opposite end of the city- a famous and holy bridge that we got to walk across and back :) We rode to the bridge by jeep- the same type as we rode in while going to the Amber Fort.
After finishing our tour of Rishikesh, we all boarded our bus and drove the short distance to Haridwar, another holy city where WE GOT TO BATHE IN THE GANGES!!!!! I have to say, bathing in the Ganges was one thing I had dreamed about before coming, and when I got down on my knees and let the incredibly fast moving, and freezing cold green water run over me I felt incredible. The water was completely clean and pure. It was an amazing experience, and I'll never forget the hundreds of people that were all around me during this- some were sitting quietly, some performing ceremonies for their young children, women bathing in their beautiful sarees and of course the part at the end when all of the women had to pay five ruppees to change into dry clothes behind a hole filled tarp underneath the bridge. We had been expecting bathrooms to be available...but oh well. It was an interesting experience!
P.S. the photo is another photo of a professional one that we had taken after our dip!

Days in Delhi

Back in Delhi we were once again in the same hotel as before. The location was good for us- there was a street right next door full of all kinds of shopping, and there were restaurants ( a McDonalds too!) nearby. We spent the days in Delhi at the Indian International Trade Fair- an event that happens every year when countries from all over the world, and all the states of India build huge indoor booths to showcase products from their country or state. Both days that we went, our mode of transportation was the Delhi metro....let me just say I've NEVER in my life been so squished! We arrived at the station both days, purchased our tickets, went through a security check and then walked up a flight of stairs to the tracks. We got into partners (so as no one got left behind alone) and when the metro came, we grasped tightly and had to push our way through a solid mass of people trying to get off of the train and trying not to fall out! Luckily both times, my partner and I made it onto the car, and we rode for about five minutes like sardines in a can. Every inch of my body except for a small piece of my head and face was pressed tightly against the body part of another person. We were a completely stable block and didn't even budge a centimeter when the train stopped at stations- we all held each other up! That was an experience I'll never forget...I couldn't help but think about someone being claustrophobic...that would be so bad!
The trade fair was held at a huge ground area near the metro station, so when we got off the platform it was only a short walk down a dirt path before we arrived at a security check and then the entrance gate. There were buildings spread about us and inbetween there were paths and grass areas to sit. The paths were filled with ice cream and coffee carts, and the grass areas were overflowing with people sitting down to rest. It was a really cool experience to get to come to this, and I got some real insight into what the other states of India are like- not only did each state's building have information and photos, but there were even some that had their state's classical dance going on out front! The shopping was really good- mostly everything was decently priced and good quality, so my group (a group of twenty women who all LOVE shopping) spent most of our time browsing the stalls.
In the evenings we went out for dinner to a Punjabi (state in the north of India) restaurant that had everything cooking in an open area downstairs and the tables to sit upstairs. It was at this restaurant when I got to see naan (my favorite North Indian thick and soft bread like food) made in a tandoori oven! It was so cool! The man making it would first flatten the dough, then place it on a towl and stick it onto the side of a circular barrel that was embedded in the counter- a tandoori oven!It was also at this restaurant where I discovered the first Indian sweet that I love- gulab jamun- a round sweet that to me tastes kind of like a donut...SO good!
P.S. The image above is of the group I went with at the IITF.

Day 3: Agra!!!

We continued on the next morning- a five hour drive to Agra where the entire bus (mostly) tried to get a few more minutes of sleep!
Our first stop was a famous fort located just outside the city called Fatehpur Sikri, which was built in 1570 by the emperor Akbar and was the capital city of his empire for fifteen years until it was abandoned for unknown reasons. Fatehpur Sikri was HUGE! We spent about an hour and a half touring around the massive courtyards and pillared hallways where I got to see many different types of architecture. There was even one hall that was the emperor's "courtroom" that had a giant pillar in the center with three very different styles of designs carved onto it. The cool thing though about Fatehpur Sikri is the fact that the entire place is made up completely of red stone! It was very cool looking, and the contrast between the grass and the walls was pretty fantastic.
From Fatehpur Sikri we continued on into the main city of Agra, but before going to the main attraction of the city, the Taj Mahal, we visited the Agra fort which was also built by emperor Akbar as a replica of the Red Fort that we visited in Delhi. It didn't exactly look the same to me...but the color was the same! The emperor moved to Agra for a few years, but liked the climate better in Delhi and so eventually moved back after he had constructed and left his mark on the area :)
And then came the moment I had been waiting for- we drove into the parking lot outside the Taj Mahal (we couldn't see anything yet) and unloaded onto a small van that drove us up the hill (past camels! The first I'd ever seen!) to the entrance gate. After going through security we walked through the gateway into a giant open grassy space surrounded by big red buildings. Following the path we came to the archway of one of the buildings, and looking through over the many heads in front of me, I SAW MY FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE TAJ MAHAL!!!!!! We went through the tunnel and emerged with the enitire view laid out in front of us- I was completely in awe (as were many others standing at my sides!)! The structure is just SO giant and out of this world amazing! I don't think that I could do the experience of being there justice by writing about it- it was just like being in a dream.
We spent our time there roaming around the gardens, taking photos, and soaking up every moment (or at least I was!) from the experience of being there. Our group had several professional photos taken of each one of us, and then a group shot front and center to the monument. We also toured through the inside of the main dome, where the emperor and his beloved Mumtaz Mahal (whom he built the Taj for) are honored with tombs (their actual tombs are beneath the replicas that are on display).
Leaving the Taj Mahal felt strange...because it was like being in a dream, as soon as we walked back out through the tunnel it was almost as if what lay behind us had disappeared. On the way back to the bus, our group was bombarded with small boys trying to sell us everything from postcards to books to key chains to pens! I bought a book and some postcards (after doing some heavy bargaining) and was eyeing the key chains that a little boy was holding in front of me when he said "20 rs each! 20 rs. each!" looking around at me and then quickly to the women next to me- when he saw her he says "5 rs! 5 rs!" then looks back at me, realizing what he just said, and slaps himself on the forehead. I laughed at him and said "O.K. 5 rs.!" and handed him the money. Even though he had just lost out on what could have been a big pay day, the little boy chased after our van as we pulled away, laughing and waving good bye!
P.S. The photo above is a photo that I took of the professional photo...it's not exactly great quality, but you can see the awesomeness! :)

Dusty Cities (Jaipur: Day 2 of Delhi trip)

Driving through small and dusty cities in the morning and we were on our way to Jaipur- the city of palaces. Before entering the city though, we stopped at a beautiful fort on the top of a hill, it's walls expanding along the many hillsides around it. This was the Amber Fort- a fort built as the capital of Rajastan until the capital was shifted 11km away to the nearby city of Jaipur. The Amber Fort was absolutely amazing. The architecture blended styles of both Muslim and Hindu architecture and has a certain stereotypical "Indian feel" as it is an olden day palace on the top of a hill overlooking the sparsely vegetated mountains around it. The fort itself is camouflaged into the hills with it's yellow colored walls! The best part though about the Amber Fort was the way we got up the hill in order to tour the inside- we arrived in bus parking and unloaded, only to reload in smaller groups into the backs of about four black jeeps. I almost felt as though I was in the military sitting along the side wall of the car in the truck bed with six other people, looking out the open space at the back at all that we passed by going up the mountain. We saw wild boars in the streets (like dogs everywhere else the boars were in huge numbers wandering around!) and even TWO elephants! They were both simply walking together down the middle of the cobblestone road!
At the entrance to the fort there were lots of people selling souvenirs, but there was something that was WAY cool there also! A snake charmer! There were two men sitting on a blanket at the side of the steep road, one playing a small drum and the other playing a weirdly shaped flute with a basket in front of him where a snake's head stuck out and swayed slowly from side to side.
Inside we got a tour of the main parts of the palace and then rushed out and back into the jeeps to drive quickly back down the mountain to our bus to get going to our next destination on the tour- The city of Jaipur. Our first stop in Jaipur was to take photos of the Water Palace, a beautiful white palace that sits in the middle of a lake! You are unfortunately not allowed to go inside, so we took pictures from afar before continuing on to lunch and then to a handicrafts center where we got to see some material being printed in the famous Jaipur style- with wooden stamps and special dye.
Next was the City Palace of Jaipur. We got a tour of the inside and got to walk through several museums that had garments and jewelry worn by the King and Queen. What was really cool about going here though was that there were two flags flying high above us in a tower, a sygnal our guide told us that meant that the current "King" (he doesn't have any power but he is a descendant and WOULD be king) was actually there at the palace that day!
Our day in Jaipur finished out with an intense three solid hours of shopping. I went with a few women in our group and we walked the entire street back and forth, went to the next street and did that one also, and all left with at least (the least being me) three full shopping bags of new stuff! We then went back to our hotel (an EXTREMELY nice hotel!) and had a great dinner of Rajastani food before going to sleep for a few hours before having to wake up at 4:00 a.m. to report to our bus to go to Agra!
P.S. Above are photos of me in front of the Water Palace in Jaipur, and at the entrance to the Amber Fort.

