A Day of Many Firsts

Yesterday was my first full day here in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. I woke up around 6:15 a.m. (unfortunately because of jet-lag I haven't been sleeping through the entire night) and had what my host mother (Mahesh) calls "milk," but it is really heated milk with sugar and a chocolate powder, so basically hot chocolate that tastes a little different.
After my milk, my host father (Prabak) and I went to the gym here at the apartments. It is small, but it has a treadmill and a few weight machines. The thing about going to the gym here is that it has to be early in the morning or at night because of the heat. The heat here is not THAT overwhelming, but the intense humidity definitely makes it hard to cope with at certain times of the day.
I then showered in my host family's shower for the first time. The showers in India are quite a bit different than those in the USA- there is no separation or screen between where the toilet is and where the shower is, and so everything gets wet. You also have to turn on the water heater for three or four minutes before you can take a shower with any heat. Showers here are called "baths" and if someone is going to take a shower, they say "I'm going to bathe." (see pictures of the shower on my facebook page)
After that, Mahesh, Prabak and I had a breakfast of idli's and a tomatoe mixture with spices (that I can't remember the name of). Idli is eaten very often for any meal, it is basically rice, water, and something else grinded together to form a paste that is shaped into a disc. They don't taste like much by themselves, but they are used to dip into any other sauce which will give them taste.
Prabak then left for work, and Mahesh and I had a few hours to ourselves to chat, work, and read. Mahesh works for a Sweedish cosmetics company called "Oriflame" and she is the manager of the office here in Coimbatore, so her phone rings a lot.
When Surya (my host brother) got home from school, the three of us took a trip to the Vidhya Niketan school that I will be attending in order to talk with the principal and fill out admission forms. Unfortunately when we got there, the principal was gone for the day, so Mahesh took Surya and I to a restaurant where I got a "Vegetarian Burger." It was actually really good, and it was even a bit spicy! After eating, we went to a bangle shop (there were SOOOOO many bangles!) and Mahesh bought some for me and for Surya's friend Piriyanga as a gift from her sister (whose house we were going to for dinner). After making that purchase we walked a little ways to a shop where Mahesh insisted on buying me an Indian skirt. There were a few patterns to choose from, and I ended up getting one with a black, brown, blue, orange pattern of elephants, camels, and other things. The skirts here are tied around the waist (the waist as in the smallest part of your waist) and are worn under a long shirt.
We then came back to the apartment to pick up the two little girls and their mother who live next door to come to Mahesh's sister's house. Mahesh's sister was having many people over for a puja, which is basically a celebration of well-being in the Tamil month that we are in. In this Tamil month, fridays are auspicious and so the puja is done on a friday. Many of my host family's relatives came, and also a few of their friends including Piriyanga and Praveen who are Surya's best friends. We spent a lot of the night talking together, and then we ate dinner and left. It was fun talking with all of the kids and their parents, here in India the families are a lot closer than in the USA. The children are not really friends with anyone who is not a friend of the parent, and any outings that the kids want to go on is USUALLY accompanied by their parents (the kids are allowed to go buy themselves, but the families prefer to stay together a lot of the time). I also got to see (or rather hear) my first Indian fireworks! They are really not anything like those is the US- they are not pretty in the slightest, but rather as loud as possible. The older cousins lit off a few different kinds of "bombs" that sounded like gunshots that just got louder and louder (my ears hurt for a little while after that. Praveen even told me that there is one "bomb" that's vibrations can be felt over thirty feet away!

p.s. Dad- yes! I saw my first cow in the road on the way to Mahesh's sister's house. I've also seen a lot of dogs, goats, and chickens!