"Attitude is Altitude" - Dr. B.K. Krishnaraj Vanavarayar

Yesterday was a VERY busy day here in my life in India. I woke up (at 8:00 a.m.!!!!!), had my breakfast, and a short time later my host mother and I left the apartment to go to her office. On the way, she dropped me off at a friend of hers business- her friend is a teacher at a local college who teaches jewelry and toy making. Since I've been here I've been wanting a teddy bear, and my host mother had the great idea that I should make my own! So, I've been to my host mother's friend's twice now for a total of about three and a half hours, and I'm still probably only 70% finished! I'm stitching it from scratch- Padma (my host mother's friend) had all of the fabric, but my job is to sew it all together and (attempt) to actually make it look like a teddy bear!
Padma had to be at work at 12:00 p.m., and so on her way to the college, she dropped me off at my host mother's office. We rode on her scooti, and it was a lot of fun because I'd never ridden on a scooti through actual Indian traffic before...it was loud and hot, but when we got moving, the wind was in our faces and we sped alongside the cars, trucks, bikes, cows, people, and of course the other scootis!
After being at my host mother's office for a few hours, the two of us sped home to meet Prabak- he was already home when we arrived, and so the three of us had a VERY quick lunch before getting into Prabak's car with out neighbor Vadivu and leaving to go to a function. Vadivu's husband, Mahalingam, is a partial owner of a new school being built here in Coimbatore, and yesterday was the opening ceremony.
We arrived at the college in the afternoon. The construction work was not quite finished yet, but I could tell that it will be very nice when it is fully built! When we walked into the entrance, we were greeted by many men, all of whom had something to do with the school being built and opened. My host father was even handed a bouquet of roses (which he gave to me) as he entered!
We spent the afternoon touring around the finished pieces of the school- the Principal's Office, Computer Lab, and a few of the classrooms. After looking around for a bit, we went back down to the main outdoor hall when the Chief Guest arrived- the Chief Guest's name was Dr. B.K. Krishnaraj Vanavarayar (don't worry, I can't pronounce it either!)- and he is a man of great status here in Coimbatore. He has given money towards the making of many schools, and he was also invited to Vatican City a few years back to speak about Hinduism at a Peace Conference with Pope John Paul II!!! After Dr. B.K. arrived, all of the near 200 people there filed into a conference room to hear him speak. We ended up hearing a total of seven speeches (most of which were extremely long and in Tamil....) and when it came to be Dr. B.K.'s turn to speak, he got up to the microphone and said "Well, I'm confused about what language to speak. I know that I'm supposed to speak in Tamil, but I see a young lady here from out of the country (pointing to me) and so I'm confused." The audience laughed and everyone shouted "Tamil!" I was hoping for English, but unfortunately, majority rules and his speech was given in Tamil. Even though Tamil is a language that I can't understand, there are quite a few English words thrown into the language, so, even though this great man spoke in a language other than my mother tongue, I was able to understand a few pieces, and my favorite line was "Attitude is altitude." I find these words to be most truthful, especially since I've been here. I've learned a lot about myself, but I've also learned the big lesson that this exchange is going to be what I make it ("attitude is altitude") and that by being positive, my experiences are changed drastically.