Delhi: Day 1

O.K.! Yes I am still alive for all of you who have been worried about me! I simply haven't had access to the internet for the past ten days or so because I've been busy and gone on the trip of a lifetime! Since there is so much to write about, I'm just going to skip over getting to Delhi and start out the morning of my first day (there is still WAY A LOT to write about though!). If you didn't know, I went to Delhi with a group of women from Coimbatore. They are all business women and wanted to go to the
Indian International Trade Fair, which was happening in Delhi all week. So, while there they figured they'd do a tour of the main attractions in North India and I got to go with them!!!
Our first day we woke up early and the three of us staying in the room I was in all went out to find a tea stall on the street. It was cold outside in the morning, and we didn't know our way around so we walked aimlessly for a while before coming accross a small side of the road tea shop where we got tea for 5 rs. After tea we met up with the others and went for breakfast at a South Indian restaurant that we had seen on our walk. We ordered and ate quickly, then walked across the street to our tour bus that was parked out in front of the tour company (Panicker's) office.
Our first day of touring was focused all on sightseeing around Delhi. Our first visit was to Qutab Minar, which is a very tall tower (72.5 meters) surrounded by ruins of old temples. We had about forty minutes alotted to us by the tour guide to spend walking through the monument, and we spent that time taking photos and exploring in and around the beautiful red carved stones.
Our next stop was a shopping complex called "Best of India" where we looked around at all of the (expensive) hand made items for sale before heading off again to the Lotus Temple. The Lotus temple was absolutely beautiful! It is a temple that was built for all faiths, and was HUGE and made of white marble, cement and sand. It was surrounded by pools of water (like a lotus!) and the inside was a big hall that was completely silent. It is a rule to maintain silence while inside, so even though there were hundreds of people sitting on the many benches, it was completely quiet. We sat for a minute or so with our eyes closed, enjoying the peace before getting up to leave in order to head off to our next destination, Gateway of India.
Gateway of India is a giant arch, built as a memorial for all Indian soldiers in the armies that have been killed. It was a beautiful structure and was surrounded by colored flags, armed gaurds, and lots of people selling things like postcards, books, jewelry, even mehindi!
After having lunch at a "canteen" in Delhi, we went to a few memorials; one for Indira Gandhi, and one for Nehru (Indira's father). Both were pretty neat monuments. Indira Gandhi was assasinated (just like her son Rajiv Gandhi whose memorial I went to in Chennai) while going for a walk outside her home one day so her memorial is a museum in her home with a crystal raised pathway outside where she took her last steps before being shot down by one of her own security guards (there was a clear plate of glass where she fell).
After being rushed through the two memorials by our guide, who was very concerned of the time, we all got back onto the bus and headed off to the Red Fort. We got about an hour to walk around inside the Red Fort, admiring the beautiful Moghul architecture and the intricate carvings that were in the red and white stone. We also did a bit of shopping at the exit where there were many stalls set up selling everything from purses to jewelry to books.
Our last and final stop for the day before going back to the hotel for dinner and more shopping nearby was the Rajghat- Mahatma Gandhi's memorial. It was dark and cold when we arrived, but the presence of Gandhi's peaceful spirit was felt as we walked around the large square of black marble that was completely covered in flowers, and smelled the ever burning incense sticks. It was a jam packed day of sightseeing, with a perfect ending spot for the day where we could reflect and be thankful for how far India has come because of a wonderful man that stood for purity and freedom for everyone.
P.S. The photos above are of me at the Red Fort and then at the Lotus Temple in Delhi.

Cinderella in the Rain

Yesterday was Children's day! A holiday celebrating the birthday of India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his great love for children throughout his lifetime. It is said that he would do anything in his power for a child, and we therefore celebrated it as a holiday at both school and in the evening at the apartments. At school the day began with an assembly in the outdoor ampitheater. The entire school, all dressed in traditional clothing (not the uniforms!!!), made our way to the cement seats which overflowed with the crowd and spilled over onto the ground in front where the teachers had put down a few blankets. The sun was shining hot and bright as we sat, but we all had smiles on our faces the entire time as we watched the teachers all dance together for us!
The rest of the school day was regular; kids went to class and things proceeded like any other day. The last and final treat for all of us came near the end of the day when our class teachers brought in GIANT bags full of packets of pineapple flavored cookies that each of us got!
When I got home from school, my host mother wasn't yet there and so I made myself a lunch of an apple and heated some egg noodles that were in the refrigerator from the day before. When my host mother arrived home, the two of us set out to do a few errands to get ready for my Delhi trip (I'm leaving TOMORROW!!!!!)- we had to get a few photo copies that my host mother wanted of my medical insurance, pick up some dry cleaning, pick up the itinerary for my trip (yea...I still don't know any of that...), and also stop at the Police Commisioner's office so that we could register the fact that I am leaving the city for a week.
Our first stop was the Comissioner's office, and we arrived there in the middle of a HUGE downpour of rain. When we knocked on the door it was unlocked, but there was no one inside so we figured that we'd just wait there. We waited. And Waited. And waited. A few police from a different department told us that they were all probably caught up in the rain after having lunch, so we just waited there patiently under the eaves of the building, watching as the landscape boxes below us filled completely with the rainwater and the parking lot came to look a lot more like a lake. We ended up waiting for two hours- no one showed up. We left around 5:00 p.m. which was the time that the celebrations were supposed to start at the apartment, so we didn't have time to get anything else done. On the way out of the building we ran to my host mother's car accross the lot to avoid getting TOO wet. On the way my foot slipped out of my shoe and I realized that I had just had a Cinderella moment in the rain (except I was able to go back and retrieve my shoe!).
The program for Children's day at the apartment was really great! When my host mother and I arrived in the clubhouse it was jam packed and screaming with excited little kids that were all playing a quiz game. The way that the program was set up was actually kind of cool. At first, it was a few ladies from the apartment trying to organize some games, but then Airtell, a phone company, came in and said that they would organize all of the games and prizes if they would allow the company to set up posters and hand out flyers. So, my friends from the apartment and I all sat and watched as the little kids played game after game together and all had the time of their lives screaming and laughing with their friends. And then came the dancing...Oh my gosh! I just can't get over how good of a dancer EVERYONE here seems to be! I was flat out amazed when the music came on and even the smallest of the smallest of the kids was out on the floor doing dance moves that I couldn't do!
After dinner was served (we had ordered in dinner) to everyone we all had ice cream, cleaned up a bit and then walked back to our apartments grouped by which block we all live in- my group included Sanju Vadivu and Bapu (our neighbors), and Rhadika who is a woman who lives below us whom I do yoga with several times a week. Children's day was over, but the essence of fun still hung in the air as we all went into our separate apartments and retired into a nice sleep after a long day.
P.S. the photos above are of me at school with a few friends and then Sanju at the Children's day celebration playing a game where there was a time limit and you had to stick as many bindis as possible on your partner's face!

An Attempt at a Tamil Song...

On Sunday evening, after getting back from the wedding in Kerala, my host mother got a call from a Rotarian in the club hosting me named Suresh (Suresh is the wonderful man who has taken Rianna and I on two weekend trips and is just great!). He was calling to invite us to a celebration of a one year anniversary of a gym that opened here in Coimbatore called "Maverick" (yes, I chuckled when I saw the name also...) that was being held at The Residency Hotel- the nicest hotel in Coimbatore where movie stars will stay when they come!
We arrived in the drive and were stopped by a man with a long metal pole with a square wheeling piece on the end who stuck it under the front of our car and then waved us on. I was confused until my host mom explained to me that this man was actually checking for bombs! The contraption was a metal detector! (At least it made me feel REALLY safe the whole night!)
Suresh met me at the door and we waved good bye to my host mother. He then walked me up the stairs to a big hall where the speeches had already started. Rianna was there and we both sat in the front row and listened to several people give speeches about how great the gym is, including a film star named "Annu Hassan" who I've seen in a movie even!
When the speeches ended, there was live entertainment in the form of a man with a keyboard- a VERY talented man with a keyboard! Not only could he play the piano great, but he could also sing! A few people got up and started dancing, and it wasn't long before I joined in and showed off a few Bollywood moves of my own...! We also played a few games where we danced until the music stopped and then would rush to get into a group of the number that the DJ called out. I had a lot of fun with the women playing for this game! We all got in a small circle and danced, and when the music stopped we would all just rush forward and grab onto each other- no matter what number was being called! When this game ended the DJ continued with some more songs and Suresh took advantage of this opportunity to try and convince Rianna and I to go up to the microphone and sing a song. At first we were both a little resistant to get up in front of the two hundred or so people there, but then Suresh told me that the DJ could play "Sutrum Vizhi" and if you've been reading my blogs you know that I LOVE that song and happen to know a few verses of it! I agreed to go up and introduced myself, apologizing first for my lack of singing ability and also for my bad pronunciation of all the Tamil...It ended up going really well though! I think that my voice sounded awful, but everyone loved the fact that I was singing in Tamil and gave me a standing ovation at the end- and a medal(?)! Then Rianna and I got up and sang Titanic- the one and only English movie that everyone here knows! It was a great night with lots of fun and new friends!

A Wedding in Kerala

5:30 a.m. this morning my host mother knocked on my bedroom door to wake me up. We had a three hour drive ahead of us to Thrissur, Kerala for the wedding of one of my host father’s colleagues! I got up and groggily put on my green Diwali salwaar, made tea for my host mother and I, brushed my teeth, grabbed my rain coat and then the two of us went down and met two other colleagues of my host father who had come with a driver to pick us up.
It has been raining non-stop since yesterday afternoon, soaking the ground and causing the streets to be flooded with brown muddy water. The group of us drove through the city at 6:15 a.m. – the streets were already crowded with the early risers, and along with the other traffic on the roads our car waded through the waters. We even passed a parking lot that was completely flooded with at least six inches of water!
We arrived at the marriage hall around 9:30 a.m., just as the traditions were beginning. The first thing we saw was the groom leaving the hall (don’t worry, he came back!) to go out in front and have his feet washed. He was then carried in a small wooden chair over the heads of all of his relatives to a swinging white bench that had been set up in the middle of the crowd. It was there where his bride met him, and the two of them placed three or four strings of colorful flowers over one another’s heads before sitting down on the bench and swinging back and forth together. After about a minute of this (and about a hundred flashes from cameras…) the two stood up and the elder relatives came forward and each places a small spoonful of milk onto the feet of the bride and groom. The elders then each took a small candle and circled around the couple three times. (Three seems to be the most auspicious number, because not only did the elders walk around three times, but three is also the number of times that an Ayer, or Priest, will circle the flame around the head of the God or Goddess in a temple.)
The whole procession was then taken inside the hall where the bride and groom were taken to a beautifully decorated stage and seated on a grass mat beside the Ayer who commenced several more traditions. My favorite one though had to be where the bride sat on her father’s lap- it is a tradition to symbolize the father’s “giving” of his daughter to her new husband, who stands in front of them and takes her hand to pull her up. The bride had the biggest smile on her face during this!
The traditions ended with photos of the bride and groom with anyone and everyone invited. My host mother and I took a photo, congratulated the couple and then left the hall to go out back where breakfast/lunch was being served on banana leaves! We waited until a space at one of the long white tables was free and then sat down to eat. The food was AMAZING! We had rice with all sorts of dishes along with it, my favorite being one specific to Kerala that had pineapple in it!

Pouring Down Fun!

This morning after waking up at 6:40 a.m., I got up and made myself tea and cornflakes for breakfast. The morning was cool and overcast, and my host mom slept off in her bedroom. At 8:15 a.m. my friend Appurna and I met up at the out gate of the apartments and walked two blocks to Avinshi Road (the main road). Once there we waited a few minutes until a big, rusted red and silver bus rolled up to a short stop in front of us. We got on, me expecting to find a huge crowd of people but the bus was actually pretty empty! We rode for a few blocks and then got off and met another girl from our class named Sangheeta. We all walked to her house for a few minutes and had a few snacks and played on the terrace above the house. Around 9:00 we left the house and walked back to the main road where we caught another bus to Gandhipuram- this time I wasn't disappointed at all! Not only was every seat in this bus filled, but the aisles contained at least fifty people all squished in together, reaching one arm up to overhead poles for support. We squeezed our way into the middle of the crowd for the fifteen or so minutes that we rode and sang along with the radio to the songs that we all recognized.
In Gandhipuram we stopped at a small juice shop where Appurna and Sangheeta got banana and mozambie juice before going back to the bus stand, catching one bus and realizing it was the wrong one (we had to jump down as it was slowly pulling out...), and then finally finding the right bus that took us to one of the many movie theaters here in Coimbatore where we met up with eight other girls from our class. We all saw the movie "Kanden Kadhalai" (sp? The title means "I Think It's love") which was a remake from a film that was originally in Hindi. The movie was really good! I loved all of the songs and the story was also great. I was the only one who really liked it though...all of the other girls have seen the Hindi version and will only praise that! I guess I'll just have to see it and compare!
When the movie ended at 1:00 p.m. we all walked a short way up a side street until we reached a retaurant called "Rayappas" where we had naan and paneer butter masala for lunch (EVERYONE loves naan and paneer- so it was perfect!). It was all of my friends' first time out alone without their parents, so they were all super excited to be independent!
After finishing our lunch, Appurna, Sangheeta and I left the other girls and headed towards the bus stop at Gandhipuram to go home. We walked down the long street, through the lightly drizzling rain and trying to avoid stepping in the giant puddles! We reached the bus stand after about fifteen minutes and boarded a bus headed for Peelamedu (the district in the city where we live). It was a longer ride, but very comfortable since once again, we ended up on a bus that was less than half full.
Appurna and I got down at our stop and waved good bye to Sangheeta as the bus drove off. We walked the two blocks back through the drizzle, looking up at the dark and swollen clouds. I guess we reached the apartment just in time, because as we said good bye at the front of my building the sky opened up and the downpour began!

Singing (and dancing) in the Rain!

Even though this is only one short event that happened, I wanted to blog about it because of the sheer joy that I felt while dancing and singing in the rain!
I had just come up from the basement after my yoga class with the teacher and the other two women that do the class with me when I looked outside. To my great excitement it was DUMPING rain! I placed my shoes, water bottle and mat on the ground and sprinted out into the downpour- holding my hand up over my head and smiling up toward the dark night sky. I put my headphones from my I-pod into my ears and turned on one of all time favorite songs- Human, by The Killers. As soon as the music started I started to jump around and spin, already completely soaked! My hair was dripping and my white T-shirt and shorts were completely drenched, but I couldn't care less. I laughed and smiled and simply had fun in the water that was being dumped in buckets over my head! The weather was not cold, but it wasn't warm either and so I was shivering when I stepped back under the cover of the clubhouse where the ladies still stood watching me and laughing at me the entire time! But, even though I was cold, the smile stayed on my face even as I ran up the three flights of stairs back up to the apartment!

A Week of Events

This week has been hectic here- my life in India has always been a little overwhelming, but this week there was quite a few events that kept me pretty busy!
On tuesday evening, Rianna (the other exchange student from NY) and I went together to the Coimbatore rail station to meet up with a group of exchange students from Pune (near Mumbai) who were coming through Coimbatore from Ooty. We arrived there a bit early and just hung out for a while until, suddenly, there was a group of foreigners standing in front of us! It was so weird, and honestly VERY cool to see so many foreigners all in one place- all of them are around my age too! We all introduced ourselves to them and they introduced themselves. There were several girls from the US too! One from Montana and the other from Ohio! There were also students from Germany, Belgium, Finland, Brazil, and Colombia! Rianna and I had a lot of fun getting to talk to all of the kids, even though we only could talk for about an hour before their next train, it was worth the trip to go and meet them! I had been corresponding with a Rotarian in their district, and he was a chaperone on this trip. This Rotary district goes on quite a few trips, and so it's been great to have contacts because now Rianna and I have been invited to join in on them! We are both planning to go to Goa with this same group in December- which will be absolutely AWESOME!
On Wednesday I came home to an empty apartment. My host mother's company was having a bg meeting all day and my host father left for Germany over the weekend, so for the first time I was on my own in the kitchen! At first it didn't go so well...my first attempt at making a dosa completely failed, but learning from the mistakes that I made I was able to make the next few perfectly! Then came the microwave to heat up the dahl...I guess I wasn't thinking because I stupidly reached in and grabbed the metal dish- completely burning the skin off of my right thumb...yea not so fun! But, I think it was pretty good for my first time alone!
At school lately everything has been centered around the swine flu. Yes, it's a problem here too. A few kids from my school were diagnosed last week, and therefore the school wanted to take precautions and hired a doctor to come and check all of the students in each of the classes where a student had been sick. It's crazy! Every student is being checked, and every kid who shows any symptoms at all is sent home for a week. The entire 12th grade has three days off because over half of the class had symptoms and was under observation!
Today is Thursday and I woke up to a cool morning and dew on all of the flowers outside. It had rained hard overnight, and on the way to school in the van we drove through several puddles (that looked like small lakes!), arriving at school and then tracking in all of the mud from our shoes. The day was overcast, and for the first time (while in Coimbatore) I felt chilly in the afternoon breeze. The school seemed quiet without the 12th grade, and since the kids are taking exams this week I have been free for the first three periods every morning. Therefore today, with the cool weather and dark skies it was hard to stay awake! The halls were silent and I took advantage of the silence and studied some vocabulary from my SAT book (yea...the SAT. Might as well study when I have time right?)
I just got home about an hour ago, and after helping my host mom type and email and eating lunch, here I am blogging. We are going to be leaving in just a few minutes to go to Padma's house (where I made a teddy bear near the beginning of my stay) and we'll be discussing the details for my Delhi trip with her and a few of her friends! We'll be leaving on the 16th and we'll be gone for a week! I'm so excited!!! I can't wait to see the Taj Mahal!

A Birthday Night Out (not exactly trick-or-treating!)

In the evening on my seventeenth birthday, my host parents and I went out for dinner and a movie! Our dinner was an all around favorite- my favorite restaurant, Annapoorna, my favorite food, naan and paneer butter masala, AND my favorite desert, a mango milkshake! It was a great meal and a fun dinner! My host parents and I discussed Halloween in the US- the costumes, traditions and all the candy! I told them how much fun it has always been to have a birthday on Halloween, and how this birthday was extra special and would always be throughout my life!
The movie we had gotten tickets to see, Aadhavan, started at 10:00 p.m. The story was about a man (Surya acted this part!) who is a killer and gets an assignment to kill another man. Throughout the movie he gets close to the man and in the end it is discovered that the man was actually his own father! The movie itself wasn't great, but both my host mother and I loved all of the songs and had a good time singing along in the theater! My host father hated it...:) Oh well! It was a great night and a great birthday that I will never ever forget!
P.S. the photo above is of my host mother and I in front of the theater before the movie!

Another Birthday??

After coming home from the orphanage with a big smile on my face, my host family and our neighbors (the two little girls and their mother Vadivu) each had a slice of the birthday cake that Rianna had brought over for me. It was really good! The first cake that I’ve liked since being here actually! The cakes here taste NOTHING at all like the cakes at home- they have an almost earthy taste to them…but this cake was different, and even had my favorite flavor for the frosting- strawberry! Vadivu, Sanju and Bapu also gave me several wrapped packages to rip open and find some really thoughtful gifts; a piece of artwork in the shape of a triangle, a small photo frame, a stitch kit, and a cute little basket/teddy bear from Bapu!
After my host father finished his lunch, he took me and dropped me off at another birthday party- one for a friend of mine whose birthday was over the week. She had it at Hot Chocolate, the restaurant where I first had a sizzling brownie! I arrived to a small welcoming party at the door- they were so cute! Even though it wasn’t my party, they all sang “happy birthday” to me and even gave me some jewelry and a card as a gift! We took some photos as I thanked them and wished the birthday girl a happy birthday, giving her a gift from Oregon- a deck of playing cards and a few pencils from the San Diego Zoo. We all went and sat down then to order, taking more photos and chatting as we ate through three pizzas, six tacos, a sizzling brownie, french fries and coke. The party ended with a bit of a mess….we all decided to force feed the birthday girl a taco, and then we dumped chocolate into her mouth from the sizzling brownie! It was a lot of fun!
P.S. the photo above is of me and the OTHER birthday girl!

Unending Smiles!

The morning of my seventeenth birthday here in India, there was a call from a Rotarian in the club here on my host father’s phone. He was calling not only to wish me “Happy Birthday” but also to invite me to go to an orphanage that morning. Within the next hour, the other exchange student Rianna and her host father came to the apartments to pick me up in order to go, bringing me a cake and a present! So sweet! We arrived at the orphanage around 11:00 a.m., meeting up with a few other Rotarians and their children there. Rianna’s host father had brought chocolates and candy to hand out to the kids, and so after our introduction to the fifty or so small children sitting in rows on the ground in front of us, they all sang an incredibly sweet “happy birthday” to me while Rianna and I handed out the candies.
We spent the morning there playing, dancing and singing with all of the wonderful little kids. Some of them spoke a little English too, so it was not too difficult to talk with them. They all asked me who my “hero” was (in India, your “hero” is your favorite movie star!) and when I told them that I loved Surya, they all screamed in delight and wanted me to sing a song of his. The only one I know a piece of is “Sutrum Vizhi,” and so I sang the few lines that I have memorized while all of them listened, laughing and singing along with me.
Throughout the morning I not only got “happy birthday” sung to me four times (my parents, two Rotarians that called and then the kids), but I also got a hand-held tour of the orphanage, my hair braided by one of the little girls and my nails painted an incredibly bright shade of red by another little girl while all of the other children crowded around and watched.
It was an incredibly humbling and yet very fun trip to the orphanage. All of the kids were so cute and sweet- all they wanted to do was hold my hand, talk to me and touch my hair. I can’t wait to go back again and spend another morning amongst the never ending smiles of all the little kids!

My Birthday (a day early...) at School!

Today is Friday, and tomorrow is my seventeenth Birthday! This morning I awoke to put on something other than the forest green, not so attractive uniform that I have to wear everyday! Since tomorrow is my Birthday, but I don't have school, I decided to dress up in what the Indians call "color dress" (meaning normal clothes) rather than wait until Monday. At my school here, Vidhya Niketan, it is customary for the students to dress up on their birthdays and sometimes even bring chocolate for all of their friends! Every week there are always a few birthdays, and it's really nice that the kids will dress up because then I can say "Happy Birthday!" and know that it actually IS their birthday...the chocolate just depends on the person. My host mother told me that it is more the younger kids who will bring the chocolates to school, so I didn't bring any today (luckily there were only two people that were disappointed- the "ayah-ma's" which are the women who help out with the work at school! I just told them that I would bring it to them next week. They don't speak any English, so it was fun to try and explain to them why I didn't have them! They just kept saying "sweets? sweets Madi??").
My first period class was Math. I walked into the room, got a few compliments on my outfit, and then sat down, only to look around and see that everyone else had suddenly stood and started singing "Happy Birthday" to me! It was really cute- the kids all sang at the top of their lungs while the teacher stood at the front yelling over the noise, "stop being so dull! Sing louder!"
The school day ended with "zero period" once more, only today there was a "football" (soccer) match during that time! It was an inter-house competition (my school has four houses- Chera, Chola, Pallava and Pandya- all past kings of Tamil Nadu. They have inter-house competitions of all kinds. It's just like Harry Potter with all of the colors!) between the Chera and Pandya houses. I watched with a few friends from my Maths class and another friend from my class in the cool shade of the outdoor hallway next to the Biology lab. It was a great game! Watching it made me miss the game- I told all of my friends standing with me how I'm used to going and watching (or playing in) anywhere from two to four soccer games every weekend!
The bell rang at 2:00 p.m. and there was the usual scramble for the buses, followed by the second bell signaling the second scramble to get out to all of the cars and private vans. I walked out with a group of friends who also ride in vans and we took a few photos before heading off to our separate vans, squeezing in among all of the other kids, and heading off on the newly fixed road (the road leading out was just recently fixed up to have new dirt and rocks)!
P.S. The photo above is of me and a few friends before heading off for our vans!

Two Tests??

Today in school I attempted to take two tests…both were in my 9th grade class, but still were quite hard given the fact that I didn’t know about either of them and hadn’t studied…both the teachers just surprised me by asking if I wanted to write the test. I didn’t see anything bad about at least trying, so I decided to just attempt them both and do the best I could- anyway it was better than just sitting there! The first test was History, and the subject was the American Revolutionary War-something I should know everything about because I’m American right? Not exactly…the last time I studied the Revolutionary War was when I was in the 5th grade! I think that it went OK though, for not studying and not knowing all of the dates off the top of my head, I think I got a total of half the questions right…Then came Math period, and another test that I had no idea about it. Now, Math is a different situation because I can actually understand all of it. So, the Math test went really good and I got most all of the answers correct. The nice thing about these tests today though was that I didn’t have to submit them for an actual score- they were merely taken for practice!
My host father arrived home the night before last very late from a trip to China, and yesterday evening was when I got to see him! He had a great trip and said that China is an amazing and incredible country. We didn’t have too much time to discuss all of what he did, but I am excited to go home today and see all of the photos! (I’m at school right now…my English teacher asked me to bring my laptop to school to play a DVD for her, and now I’m just typing this in WORD and later I’ll go back and cut & paste since there is no internet access here). Bye for now! I’m going to go check on some friends that are studying intensely in the classroom nextdoor…

Sutrum Vizhi :)

So, if you've read my Facebook status posts for the past week you know that I have become OBSESSED with Surya songs- one in particular called "Sutrum Vizhi" that I am actually attempting to learn! I got a few comments on the postings asking for a translation of the song, so here it is, as promised! Keep in mind that translation from Tamil to English is EXTREMELY difficult and confusing, so if it sounds really odd, it's probably the translation. Also, I've decided to translate it by the stanza instead of by line because it seems to make a little more sense...also, here is a link to the video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo3hmilS0_U

Sutrum Vizhi
Sung by Surya in the movie "Gajini"

Sutrum vizhi sudare
sutrum vizhi sudare
enolagam unnai sutruthe
sattai payyil un padam
thuttu thuttu urresu
enidhiyam patri kulluthey
un vileel vilenden
vinvileel parenden
kanvilithu soppanum kanden, unnalay
kanvilithu soppanum kanden

(Rough Translation: Your eyes move in circle like the flame on a lamp when there's a slight breeze. My whole world revolves around only you. I keep your photo in my pocket, I keep it so close so that it's always touching my heart, holding my heart. I fell for your eyes- I was flying in the universe, and I must have been dreaming while awake.)

Mellinam marbil kanden
vallinam vizhiyil kanden
edayinam thedi alai endru

(Rough Translation: I found mellinam in your chest, vallinam I found in your eyes, and I 'm finding edayinam all over you.)

Maramkothi paravai andru
manam kothi ponathu endru
vudal muthal vuyir varai thanthen

(Rough Translation: There was one woodpecker, she came and pecked out my heart today- that woodpecker was you, and I'm giving up my soul and body to you.)

Thee indri thirium indri
megangal erium endru
indro thani naanum kandu konden

(Rough Translation: Today I've realized that even if there is no fire and no wick to burn in a lamp, the clouds will still burn.)

Mazai alhaga veyil alhaga
konjum puthu malhai alhagu
kanna nee
kobapattal veyil alhagu
kanna nee
kobapattal veyil alhagu

(Rough Translation: Is the rain beautiful, or the sun? This is my question, because honey when you're affectionate rain is beautiful, but honey when you're angry the sun is beautiful!)

Disclaimer: I'm sorry if any of you who speak the Tamil language disagree with any of these translations. They have come from several friends that I've asked, and like I had said before translating was very difficult!

A Late Night Movie

Yesterday was a Saturday, and I had school from 8:20 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. A lot of the time, schools here will have "make-up days" on Saturdays throughout the month to substitute for all of the holidays. Since Diwali was last week and we got a day off of school, this Saturday was added into the school schedule.
I got home from school around 2:00 p.m. and my host mother and I had lunch before heading off to our Yoga class at 4:00 p.m. Yoga was a very relaxing class- we spent most of the hour in the basement meditating and resting after our four daily rounds of "Surya Namaskaram" (a group of about six positions that you do all together in a row). It was so relaxing in fact, that my host mother and the other woman doing the class with us both fell asleep!
In the evening our apartment was full of smiling faces- not only were our neighbors over to chat, but my friend Appurna who lives in this apartment complex also stopped by! Sanju (the elder of the two little girls next door) was working on a spreadsheet where she was trying to put all of the states and capitals of India in alphabetical order. We pulled out an atlas, and were working on it together when Bapu (Sanju's younger sister) decided that she was missing out and climbed up into my lap to see! It was the first time that Bapu has ever sat on my lap. Usually she's very shy around me! Appurna showed up a few minutes later and I made tea for the two of us (I'm trying to perfect the art of tea making....). We then looked at a few of my family photos and talked for a few minutes about my birthday coming up this weekend before she had to go back home.
Vadivu (Sanju and Bapu's mother) then invited me to go with their family to the movies! They were planning to go to the late night showing that starts at 10:15 p.m. to see a movie called "Peranmai." It's a Tamil movie, and I had no idea what it was about, but I was so excited to get to go to the movies again! We left the apartments around 9:20 p.m. after LOTS of technology failures when trying to call my parents!
The movie was good! I absolutely loved the first half- it was all about a group of college girls that are in training to become forest rangers at a wildlife reserve. Their trainer (the hero of the movie) is very handsome, and they don't like him so they pull tricks to get him fired. But, when they're called into duty they realize how great he is and learn to really like him. Then there was an intermission. We all went and had a scoop of chocolate ice-cream before returning for the second half- the violent half! I was sitting next to Sanju, and both of us had to close our eyes for a few different parts. The movie suddenly had gotten really gruesome, with lots of killing and blood. It was pretty unrealistic, and after the movie we all agreed that the first half was much better than the first.
We got back to the apartments around 1:20 a.m. and I let myself into the apartment with the key that my host mother had let me borrow. Everyone was already asleep, so I quietly got ready for bed, turned on my mosquito repellent plug-in and went to sleep.
P.S. The photo above is of the main actors in the movie :)

School Days...

Today is Tuesday. Tuesday is the one day in the week when I have no free periods during the day, so I'm always pretty busy. However, today we had "zero period" again for Annual Day preparations and so we all (excluding the 12th grade) got an hour at the end of the day to do whatever. Those who are participating in the competition go and practice, while others work on homework or sit and chat with friends. I spent my zero periods the last two days working on my Tamil. I wrote down a few more words, and spent some time practicing writing my name. While writing, the PT (play time) teacher came over to where I was sitting with a few friends around me and asked me to write his name. He showed me how to write it and then let me practice a few times before telling me what the name was- it was Daniel! Daniel, an English (or so I thought) name could be written perfectly in Tamil. When writing other names such as mine or my family's, it's hard for my "teacher" for the time to figure it out because there is not an exact translation. They basically have to sound out each sound of the name and then put a Tamil letter in that sounds the same or similar. My name for example, written in Tamil sounds a lot more like "Med-ee-sun" than Madison, because there are not exact letters for the sounds in my name. The sounds is the Tamil language....CRAZY!!! They are so hard to pronounce, and not only that a lot of them have the same sound, but the length that you hold out the note is a different length of time. For example: There is a few different letters that are pretty similar to write, and sound the same, but one is pronounced "na" one as "naa" and one as "naaa" (the sound is not "na" exactly either, it's more like "llgna," but I'll spare you the difficulty of that pronunciation!).
After my brain had been expanded enough for the day, my friends and I discussed cute Tamil movie stars and we sang the song that I've been attempting to learn called "Sutrum Vizhi." The girls were all in agreement that I needed to see some more of the Tamil stars and THEN decide which ones I thought were handsome, because at this point I am in love with Surya- who is definitely the heartthrob of the Tamil movie stars. When I told the girls this, some of them agreed, but a few of them disagreed. I asked them why, and their answer was "he's old. He's 35 or something, and he's also short." I laughed when they said this. I told them "Brad Pitt has got to be older than Surya, and I still think he's the hottest thing alive!"

An Oil Bath and a Sari

Yesterday morning, my host mother and I woke long before the sun was up to take oil baths- a tradition of Diwali. Before bathing, the two of us had tea and coffee, then my host mother gave me a spoon full of yellowish oil to put at the top of my hair. I rubbed it into the part and then headed off for a shower. When we were both finished bathing, my host mother helped me into my new sari that was bought as a gift for me (from my host mother's cousin Ahalya) while I was in Chennai. When the wrapping, twisting and tying was finished I put on some purple and gold bangles and my host mother lent me a gold chain and earrings. She also gave me a purple bindi, so I matched everywhere! My host dad got up a few minutes later and bathed, and then the three of us sat in our living room with the neighbors and chatted for a few minutes before taking some photos and then heading off with my host mother's sister's family to the Murugan Temple (where my host mother and I sat and watched the homam and puja for three hours). We all walked around the temple, watched the puja and then left to go to breakfast at Annapoorna!
After finishing up with breakfast, we went to our neighbor's (Vadivu) parents home to visit and give sweets. We stayed for about an hour and a half. I felt bad because I was so tired, and my host mother sent me into the bedroom to sleep...luckily we went back to their house today and I was sure to participate in ALL the happenings to make up for it! We left and went back to the apartment for a few hours before we, and my host mother's sisters family left for lunch in the city. Later we went over to Piriyanga's house to burst crackers for a few hours before going to dinner at the Jenny Club- the fanciest building in Coimbatore. There were LOTS of people there, including Rianna (the other exchange student from New York) and her host family! It was fun to see so many people that we knew, and the dinner was great! We started off with some spring rolls (very different to what we have at "Chinese" food restaurants in the US) and gobi-65 (cauliflower fried in chili powder). For dinner, we all shared nan with several different graveys (including paneer! My favorite!) and had mango milkshakes for desert. It was a fantastic day, and a fantastic Diwali! It was so nice to spend so much time with all of the family again (I haven't seen a lot of them since Surya, my host brother, left for Oregon two months ago), I had lots of fun!

Sweets and Bombs (don't worry they're crackers! Not real bombs!)

Yesterday morning after breakfast, my host mother and I headed out to the sweet shop to pick up some last minute sweets to deliver to friends and family. We arrived at "Suriya Sweets" to a crowd of women, men and children, all pushing together in a mass towards the sweet counter and shouting orders over the heads of those in front of them. My host mother and I found a spot at the open door near the cash counter where she could pick up her order. We waited for about twenty minutes- me outside, comparing my metallic blue nail polish to the soft pink of a small girl's, while my host mother waited inside for the five bags of sweets.
We brought the bags home and joined my host father and host mother's sister and her son in the living room to watch a movie called "Cassandra Crossing." My host mother and I sat on the floor in front of the couch, folding small boxes and filling each with seven sweets to give out to all of our neighbors here at the apartments. When we finished we had sixteen filled green boxes in two stacks on the floor.
After the movie ended, we all went out to do a bit of shopping for the "men" at Shree Devi. They all hadn't gotten shirts to wear yet for Deepavali, so we had to go get them each one. Prabak met is there after his meeting- the store was SO crowded! Everyone seemed to be doing their last minute shopping at the same time. We had to weave through the crowds, sweating our way through the heat of the many bodies that all surrounded us. The highlight of the shopping trip though, was on the drive home when I saw the PUG again! This time we stopped and I got to pet him! His name is Pravi, and he is possibly the FATTEST pug I've ever seen in my life! He has a little stool that he stands on in the front yard where he can stick his body half-way out of the gate and greet everyone, so I got to love on him- petting, and (yes, Dad) kissing his fat little face! He was so cute! I can't wait to go back another time to love on him some more!
Later in the evening, my host mother, father and I all went out to deliver bags of sweets to my host father's sister's family and a friend of my host mother's family. When we got back, Piriyanga, Praveen and their mother Gheeta were a;ll waiting for us to go down behind the apartments and burst crackers in the street. I put on some tennis shoes and we all headed down. When we got there, there were already several families and lots of young kids from the apartments lighting off the crackers. The firecrackers here are SO much louder than the ones at home, but what is really awesome is, here the giant crackers are fully legal to light off from your home, while in Ashland (at least, maybe the whole of the US?) the big ones are illegal to light off from your street front. We had sooooo much fun lighting off all of the crackers! Some shot into the air (some shot into the apartment walls....luckily not into and apartment!), some spun on the ground and some exploded, sending big bursts of air and sound that hurt my ears by the end of the night!
When the kids got bored with lighting crackers. we all went to Sowbe's house and had a little dance party in front of her house. At first we listened to the radio, and then I plugged my ipod in for songs like "Mama Mia, Dancing Queen, etc." (ABBA is popular here!)
I went back up to the apartment around 10:30 p.m. and had a shower and dinner. When I finished, we all left with Bapu and Sanju to go and get mahindi done! We went over to a girl that I know from school's house- her mother does mahindi professionally and is the most amazing at it I've seen in my life! I couldn't help but just gawk at her designs while she quickly applied the brown gel from my wrists to the tips of my fingers. It took her about fifteen minutes total to finish BOTH sides of my hands, and the cost for mine, Sanju's and Bapu's? 300 rs., which is only about six dollars! Absolutely amazing! It's so beautiful! We got home by midnight, all of us "little girls" falling asleep in the backseat with our hands held up in the air!

Diwali (or Deepavali) in India

Diwali, which is a shortened name from the Sanskrit word "Deepavali" is celebrated all over India as the festival of lights. "Deepa" meaning light, and "avali" meaning a row. It is a celebration that every age can enjoy where the people will express their happiness by lighting earthen "diyas" (lamps), decorating the houses, bursting firecrackers and spending time with family and neighbors, giving gifts of sweets and dried fruits and nuts.
In the Hindu religion, lighting a lamp has many significances. To Hindus, darkness represents ignorance, and light is a metaphor for knowledge. Therefore by lighting a lamp, Hindus believe that they are destroying- through knowledge- all things evil; wickedness, violence, lust, anger, envy, greed, etc.
In the morning on the day of Diwali, people will wake at 3:00 a.m. for a traditional oil bath, emerging scrubbed clean and in brand new clothes and elaborate jewelry to light lamps, do a puja and go out to burst crackers. Throughout the day, people spend time visiting with friends and family, armed heavily with boxes and boxes of Indian sweets to give as gifts. In the evening, more lamps are lit and more crackers are burst in the dark- lighting up the entire night sky, and most of the ground as well!

Rotary Diwali

Last night I went to a Rotary party with my host mother for Diwali, which is tomorrow! We left the apartments with Mylswamy (a Rotarian who lives below us with his wife whom I call "auntie") and auntie around 8:00 p.m. When we arrived at the apartments where the party was to be held, I could hear some loud noise from above- I looked up to see fireworks coming off the roof of the building where we were headed! We took the elevator up four floors and walked up one more flight of stairs before coming out to see a party, with all of the Rotarians, their wives, and the many kids running around with sparklers and matches, lighting off fireworks in the center of the roof space! It was a little crazy with all of the little kids playing with the fireworks, so you had to avoid the middle of the roof if you didn't want to catch on fire...especially for me because the salwaar that I was wearing had net sleeves and a net scarf, making me a VERY flammable target...
I lit off a few crackers with a few little kids and then we played with sparklers. When dinner was served around 10:00 p.m., all the kids were sent into another room to have a meeting (one of the Rotarian's talked to us about an American girl who came to India a few years ago and is now doing community service projects here in Coimbatore for young girls who are in unfortunate financial situations. She raises money and then sponsors the girls for their higher education here in India.). It was a neat thing to hear about, and it would be very cool to get involved somehow!
After the meeting, about ten of the younger kids and I sang some Tamil Karaoke (luckily there were ten of us, because if I was alone...let's just say that it is EXTREMELY difficult to read Tamil written in English when you don't know Tamil.) and then we all went out and had dinner and desert of chocolate mousse. We left a little while later, saying good bye and Happy Diwali to everyone as we were walking down the five flights of stairs.

Sitting with Sweets

This week at school we have shortened periods in order for a "zero period" to be at the end of the day. My school is starting preparations for Annual Day, which is at the end of November, but the Principal and Correspondent take this program very seriously and give the students plenty of time to come up with good acts for the show. This year the theme is "Follow in the Footsteps of the Great Souls." Yesterday during the zero period, all of the students who wanted to participate came into the main hall of the school and sat on the floor, waiting to give their names to the Principal and Correspondent who will put together groups of students for dances, dramas, singing, etc. I sat on the floor for the full hour waiting to be called up, but it didn't happen. There were so many kids waiting that only about half of them were put on the list. I spent most of the time talking with a young girl about India- she's originally from Canada and moved back two years ago, so we had a lot in common to talk about!
Today I gave the Principal and Correspondent gifts for Diwali- some T-shirts and pencils and a pin. I also told the Principal that I wanted to participate in a dance for Annual Day. She said I could! During zero period I got a lesson from my friend Lavanya on Tamil writing. We were sitting in the class, bored, and so I pulled out a sheet of paper and asked her to show me how to write my name. She wrote it down for me and I copied the letters about ten times until I could draw the shapes a little easier.I also learned how to write "mom, dad, Olivia, I love you, beautiful, peace, and happy." The Tamil script is really cool! There are so many curves and circles and shapes that are so different from ANY of the English letters. The sounds and meanings of many words and letters are still very much a mystery to me, but I'm glad to report that I learn at least one thing new every day!
After school when the second bell rang signaling all of the students who ride in a vans to go out to the traffic circle, I went to my class to get my backpack and then headed out with a surge of kids- looking for some of the little girls who ride in my van to stand and talk to while we're waiting. I found three of them and we all stood together in the shade and talked about Indian food. The girls are always curious to know what I eat! We waited...and waited...the van FINALLY showed up at 3:00 p.m.! Forty minutes late! We all piled in and drove a little ways down the street where the driver pulled over and brought out plates of sweets and soda for us! He told us all "Happy Diwali" and we all sat and ate and drank and talked for a few minutes. When everyone had finished (or mostly finished at least!) we continued on, only to be caught up in traffic at the train tracks where we had to wait for about ten minutes for two trains to pass by. All of the kids were starting to complain of being late home when the gates finally went up and we drove slowly through with all of the other traffic. Then there was a bus backing up, but luckily that only took about a minute. I got home today at 3:45 p.m. which is an hour and a half later than usual. Everyone was waiting for me when I got back- the little girls next door and a few friends, Naresh (my host mother's nephew), Pati, and Raji (the maid). Mahesh got home a few minutes later and we had lunch. Now we're off to get some sweets for Diwali, and there is a Diwali party for Rotary tonight that we're going to attend!

Yoga at Sunrise

We stayed overnight outside of Valparai at one of the business men's house named Vinoj. He is the manager of a tea plantation, and therefore stays in the "manager's bungalow" which is basically my dream house. Not only is the home itself gorgeous with the furnishings on the inside and the structure on the outside, but it sits at the top of one of the taller hills among the many covered with tea plants and has a view of the ENTIRE valley below it.
I woke up at 6:30 a.m. and got Rianna up so that we could do some yoga together (we've been planning this for weeks but haven't found the time...) after using the bathroom and having to attempt flushing the toilet twelve times before it worked...it was such a cool toilet! It had a chain hanging from the ceiling to flush it! We went out and said good morning to those with us who were awake and had some tea. Then we watched Vinoj's wife do her morning yoga and got inspired to go out and ACTUALLY do our own. We walked out the back door to the driveway, cleared off a small spot on the cracked cement and faced the sunrise. I then taught Rianna the yoga practice that I had learned in school and we did a few rounds of it together before going back to all of the adults (who were all awake then) and telling them that we were going for a walk among the tea bushes. We set out down the steep hill where they grew and took a hike. We walked among the clusters of green (here they were planted in clusters instead of rows), finding our own paths and taking some photos of each other in the early morning light. We walked halfway around the hill before climbing back up to the house where we packed up our things, got into the car, started out of the driveway and had to stop because of a flat tire at the front right of the car. We all got back out of the car and Suresh, Rianna and I relaxed in the grass lawn for a while before we could leave again.
We went to another house where we had tea and some snacks. It took us awhile to get there but the drive was beautiful, and this house was just as beautiful as the other.
On our way back down the hill later that day, the rain started up and poured on us for a little while before stopping abruptly, just in time for us to stop at "Monkey Falls!" (That is the real name, I promise!) Rianna and I and Ram (the other Rotarian) all got out and hiked around a short bend to a magnificent waterfall- there were people and monkeys EVERYWHERE! Wherever there wasn't a person (usually dripping from their bath in the falls) there was a monkey. We took some photos- me of the falls and myself putting my feet in, and Rianna of all of the monkeys (she LOVES them!). It was so exciting for both of us when, on our way up we stopped at a bend where there were several families of monkeys sitting on the wall. We got out of the car and went up to them- at first they were a little shy, but after only a few moments, they were surrounding us and we even got to shake their tiny grey hands!

"Kissed by an elephant"

After packing a quick bag with nothing but the essentials (that included a jacket that took up most of the backpack...) I was picked up by the Rotarian Suresh and the other exchange student from New York, Rianna. We then went and picked up another Rotary family and all hit the road- headed off for another weekend adventure, and to another hill station called "Valparai" that is located in the Western Ghats (mountain range), but is the opposite direction from Ooty. The drive took around three and a half hours- we first drove through a few small cities and towns (Suresh is a crazy and incredible driver. I was seriously amazed that we managed NOT to hit any of the people, cars, carts, bikes, etc. that were literally centimeters from our car...). Then we started the climb up the mountain, up the forty "hair pin bends" that took us all the way to the top and left us with a view of the valley below. The dam, the towns we had driven through, and the rocky sharp cliffs that surrounded us.
Near the end of the journey up, we stopped at a small shack on the side of the road that was nestled in right next to a small waterfall and hills of tea plants. We all got out and had some lemon tea, served in small paper blue cups that had the logo and the name "Waterfall" printed on the side. Then we continued on. As we went the scenery around us got more and more beautiful, we were driving through hill after hill completely covered in the small green bushes planted in rows that were tea plants. We reached our destination, a clubhouse, just as the sun was beginning to set behind the green hills, the light shining warmly over us for the last part of the day. The clubhouse was awesome! It was recently built with outdoor hallways and everything new! There was a ping pong table (people call it "tt" here for table tennis), a badminton net, a pool table, a kitchen, bar, and even sitting rooms! Rianna and I toured around for a bit before having tea (again- it's so good we can't resist!) and then playing TT. When we finished our game, the party was just getting started in the bar where all of the businessmen and their wives were sitting and chatting. Rianna and I went in and joined in the conversations, telling stories and hearing stories (that were WAY more interesting than ours...) about elephants walking through backyards, and even one about a woman opening her curtains and being face-to-face with the trunk of a massive female. The woman said that her window had been "kissed by an elephant."

School Dance Competition

This morning (Saturday) I got up early to go to school for a dance competition- but, today was going to be quite different from a normal day at school. For one thing, the competition was being held at the old school (which is closer to the apartments where I'm living), I didn't have to wear a uniform (YES!!!), and I was going to school for fun instead of classes!
My host mother dropped Piriyanga and I off at the old school around 8:45 a.m. The competition was supposed to start by 9:00 a.m. but didn't end up starting until around 9:15 a.m. We spent the time before walking around the campus, her showing me her classrooms from when she was in first standard, and watching some of the participants get some last minute practice in.
The competition started- it was a competition between the four "houses" at my school (it's EXACTLY like Harry Potter! There are four houses, competitions between them for points, and at the end of each year the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup!). The houses are Chera, Chola, Pallava and Pandya- all past kings of Tamil Nadu. The dances were really cool, and each involved several different styles of dancing. There was some traditional dances, but also a bit of Michael Jackson thrown in where a few boys were doing the moonwalk! I had fun clapping along to the songs that I knew (that included Beat It and Jai Ho...!) and was in agreement when it was announced at the end that the Chera and Chola houses tied for first place!
After the competition ended, Piriyanga and I were picked up by my host mother and we dropped her off at home. The two of us then went and recharged our phones and my host mother bought a new charger for hers too. It always amazes me the things you can get on the side of the street here- at home I would have to go out across town to get a new cell phone charger, and it would cost around fifteen or twenty dollars, when here I can just walk outside the gates of the apartments to a little store across the street and get one for eighty rupees (a little over a dollar!)!
The weather here still seems the same to me- hot in the mornings and early afternoons with cooler evenings. It's really weird to think that if I was at home right now, not only would it be cold, but the leaves would all be changing colors and it would be an obvious Fall season. I guess it's kinda nice to have summer year round though! I've always been a warmer weather person, and when we went up to Ooty (where it was cold and rainy) everyone was laughing at me because I was so cold all the time! Who knows! Maybe I'm turning into an Indian!

A Day (literally) of Yoga

Today I spent a full three hours doing yoga. Not only did I have two periods at school today that were each forty minutes long, but a yoga class at our apartments started this afternoon and my host mom and I are participating together. At school the yoga contains quick movements, hard poses (depending on the age of the kids in the class the poses get more and more difficult), and of course the eye exercises....I had been told that yoga outside of school would not be so un-relaxing and forced, and the yoga class at the apartment wasn't...at least the whole time.
I got home from school around 3:00 p.m. (half an hour late) after sitting in the crowded and squished van waiting for the train to come for twenty minutes. When we reached the stop, the three of us getting off squeezed out through the legs and backpacks in the small isle and tumbled out onto the dirt road outside the apartments. When I got up to apartment D-13, my host father was sitting on the couch watching the news, and my host mother was in the kitchen cooking the lunch. A few minutes later we all sat down together to have lemon rice and curd rice. Indians will almost always end a meal with curd rice, because it is said to be helpful with digestion. My first two months that I was here I preferred not to have curd rice, but the last week or so there has been a change in my taste buds. Now, curd rice is actually starting to taste good...:)
The yoga class began at 4:30 p.m. and so my host mother and I went down to the clubhouse at the apartments around that time to meet up with two other women and the teacher for the class. The class was in the basement of the clubhouse, and was mostly quiet except for the few small feet that would run by the tiny open windows above. We started the class with Surya Namaskaram, which is a series of poses done with a certain breathing style. At school we also do this exercise, so I could follow along easily except for the chanting at the start. Surya Namaskaram poses are mostly good stretches, but some are difficult, and by the time we had gone through a few rounds, all of us were sweating. We then rested for a few minutes on our backs with our palms facing up, and then started meditation. We meditated for fifteen minutes on our breath, focusing completely on the in and outwards flow of air from our bodies. The teacher put on some relaxing music as well, so it was a nice end to the class.
The music ended and we all folded up our blankets from the cement floor and went up the stairs where I got the treadmill key from the office and everyone else sat down on the couches to rest for a minute. I went up to the gym and closed the doors to block out the sound of the singing class going on next door (all of the students in this class are little girls that live in the apartments), plugged the treadmill into the power source, and did my workout.
When I came back, I showered and my host mother and I made tea. Now we're getting ready to go out to the temple on the hill for a special puja. We'll leave when my host father gets home. Which should be any minute...

Back to Reality (well, reality here!)

I've been launched back into my Indian reality. Yesterday was my first day back at school in a month, and it felt good, but strange to be back doing the same things that I did a month ago. It was almost like I had never been away from it all, and yet I was! I got to do SO many cool things while I was out of school too!
This morning and yesterday, I rode in the van once again along the bumpy narrow streets that were familiar in a vague way, and reached the school at the normal, early time where there are only a few students around campus and it's easy to sit on one of the ledges and just relax in the quiet morning air with some girlfriends. When school started we had our usual assembly and all stood in our usual lines, but somehow, since I've been back for the last two days, school seems so much different. Different in a good way because I finally feel like I know what my schedule will (most likely) be, and I'm starting to even be able to understand what's being taught in class (where before I just sat there being frustrated because I couldn't understand what the heck was going on!)! Today I could do all the math problems in class even! Also, I think that there has been a big change for me socially. Since I went on the two day trip to Kerala with the twelfth grade, I've become a lot closer with the girls in those classes, and I find that I'm always drifting into that hallway at every chance I get to see my friends! I feel comfortable, almost, and it's a really good feeling to know that I'm going to school every day and I'll be able to see my new friends and be happy all the time because honestly, before it was really hard for me to get up and go to school every morning because of how frustrating everything (and everyone) was for me.